Welcome to the world of watercolours

or more specifically – watercolour pencils.  This is an interest of my wonderful husband, so I decided (as part of my exploring creativity year) to tag along and take the class with him.

I know nothing about watercolours, and even less about watercolour pencils. The class description states that we will learn techniques for applying pigment, secrets to creating luminous colours (love the word “luminous”) and how to use the brush.

First class – only 4 of us – the other two are:  a woman who took training as a graphic artist and then found it difficult to get work, so went on to become a homecare nurse, and Trina, who proudly stated she’s 62 and this will be the 5^th time she has taken this same class. She’s “not very good”, but must get something out of it. Bit of a character, Trina is.

Just one colour for the first lesson – black. We’re going to learn about “pulling” which basically means scribble with your pencil then put water on your (number 10) brush, and pull the pigment across.  Voilà. 

Four techniques

We created a chart with different “values” – important word in the watercolour world. Apparently the idea with pulling is to go over the darker colour with your wet brush and pull down the pigment - thus creating a lighter value.  Oh - and the hairdryer. We use the hairdryer A LOT. How did people do watercolour drawing before electricity?

Chart of different values

Anyway, we then practiced doing an eye and lips of Jean Simmons (Spartacus, The Grass is Greener, The Thorn Birds, and Howard Hughes’ obsession – is this a film appreciation class too?) with the assigned homework of finishing the portrait (ha!).

I found the shading (OK- pulling) challenging, especially knowing that if I put on too much pigment or too much water or too much of anything, I’m basically screwed. No eraser will help.  (How I miss graphite!)  Next week - 2 colours.  I think it we're painting a dog's nose.

Creativity over the holidays

The holiday season seemed like a good time to do winter-related projects so I signed up for a couple of stained glass classes.


I knew nothing about stained glass except I had heard from a good friend that it was quite difficult, so I decided to try the easier technique (copper foil vs. lead came  ... whatever that is).


The first class was a two day affair with the final objective of making a wreath to hang in a window.  The pieces of glass were pre-cut by the instructors, but we had to pick our colours and do our own layout. I wanted something cheery that would be part of my Christmas decorating each year.


The glass was quite easy to work with and I was no longer afraid of soldering (having completed several silver jewellery pieces). The instructor had a great sense of humour and fortunately berated me very little for my slight lapse of attention.  We were told, as part of the initial overview at the first class, that after using the hot soldering gun we must make sure to but it back in the stand - for all the obvious safety reasons.  


Partway through the afternoon I could smell something burning ...  and was shocked to find out that it was at my workstation!  I had put the solder gun down on the wooden table instead of in the stand (a common mistake I was assured).  Oops. Fortunately nothing burned down, and the charred mark reminded me for the rest of the class to pay closer attention to what I was doing.

The second class was an evening class where we used the same copper foil technique and made a snowflake sun-catcher.  I decided to use clear glass, but with different textures. I'm pleased with the result, and hope to make more next year. I think they would make a nice gift as well.

We had several family members over for Christmas dinner, and I wanted some nice floral arrangements on the table and around the house. Instead of ordering them from the florist as I would usually do, I bought several different types of flowers and tried my hand at flower arranging.  Surprisingly it took longer than I anticipated, but the result (and the price) was worth it. They adorned my Christmas table, and lasted for a couple of weeks afterwards.

Does cooking qualify as a creative pursuit? 

It wasn’t what I envisioned when I set out on my creative quest,  but I do feel more free to experiment with recipes and am less concerned about striving for perfection.  So with that creative spirit of adventure, I approached our Christmas dinner, and specifically dessert.

A good friend of the family has, for years, provided the “steamed carrot pudding” for dessert. As she is too old to continue the practice, I decided to take a stab at the recipe. It’s very traditional, and the directions are not very specific (i.e. “tie with string and steam for several hours” …. what???) 

The pudding turned out fabulously, and I felt an old-fashioned sense of pride … much better than simply finding a great bakery and ordering in!  The Christmas tradition will continue.  Yum.

From stained glass to flowers to puddings ... and a photography class thrown in for good measure!  The holidays were a busy and creative time.

The end of the year was approaching, and reflecting back on my "year of creativity" I realized that this journey is not over.  One year is not enough ... I feel like I'm just getting started.

And so, 2012 is The "Year of Creativity Part 2".   I can't wait to see where it will take me.