Quick update

Busy, busy. My journal workshop this Saturday is booked out which is wonderful, I have three people on the waiting list for the next one.
One of the time consuming parts of the class is cutting up fabric for the trim on the spine, so I've been busy cutting up fabric and putting them into packs, colour co-ordinating them with some very old buttons that I have, along with beads and charms. These will be available for purchase on the Saturday.





These are a couple of pages from my journal made from old manilla folders. The front of the post card is advertising a fruit and vegetable festival, it's very colourful.

Beads, beads and more beads

Last Friday I went to the Melbourne Bead show in Moorabbin, what a selection available, as you can see I came away with enough to keep me going for quite some time. This is just a small sample of what I bought. I'll have to start making and selling more things to recoupe my costs. It's very addictive, you HAVE to have one of these and one of those and that one over there. Thank heaven it only happens once a year, I don't think I could keep up.






I said good bye today to my last book in our marathon altered book round robin. It's titled 'Faces' and belongs to the very talented Karen. It's now on it's way home after travelling Australia and the US for the past eighteen months. My book should arrive home later in the week. I'm getting very excited. I'll be able to show it to you in all it's glory soon and not little peaks. That being said, the little peaks above are from my pages in Karen's book.

A Visitor

I had a great weekend catching up with Judy and Jen. Judy was in Melbourne to teach a two day workshop, we managed to catch up in the evenings along with Jen and Sarah. I dropped into the class and saw some of the magnificent work the students were producing. I also bought some fabulous brass castings from Judy. On the Friday night Jen, Sarah and I were in brass heaven checking out Judy's things, this girl does nothing by halves.I now have to work them into some of my jewellery.

I've been busy all week working on things I can't show just yet. I'm working in the last of the books for our marathon ABRR, the books have been going around Australia and the US for the past eighteen months. Our babies arrive home at the end of the month, can't wait. I will reveal all then.

Tomorrow I'm off to bead heaven, it's the Melbourne bead show so I expect to have some goodies tomorrow night.

I can't not show some art it wouldn't be right, here's a painting I really enjoyed working on, it's pastel over acrylic on matt board. I was able to be very free using this style.

Take a look

Take a look at Margaret's blog. Margaret saw the photo of my verdigris teapot in my previous post and asked if I would mind if she did a watercolour painting of it for her journal. She's done a wonderful job, better than the original photo.

Back to work tomorrow

Why do four days at home doing art go so much quicker than four days at work? I've really enjoyed my break and been productive, but it's gone way too fast.

I was taking photos of some of my jewellery out in the garden and noticed what a wonderful job mother nature does of aging things naturally. This old copper tea pot has been sitting in the garden for about a year now turning a lovely shade of blue/green, something we pay money for at the hardware store. The timber is gradually rotting away while this lovely mossy coat is slowly growing over it and holding it together.





This is one of the necklaces I made in my break and is now on Etsy
I made all of the rings and soldered them a la Stephanie Lee. Whenever I've soldered rings in the past I've made sure that the soldering is very neat and not visible, but I like the way Stephanie uses the blobs of solder as part of the decoration.
I also made the wire circles with the czech glass beads as part of the chain. The whole piece was fun to do and is very light.




I also finished this necklace too and added it to my Etsy. This piece was at my exhibition but I've changed it slightly adding the silver spoon instead of the piece of wooden ruler I had before.




I've now finalised the hand decorated papers/journal workshop. It will be on the 29th November, only about three weeks away. It will be at my home in Belgrave. I now have all the information so if you would like to attend please email me for details. My email address is in the side bar. Lunch, morning and afternoon teas, materials and a kit are included in the price. Below are some photos of the typical papers and journal we'll be making.