More Found Objects Jewellery

The pin above will be winging it's way to Gillian Allen in the UK, as a small token of appreciation for all the work she's done for me, and everyone else, with permanent displays of our work on art-e-zine. She's a terrific lady.
The earrings are part of an assortment of jewellery going off to the galleries this week.

Recycled treasure

Wednesday was a public holiday so I decided to take Thursday and Friday off, to give me a five day break including the weekend.What a great day I had yesterday, the weather was its usual, lovely and sunny. I decided to do the art shop tour. I visited the bead, art materials, paper and craft stores in Prahran, I also visited Zart Art a fairly large art store in Box Hill that sells art materials to schools, but also to the public and online. I was able to pick up rubber blocks for carving stamps. It's a fabulous store with very helpful staff. If you visit their website they have a free online 'zine' in pdf format called Zart Extra, it shows artwork from schools and has some great ideas, it's terrific to see what creative work is coming out of some of our schools.

The highlight was a visit to the 'Recycled Art Truck' in Ringwood. It's not actually a truck, but a large shed, where lots of the cast offs and scraps from products manufactured in Melbourne are sorted and sold on. The deal is you pay twenty five dollars for a garbage bag and you fill it with whatever takes your fancy. The photos above show my goodies. They have fabric scraps, foam blocks, cardboard, plastic, papers, timber, metal mesh, ribbon, some nice old metal spools, bottles, I even picked up a new picture frame for my grandson's latest painting. It's junk collectors heaven. I loved all the little carboard circles of varying sizes, they will end up painted and used in my jewellery. The fabric will be used in my books and the vast array of circle 'templates' will make great stencils for artwork. My main problem now is finding a home for it all.

Thinking Blogger Award

I was amazed and honoured to receive a Thinking Blogger's Award from Belinda
I hadn't really thought of myself as a thinking blogger as I usually don't give a lot of my thoughts away. I tend to keep things inside, as my husband says, I have the British 'stiff upper lip'. But occasionally I let it all out.

I have to nominate 5 Bloggers who I recommend as having thinking blogs. My list is endless. I think every blog I visit on a regular basis is run by a thinker, some have already been nominated.
So here goes, my awards go to:
Ursula Clamer she's a real thinker, everything on her blog is so profound, she has a way with words and feels deeply. Ursula also does great art works. We met in Nina's class in Fremantle this year and have stayed in regular touch and hope to meet up again next year at the Artistic Journey Retreat.
Megan Pickwell again Megan's blog is written by a thinker, her words and opinions are beautifully expressed, she's a very gentle soul and a lovely lady and artist. I also met Megan in Fremantle and again hope to meet up with her next year.
Judy Wilkenfeld she's larger than life, full of energy and enthusiasm. Judy's blog is very entertaining and full of fun. I love the way she puts everything into what she does and has a go at anything. Judy creates some fabulous art as a result of her efforts.

Gosh, so far this sounds like school reports.

Marie C I just LOVE Marie's collages and artwork. She produces lots of inspiring work and her blog is very helpful and entertaining. I also did Nina's workshop with Marie but haven't seen her finished necklace yet, hint, hint.
Marie O another Aussie who's been lured away to the US, but I know her heart's still her in Oz. Marie produces fabulous digital artwork, some of the best around, she also takes great photos too. Marie's blog keeps us up to date with what's happening in the US, but also adds snippets of information for us Aussies to smile about.

There I've done it. There are so many more blogs I would like to have added to this list but the criteria says only 5, sorry to all of those I left out, I still think you have great blogs and love what you all do, but thems the rules.

Rules are easy:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote.

This is where it all started HERE

Buddha's smiling

Buddha's smilling, it rained yesterday, not for long but it was better than nothing. 6mm to be exact which is about a quarter of an inch. More was predicted for today but so far nothing's happened. The grey, threatening clouds arrive and we start to get hopeful, and next thing we know, the sun's smiling down on us. I love the sunshine, I hate the cold, but some rain occasionally would be nice. Things are getting desparate even our Prime Minister is telling us we have to pray for rain. I think the Governments, current and past, should have done something before it got this far, but that's another story.

