Ro Bruhn Art

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2012-01-23T09:16:00.001+11:00

Our little art group, Jacky, Dot and Patsy had our get together on Saturday and had a wonderful time, talking, eating and journalling. We've been doing a book swap for sometime now and I've been working in Patsy's book. Here's the results below. The style was very influenced by the workshop I took with Flora Bowley.

This is how two of the pages started.

This was the end result. The camera reflected off the right hand page so you can't see all of the detail.

This was the second page, before

and after, I love this technique and am going to do Flora's on-line workshop too for more tips.

Thanks everyone for your lovely comments in my last post and also for visiting my guest post on Crescendoh blog.

Crescendoh Guest Curator

2012-01-17T23:42:00.000+11:00

I was very honoured some time back to be asked as a guest curator on Jenny Doh's Crescendoh blog under the title Art Saves. This is the week and there are also daily links to some of the blogs I frequent. Here's the link to the post and to today's links

The kitchen is progressing along nicely, I'll have some photos soon. I'll also have some more stamps on etsy by the end of the week.

I can't do a post without a photo so here's a piece of felt I made recently that will become two journal covers once I add some hand stitching.

This is the piece laid out before the felting process.

The finished piece awaiting some hand stitching.

Thanks for all the lovely comments about my journal in the last post, they are much appreciated.

It's now on its way to a new home in the US

New Journal

2012-01-13T15:37:00.001+11:00

The kitchen saga continues. We now have our fabulous oven installed, we have an electric oven with gas hotplates. I've never had gas before and was terrified the first time I used them, but I survived, I almost singed my eyebrows on the wok burner though, I think I could do some serious soldering with that flame.

Between building I've managed to finish my latest journal. I hope to have it in my Etsy store tomorrow. Here's a preview.

SOLD before being listed on Etsy - Thank you Deb

the cover

the spine

total view

following are just a few of the pages, there are lots of white watercolour pages for you to work on. They just have some of my stamps, painted and stamped across the bottom.

Hopefully if I'm not stuck to the wall or in a cupboard, this will be on Etsy tomorrow.

Happy new Year

2012-01-10T10:20:00.000+11:00

I'd like to wish everyone a Happy and Creative 2012. I can't believe it's the 10th already. Happy Birthday Patsy.

We are in chaos at home after deciding it was time to re vamp our kitchen. It's over thirty years old and we now have, (or I should say had, I don't have any at the moment), one hot plate that worked correctly, the other three only worked when they felt like it. We went out and bought a beautiful new Smeg oven with six hotplates which required more room. Two cupboards had to be removed to make way for it, one think led to another and we now have new sinks, stone bench tops and new oak cupboards on order. The intention is we'll have the whole thing completed by the end of the month, famous last words. I'll keep you posted.

In the mean time I've been doing a bit of this

watercolour painting in one of my many journals

and this

another journal in progress for my Etsy store

and some components for a new necklace.

Happy creating.

White Christmas!

2011-12-27T23:13:00.000+11:00

We spent Christmas day with family at my sister and her husband's home in Eltham. They say be careful what you wish for, and ever since I left England as a child, I've longed for a white Christmas. Well it happened this year. We were all sitting outside enjoying a balmy 30 deg C afternoon, all very sleepy after over indulging on the traditional Christmas lunch, when we felt a few spots of rain. Everywhere became very steamy with the heat. Then it happened, the skies opened and we received the biggest deluge of hail that I've ever seen, some pieces the size and shape of lemons. Needless to say we all dashed inside and viewed the show from the windows. The outcome, all the skylights in my sister's house were broken as well as a large window. Our cars in the driveway all ended up damaged with craters all over the roofs, sides and bonnets. Their garden and trees were torn to shreds, and we were the lucky ones. They live on five sloping acres and the dam at the bottom of their land just couldn't cope with the amount of water, it burst it's banks and just kept going. There has been such widespread devastation in the area.
Our house was lucky this time, (we lost our roof and skylights in a similar storm last year), the storm followed a narrow path that didn't go over our area.

Looking out of the living room window you can see the size of the hail.

It suddenly gathered speed and pelted down.

Looking down their property to their dam, every where is white.

The hail was so forceful it striped the leaves off the gum trees, paint off the hand rails and put holes right through the plastic chairs. It's amazing the damage that can be caused, it only took 15 minutes to reek all of the havoc.

I hope you all had an uneventful time and that you have a great New Year.

Happy Festive Season and Thank You

2011-12-22T23:10:00.000+11:00

I'd like to wish everyone a Happy Christmas or whatever else it is that you might be celebrating. Thank you so much for visiting my blog over the past twelve months, and a big thank you to those who leave comments, and for supporting my Etsy and workshops. I feel I know so many more like minded people than I thought was possible since starting my blog back in 2006. I hope to start some on-line workshops next year, once I sort out what to do.

From our place to yours have a wonderful, safe holiday break and an even more creative 2012

This swag hangs above the fire place

Our Christmas tree, the flash makes everything look so bright but in reality it's more like the photo below.

