Journal pages

I'm SOOOO busy at the moment. I'm in a journal swap with 8 Aussies and 8 ladies from US, and I'm still getting my book sorted, the starting day is Monday. I also have an album to make for my granddaughter's first birthday, a jewellery order and a painting for a show next week. Here's a couple more pages from my journal, I still try and add to this between breaks.

New Book Necklace

This is a new necklace that I've just completeed for a friend's birthday. She's worked in the fashion industry all her life, so the pages have vintage lace with images of fashion through the ages, I've also added pearl buttons, silk ribbon and trim.



The cover was made from this silver plated biscuit tray. I cut it out with my trusty Dremel

Treasures

I had a fabulous time yesterday visiting the Bead and Gem show in Melbourne. What an array of gems and beads. It was definitely bead heaven. The photos show some of my purchases. There were so many vendor stalls, by the time I reached the end I was beaded out and spent out too. I'm now saving up for next years show.

Illustration Friday - Citrus

Haven't done an Illustration Friday for awhile, but this weeks topic suited my fruit and veg series.

Garden art

I haven't shown photos before of my garden art, it was such a lovely morning that I couldn't resist taking a few shots, the first is my shovel head named 'Gus the gardener', he's waiting for me to complete Lady Chatterly.



Next is a pedestal and pot near the front door that I mosaiced some time ago. The plant in the pot is a ponytail palm.



This is an old bike rim I found without any spokes. I used small aluminium tubing and wired some stones I'd made from left over grout and added a couple of mosaic balls, the mirrors in the balls catch the light and create lovely patterns and reflections.



I have a few of these poles scattered around the garden. They were treated pine, I painted them then added jam jar lids, bolts, bits of metal, packaging tape anything that I could nail to the poles. They're very weathered now with some of the paint starting to peel, but they still add colour. The style of the garden is tropical, rainforest with succulents added, mainly in pots. We have no grass in the front garden, it's all pathways and garden beds, very low maintenance.



These are mosaic stepping stones that I made, with one of many Buddhas sitting in the sun.



I regularly check out our dump bin at work to see what the guys have thrown out. I found these one day, they're the ends that were cut off the legs of a pole sign, they were already painted and made great pot holders for small succulents.



I'm always finding things people throw out and turning them into garden objects, this shows a couple of pieces of concrete that had been drilled out of a slab, I found an old sandstone tile that I put on top and then all the metal pieces came from an old bin at the back of a cooling tower factory. I still have more photos but I'll show them at another time, if I haven't bored you too much already.

Crusades 7 and 8

These images are part of Michelle Wards' Street Team Crusade number 8, only I didn't get into the 'Say What' deadline so I've incuded it in this one. The idea is to post sayings that family members or friends made up, that have stuck and become part of your every day language, I've included two plus some very common Aussie sayings that might make you laugh.
The real number 8 crusade is 'Cheap Tricks', showing something that you use in your art that is cheap or free. I regularly use the insides of envelopes in my altered books. The girl's dress and the guys picture frame, as well as the letterbox pole are all made from the insides of everyday mail envelopes. The number of different designs is amazing. The picture frame is the plastic window, cut to fit.

Decorated papers and copper necklace

I made a special copper 'red velvet' necklace (top photo) for Judy who sent me this HUGE role of annealed wire that she managed to find in a Bunnings store. It's terrific wire, thicker than what I've been able to find so far. It will be great for Keith Lo Bue and Richard Salley type of jewellery, my next challenge. The necklace is made from a copper fancy buckle that was curved in both directions. I hammered it flat, then threaded red velvet ribbon through the slots. I made a copper back and joined them all together with micro eyelets, fabulous little eyelets only 1/16 in dia. The 'bridge' is a copper, pipe or hose bracket that I aged and then added Nina knots and beads.

I've been busy over the weekend decorating paper for various projects I have under way. The first photo shows stage one of the process, this is where very watery paint is applied to paper towel and then lace, fabric, stencils, whatever will leave a mark, is brayered over the tissue and through to the paper. When this is dry, then I really go to town adding lots of colour. I have a production line going on my bench top. When this is again dry, I decorate even further with my hand carved stamps. The last two photos show the finished papers. These will then go into my journals and be worked on even further. I always scan them first so that I can change the colours in photo shop and have more colour combinations. I'll be teaching this technique, as well as others and journal making at Hann Made Studio later in the year. You can email me or visit my web site for details.