Hi Everyone!  Unlike this peacefully sleeping dragonling, I have been a busy bee in my atelier for the last few weeks, playing with every single principle of art that I love.  Summer continues to be an indoor time for me, while The Girl and Her Cat cat continue their adventures through the distant lands of the North.

The Artist Apron

A few months ago, I asked my friend Mary if she would be willing to make an artist apron for me.  I was overjoyed when she agreed.  She also suggested that we do an exchange instead of my paying her for the apron, which was extremely generous of her.    I made her knitted mitts and hats.  I will share those another day.

She not only found the perfect shade of olive green which I requested, she also paired it with wine red and made a reversible apron for me.  She even monogrammed my name on it.  It is such an honour to wear the apron when I work in my atelier.

Refurbishing the Scroll

I love playing my violin.  I had been looking for a violin scroll shaped hook and found one recently.  The original finish on it was abysmal.  While my husband sanded and painted it, I worked on staining the wood with my homemade black walnut stain.  Now it is ready for me to hang this beautiful apron when I leave the atelier at the end of my workday.

My Play List

With the apron and my favourite music on, I get lost in the little world that is my atelier for hours on end, playing and experimenting.  I have been making good progress.  Too many to share in one post, so I will write about them incrementally. 

I am hand binding all of my store-bought sketchbooks, then I will add some designs on them. So much nicer than the commercial spiral bound or black vinyl bound books.

Language of the Rising Sun

One thing you probably would not guess about me is that I play video games and I often listen to video game music while I work.  In recent days, playing one of the games inspired me to learn Japanese.  I have always had an interest in linguistics.  After learning a couple of modern languages and Latin, I wanted to learn something completely different.  Japanese is quite difficult, but it also has been fun so far.

Distant Pages

While I am studying the language of a distant land,  the Girl and Her Cat continue with their adventures of visiting the northern lands and collecting stories.  This set of of paintings is possibly my most favourite in this book.  I mixed inspirations from my own travels and mythology, and created new stories.

Please click on the image thumbnails to see the pictures and read about their wanderings –

The Runes

I painted this little blacksmith’s knife after my own that I picked up in Sweden.  Mine is a plain black one, but I couldn’t help engraving the Girl’s knife.  I also made a red sheath for her so she doesn’t accidentally hurt herself.  While painting the set, I got the idea of using runes for protection.  When the dragonling charmed her knife and the sheath, the runes appeared.

I wanted to draw an axe of a woman, and slowly a story formed.  This one belonged to a dauntless giantess who helped protect and build.  The engraved snowdrop flowers were her ward charms.  The compass on the poll showed her the way.  The same runes from the Girl’s blade appear on the axe too.  I wonder if a dragon was involved in the making of the Shadowcaster.

A Little Dragon

I love dragons is an understatement and I love this little dragonling.  He is really sweet and friendly.  Like all children, the Girl and Her Cat and the dragonling became fast friends.  If you were wondering, his mother ended up helping the Girl and Her Cat on their journey.

Here are the previous posts where I shared The Girl and Her Cat stories from Distant Pages book –

Near And Far

Curiosity And Creativity

Until next time,
-Soma

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