Thursday is for Tips and Techniques

Today is the perfect day for tips and techniques.  It is the day that Linda Williams has launched some really lovely new Groovi plates on the Pergamano Show on Hochanda.  These plates were introduced to those of us at the recent Groovi Retreat down in Kent.  More than 80 of us took over the Spa Hotel in Tunbridge Wells for a very intense two days of teaching from Linda and the rest of the team.

This was the first of two beautiful designs created for us to do, and I think we all really fell in love with this fluffy little blue tit.  This is a technique that Linda has been showing us at the Clarity Open Days but actually being taught, step by step, is so much better.  The people at the retreat varied in knowledge and skill from total beginners to members of the Design Team, and everyone was able to create a beautiful card.

On day two, we had another lovely design from Linda, again using the fluffy technique.

This time, it was the delicate dandelion seeds that showed the fluffiness.    Since coming back from the retreat, I have not been able to put these plates down.  There are so many images to choose on them.   Here is another version of the blue tit, but using the hexagon border.

I really took my time with the embossing to get graduated white embossing, without the parchment bulging or buckling.  I did five layers with the No 6 ball tool, before moving to the 4.5 for three layers, and then a couple of layers with the No 3 tool.  Between each layer, the parchment was rested overnight.  Linda taught us that good embossing should take at least a week to complete.

I have another version on the go using the nested circles, but that is still in progress.  

 I also transferred the techniques to another Clarity plate, the squirrel.

When you are working on feathers or fur, you must continually turn the parchment and think carefully about how the feathers and fur lies and work  in that direction.  If you watch Linda's demo, you will see how much she constantly turns her work to get the result she wants.

This squirrel involved a lot of different colours blended to get the final colour I was after - two shades of green, three different browns, orange, red, cream and white.  I used a picture of a red squirrel from the internet to work out the colouring.  I also embossed lightly on the back to give a little more form and texture to his body.

All these designs used two different makes of blendable pencils to get the end results.  I used the Perga Liners to lay down the base colour, and then went to the Faber Castell polychromos, to add the tiny detailed flicks for the feathers and fur.  As Linda says, your pencils need to have a really wicked needle point to add those details.

My advice is to get these plates and really have fun creating beautiful designs.

Thank you to Linda for creating such inspirational designs for us.