I’ve been off work, recuperating from my hernia repair adventure. It takes me ages to get over general anaesthetics for some reason. So for most of the week my head has felt fuzzy. I’ve been able to do things (I’ve been catching up on domestic admin stuff) but I’m just not as sharp as I could be. It’s frustrating but, that being said, being knocked out and having someone poking things through one’s abdomen and darning recalcitrant bits of muscle is bound to affect one.

Anyway, I’ve been dabbling creatively, trying to push back the fuzziness and get the cogs engaged.

I’ve mentioned Ruby Silvious before. She is the queen of teabag painting and is the reason I sometimes paint on used teabags, on the inside of eggshells and on pistachio shells. She posted something on Instagram on Thursday and, as I had just that morning been emptying some bags, I thought I’d do that key from my last post on a teabag. It was challenging, scaling it down, dealing with a rougher surface and a narrower canvas. On the other hand, I am generally more comfortable with a smaller painting area. I used gesso on the bag to create a paintable surface and then used watercolours for the key. It’s not perfect but I’m pleased with it and it received quite a few likes and a few follows on Instagram when I posted it this morning.

I decorated a few more tuna cans …

… and now I have quite a collection.

These will become candles in due course.

I’ve been fluting around with mandalas and geometric shapes, the former, working on an idea for a cylindrical wooden box and the latter just to see how the circles fitted together.

Otherwise , I’ve been working on an idea about film strips … (yes, you’ll see in due course)

I had (yet) another (semi-successful) go at meditating and I found a Sanskrit symbol for ‘breathe’ and I drew it on some slate …

A few weeks ago, I bought a pyrography thingy (wand?) from the centre aisle in Lidl. Well, it was under a tenner so it would have been rude not to. Today I plugged it in and did this …

Expect to see more of this sort of thing in the future!

Also today, I rustled up this butterfly from tissue paper …

Finally, I resurrected this. I made this collage about six years ago and, in the intervening period I have made several attempts to attach it to a wall. It never stuck. This morning, at about 5.30am, I thought of making holes in the mount, threading through some string and simply hanging it that way. At last! The simple and rough hanging mechanism suits the subject matter I think. Anyway, here’s the collage. Dark, isn’t it? I’ve always been quite proud of this.