Day thirty-nine: throat infections and genie bottles

Thanks to a nasty throat infection I haven't been able to go to work for the last three days. I'm not being a total wimp; the drugs I take make me more susceptible to infection, taking them also means it's hard for me to fight infection, so I need to rest up if I get one. I need to shake it before my next dose, else no dose, and that would be no fun at all. Pffft. I digress. The point is that because I have been at home I have had something I don't normally have: time.

Therefore I managed to finish my genie bottle for the flickr mosaic challenge. I never had a particular plan for the design of my bottle - actually I did, but I completely ignored it and did something entirely different! I am still trying to work out if I prefer the "freestyle" method of working or a more planned method. I guess it depends on what I am doing, but on the whole I prefer an organic* approach.
For the bottle I used one of two I got on ebay for a couple of quid. I covered the main body of the bottle in vitreous glass tiles (green with gold flecks), grouted in black. Then I beaded some 'ribbons' to tie around the bottle, and clasped it with a garish pendant prised off a necklace I rescued from Petticoat Lane market. I covered the stopper with fimo, then baked it and covered it with pre-mixed grout, which I molded into a genie-like wispy shape, then covered in a little more beady bling.

I also baked some lemon cookies because I fancied something sweet, then ate one and felt sicker than ever.



So no more cookies for a while. Well a little while...

Thirty-nine days a go I promised myself to do at least a little bit of creative work each day, and I have stuck to that. It has opened up a side of me I haven't seen since I was about 17 years old - I am getting a little braver. Remember when you thought you were indestructible? Well it's like a tiny dose of that feeling: Does that tile look exactly right there? Who the hell cares, stick it down!



* making it up as I go along!