Lost and found...

I think this should be seen in all its glory.  And it is a minor miracle that I have the pictures.  I thought I'd lost the camera,  I asked everyone at art therapy if they had seen it,  then I inquired at the reception if it had been handed in.  I'd given up seeing it again, then lo and behold it turned up yesterday. 

This is our group mandla,  made with all manner of things, fresh flowers, sand, shells, pebbles, lentils.  We had no plan, we just started and went from there.  It was great fun.

We did have one or two discussions during the building.  This is the gang, or the current gang, including our two wonderful tutors, whose patience we must exhaust at times.  It was a really nice thing to do as we had two new students, so it was a good ice breaker for them. It was John who cobbled together a large compass, one long piece of wood, nail at one end, pencil at the other!   He drew three circles, then we divided it into sections.  A mandala should be circular,  and have an intention, mine for this was for healing.

I'm now tackling another mandala, well two to be exact.  I am still at the thinking stage, which is code for - I'm stuck!  I'm also trying Modroc,  one of our tutors brought some in last week, it is a plaster bandage,  but great for modelling and for mixed media work.  I got some today from Hobbycraft, not Modroc, but their own make, and for a £1, yes it takes longer to dry, do I care?  I've already experimented with it. and can see me having lots of fun!

Yesterday would have been my mum's birthday.  I felt out of sorts,  but it wasn't too bad.  I think because all the dates tend to come one after the other I feel a bit punch drunk.  This was taken last year shortly after the funeral.  My nephew had the crazy idea of putting her dressing gown on one of the iron men, everyone wondered if we'd do it, well we did knowing that mum would have fully approved.

I did keep busy yesterday, I didn't want to sit in the flat and brood all day.  I even managed to get some clothes, a miracle,  I finally found some linen trousers that I liked and which are really comfortable.  I also got a camera, because I thought my old one was lost.  The new one has a more powerful zoom and more pixels so I may just keep it.  It's the same make, a Lumix, which I think are the best cameras around.  It also has the same layout, so no difficulties in using it.  The plan for tomorrow is to tackle the mandala!  I need to be adventurous,  I'm being far too safe at the moment,  time to start thinking outside of the box.

Enjoy the bank holiday weekend, lets hope the nice weather continues.