More of the swag

My work room table after my two little artists came to play.

Another shot of the chaos that hangs from my studio ceiling.

Guess what! More fabric pages for another journal.

And a few more, I try to work on two journals at a time.

These are some papers I've decorated ready to go into the journals.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE

Latest necklace

2011-12-19T10:52:00.000+11:00

This is my last necklace to go on Etsy until I find time to make some more. this one features a beach theme.

This is the necklace, there are lots of semi precious stone beads in this. It has a lovely delicate aqua look to it.

A piece of my hand wired sea glass and a repurposed earring.

One of my fabric beads, a game piece and a vintage mother of pearl fish.

A lovely glass bead and the game piece.

An overall view.

Thank you for all of your lovely comments on my last post. I'm so happy one of the pieces has sold already.

Thanks everyone for your continued support, I really do appreciate you taking the time to check out my blog and Etsy.

Jewellery for a change

2011-12-18T00:11:00.002+11:00

I've finally got around to finishing some jewellery and adding it to my Etsy store. These pieces are all one of kind, I never make two the same. The fabric beads are all made by me as are the soldered pieces of china. I've also made the components that make up the pieces. The lengths can be adjusted by putting the hand made hook into any of the loops on the chain, making the pieces very versatile.

The finished necklace. SOLD

a vintage brass boot charm that was a very old button, an opening brass locket and a lovely old amber coloured globe that I've wired with brass wire.

the locket closed

repurposed jewellery

repurposed jewellery, a very old army brass button, a vintage blue button and a very old bead from Africa

SOLD - Thank you

This is another necklace, it can be worn long or shortened by putting the hook into any of the chain links.

the brass circle swivels and is from a lamp fitting, the main bead is ceramic

I've soldered a piece of china and drilled a hole then added an eyelet, I've done the same for the beach glass.

this necklace also features one of my hand made fabric beads

the five drops of the necklace, it's very comfortable and easy to wear

This is the third necklace, again it can be worn long or shortened by putting the hand wired hook into one of the links of the chain.

I used a brass keyhole plate for the main feature, it has mica in the actual key hole to protect the art deco flower graphic, which is glued to the inside of the copper back of the piece

This shows the oxidized copper back that has been riveted to the brass front piece. There are brass spacers to separate the two pieces of metal.

another soldered piece of china, a very old key, a vintage button and one of my hand made fabric beads.

You can just see the brass spacers in this view. There are also semi precious stones, crystal beads and a very old African bead.

I have one more to be added to my Etsy tomorrow.

Another journal

2011-12-10T23:30:00.003+11:00

I've had a few people contact me re my journals mentioning that the journals sell before they get to check them out. I think it's great that they sell fairly quickly and I really appreciate my valued customers. This time I've decided to show photos of the journal before I put it in my Etsy store, that way people can check it out first. I will be posting this one in my Etsy store tomorrow night Australian time. Below are just a few of the pages and details.

SOLD before going to Etsy

The journal measures 150mm or 6 inches x 220mm or 8 and 1/2 inches.

There are 128 paper pages, 16 fabric pages and dyed doilies and lace pages, this includes both sides.

There are blank white pages with my hand carved stamp borders, my decorated papers and a couple of papers made and printed in India. Many of the fabrics are my hand dyed and printed ones.

Thanks so much for your wonderful comments in previous posts and for supporting my work, it's much appreciated.

In my studio

2011-12-08T23:28:00.000+11:00

I decided to get with the Christmas cheer and added a few decorations to my studio, I have so much 'stuff' in my studio that they almost get lost, but it's lovely to enter into my magical world each day.

This is one of my work spaces. I've almost completed another journal to go in my Etsy store over the weekend. That's the cover and the pages stacked ready to be sewn in.

A close up of the journal.

The cover, I used my hand dyed thread for stitching around the edges.

This candle has been burning on and off for days giving off a beautiful spicy fragrance.

Jacky made the round, red printed bird and the pine cone tree my grandson made for me

four Christmases ago, I love it.

I made a tree from a bamboo twig, the tinsel bird was made by Dot.

I have a passion for paper tapes. The fabric medical tape pattern was made by rolling the tape over one of my hand carved stamps.

I've also been dying fabric and decided to try out some buttons and beads. This is the before.

And this is the after, I'm amazed how the very cheap 'pearl' beads took the colour so well.

The purple looks great on the brown buttons now too.

Flora - on line

2011-12-02T09:29:00.000+11:00

I did a wonderful workshop with Flora Bowley when she came to Australia earlier this year. It was so inspiring and Flora is a fabulous person and teacher, so giving of her techniques and time. Flora's workshops are so freeing and really help loosen up your style. My whole way of painting has now been so positively influenced by Flora's workshop.
For those of you, anywhere in the world, who would love to take her class, you can now do so as Flora has set up what looks to be a tremendous on-line workshop starting in February. Registration is now open so you can find all of the details HERE

Photos of Flora and her work.

