Pasta From Scratch.

 Having bought a pasta cutting machine for use with polymer clay, and not actually using it for that purpose, I thought I might try to use it for it's real purpose, making pasta.
Here is the dough that I made from imported Italian pasta flour, eggs and water.

 I found that it was very difficult to feed the pasta into the machine at the same time as catching it as it emerged the other side, especially when cutting the fettuccini ribbons.

                                  Here is the finished product, not bad for a first go I reckon!
                                 The hanging rod is fittingly propped up on 2 cookery books.

Stamp Print.

This is the first print from my carved stamp using markers to colour the stamp. It didn't turn out all that well, as the markers, water based ones, still dried a bit too quickly. I must try with acrylic paints or stamp pads designed for fabric, they are very soft and the ink takes ages to dry.

Flowers at Last.

I  decided to grow some 'special' Nasturtiums from seed to see if I could get some of the more unusual colours. This one above is a softer orange than usual, but still orange.

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                                  This one above is more of an apricot colour, very pretty.

                   This one is really lovely, a soft creamy yellow with deep orange markings.

Fun with Nasturtiums.

                                             Here is the finished stamp with colour added.

                            Almost finished, a black try-out to see what more need to be done.

      Here I was having fun with a Kaleidoscope program and a picture of a nasturtium painting.

Stamp Carving.

                                                        I'm out of practise unfortunately!

                                           Some of the veins in the leaves are far too heavy!

Back to the Nasturtium Project.

It was raining this morning, but not too wet so I ventured out to pick some fresh nasturtiums.

                         Just a simple drawing to hopefully get started with a stamp carving.

Eucalypt Flowers.

Most people are familiar with the gorgeous pink and red flowering varieties of Eucalypt, but this fluffy cream species is just as gorgeous in it's understated way I think.

Chocolate Lilies.

                                           Part of a large field of flowering Chocolate Lilies.

                                               They really do smell faintly of chocolate too.