New Journal

I sold my last journal on Etsy and have been busy putting another one together. 

How my Journals evolve

It almost becomes an obsession, snipping fabric patches, matching colours, hand stitching and then finding papers with colours to compliment the fabrics. I usually spend a day just decorating the papers, this usually gives me enough pages for around four journals. I also make other pages from recycled books, hand made papers, cartridge or water colour papers that I've decorated, anything that might add interest. The journals seem to take on a mind of their own as I sew scraps shaped into trees or flowers. Old envelopes become backgrounds for my hand drawn graphics. Paint swatch names match colours and themes. Buttons adorn the pages, old dyed doilies become pages in their own right. Prints of my art are often stitched to fabric, broken jewellery may also find a place on a page, the layers just keep building up until they finally scream STOP .

The whole thing is then bound into a cover which I've also created from fabric or my hand made felt, they are then ready to go out into the world and take on someone else's creative process. 

Gosh I've rabbited on a bit.

this page is all hand stitched

hand dyed fabric, lace and doily.

decorated papers, hand drawn graphics on recycled envelopes

the cover in progress, the poppy seed head is sun printed and hand and machine stitched

the pages ready to be sewn into the cover when it's finished.

this journal will be a smaller one with a single signature

Again thanks for visiting and for your lovely comments. 

I now have a special Facebook page that shows my work HERE. I would really appreciate it

if you might check it out and tick 'like', it helps promote my work.

A big THANK YOU in anticipation. 

Wishing you all a

Wonderful Festive Season

and please take care.

New journal on Etsy

I've finally completed another journal which is now in my Etsy shop. This is slightly smaller dimension wise than my usual journals, hence the slightly cheaper price. It still has 120 pages in fabric and papers.
Following are just some of the pages.

the cover and spine

overall view

Thanks for visiting and for your encouragement re my up coming on-line workshop HERE

I hope all of your Christmas and Holiday plans are running smoothly. Back soon.

On-Line class 21 SECRETS 2013

I'm really happy to announce that I'll be teaching an on-line class in 2013 in Connie's fabulous 21 SECRETS art journaling workshop. It's a great honour to join such a wonderful group of other teachers on this amazing journey.

Registration opens soon but if you click HERE you'll be able to find out who the teachers are. The class details will be coming soon.

I'd love you to join me and the others on this wonderful venture.

Jewellery and journals

I've been busy adding some more things to my Etsy shop. Necklaces, felt brooches and another stamp. I'm also working on some smaller journals to add, hopefully by the weekend.

Our weather has been crazy of late, it reached 40deg C last Thursday, it's been 15deg C in the hills today with snow in the mountains, then it's going to be 37deg C on Saturday and 20deg C on Sunday, variety's certainly the spice of life, you have to be tough to live in Melbourne.

This necklace made from vintage fabric is in my Etsy now, it's so light to wear being fabric.

This one is in there too, it features hand drilled and eyeleted beach glass, it's very feminine.

Hand felted Lollipop tree brooch No. 1

Hand felted Lollipop tree brooch No 2

Hand felted Lollipop tree brooch No 3

These are all in my shop now.

I've also added another hand carved stamp

Above and below, fabric and paper pages waiting to be turned into smaller journals.

Thanks again for all of your lovely comments and for visiting my blog.

Happy creating.

Felting, dyeing, journal making

It's been an extremely busy November this year. I held my fabric journal workshop which was over two Saturdays. Prepared submissions for workshops next year at different venues. Had a day with Elizabeth felt making and another day with her visiting two lovely art and craft venues on the peninsula, as well as completing a journal commission that consisted of all fabric pages. The journal actually covered a series of events in someone's life. It was quite a challenge but one I enjoyed. In between all of that I managed to get a little more eco dyeing done, pushing colours to the limits again.
I even burnt some bundles in one pot after I let it boil dry. I had to peel the bundles off the bottom of the pot. Someone suggested I could turn the burnt spots into a feature, I'll have to see.

this is the wools, silks and fabrics ready for felting 

the finished piece, I think I'll add lots of stitching, it will probably end up as journal covers.

this is another piece waiting, you can just see a butterfly under the wool at the bottom

it became the covers for the commissioned journal, I hope to be able to show you more once the client has gifted it to a friend.

I still like the more subtle shades - this is a detail of the full piece below

The full length of the piece above

but when I achieve colour like this my heart sings

this is much more blue teal with lovely red splodges

this is also more intense than the photo shows

finally, one of the burnt offerings, the yellow is very intense as is the purple/pink

Thanks again for dropping buy and leaving your much appreciated comments. 

Eco-dyeing

Many, many moons ago I used to spin and dye my own wool with natural dyes, my aim was always to find the brightest colours possible. I've been a fan of India Flint over the past few years and have both of her books which I constantly read. Up until now I've never actually given it a go until Sunday, whenI discovered Jude, through Jacky. Jude lives all of ten minutes away from me. I joined Jacky, Dot and Nat in this fabulous process. I'm hooked, I feel like Jekyll and Hyde, I love all of the bright colours of India and Mexico, but am also rather partial to the more subdued colours of Japan and eco dyeing. Having said that I will really be pushing the natural colour range to the limits.

This is the result of my days work on beautiful old silk fabric.

not hard to guess which was my favourite dye bath - this was the purple cabbage

I also loved this one - Nat very generously brought along some fresh tumeric to share

some of the bundles after they were removed from the dye pots - ideally you would wait a few days to open them put patience isn't one of my virtues.

Jude and Nat in discussion

this is the remains of the cabbage providing a beautiful blue, jewelled hue in Jude's garden

my first unravelling

this is one of my favourite pieces

as is this, I wonder why - the lovely purple rings are from purple carrots that Nat very kindly shared with us.

surprisingly this is my favourite piece, I love the design that developed from an old rusty coil of Judes - the yellow is Nat's tumeric she shared with us.

Jude had some fabric we could use, this was a white top that I dyed in the tumeric bath. It's not very big but I'm going to remove the capped sleeves, open it up down the back and add a panel of dyed fabric, I also plan to add lots of stitching - one day.

I came home so inspired that I had to keep going, I produced this piece at home. I have a few more bundles waiting to be opened, I'm trying to be good and not peak.

I'm on a mission now, I collected flower heads from the garden and have frozen them ready to have a go at the ice-flower dyeing in India's book. I can see nothing will be safe in my garden now.

Thanks for visiting and all of your lovely comments.

I've also been felt making so will have photos in my next post.