Rainy day pastimes…

 

Today it has rained and rained …. not heavy rain, but that persistent drifting kind of rain that soaks everything (and everyone), running down the inside of your waterproofs and making the day so dull and dreary.  As I type this now it’s brightening up a little – but here in Devon, England the sun will set in little more than an hour – even so this may be enough time for Ben and I to head for the beach when he’s home from his grooming appointment.  He goes to the lovely Donna every month – at 154 lbs he’s far too large for me to bath at home – and he seems to love the whole experience, climbing onto the grooming table and leaning against her with a blissful expression on his furry face!

 

While he was out  I decided to use the opportunity of a rainy day to practise my stop-motion video techniques.  I’ve created a set of nine rabbit skittles, with a ball and bucket to keep them in for the December issue of the Bustle & Sew Magazine. (with handmade Christmas presents in mind of course).  It’s so hard to take a good photo to illustrate all nine bunnies – and I really wanted to show their tails and the ball as well.  I had a lot of fun creating this, my second video.  It’s still far from perfect I’m afraid and  I think I will re-shoot it (didn’t that sound professional?) on a brighter day as the light today was so dull and grey. Please ignore my hand that appears in a few frames – I am still very much a beginner!

 

 

I always thought this sort of video would be hard to make, but it’s not at all really.  The only equipment I used was my digital camera, tripod (absolutely essential), an old sheet draped over my clothes-horse for the backdrop and some invisible thread to make the ball fly through the air.  When I reshoot it I will definitely use a nicer backdrop – I hadn’t realised that, even though I did iron the sheet, every crinkle would show.  And a sunnier day would be better as well.  I’m not sure Spielburg needs to worry about his newbie competitor quite just yet … but in the future .. well – who knows?!? 

 

PS Mentioning newbie …. had a lovely self-indulgent Sunday afternoon browsing fabric sites for my first quilt – will be back later in the week to tell you all about my choices.