Words on Etsy

2011-11-30T22:52:00.000+11:00

I'm often asked how I create the stitched words that I add to my journal pages. They're free motion machine stitched, which isn't that easy unless you have the right foot for your machine and can hold the fabric steady while feeding it into the machine. I decided to make up packs of five random words and have added them to my Etsy store.

The words are stitched to double thickness off white calico, I think you call it muslin in the US.

Each pack contains five randomly selected words unless specifically requested.

This is how I use them in my journals. They can form the theme for a page or be added after the page is completed.

They can also be added to art quilts, clothing, used in fabric jewellery making or collages.

It's up to your imagination.

Art is You Retreat

2011-11-23T20:32:00.001+11:00

I'll be teaching a two day journal workshop and a one day necklace workshop at the fabulous Art is You Retreat in Sydney next March 2012. There will be twelve teachers with a vast array of subjects they're teaching. It would be great if you could join us. This retreat is so popular all over in the US and now it's coming to Australia, with Aussie teachers. Check out the website for details.

The teachers and organisers.

Some of the papers we will be making.

The journal will be similar to this one.

Typical fabric pages, I'm working on the sample at present and will show it as soon as it's completed.

This is the necklace.

Would love to see you there.

Pages and packs

2011-11-16T22:28:00.000+11:00

We had our sketching group today and had a lovely visitor, Beverley, from Canada. Beverley's visiting her family in South Australia, she reads my blog and emailed me asking if I was holding any workshops this week as she would be in Melbourne. Her visit coincided with our sketching group so she came along. We all had a lovely time chatting and did get a little sketching done. Unfortunately I forgot to take photos amidst all of the talking. I've extended the group to cover mixed media and collage now too so it's a little more versatile.

Thank you for all of the lovely comments on my last post. I'm sorry I haven't been able to get around to everyone, but your comments are much appreciated.

I've been busy making some fabric pages for my next journal for Etsy. Elizabeth came for a play day a couple of weeks ago and suggested I might speed up the process by spending a whole day sorting out the fabrics, wools, silks, buttons etc for prospective pages, rather than selecting things as I go. I loved this idea and became so engrossed I ended up with twelve packs. I'm now thinking I might start selling some packs in my Etsy store.

Above are some of the pages for my next journal.

Above, these are just a few of the fabric packs I've put together to make my next pages. I still have to add buttons to some of them.

Be back with more show and tell shortly.

New Journal on Etsy

2011-11-07T17:51:00.003+11:00

I've just listed a new journal on Etsy. This one features some white pages with my hand carved stamps decorating the base of the pages to avoid the blank page syndrome. There are two signatures with lots of fabric pages and my decorated paper pages. I've also added some brown paper pages and created original graphic drawings with markers.

SOLD

The cover and beaded spine

Fabric page on the left, brown paper page on the right with original graphics

Stamped white page, hand dyed doily and a decorated paper page

Decorated fabric pages with free motion stitch words. The flower on the right is made from a plastic paint palette.

Just a few more of the pages above.

I received this fabulous package today from Angela at Fenland Textile Studio

we did a swap, I sent Angela some of my sun printed fabrics.

These are some of Angela's beautiful daffodil printed fabrics, they are divine in the flesh. I intend to use them in a journal I will keep, as the daffodils are from where I used to live in England as a child.

There's also a lovely fabric brooch and buttons too.

On Saturday Patsy, Jacky, Dot and I got together and made some foam stamps and did some printing, we didn't start until the afternoon there was so much talking and show and tell in the morning we had a late start. Even so the ladies produced some wonderful stamps and printing, here's just a few.

Jacky's gorgeous design

Patsy's

and Dot's

great work girls.

More of where we've been

2011-11-03T21:42:00.000+11:00

One of the places not very far from where we stayed is the picturesque port of Eden. It's a fishing town with many fishing boats and a whale festival. We spent a day there taking lots of photos and exploring.

I love the fishing nets with their great colours and textures.

There's a whole area where the nets are spread out, not sure if it's to dry or they've been abandoned.

I loved this below, it looks like an enormous necklace. The circles are old car tyres cut into circles with holes in the middle.

The fishing crates too made for very interesting colour and texture.

I couldn't resist collecting some of the flattened, beautifully coloured pieces of rope on the ground, they will end up in a journal or collage.

A friendly seal visits the harbour.

Where we stayed there were some magnificent bougainvilleas growing, with the most beautiful magenta and orange flowers, well they're the leaves actually, the flowers are the tiny white centres. I couldn't resist trying some echo printing India Flint style, only I didn't take her book with me, so I was working from memory. I bundled and steamed the 'leaves' then left them to dry a couple of days, I know I must have missed a vital part of the process as the colours blurred rather than printed, now I'm home I'll read what I should have done.

The bundles.

The results, not very exciting but they can still be worked with.

Finally, I completed another journal while I was away so I hope to have it on my Etsy over the weekend.

