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.

Phew!

After yesterday's devastation, thank goodness a tried and true procedure worked.  The painting spent the night underneath the heavy weights and when I looked at it this morning, the paper was 99% flat once more.  There is a definite weakness where the big crease was and from the back it is perceptible but luckily from the front (unless you look really close) it has gone - once the painting is framed and under glass, it will look as if nothing has happened.

I have roused myself from the apathetic resignation of yesterday and will definitely be making a complaint to Royal Mail - the more I look at my original packing, the plainer it is that something extremely heavy was placed on the parcel with blatant disregard for the large 'PLEASE DO NOT BEND' written on both sides. Not good enough chaps, just not good enough.

A Right Royal Rant.....

This week I sold one of my jellyfish paintings, but also had it returned by the customer as it wasn't exactly what she was after.  That is neither here nor there - these things happen (although it's a first for me!)  What puzzled me was that this lady also mentioned a crease mark across the centre of the painting.  Now I am pretty meticulous when I package up anything that I sell, so I was interested to find out what she meant when I collected the package from our mail depot today.

It seemed the return journey had not been without mishap - even though my customer had added extra packaging, it still arrived cobbled together like this as the postal service had ripped the outer layer.

They'd torn the bottom part too.....obviously being asked not to bend the parcel didn't prevent them from using it as a football at some point.

Is this what 'Special' Delivery means? 

So if this was how it had been delivered back to me, it gave me an inkling of how it had been delivered to the customer.  Nothing prepared me for this however:-

...and from the back....

...and the thick piece of mountboard that was only half of the packaging I had used.....

...nice.  Do they employ elephants to compress the mail into lorries these days?  I think the customer was pretty darn restrained in describing it as 'a slight fold line' - I just cannot believe this is how the Royal Mail treat items that we pay them to deliver.

Now, as there is another buyer waiting with anticipation for this painting, I have to do something to rectify it's condition as there is no way I will let it go anywhere looking like that.  So I have tried the method used when watercolour paper cockles from not being pre-stretched then painted on.  The painting is thoroughly wetted on the back with clean water until the paper is pliable, placed on a flat surface, covered with a few sheets of newspaper and something heavy.

Or in this case, a lot of heavy somethings!  Then it has to be left overnight to dry and flatten (hopefully).

I am amazed that I can send paintings to the USA and Europe and they get there unscathed - 30 miles up the road and it's more battered than if I'd run over it with my car.  Next time, there will be a sheet of hardboard enclosed!

Oh yes, and if any of you think I should try and claim some insurance out of the postal service.....I really don't have that many months to waste on what I know will be a fruitless task!