Sunday 17 October 2010

Twisted

A challenge over on UKS asked for us to scrap our superstitions, or failing that, our quirky habits.  Now I'm not particularly superstitious, apart from the not walking under ladders thing, which is just plain common sense really, oh and the old throwing salt over the left shoulder thing, and did I mention the magpie counting thing?  No, not superstitious at all!  So I started thinking about quirky habits ... and decided that most of those were NOT to be shared publicly if I wished to step outside of the house ever again!  Then one day in the kitchen, I realised that I was doing something that nobody else in my family can see the sense in, but which I love doing, even though it takes a while and there are probably Lakeland or Betterware gadgets that can do it in half the time.  Namely, preparing a fresh pineapple.  Nearly 30 years ago my sister in law Zen showed me the Phillippino way to cut away the skin (peel?) and remove the eye spots and I was hooked!  I love the way Nature hides mathematical curiosities away and I find it really relaxing to reveal the spiral hidden away inside a pineapple.  Twisted I know!

I love the way a pleasing spiral appears as I remove the eye spots from a fresh pineapple.  
It's a shame to cut it into chunks!
The other part of the challenge was to scrap in a different way to your usual style.  Now I'm not sure I have a style, so I chose to try a couple of new techniques: spritzing as that seems to be in vogue, and keeping the whole thing fairly minimal with a hint of stash creeping into (or off) the page the way that the fashionable scrappers on DTs do at the moment.  I've used a sketch from Sketchy Thursdays' November guest DT call.

While I had a few spray bottles to hand I didn't actually have any commercial mists, so I had to make my own.  They didn't turn out too badly actually: some dilute acrylic paint for the lime green, and some dilute ink with a spoonful of face bronzing powder for the orangy brown! The bottles did clog occasionally and needed a shake or two, releasing a few large drops onto the page - totally on purpose of course! 
I'd stuck my title letters down lightly so that they would act as a mask and reveal a clear outline once removed.  My orginal intention had been to paint all the title letters with acrylics afterwards, but the two white GinX coaster letters were rather pretty after the spritzing, so I decided to keep them as they were.
A little layering with some strips from a Hambly screen print, some sewing and a few clear pebbles later and I was done!  Note to self - punching through acetate is not necessarily that great for the punch - I may have broken my 1" circle punch :o(
Hubby is applying WD40 as I type!
Now if only somebody would invent a sewing machine that tied off its own ends I would be a happy bunny, because I don't find that relaxing at all!

6 comments:

Mary B said...

the page looks fantastic as does the pineapple

alexa said...

Gloriously juicy page! Your pineapple-cutting is a work of art, and rightly deserves documenting. Love your use of face bronzing powder!

TesaB said...

Ohhhh, fabbie page!!! Fun theme and the splashing of paint looks gorgeous!!!

Sian said...

I always love a bit of misting! And pineapple cutting - who knew?! It's very clever and I can see how it would appeal to the maths mind: is that what you call a fractal?

Anonymous said...

LOVE this! The subject, the colors, the Hambly and your title is awesome!
Thanks for playing along with Sketchy Thursdays!

Taj White said...

super artsy,love it :)