WOYWW 123

Hello to "What's on your worktable - Wednesday" that has been going on for more than two years now thanks to the Queen of Snoops, Julia of Stamping Ground.

I'm currently in the Halloween spirit making Halloween cards and starting to decorate the house with Kaefer. She is trying out several of my Halloween fabrics to find inspiration what she wants to be for that fun holiday. We'll be having a Halloween party on the Saturday before since the holiday itself is on a Monday - very inconvenient! Kaefer is also sewing Halloween costumes for her dolls.

These are the cards I made and they are now in my Etsy shop, waiting for buyers.

Geeda is hiding behind one of the cat-lanterns,

watching Kaefer wrapping herself in the Halloween fabric.

She put the purple fabric over a shimmering red one - quite fancy.

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Vision and Verb: October

Please come over to visit Vision and Verb for my musings about my favorite month.

Made in Germany 29 - Fish Traps

About 20 years ago I spent a week in Schleswig-Holstein, the most Northern state in Germany. You can find many beautiful lakes in that area and, of course, the Baltic Sea. Schleswig is a little town with beautiful cottages and cobblestone streets - you feel a bit like in a fairy tale. And since I have always liked ports I spent some decent time in the fisher port, and got pretty hooked on this special kind of fish traps, called Fischreusen. They were drying in the breeze, waiting for the next trip out on the water for another catch.



IA Challenge: Owls

"Owls" is this week's challenge at Inspiration Avenue - well, you would think after my wonderful adventure with the Great Horned Owls this spring I'd have enough photos to participate, right?

Right. I took a photo of Mama Owl - my favorite member of the owl family - and edited it in Photoshop Elements to give her a spooky touch. I actually didn't really do much - blurred the background (there is one of the owlets behind her), turned her eyes red and added some texture ("raised effect" by Shadowhouse Creations) - and here she is!

Just go to Inspiration Avenue to find a lot more of wonderful owls in any artistic way.

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Playing with Watercolor

A week ago I joined a mixed media painting class. We started out on watercolors, a medium I haven't worked with very often and don't have much experience. So I thought I just play around with it a little bit, and I had a lot of fun! In the above picture, I sprinkled salt into parts of the darker blue and love the effect - to me it looks a little bit like ice crystals.

Same here; and I also just flicked the brush with orange color a little bit to get the little splashes. Another effect I really like. Many of you probably think now "Oh come on, nothing new" - it sure is not, but I have re-discovered it and enjoy it. It always surprises me how much I actually forget. So many techniques I once learned and then they wander off in the very back of my mind and go dormant.

Here I used a white crayon and drew those swirls on drawing paper, then soaked the paper with water and balled it up. After I had flattened it out again I covered it with watercolor - really nice how the color seeps into the crevices. The wrinkled effect is also something I thoroughly like. I think though that it works better with darker colors.

Since it is Friday I'm linking this to Sneak Peek Friday and Paint Party Friday. If you want to see more amazing artwork, please visit these wonderful artists and get inspired.

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WOYWW and Painting Class

Another Wednesday and we're hopping around the world to have a peek at everybody's desk, thanks to Julia of Stamping Ground. It is fun to see what people are working on and find a lot of inspiration and make some friends as well (I especially like that part).

I'm thinking of making some Halloween cards since Halloween is my very favorite holiday. However, I'm a bit uninspired at the moment, and to get me started I printed out the images of a few cards I made a few years ago and sold very successfully in the scrapbook store I was working at. I still have some of these little ATC-sized cards/images that I would love to use.

Perhaps some of you remember the mixed media painting I was working on last Wednesday. I finished it over the weekend and I'm quite happy with it. It's a little bit different from what I usually do. I really enjoyed creating it, especially the trees were a lot of fun. The little flowers are actually some cut up ribbon, and then I just added glitter to the center of them. So easy! Of course there had to be a little cat somewhere in the painting - can you see it? This morning I put it in my Etsy shop (not the cat, but the painting - with the cat!).

Last Friday I started a mixed media painting class through our local college (the community ed department) and I L-O-V-E it! The instructor is a wonderful, talented artist who started out with precision watercolor and now does mixed media - no more precision! It's messy and lots of fun. There are one man and about 10-15 women in the class, and I really like the cameradie among us. The class lasts for three hours - three hours that just fly by. One of the things we did was using a candle to draw on drawing paper with it; then wet the paper and crinkle it up and unwrapping it again; start painting with either watercolor or watered down acrylics, using different techniques that she (the instructor) had shown us. The wax of the candle serves as a resistant, as you can see here - I did the swirls with the candle. It's a super easy and fun technique. We will build our mixed media painting with all the little paintings we do right now. I can't wait for the next class. The entire class will be for six weeks - and we all have already agreed that this is way too short.

Made in Germany 28 - Punting

Last week I promised to tell you more about punting in Tübingen.

Punting is most popular among the students of the university, but over the past decade or two it has also been discovered by the tourists. You can rent a punting boat, but you still need someone who knows how to punt - it's an art of its own. As far as I know, Tübingen is the only University town in Germany that practices punting and shares this tradition with Oxford and Cambridge in England.

Here are the punting boats lined up at the Neckarfront, the photo of which I showed you last week.

Most of the boats are owned by University organisations or students' associations. In order to enjoy a trip on a punting boat - and have a party at the same time - you need to know someone from those organisations, and someone who knows how to punt if you can't do it yourself.

The punter stands either at the top or the end of the boat, holding a very long thick stick that s/he sticks to the ground of the river (the Neckar is not very deep here) and thus thrusts the boat forward. It's physically demanding and not easy at all. Unexperienced punters often end up in the water...

A look into a punting boat: do you see those long boards in a pile? They will be turned into seats, and you will leisurely travel down the Neckar, sipping a glass of wine or some beer and eating whatever food people brought. Before you start out, however, you often have to scoop out water from the bottom of the boat.

You can have your trip during the day or, even better, in the evening. Very romantic. 

(Sorry for the bad quality of the photo)

On a Thursday in May (I forgot which one) the fraternities and sororities hold the big punting race, "Stocherkahnrennen". It's the slowest and wettest race, with dozens of punting boats. They start out at the Hölderlinturm, go to the bridge and have to go around the pillar of the bridge (the so-called "Nadelöhr" - eye of the needle) which is the biggest challenge because when the first boats round that pillar they will find themselves in the crowd of the boats behind them and THAT can get pretty nasty and VERY wet - it's the most popular part of the race. There is not much space between the pillar and the island - so imagine those long boats in the big muddle! After that it's just speed - go down on the other side of the Neckar island and cross the finish line. The loosing punters have to drink a bottle of cod-liver oil and the winners have to host the following year's party.

Oh yes, the party. There's a HUGE party in the evening - I mean, HUGE.

By now you recognize this house - the Hölderlinturm in its autumn dress. And, of course, the punting boats. Start to the big race.

One of the most beautiful traditions in the little town of Tübingen.

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