Prints!

Website: carolinebletsis.com

 As the reaction to this painting was quite overwhelming, I have decided to offer it as prints on Society6 with half of any profits to be donated to the American Humane Society.  I chose this charity as they are prepared to fight in court against  the cruel law just signed by Trump that allows the gassing of bears & their cubs in their dens in Alaska, as well as baiting, snaring, and traps, with the same ruling applying to wolves and their cubs.  Prints can be bought here:
https://society6.com/product/bear-today-gone-tomorrow_print#s6-6842120p4a1v45
https://society6.com/product/bear-today-gone-tomorrow_stretched-canvas#s6-6842120p16a6v28
https://society6.com/product/bear-today-gone-tomorrow_cards#s6-6842120p22a16v71

I have also put this painting up as prints & phone case covers, profits of which just go to me - girl's gotta eat!
https://society6.com/product/blue-jellyfish-10_print#s6-6842087p4a1v45
https://society6.com/product/blue-jellyfish-10_iphone-case#s6-6842087p20a9v430a52v377

Blue Jellyfish No.10

 I find it hard to believe I have painted ten of these blue jellyfish over the years, all because of some photos we took at the New England Aquarium in Boston.  It's not just the watercolour paintings, I've painted jellyfish on ties as well - perhaps I should get around to t-shirts too!

This has been painted in watercolours using a limited palette of Cerulean blue, indigo and purple.  I used clingfilm to get the rippled effect on the background, and salt on the fronds of the jellyfish to add a lacy texture.  No matter how many different versions of this I paint, it never gets boring.  This is now for sale in my Etsy shop.

A couple of weeks ago I forgot to buy filo pastry and had to make my own Greek pastry for a spinach pie.  It was so nice, I decided to do it again today.

Look, not a soggy bottom in sight! This and home made lentil soup are on the menu this evening.

A year ago, our garden looked like this.

Then for a very long time, it looked like this.

Now it looks like this - we finally have trellis fixed to the fence and are ready to grow whatever will shield us from this:

Short of putting up a twenty foot fence, nothing is going to prevent us from being overlooked, but at least we have insisted the builders do what they can.  Now we wait to see who moves in...gulp!  The plus side is that the noise must surely be nearly over?

Friday...Again

The weeks are just flying by, I'm not sure where the time is going.  This week I have been sewing, mostly hand sewing a tiny walkman for a new animation.  I did get a few minutes to run up this cushion cover with some very cool fabric - I just love jellyfish!

Working from home is proving to be a good decision - I have bits and pieces coming in that are enough to keep me going.  Next on the needles is a fabulous vintage men's cardigan - I cannot wait to get started, it is the coolest design I've seen for ages.

Next weekend is the Unravel knitting show at Farnham Maltings.  If you are planning a visit, try and make it on the Saturday as we will be there as 'nudinits', showing the film at 1.30p.m. and fielding your questions!  I have a feeling it might get raucous...

I Love Jellyfish!

So, suffering from withdrawal symptoms now that the animation work is over, I decided I wanted to design a knitted jellyfish.  It was not that hard to do - I have painted enough of them to know what they look like!

I chose a pretty varigated cotton yarn, although I kind of wish I'd used something else that was not quite so stripy.  Still, this has turned out well enough and at least Ihave the pattern written down so can always make another.

The top part looks a little like a hat...

The underneath was knitten in some dark blue cotton yarn, and the dangly bits were crocheted in the same.

This is just about life-size and hangs from a piece of clear line.  I've popped it in my Etsy shop already!

I'm still hammering away at this dog portrait - it's very tricky but enjoyable nonetheless.  I showed it as it is to a friend of mine who knew the dog while it was alive and it would appear I have managed to capture a likeness, so I can continue with my mind at ease!

Just Can't Stop Painting Jellyfish!

Having painted one jellyfish tie, I thought to myself  'I can do better than that' and decided to paint another. I don't know if the second one is any better than the first, but I do know that I had a great time painting both. Now the bride-to-be has two to choose from for her groom to wear, the other will then go on sale in my Etsy shop.