More pictures of it in the next post.

Thanks for all of your lovely comments in the last post.

Where we've been

2011-11-01T20:40:00.000+11:00

We've had a wonderful ten days staying at the 'beach house one' Tura Beach near Merimbula. If you check out their web site you'll see more photos, the car in the driveway on their web site is mine, my DH took the photos and sent them to the owner last time we visited and they put some of them on their blog.

It was lovely to wake up to the sea view every morning and to watch the whales on their journey south.

This was one of our favourite cafes in Merimbula.

Below are photos of the boardwalk, we walked this everyday, 3.75 kms there and back.

I sketched most days, on our walks and in cafes. Below caught in action.

These beautiful little blue crabs come out, in their hundreds, for about an hour each day when the tide's out. They're only seen in a very small part along the boardwalk.

These baby swallows were also out for their first big adventure, only just being able to fly.

We also had this delightful couple visit regularly through the day at the house.

The beach is just the other side of the gate in the photo.

We visited Central Tilba which is a very old historical village. The shops are all occupied by artists of various kinds. I found a shop that was right up my alley with lots of great clothes from Nepal. I've never really got over my hippy days. The owner also makes silver jewellery.

I bought this T shirt and jacket in there, purple of course.

Beach combing was also a daily event, although this day was quite misty.

Published and workshop

2011-10-21T12:30:00.001+11:00

I've been very lucky to again have my work published. This time in Cloth Paper Scissors Gifts magazine.
My fabric cards like the one below are the subject. I'd like to thank CPS again for their smooth publishing operation, it's a pleasure to work with them. They deserve every success.

one of the cards published

I had a wonderful group of students attend my 'Flour Resist' workshop on Saturday, unfortunately my photos didn't all turn out, I left it a bit late in the day and the light washed out the others taken inside.

Raylene and Marthe were also there but not in the photo.

The above are just a few examples of their great work in progress.

These are just a few that I created using the left over flour mix after the workshop.

I had to show you this brilliant work of art. Raylene is hiding behind the frame of the work she created from her piece of 'painting in the round'. It's very purple and Raylene has made some beautiful pottery green leaves which she added to the canvas, she's also added some beautiful beads as stems and highlights. This is just one example of what can be created from this type of workshop.

More in the round

2011-10-12T21:52:00.000+11:00

We had our workshop 'Painting in the Round' last weekend at Patsy's house. We painted up a storm working on this huge piece of canvas. These are the results. I'm annoyed I didn't get photos of all of the results. We ended up taking them home to continue working.

The canvas in progress

the finished piece

Patsy working on her piece

my piece in progress.

I would never describe my work as pretty, so these laces and ribbons just didn't do anything for me

UNTIL.....

they went in my dye baths and ended up like this

the same with these fabrics, they ended up in the pots too

to produce this

and this.

If you would like to see Margaret's finished coat from our repurposed clothing workshop, hop over to her blog here, she has some great journal pages too.

A bit of this and that

2011-10-04T22:22:00.000+11:00

I seem to have been doing a bit of everything this week. I went and had a play day with Elizabeth last Friday, and that's always very inspiring. I've been embellishing and stitching felt, over dyeing and then decorating fabric, making the cover for my junk journal commission, working on jewellery for my etsy and getting fabrics and flyers ready for a 'Flour resist on fabric' workshop at home on the 15th of October.

This is the felt piece, I'm going to make it into a bag.

Close up detail.

This is the junk journal cover, I just have to stitch the signatures in now.

These were very plain fabric swatches, I dyed them and then added my own graphics with markers. I love doing this and was inspired by Alisa Burke.

This is a necklace I've just completed, it will be on my Etsy once I take some better photos.

This is another one that's not quite finished yet, it's very vintage for me.

These are photos of fabric samples I've made for my 'Flour Resist on Fabric' workshop I'll be running from home on Saturday October the 15th, if you would like to attend please email me for details.

Patsy and I will also be running a workshop this coming Saturday the 8th at the Beaumaris Art Group studios. It's painting in the round, where we all end up with a piece of canvas that we can frame, make into a bag or use to cover a chair, whatever your imagination aspires too.

There are still some vacancies so if you would like more information please contact Beaumaris Art Group via their web site link above.

More stamps

2011-09-28T21:32:00.000+10:00

Wow, I can't believe how fast my stamps sold, thank you everyone who bought them and for all of the kind comments too. I have a few more that I've just added to my Etsy

Olley owl

pear stamp - this is the reverse of one I made previously

another poppy seed head

another simple folk stamp

Stamps and re-purposed clothing workshop

2011-09-27T17:19:00.002+10:00

I carved these stamps a couple of weeks ago but have only managed to get them into my Etsy store today.

these are Honesty seeds - SOLD

a poppy seed head - SOLD

seed pods - SOLD

smiley critter

another poppy seed head - SOLD

Patsy and I held our first repurposed clothing workshop last week. It was great fun, very inspiring and amazing to see what other people create with similar garments. We only work with two students at a time which means they get at least one garment finished.

