The equinox is commonly regarded as the instant of time when the plane of Earth's equator passes through the center of the Sun. This occurs twice each year: around 20 March and 23 September. In other words, it is the moment at which the center of the visible Sun is directly above the Equator. (Thanks Wiki)
I have often wondered why here we commence or seasonal changes from the start of the month, rather than, as in Europe, they commence on the equinox dates...so, as one does, I Googled it...it seemed the perfect time. I learned that the difference is due to custom and practice...older countries continue the traditional ways they have celebrated for millennia. Australia, being a "new" country in European settlement terms, takes a more scientific approach, recording seasonal change according to the meteorological parameters...
Madeleine Laming, from Murdoch University, described it well..."professional meteorologists begin the seasons on the first day of the month. They have followed this convention for around 120 years, or as long as there have been professional meteorologists. Australia was founded after the "Enlightenment" (of the late 17th. and 18th centuries); therefore it is pre-disposed to scientific explanations of most things. In contrast, Europe and Asia have very long traditions of astronomy/astrology that traditionally rely on the sun to mark the change of seasons". (Thank you Madeleine!)
So, back to my inchie image...I simply collaged some black and blue rectangles of card stock onto a 7.5cm square of card, stamped, embossed and die cut a moon. I then cut it in half and adhered it onto the black side of the panel. I coloured up some white card with various red, orange and bright yellow Distress inks and cut from these a stitched sun shape along with a two inch circle, (to match up with the size of the half moon), and cut both these pieces into halves.
I collaged all these bits together onto the blue side of the panel in line up with the moon. Then it was a simple process to photograph, transfer to the computer, twiddle the image a bit in Photoshop to both straighten and size it to 1 inch, then print it out onto photo paper.
For the matting layer I used a small scrap of a lovely textured dark blue Japanese paper, thinking it gave a spacey sort of background, and that was it for my equinox inchie.
Tim had ordered the spare parts from England some months ago, but somehow or other got they lost in transit. Tim was just waiting to make sure the parcel had not simply been delayed before he ordered them from a more local supplier...sadly, it was too long a delay.
However, it will soon get sorted as Tim has a very competent mechanic friend who lives close by and will get it sorted for us once the replacement parts finally arrive.
Bye now,
Di