If you fancy having something weird and wonderful painted on a silk tie, just get in touch.  If I can paint a water-flea on silk, I can paint anything! (Please don't take that as a challenge...I can paint anything within reason!) Don't let your loved ones influence you - I had an enquiry from a gentleman  recently for a jellyfish tie, but after I agreed and sent details, I got the sad little cancellation because 'my girlfriend doesn't like jellyfish'.  If you want to wear a tie with a sea-creature on it, just do it and don't worry about what anyone else thinks!

Jellyfish - Here We Are Again!

Who knew four years ago when I thought the jellyfish at Boston aquarium would make an interesting painting that they would be such a success?  Certainly not me!  I'm glad they have been though, as I still enjoy painting them in their various forms.  This is a hand-painted silk tie which is for the groom at a wedding to be held at an aquarium.  I had a bit of a crisis of confidence at the thought of my work being centre stage on someone's big day, but soon got over myself!

This has been painted using Inktense pencils and colour blocks - wonderful to use on fabric, the colours remain bright and as long as you are careful, no blotches or runs.

There will be another tie similar for sale soon in my Etsy shop.

Bizarrely, considering how tired I was at the end of term two days ago, I am being quite prolific this week!  The little hat with the pompoms was finished last night and is now up for sale in my Etsy shop.  It was a quick knit though, and the fun of wondering where the next pompom would appear sort of spurred me on.

Also on the needles....knitted topiary! 

Blue For You......

I'm very happy today - just discovered that one of my blue jellyfish paintings has been selected for the Artists & Illustrators monthly exhibition on their website, which can be seen here.
I've made several attempts over the years to get a painting selected for their Portfolio feature with no success - this isn't in the actual magazine but somes a pretty close second. Yay!

Shaggy Dog Story...

Who's this, trespassing on Clovis's territory?  Well, it's a mini Briard, part of a commission that has been oustanding for far too long while I struggle through the stack of work I have at the moment.  Thanks to the torrential rain outside and the Olympics on TV inside over the weekend, I was able to get this knitted and sewn up pretty quickly.  All she needs now is her bed and blankie and she's set to go. By the way, she's about 4 inches tall - I don't think Clovis would object to such a small interloper!

For the past few years I have been working my way through a box of free business cards that I had printed up by Vista Print - they weren't great, but they did the job.  When they finally ran out last month, I decided to get some decent ones made and this is the end result.  Considering I did this online and pretty much had no idea what I was doing (no change there!), they have turned out exceptionally well - I love the shadowy repeat of the front picture on the reverse side.  So if you buy something from me you will now get one of these popped inside the parcel.  Thank you Vista Print, you've done a great job!

Blue Jellyfish No.9

The bauble-balloons are on hold for now (glitter drying...) so I got on with some proper work instead.  This is the ninth blue jellyfish, painted in watercolour.  It's going into my Etsy shop now - I notice from my 'stats' that my blue jellyfish are always being looked at - let's hope it's by prospective buyers!

On Getting Back To Normal.......

As today is my umpty-umpth birthday and I'm tired, I decided to spend the afternoon doing what I wanted instead of charging around like a loon which has been the pattern of the past few weeks.  So after a nice nap and a brisk but cold dog walk across muddy fields, I started Blue Jellyfish No.9 - nine!  Never thought  I'd paint so many of these things, but they do seem popular.  This is the very beginning stage, with the jellyfish body and frills painted loosely in watercolour and salt sprinkled to get a nice lacy effect.  It felt good to play with watercolours again.....

While I wait for the yarn to finish my scarf, I have returned to the animation work.  Can you guess what this is going to be?  No, not a miniature Stonehenge (who else loved that scene in Spinal Tap?) but a miniature fireplace.  It took a whole evening to model the pieces around which to knit, using plenty of foam board and double sided tape.  Doesn't look like much now, but once the knitting is done and the decorative 'tiles' put in place, it will start to take shape.  Anyone know how to construct a knitted grate and a toasting fork?  How about knitted fire??  I'm looking forward to the challenge!

