Small Watercolour design 'Three Bees'

Heres a small watercolour painting measuring just 8.5 cm.
   I began with a compass, and lighly pencilled out the overall design of lozenge and triangular shapes, and used this as the basis for the flower, leaf and bee elements, which were painted in gradually using watrcolours, and outlined for definition using an extremely fine brush.

'Three Bees' GMR 2015

Birchwood Miniature 'Wood and Stone'

The Birch square measures just five centimetres

I've been busy decorating this small birch wood square with a highly detailed woodland scene. The square measures just 5 cms.
  The scene, featuring a tawny owl flying in the woodland under the starry night sky, is conjured from my imagination...along with the words inscribed on the back : 'In the still of a velvet starry night..wood and stone receive soft flight'.

Runes of the Elder Futhark are inscribed along two edges

'Wood and Stone' GMR 2015

Pyro-paper Art - Uffington White horse

My framed pyro paintings make an unusual decorative art piece

I'm curently in the midst of the turmoil which comes along with moving house..with the result that it is difficult to find the extended periods of peace and quiet required to immerse myself in longer art projects...so I've been creating these tiny pyro paintings, which are exciting and fun to make without requiring too much time.

   I use small pieces of thick watercolour paper which I colour with an initial wash of ink, allowing the colour to spread in a natural way. When dry, the resulting colour and pattern tend to suggest a particular design, which I outline in pencil, then fill in using my hotwire pyrography tool. Finally I use watercolours to add a very subtle colour. I have used beading wire to thread the little pictures together, with added beads, then attached them to a small picture frame.

My homage to the 'Uffington White Horse' is paradoxically..tiny! It measures just 7.5 x 4cm..

Buzzard and mountains..pyrography on watercolour paper.

The Uffington White Horse is a well known and loved chalk hill figure..one of a number in Great Britain. The figure is huge, stretching across a chalk escarpement of the Berkshire Downs known by the Anglo-Saxons as 'Hringpyt' - the ring pit. There are a number of earthworks and areas of interest  here, but the horse itself is so large that it needs to be seen from a distance to appreciate the actual form. It is thought to be ancient, although the first written reference to'White Horse Hill' can only confirm that the figure was certainly present within the landscape by the year 1080.

  

Pyrography on Paper

My completed  Pyro -art

Having created my little pyro-miniatures, I attached jump rings to the corners and threaded them on beading wire to create an interesting and unique decorative Art-piece..

Recently I ran short of wood for jewellery making, so had a little bit of spare time just to play with creative ideas..One thing I had a go at was creating tiny pictures similar to my jewellery designs, but using watercolour paper in place of wood.
  Burning paper?!! Well obviously one needs to take a little care to keep the pyrography machine at a low setting, and I wouldn't recommend using thin paper - watercolour paper tends to be fairly thick..and

Tree design

Eagle design

Bumble bee

it works surprisingly well.
  I coloured my paper with an ink wash first, then pyrographed my design in the same way as I would when using wood. Then used a little watercolour paint to fill in and add a subtle colour.I really like the effect of the drawn lines being a brownish hue and lightly 'etched' into the paper. It looks sufficiently different from ordinary drawing to make the exercise worthwhile.