Every Inchie Monday: Smile

This week's inchie theme is Smile.

I used to work for the British Dental Health Foundation, the people who organise National Smile Week, and the badge on the left is a Smile Week logo pin, which just happens to have been hanging around in my jewellery box for several years.

But then I figured that was too easy - so I did the other two. I like the sunny one in the middle.

This inchie thing is really getting to me. The letter stencils are a new thing I've treated myself to - just for my inchie art!

A question (mainly) for my US and ex-pat Brit readers

What symbolises England to you?

I'm working on an art project at the moment and I need to know what icons someone overseas (particularly the States and actually someone from Michigan) would consider to be quintessentially English.

I've got the cup of tea (and cake) and I'm working with an old postage stamp that has the Queen's head on it (and the three lions). There's a map of country lanes too. But beyond that I'm sort of stumped.

Now, I would think cricket and Stonehenge and roses, but would that mean England to a foreigner?

All suggestions would be welcome.

Return of rickets

According to the news this morning, young children are suffering from rickets again - because parents and healthcare workers don't know that growing bones need vitamnin D. And presumably they don't know that you make vitamin D by being in the sun.

Perhaps it's my age, but I've known for years that lack of sunlight affects the skeleton. I don't think I knew that vitamin D was necessary to absorb calcium (and hence get strong bones) but I knew that kids in smoky cities often ended up with bent legs because the sunlight couldn't get through the smog.

It's been a while since rickets was a problem, because a healthy diet will supply a small amount of the vitamin (oily fish and eggs mainly), but two years ago the press were reporting that rickets was on the increase as a result of scares about over-exposure to sunlight.

So can someone explain why healthcare professionals (the term used on the news) are still ignorant about the need for dietary supplements in pregnant women and young children?

When I was a kid we were taught that lack of vitamin C gave you scurvy and affected your skin (and your gums), vitamin B was essential for nerve health (among other things) and all the rest. (Eat oranges, take your brewer's yeast tablet and get out in the sunshine for at least a few minutes every day.) So why aren't 'healthcare professionals' taught it today?  And midwives in particular?

Every Inchie Monday: Universe

Both of these are done with pastels. It was pretty tricky to do because I'm not exactly accurate with the powdery little sticks, but I couldn't see any other way to get the effect I wanted.

The purpley one was my first attempt, but it didn't seem to have enough 'light' in it so I had another go and was quite pleased with the bluer one. Believe it or not, the blue is the colour of the paper I drew them on.

My next big problem was making sure they didn't smudge when they were finished. I tried fixing spray (like very expensive hairspray) but it just swamped Purple so Blue was subjected to a coat of sellotape. (Sticky tape/Scotch tape/dunno what you call it in other countries!)  So now it has a shiny surface.

I had to go over it with a blunt stick to make sure all the air was driven out from the back because it looked sort of grey until I did. If you look here you can see that I didn't quite get the tape straight!

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Every Inchie Monday is a weekly challenge to create one square inch of art.  Take a look here to see what it's all about and view other people's talented miniature works.

More inchies

I've been inchie-ing again.


The tree is based on something I see on the M42 when I head south.

Mean Streets is one that grabbed me after I did the city challenge a couple of weeks ago. This is a very different way of looking at a city.

GB is an idea I came up with while considering an 'English' set for a friend in the US. I might work on some variants of it.


And finally is a silly photo showing my wonderful discovery.  Inchies fit perfectly in the boxes inside Kinder eggs!

Update

Thank you to everyone who wished me well this morning. I survived! (I don't think there was any doubt really) I'm still dosed up on ibuprofen because I don't want to think what it'll feel like when the pain killers wear off.  But I'm going to cope.

Apprehension

I have to go to the dentist today. I'm starting a long course of restorative work and the foundation stage involves actual surgery. I won't go into details. It's a bit gory and besides, I really don't want to think about it.

Today's appointment (one of a series over the next three months) is an hour long. At one point in the course I shall have four consecutive days of drilling and rebuilding. Things are going to be uncomfortable because my jaw alignment is going to change considerably as a result of all this. (My jaw line is the reason for most of my dental problems)

On the other hand I shall have a smile again. My current teeth (I would say my own teeth but several of them are fake already) are ugly and crooked and so I have got out of the habit of smiling. Subconsciously I keep my lips pressed together and so, even when I'm happy, it doesn't show.

As part of all this we've already had a mock-up to illustrate what we're hoping to achieve. You can get a clue what my natural teeth look like from what's visible of the bottom ones. I just have to keep this image in my mind as I sit in the chair today.