Back From Boston....and look what I got!

For a long time I have wanted a Mason drinking jar - don't ask me why, I just fancied the idea of drinking out of a jam jar with a handle.  But they don't exist here in the UK and to get one shipped over from the USA cost silly money.  I even begged a friend to look for one on her trip to San Fransisco earlier this year but to no avail.  So you can imagine how happy I was when we had only been in Boston for a few hours last week and when visiting the supermarket opposite the hotel, discovered this!  It contained stuffed peppers, but they have been decanted into tupperware, the labels carefully peeled from the jar and I can now sit and drink my iced tea from a jelly glass - I'm easily pleased!  Also note the big pile of fabric behind - our hotel was opposite a discount fabric shop so I took the opportunity to stock up - this lot cost me about £18, which is so cheap compared to the UK.

We had a fantastic week in Boston - the weather was glorious as you can see and we did some of this.......

....which was such fun we had to go back at the end of our visit to the aquarium and do it again. The next day we spent whale watching......

...we saw just the one large female hump-backed whale, but she gave us quite a display.

This time we knew where to sit on the boat to get the best view, and even Stacie managed to get an unobstructed sighting.

Well worth the freezing trip back on the boat afterwards!

It being the week before Halloween, there were plenty of pumpkins and decorations to be seen.  Stacie had great fun looking round the costume shops and especially visiting Salem, where there were plenty of these to be seen.....

We felt a bit under-dressed!

We visited Quincy market several times and stuffed our faces with all sorts of dishes, from corn dogs to moussaka....

Hard to find a spare table though, and we had to eat off our laps most of the time.

We also got about 60 reference photos between us of these.....so once the Christmas rush is over (I came back to a slew of commissions - no rest for me between now and Christmas!) there will be some more jellyfish paintings.

Blue Jellyfish No.8

I think this is the final blue jellyfish in this series - I'm not bored with doing them, just think I would like some different 'poses' so will wait until we re-visit the New England Aquarium later in the year and hopefully take lots of new reference photos.

This painting is slightly different in that the background has been achieved by laying clingfilm over the wash while it was still wet and leaving it to dry.  When removed, the clingfilm has left marks in the form of wave ripples - I like this one particularly as it looks like the surface of the sea in sunlight when viewed from under the water.  It is for sale in my Etsy shop now.

Next on the agenda - I have been sent some samples of a new product by Derwent with which to create a painting that may or may not feature on the tin.  This is by selection process, so I had better pull out all the stops and produce something good!  I can't tell you what the product is....mainly because I don't know myself,  just that they are crayons.  I've been sent a very limited palette of colours, so this is quite a head-scratcher....

Blue Jellyfish - Variation on a Theme

The nice thing about people knowing you are 'arty-crafty' is that when they clear out their cupboards, they pass on items that they think might be of use to you.  Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren't, but I never refuse a donated object as they generally find a purpose some day or other.

Last week I was kindly given a bag of plain silk scarves and ties.  I could see how I may use the scarves but was at a bit of a loss over the ties.  However, my first experiment at painting on fabric with Inktense colour blocks has been surprisingly successful.  The tie has one of my blue jellyfish on it, carefully hand painted over a turquoise wash of colour.  It took a little while to get the hang of not using the colour too wet (unless the spreading effect was required) and extra care had to be taken over the tentacles (tentacles?) as the fabric moved and expanded when damp, but it turned out pretty well.  So well in fact, I shall be putting it in my Etsy shop later today and am quite looking forward to painting more ties in different designs!

Which Came First?

Apart from potatoes, I have never painted a subject so often as these blue jellyfish!  And not one remains here for long, so I thought I had better paint another which will now go into my Etsy shop.  I wonder how long this one will stick around for!