From this

to this - Maha wearing her almost completed coat

and this - the back view of Marg's coat

the front of Marg's coat

Patsy stitching up a storm.

Thanks everyone for all of your lovely comments re my stacks, I haven't managed to get around to everyone.

Stacks

2011-09-21T22:55:00.000+10:00

Over at The Altered Page blog Seth has a new challenge. Called The Paper Stack project, the idea is for people to post photos of their stacks of paper or whatever and then link it back to Seth. He will have a list on his blog of all of the participants so you will get chance to visit stacks and stacks of stacks.

Here are a few of mine.

stack of decorated papers

stack of journals

stack of sun printed fabrics

stack of dyed fabrics

stack of foam printing plates

stack of rag rugs waiting to be made into two larger rugs

stack of painted canvases

stack of jars of paints

finally a stack of jump rings.

My next post will show the results of today's Repurposed Clothing workshop Patsy and I held, it was fabulous.

Thanks again for visiting and a big thank you to those who leave a comment.

Fabulous book and junk journal

2011-09-16T10:18:00.000+10:00

A friend of mine gave me a copy of her fabulous book that she has had published, it's beautiful. Sabine has created this wonderful picture and story book. It features lots of Sabine's digital art and gorgeous graphics. The story is about the tales of everyday happenings of humans as overheard and told through the eyes of Frederic and Kate, a cat and mouse. It's called 'The Artful Correspondence of Frederic and Kate' and would make a great gift for young and old. If you check this site you'll get the best price for your region.

The above are just a small selection of the pages from the book, all of the pages are beautifully decorated and have so much detail you can spend hours taking it all in.

I'm also working on a commission that I've had for awhile now, it's a junk journal and I've loved creating the pages. It only needs it's cover now which I will be working on next week.

Just a random selection of the pages in the journal, there are lots more.

Going round in circles on my own

2011-09-07T22:15:00.000+10:00

I've had this HUGE cream curtain stashed away and re discovered it when I had a clean up to get ready for the new doorway into my studio. I now have the doorway but no door as yet, so I decided I'd paint the cream curtain and that will suffice for the time being. I only had my little apprentice to help and she couldn't stay very long so I ended up 'painting in the round' on my own. I still have more graphics to add but it's getting there.

As you can see it really is huge, it hangs right down to the floor on both sides of the table.

Progressing.

The start of the doodles.

This is where my new door way's going.

And this is it, looking into my studio, the curtain will hang here until I get the door.

This is inside my studio looking through to my workroom where I hold my workshops.

It's made such a difference, it was definitely worth all of the dust, dust and more dust (I began to wonder at the time though).

These lovely ladies were the first to see it. This was another great group making and using the foam printing plates they made. Thanks Deb, Kaye, Maha and Marg for another terrific day.

Patsy's Exhibition

2011-09-01T21:40:00.003+10:00

My friend Patsy Worledge is holding a solo exhibition at Beaumaris Art Group Studios, Reserve Road Beaumaris, over the next three weekends.
The opening is tomorrow night, Friday the 2nd September, between 6.00pm and 9.00pm, it's being opened by Beverley Dunn a fabulous Aussie actress. Feel free to drop in tomorrow night or over the next three weekends, between 11.00am and 4.00pm, Patsy would love to see you, she's such an inspiring artist. Patsy will also be teaching here next March too.

I helped her set up the exhibition today and took some photos of her amazing work, she's so prolific.

The lady herself.

Some of her paintings, rickety stitching and bags.

More works of art.

Just a small selection of Patsy's bags, she has nineteen altogether.

This is one of her coats she made from recycled clothing. Patsy and I will be teaching classes for recycled clothing later this month. If you're interested in attending a workshop please email me for details.

A beautiful painting, so much to see in the many layers.

Another one of Patsy's beautiful rickety stitching quilts.

A close up detail of another quilt.

Next post I will definitely show you pictures of my new doorway.

Journal has a new home

2011-08-29T22:22:00.001+10:00

The journal I've been making, my largest ever, is now in it's new home. I enjoyed ever minute of the process and am soon about to start some smaller ones for my etsy, first though I have to complete another order for a junk journal, it's all assembled, just waiting for it's covers. I'll post photos when it's complete. Here's some more shots of the 'big' journal.

This is the cover and spine.

I created a pocket inside the cover with a piece of embellished felt, I then added one of my owls.

These pages are similar to what I will be teaching in Sydney next year, see here.

As are these.

and these.

I also have a workshop coming up at home this weekend. I will be teaching the foam printing plates again. We will be printing on tissue paper and also on fabric. I made some more foam plates and did some fabric printing on calico with them. There are still a couple of vacancies if anyone wishes to attend, just email me for details.

Foam printing plates.

Printing onto fabric.

