Making a mess...
It was a good thing the clothes I wore really were old...plastering the ram made a mess of them...and of the floor...and my camera...and anything else I touched. This is scrim dipped in plaster - working fast with small mixes.
The head had been finished separately...
...and fixing it to the body was a bit of an adventure. In the end we put a plastic bag inside the head and part-filled it with plaster, holding it in place until the plaster had gone off enough.
Now it needs to dry before I can do any more - the next adventure will be moving it from the foundry to my house.
Many, many grateful thanks to my son, who helped enormously with the plastering and to Seamus for giving me the space and encouragement.
So while the ram dries I have a breathing space to focus on another deadline... I allowed Shirley's enthusiasm to talk me into teaching a new sewing workshop, a follow-on to "How not to be afraid of your sewing machine"...which I've run several times. This one is "How not to be afraid of zips, buttonholes, bias binding and piping"...HOW did I think this was a good idea??? Especially when I have never made piping, it's years (decades?) since I last sewed in a zip or used bias binding and I had to look up how to make buttonholes on my machine...and there are two weeks left before the workshop. ( I could have started this before Christmas). First a search for some hours on the internet for ideas - for a design that would result in an object of desire. There were some printed cushions with hares..made of hessian? linen? Not able to do printed, but can do a simpler shape with applique...that was the easy bit.
Flicking between four books from the library, I eventually worked out the piping and the second attempt was good. It takes quite a while to unpick 72 inches of stitching.
Even worked out how to make the buttonholes...and after several attempts made them the right size.On reflection, it's been a helpful experience; a reminder of how it is to be a learner, not knowing how to do something, not being competent...making a mess of it.