If I had known how popular they were going to be, I would have taken far more reference photographs at Boston Aquarium when we were there.  However, I will have the chance to take as many as I like later in the year as we have booked a return trip and plan to not only see what we missed the last time, but also re-visit some of the places we fell in love with two years ago.  So if you see some strange English lady snapping away furiously at the jellyfish, you'll know who it is....

 
By last weekend I could procrastinate no longer over designing and knitting a very small chicken who had to be completely poseable and also be able to lay an egg.  I sort of had an idea in my head as to how to go about it, but knew it would take a great deal of trial and error, maths and illegible scribbling before it was complete.  Sure enough, I think this took a total of nine or ten hours to create, with not too many mistakes on the way.  The head swivels round, with the joint hidden by the ruff of feathers, and the wings are not only button jointed but wired for movement outwards as well.

This is her party trick - I'm keeping the internal workings to myself for now as they took a long time to design and besides, do you really need to see up a chicken's bum?

Even the chicken looks bemused by it all!  She is about 3 inches tall and now needs a couple of friends to keep her company - at least they should not take so long, depending on whether I can decipher the five pages of scrawl in my design notebook!

Blue Jellyfish No.6 & a Trip To London

Luckily, I never get tired of painting these blue jellyfish - this is the sixth one so far and it already has a home to go to.  My only complaint is that I am running out of reference photographs with various poses...I might have to take another trip to Boston and it's aquarium, y'know, for research purposes of course!

This has been painted in watercolour on The Langford watercolour paper.  I don't plan on painting another jellyfish just yet, but if you would like to commission one, my arm could definitely be twisted!

Yesterday I took my daughter for a day trip to London.  BBC Weather told me it would be cool and rainy and I believed them - silly me.  So we went armed with coats, warm clothing and an umbrella.  This is what it was like....

warm and sunny.  Thanks Mr. Weatherman, I had to carry two loads of outer clothing and an umbrella around for a whole day while pouring sweat and regretting my decision to wear a t-shirt under my shirt and those nice warm boots! Plus a lot of shops still have their heating on - what's that all about?

Despite that, we had a nice day but cut it short when faced with a mile long queue to get into the London Aquarium - we'd both had enough by then.  We can go again when it isn't a Bank Holiday plus half term.
Neither of us fancied going on the London Eye either - look how that thing is leaning!

Over the years I have watched this little tree grow on the side of the railway bridge across the Thames, amazed at how nature will always find a way.  Where do it's roots go?  What nutrients is it getting from a metal bridge?  How long before some official cuts it down?  How big will it get before that happens?

No other photos from London I am afraid - I was carrying too much!

Loose Ends Tied Up...

This is the first knitted pig I made using someone else's pattern....not much good for animation and I am not keen on it at all.  Ok for a child's toy I suppose.  So I have had to put my thinking cap on and come up with this instead....

A bit different I think you will agree!  The head swivels and the tail is wired for stop frame animation.  And when she lies down with her belly exposed....

..she is ready for her piglets with those snap fastener nipples!  Now I just have to work out a piglet pattern...my head hurts!

Today I finally got closure on the saga of the damaged jellyfish painting.  After having to send the packaging to Royal Mail's customer service dept and explaining that I had to sell the picture with a discount, I received a nice little cheque today which just about covers how much I was out of pocket.  Thank you Royal Mail, I feel duly compensated.

While we are talking about damaged items (bit of a recurring theme so far this year), today I have gone from this:-

to this:-

I know, it's a four-wheel drive but I figured if you can't beat them, join them!  More to the point, I can now cart about the dog, art equipment, garden supplies, stuff for the tip, and even my family, without having to jam it all in with a shoe-horn.

Regarding the tomato challenge with Soggibottom blog - I'm not going to win but at least my tomato plants are big and healthy.

Not a flower to be seen as yet though.

Unlike this thing which has been struggling under a shrub for years and never flowered.  We cut theshrub down a few months ago and now this oriental poppy has several buds.  I can't remember what colour it is supposed to be so it will be a nice surprise.

Don't forget the giveaway - it's open until Sunday.