Next time I hope to have some photos on my new entrance into my studio. I can now access my studio from my work room where I teach my classes. All of the students who attend my classes at home know how I've been hanging out for a doorway to connect the two rooms. Previously I had to go up and down stairs to get from one to the other.

Collage Cards on Etsy

2011-08-23T13:13:00.000+10:00

I had a rotten throat bug last week that left me without my voice for a few days, not that it mattered, when I work from home I don't get to speak to many people during the day. I was confined to the house, very lethargic, so didn't get an awful lot done. I'm back in action again now so have made some more collage cards for my Etsy. These cards can also be mounted and framed.

Card 1.

Detail of card 1.

Card 2

Detail of card 2.

I will have more listed as they become available.

I also photographed this beautiful detail in a window a couple of weeks ago. I love how it looks like a piece of decorated or printed paper.

Decorated papers and collage kits

2011-08-09T23:50:00.000+10:00

I've been busy decorating more papers for journal making and decided to add some to my Etsy. They are decorated on both sides so are ideal for journal making. They are the same papers that I use in all of my journals, including the one in Cloth Paper Scissors.
I've also added some collage/mixed media kits. These consist of a selection of my papers used to demonstrate techniques in class. Some are gelatin prints on tissue, papers from my decorated papers workshops, some of my foam printed tissue paper and scraps of fabric papers, a mixed bag of a variety of styles and colours.

The above two images show one pack of decorated papers, 10 sheets per pack.

This shows both sides of the papers.

Theses two photos are pack two.

The above four photos show the selections of papers in the collage kits.

Off to bed now then sketching class tomorrow. Loving life and art.

Hand carved stamps

2011-08-01T21:49:00.002+10:00

I've been carving up a storm recently making stamps. I've added these to my Etsy .

SOLD

If you're looking for more great things on etsy you should visit this site for these gorgeous, character filled cuddly mascots, one watches over me everyday as I work in my studio. They're delightful.

Finally, on a sad note, one of Australia's finest icons passed away last week. She was an inspiration to us all. Margaret Olley, a magnificent artist died in her sleep at 88, she was painting right up until her death, what a life.

At work in her 'studio' which was her whole house. What a lady.

Printing workshop

2011-07-26T09:29:00.000+10:00

I held a printing workshop last Saturday with another fabulous group of students. There was lots of laughs and great productivity. We made foam printing plates which were then used to print various weights of paper.

These are some of the plates I made for the demo.

This is one I made after the workshop, still in it's pristine state.

These are a selection of papers waiting to have more paint added.

The plate is not so pristine now, this is a print taken from it.

These were printed onto tissue paper and given a final colour wash.

These are the wonderful students.

I always seem to be wearing black or purple, can't seem to get away from it.

Biggest journal yet

2011-07-19T15:43:00.000+10:00

I've been busy assembling and working on the cover of my biggest journal ever. This is a commission that I've been working on for quite a few months. Just as I think I might have finished I find something else to add. Hopefully it will all be completed by next week.

These are some of the pages.

Another side view.

This is the cover. I'll have more photos when it's all complete.

I've also been making felt, it will have lots of stitching added to it.

A close up of the circles.

Now back to my journal. Thanks for visiting.

New paintings on Etsy

2011-07-04T13:32:00.001+10:00

I've added some new small paintings to my Etsy store. I also added a journal but it sold straight away, which was wonderful, it's now winging it's way to the UK along with some sun printed fabrics.

This one's acrylic on canvas and is 8" x 8"

I always like to continue the painting around the four sides.

The Lollipop tree series are acrylic on 5" x 5" canvas. This is number 1.

Again I continued the painting around the four sides. These can be hung or stand on a shelf.

No 2

side view

No 3

side view

Thanks again for all of your lovely comments in my previous post too.

I'm still trying to find the floor in my studio after the past few hectic weeks.

Cloth Paper Scissors

2011-07-01T20:55:00.002+10:00

With all of the excitement of the exhibition, I didn't find time to thank all of the wonderful staff at Cloth Paper Scissors, especially Jenn Mason, Barb Delaney and Sally Murray. They published six pages of a journal I created for their CPS fabric special - the July August edition. They were wonderful to work with, a very competent team. It was a thrill to receive CPS in the mail along with the return of my book this week.

This is the July/August issue.

This is the cover of the journal.

This shows how thick it is.

This is the spine.

Two more of the fabric pages.

And a couple more.

I've decided to keep this journal as I don't have one for myself. I'll be adding a smaller one to my Etsy along with some other things over the weekend. It needs restocking and I have quite a few things to add, I just have to find the time.

Thank you to everyone once again for your support in commenting on having seen my journal in the magazine, it's nice to know people appreciate what I do.

I'll be teaching a two day workshop making a similar journal to this one in March 2012 at the

Art is You Retreat in Sydney.

I'll also be teaching a one day workshop making a smaller decorated paper journal in April 2012 at Queen of Hearts Retreat in Melbourne

The birds have landed

2011-06-28T23:42:00.002+10:00

What a whirlwind of a weekend we had for our "Five take flight exhibition". It came and went so quickly but we all had a fabulous time, lots of artwork sold and we met some wonderful people, some we knew, some who just happened by. It was a kaleidoscope of colour with such a variety of art work.

