one tall stalk of thistle is slyly growing in between some other bushes where it thinks it can't be seen . . . but, it was spotted and because i thought it photogenic with a strong future in more photographs, i've left it to grow (for now). the wickedly spiny fat stem offers many of these large globes with only one of them beginning to show some purple flower . . . so pretty and such a pesty prickly weed~!!~thistle was my dad's favorite flower, so i have a soft spot for it . . .

the daily collage work continues with an additional layer of glaze applied over all. i was surprised to find that the paper i added yesterday dried almost completely flat . . . it sure didn't look like it was going to and i had decided to be happy with it and play with a peeling paper technique that i found in a book called "Collage discovery workshop" by Claudine Hellmuth using masking tape. i figured that the extra bumps would just pull up with the tape and ta-da~!~i'd be back to a smooth surface. this was last night when i was still thinking i would have a lot of bumps and lumps in my paper.

even though it was fairly flat this morning i decided to give this technique a try anyway . . . this is a detailed shot of the only bit that i could even get to tear up. i think that this was due to my having applied glue to the top of the paper as well as the watercolor base paper yesterday. (Ms. Hellmuth does say not to apply glue to the top of the paper for this technique; but what was done was done.) the top layer of glue wouldn't let the masking tape "grab" the paper, thus no great effect. this one little spot was it. since that was pretty unexciting, i also did the wash of sunflower colored glaze for today's experiments. after all it was "The Golden Gazette"~!!~

this is a bit of pre-washed muslin i have set aside to wipe any excess paint off of my brushes. who knows what sort of wonderful painted cloth i'll eventually end up with for future use in other projects. and, best of all, no wasted paint~!!~and now, i'm off to "the big city" to do some shopping and see the new Harry Potter movie.