At last, she is all done and ready to go. The really good news is that Big Circle Arts extended their deadline until this Friday – so she’s going to make it in! This also means I can get down to the TAFE homework I’m supposed to be doing. 🙂

The finishing was a little tricky and time consuming – which is usually the case. It’s not the most exciting part of making art but it’s important to do a good job or you let the whole piece down. I cut off the sharp ends of protruding screws with my trusty little Dremel (I love this tool!), then dabbed them with a little hot glue to remove any chance of scratching a wall when the kite is hung for display.

I also added a piece of wood to the shorter kite arm to balance the work so that it will hang straight from the centre. I added the wire to hang it from and also strung an additional line of wire across the top edge of the kite and sewed the kite to it to give it strength and prevent it folding over. This was fiddly but I’m happy with the end result.

And here she is at last, a bit bruised and tattered, but beautiful nonetheless:

As you can see I decided the right wing needed a few holes and little embroidery also for balance. And here is a close of up of her face, all nestled in hair now:

So now I can rest easy. What a huge project this has been! I conceived of the idea, planned all the details and purchased all the supplies more than a year ago and have since carried the folded partly painted fabric and the bag of materials and backup work around with me through all kinds of upheaval and two house moves. It is most satisfying to have her finished at last and ready to go on display. May there be many, many more to come!

My kite is nearly done now. I’ve finished the butterfly body and now I’m stitching in the hair. Here she is propped up on a pot of paint so I can reach underneath to stitch.

And here you can see I’ve finished half of the hair. Doesn’t she look so much more feminine now? 🙂 I brought the yarn with all the other supplies before I started any painting, so the colours match well.

And lastly, something nice came in the post, my certificate for one of my haiga, that received a highly commended in the Salisbury Writer’s Festival competition. I’m pretty pleased about this considering it was my first haiku and my first haiga:

And here is the haiga:

See the finished kite here!

I like it just as much as I thought I would! Here’s my heart kite handle, being shaped by further sanding. I used the coarse then fine sander on the Dremel, then finished with extra fine grain sand paper by hand.

Finely sanded wood has the most lovely feel, very soft to the touch. Most tactile, I just want to hold it and turn it over and over in my hands. I finished it by giving it a light polish with a beeswax product. Doesn’t it bring out that gorgeous golden colour!

And then attached it to the kite with double sided red satin ribbon, the other end of the ‘string’ is coming from her chest, where her heart would be.

And this, ladles and gentlespoons, is why we are not supposed to use even tiny little power tools in the house:

The mess!

See the next step here.

Tonight I went to see a play Also a Mirror, by Urban Myth Theatre of Youth. It’s been far too long since I’ve been in a theatre. I enjoyed it immensely. It explored memory and the loss of memory in a lyrical poetic way. I’m sure some members of the audience have a personal connection to Alzheimer’s or Dementia, and for them the celebration of love, and the anguish of such personal losses cut deep. I saw more than one person in tears at the bittersweet end. It was very beautiful. So, if you are looking for something to do over the weekend, I’d recommend a night at the theatre. Details here.

My kite is coming along really well, I’m on track for finishing the whole project very soon! Here she is:

And I’ve been working on the kite handle:

That was a flat piece of pine just like those on the right hand side when I started. Whee! I’ve always wanted to get into wood carving. The tool is a Dremel, an awesome little multipurpose hobbist machine. The body is a motor, and you can add all kinds of attachments, cutting, grinding, sanding, engraving etc. You can work with woods, metals, plastics, ceramics, glass… I love it! Just the thing to distract me from fretting about Abbie. I went to Bunnings the evening I had to leave Abbie at the vet, planning to buy various hand tools to cut and carve the kite handle. But I realised that the price of all the tools I needed individually was comparable to the price of this awesome set where I get many many tools and the speed to produce work very quickly. So I brought home the Dremel instead, then watched a few youtube videos about how to use it. Youtube is a fountain of skills based knowledge and every craftperson’s friend! Here I’ve carved and shaped my heart handle, next to sand and polish it. The kite just needs the body finished being embroidered with black yarn, the string and tail attached, the hanger and counterweight at the back, and her hair sewn on. Almost there! 🙂
See the next step here!

Making major progress on the kite. I’ve finished painting all the blue areas at last!

I’m so glad that part’s done with! And here is why it took so long:

See that tiny brush? Yes. Lesson for next time – use a bigger brush! In the middle is my old palette which I used to colour match exactly my new palette of blues. I keep these for weeks by misting them with water and wrapping them in cling wrap. Next, painting my PMC face, takes a few layers for good coverage.

I attach her face with screws to a piece of dowel that will become part of the frame at the back that hangs the whole piece. (as needing to be pegged to the curtains is not a hanging method widely accepted by galleries, sadly)

Now, time for some more sewing… at last, something I can do and watch a movie at the same time. I’ve been listening to movies that are primarily dialogue driven while painting this, which rules out my subtitled foreign film collection. Coupling and Spooks episodes work well, Bladerunner of course is great as I know every scene by heart anyway. Robin Hood – the Disney version, is very sing-a-long-able, as is Labyrinth. Igby goes down was great except it kept making me cry. And one night I packed it all in and curled up on the couch with Cyrano de Bergerac, one of my all time favourites, which needs full attention due to rapid subtitles. So there you go. This weeks recommendation for inspiring movies to paint to.

I know that’s not easy to see, so I’ve taken a photo of each print individually. Sorry about the quality of these photos, I didn’t think to take them until after I’d framed them, so the reflection off the glass has made things tricky. Here’s the little explanation of the story I’ve included with  my submission to the Mental Health Week Exhibition:

This artwork is in honour of my friendship with my sister. As children we played together at night in the backyard. The world was full of magic and wonder, and our pets were our companions on all our adventures. In the little story, a storm washes the stars and moon from the sky. The little girls collect them and scatter them back into the heavens. My sister still helps put the stars back in my sky after storms.

Okay, today I managed to spend another hour in the cold in a car park waiting for the RAA… drove in that heavy rain we had this morning and forgot to turn my lights off when I parked. That was after turning up to the wrong venue for my appointment! My stars are not aligning this week.

But, I have managed to make more progress, one of the tricky parts has been re-matching the paint colours from earlier portions. I started this project over a year ago – but I did keep an aid – my old dried out paint palette to help me colour match. Still took about 1/2hr to mix all the blues up correctly. I think they’re harmonizing well though, I don’t think anyone will be able to tell old work from new.

Finished the beading work, hoping to get the blues all done tonight and maybe even the face painted and stitched on too. Then the frame, fringe and embellishments, and everything photographed, framed, and the application form completed. Getting there!

See the next step here.

Okay, tea break. My lovely kite is progressing well. Now, don’t scream, but as its a representation of coming through life with attendant issues such as mental illness, it was never intended to look perfect. She’s come through a few wars.

And then another couple of hours of painting later, I’m up to the embroidery part – stitching in the missing skeleton structure of the wings with beads and crystals.

Next, back to the paint to finish off all the blue. That should keep me occupied for a while yet!

See the next step here.

The final date to submit artwork for this exhibition is this Friday, so I am frantically painting. I have some smaller works, ink paintings and a set of linocuts all done and ready to be framed. But I also have a major project I’m trying to get done in time. As of 4am this morning I’d got this far:

Now I’m going to run off to the shops to buy frames and hanging supplies. By the time I get back that wing should be dry enough that I can fold it up to start on the other wing without smudging the paint. I also have to paint the face, add hair, other embellishments, and mount the whole kite onto a frame for hanging. Hopefully by the end of today. Wish me luck!

See the next step here.