I've just completed another necklace and more ear rings. I'm working on another way of providing the information about the necklace for the gallery. Usually I make a card with the relevant information as to the type of beads, etc. used in making the piece, but I'm now thinking of providing a card with photos as above, and writing the details that relate to each photo in the spaces down the sides. I'm still working on it.

Altered pages

Two more pages from one of my altered books. The top image was inspired by Mirka Mira, an incredibly inspiring French/Australia artist who's still painting prolifically in her senior years. She paints very colourful mythical characters. Her dolls are also based on the same characters. She also does mosaics, some of you may have seen her work at Flinders Street station in Melbourne and in the rotunda on St Kilda pier.
I visit my local Op shops on a regular basis and look at some of the treasures I found today for just a few dollars. I've only shown some of the spoons that I found, all have lovely patterns on the handles. I clean them up and use the handles in my necklaces. Now I have my Dremel it will make cutting them up a breeze. The fabrics are very Oriental. I just love the richness they've created with the spoons and other bits.

Chocolates for my Birthday?

Chocolates for my birthday, no Golden paints and wait for it, a DREMEL. My wonderful husband is always full of surprises at Christmas and birthdays. He knew I'd been hanging my nose over a Dremel, but I didn't expect Golden paints as well, how fantastic. He took me to this terrific little cafe called 'Ripe' in the hills for breakfast and now he's making a special dinner for me and my family, what a gem.

I had another big surprise on Friday night, I went into Borders bookstore and was checking out the beading magazines. I was checking through Australian Beader mag. and shock horror there in the index was a photo of one of my necklaces. I finally remembered I'd sent them photos of some of my jewellery last year and, as I'd had no reply, completely forgot about it. I flicked through the mag. and there was my necklace on the Gallery page. What a thrill, I'm not sure if this means I've been published.

Journal and stamps

Some more journal pages, as I've said before I work at random throughout the journal. The top two pictures show the pages on the right ready to take some images, or drawing, or whatever takes my fancy at the time. I find an image and search until I find the right page or draw things as they come into my head. The pages are never finished, I go back and add things to them all the time. Much of the drawing work is done sitting at the traffic lights, as it takes me an hour night and morning to get to and from work, it certainly passes the time and sometimes I'm even hoping for a red light.

The bottom page is my 'grunge' page the image on the right of flowers and rocks was a transfer from a colour laser print, I used gel medium to transfer it to my page, my stamped art was already on the page, I added text and birds after.

I carve the stamps out of plastic erasers, in most cases using both sides of the eraser. The stencil and stamp are cut out of cardboard. I'm making a set of alphabet stamps at present.

Better get back to the jewellery, only two and a half hours til bedtime

Copper book necklace

I've completed this necklace over Easter, it features a small copper book with mica pages as taught by Nina. The cover is galvanized metal that builders use to join plaster and I've given it an 'aged' finish a la deMeng. I'm giving everything an 'aged' look at the moment with liquid nails and paint and loving it, watch out hubby.

Found objects necklace

This necklace also went off to Sorrento last week. I haven't done a red and yellow combination before.
Happy Easter everyone.

Journal pages

A few more pages from my journal. I don't write very much, just the odd quote or jottings down from the day. I work anywhere and everywhere in my book. I start out by decorating the papers, turning them into a journal and going from there. I really enjoy adding things I find during the day like the spotted foil from an Easter egg on the second picture.
I have a date set now for my Altered book workshop at Hann Made Studio in Mentone Vic, if anyone's interested. It will be an all day workshop on Sunday 17th June. If anyone wants more details either email me or contact Hann Made

Found objects earrings and pin

These are photos of some of the jewellery I sent off to the gallery at Sorrento today, I'm hoping they arrive before Easter as it's always busy down there. I also sent a couple of necklaces too.
I'm about to clean up my studio tonight and move one of my drawer cabinets. I'm glad I don't have a lot of built in furniture as
I'm always moving it around. I've lost one of my favourite old jumpers so I'm hoping I might find it in the clean up.