Our wonderful actress Beverley Dunn, opened the exhibition for us on the Friday night, not sure where Jacky was, she missed this photo.

Here we all are together in front of Patsy's painting.

Julia, Patsy, Dot, Jacky and me

Before everyone arrived

Looking down the room.

Another view

Patsy and I made coats to wear for the opening night from some old garments.

They were a big hit and now we have people enrolling to take classes to learn how to make them.

This was mine, purple and blue of course.

Finally guess who sold her painting?

I decided to hang my little art critic's painting just to give her a surprise when she came to the exhibition,

and she sold it, she was over the moon.

Thank you for all of your wonderful comments over the last few posts for my art in the build up to the exhibition. I've been so busy I haven't had time to reply to you all, your comments are very much appreciated. I'd also like to thank all of the people who took time to visit our exhibition, especially the ones who travelled so far, some being fellow bloggers, it was wonderful to meet you all.

Not long to go now

2011-06-23T09:03:00.001+10:00

As we Aussies say 'I've been flat out like a lizard drinking' getting ready for our exhibition which opens tomorrow night. I've been working on lots of paintings and today is the day for the 'hanging'. Below are some I've been working on.

This is one I started, I turned it upside down

and it ended up like this.

This one went from this

to this

and ended up as this

and this one knew what it was going to be all along. This is my usual style and is far less traumatic, I know where I'm going with these.

I'll also have lots of jewellery in the exhibition too.

Can't see the forest for the Lollipop trees

2011-06-06T21:22:00.000+10:00

Still working like crazy creating and completing projects for the exhibition. I've been making brooches from embellished felt and guess what shape they turned out. I can't seem to get away from my lollipop trees, they've been with me for a few years now and they seem as if they will continue for awhile yet. They are popping up everywhere in my exhibition work.

I still have lots of hand stitching to add to them now. I hope to be adding some to my Etsy soon too.

Jacky and Patsy came to paint the other day, we are painting cylinders to place in the foyer of the exhibition space. Jacky's is fabulous, my photo doesn't do it justice, too much light.

It's not hard to guess who painted this one - the photos above show both sides.

I'm also making fabric collages from my hand dyed, sun printed fabrics then machine stitching around the main subject and machine stitching the writing. I've hand stitched all of the layers, these are then going to have a mount and be framed. I hope to do a series of these including the poppy seed heads and pomegranates.

Thanks again to everyone in the previous post for your lovely comments and words of encouragement, better get back to creating my forest.

Paintings and published

2011-05-28T12:39:00.000+10:00

I'm very excited to have had one of my pieces of plaster work published in Judy Wise and Stephanie Lee's new book Plaster Studio. They are also running a fabulous online workshop using some of the techniques in the book, hop on over to either of their blogs to check it out.

This is my piece, a plaster book cover showing my abstract pomegranates.

This is the fabulous book, it is so full of techniques and projects.

I've also been busy painting for our upcoming exhibition. This is a painting I started in Flora Bowley's workshop. I finally finished it, it just needs a top coat of varnish and hangers on the back.

This is an earlier shot of the painting.

This is the finished painting named 'sheep at the waterhole'.

This is another canvas I completed this week too.

Another canvas in progress.

and finally I wish I could draw like this. My darling little mermaid princess, spent her fifth birthday painting with Ro Ro. Don't you just love her cat. I'm contemplating using it to make a stuffed toy for her.

Art Heals

2011-05-20T12:09:00.000+10:00

It's amazing how a day back in the studio can have such a healing process, I really would be lost without my art. We're slowly coming to terms about the loss of Dad, he's with Mum now which is a consolation.

I'd like to thank everyone for all of your kind words and comments, there just aren't enough hours in the day to get around to thanking you all personally, but I really do appreciate your kind thoughts.

I've been working on art for our upcoming exhibition 'Five Take Flight' at the end of June. If you're able to come we'd love to see you.

Following are just some of the pieces that I will have in the exhibition.

This is a small 5" x 5" box canvas that I've painted then applied stitching with my hand dyed threads.

This is another 5" x 5" boxed canvas with stitching.

I always like to continue the design around the sides of the canvas.

I'm also creating a series of collage and stitched owls on painted 5" x 5" canvases. This owl still has to be stitched to the canvas. It's only glued at this stage.

This is a felted and stitched piece that I created using my embellishing machine. This will be stitched onto a painted canvas backing. I still have lots more decorative stitching to add to the piece.

Sad, Sad day

2011-05-10T12:06:00.000+10:00

It's amazing the difference a week makes. This time last week my sister took Dad to get a new pair of glasses. Wednesday he had a seizure and broke his wrist as he fell. He was rushed to hospital and put on all sorts of emergency equipment, his condition slowly deteriorated with him developing pneumonia. He passed away last night at 8.30pm. We were all by his side and hope now that he's peacefully resting beside Mum. He'd lived a good life and didn't suffer too long at the end, reaching the age of 89, I suppose that's all we can ask for, we'll still miss him dearly though.

Happy Days

2011-05-03T22:28:00.000+10:00

I love the fact now that I can get up every morning and head down stairs to my studio and not have to face the constant stream of traffic to drive to work, as I have for the past twenty years, it's bliss. Every day brings a new excitement, working on commissions, getting ready for our exhibition and creating new ideas and projects for teaching. I love it. I also have regular visits from my little art critic who joins me in the studio, she's now decided she wants to be an artist like Ro Ro when she grows up.

These are two pages from the commissioned journal. I used my embellishing machine and some hand stitching.

This piece was all hand stitched using my dyed fabrics, it will be stitched on to a painted canvas.

I taught a necklace workshop at home last Saturday, see previous post, I had six lovely students who all went home with completed necklaces. I forgot to take photos but Sabine sent me a photo of hers, it's magnificent. Sabine makes wonderful polymer clay beads and she added clay discs to the chains.

We had breakfast in one of our favourite cafes over the Easter break. I can never resist sketching while we have our coffee. This is a small section of a magnificent iron grill that sits in one of the many feature cut outs in the walls.

This is the grill, I see a stamp coming on.

This is another view inside the cafe, they also sell flowers.

After breakfast we walked along one of our favourite beaches, the bathing boxes always add some sunshine to an overcast day.

Back to the studio for more experiments, thanks for dropping by, it's much appreciated.

Necklace Workshop

2011-04-22T18:08:00.000+10:00

Just dropping by to let you know I still have two vacancies in my upcoming 'Felt necklace' workshop on Saturday the 30th of April. If you're able to attend just email me for details. Here's photos of the type of necklace we will be making. The class will cover making the felted piece, the fabric beads and making your own wire hook and clasp.

Have a lovely Easter break.

What I've been up to

2011-04-14T20:49:00.000+10:00

It seems ages since I did a blog post. I've been going in so many directions. I've almost completed my journal commissions, I held a sketching class yesterday and have another one on Saturday. I've been working on my Flora paintings and creating lots of work for an exhibition I have coming up in June. I thought I'd better show you some of the things just so that you can see I haven't been slacking off.

I spent a day with Elizabeth last week before she heads over to the UK. She showed me how to make these gorgeous liquorice all sorts, they also remind me of Blackpool rock from my childhood in England.

This is how I've used some of them. This is a stitched piece that will be mounted onto a canvas.

This is another hand stitched piece made from my hand dyed fabrics and hand dyed threads.

This journal cover is also made from some of my dyed fabrics.

One of my Flora paintings

turned into this. I still haven't quite finished it yet.

A very small section of some of my sketchbooks used to demo in class.

Some of my sun printed fabrics

and hand dyed fabrics and laces that I have for sale in my little 'studio shop' during workshops.

Now back to the journals and liquorice all sorts.

Flora Bowley

2011-03-28T22:00:00.001+11:00

What a fabulous teacher, fabulous artist and a fabulous group of people. Can you tell I had a fabulous time in Flora Bowley's painting workshop over the weekend. I could only attend the first day but still had a wonderful day. Flora is so open and generous with her techniques. I learned a whole new way to free up in my painting. There was an expectant air when we first started the class but by lunch time we were all in the swing. I met some lovely fellow artists and it was great to meet a lovely lady from north of our state who reads my blog. These events really do bring like minded people together. I have to thank Julia for having the courage to organize such an event, she did a great job.

This was the very start of my first canvas, I loved it like this, but this was the first of many layers.

The second canvas up to layer three.

This was the last layer I did in the class on the previous painting. I still have a few more layers to go.

This is the last layer of the first painting, still not quite sure how many more layers will be needed to complete it.

Flora demonstrating on her painting.

Some of the other students fabulous work, everyone was different.

After the class Patsy, Julia and I went out to dinner with Flora, we had a lovely meal and it was great to get to know a little more about Flora too.

Patsy, Flora and Julia.

Patsy, Flora and me.

Dyeing up a storm

2011-03-25T19:00:00.000+11:00

I've got the dyeing bug at present, anything and everything is fair game. I've been over dyeing fabrics I don't like, old cloth doilies, small sample swatches, silk, muslin, cotton, lace, embroidery thread, trims, if it's white it ends up in the dye pot. I have a beautiful golden yellow on the line and soon there will be fuchsia hanging out with it.
I use these fabrics and laces in my journals. Best of all I love looking at them all grouped together.

This is what they looked like before I did some serious sorting.

Some colour combinations.

Carefully stacked.

Some of the blue/teal range.

Love this vibrant orange, sorry to all of you vintage ladies, if this is offensive to your eyes.

Gorgeous purple.

I'm not a huge green fan so I mixed the teal and yellow together to get the lime.

Finally the vibrant red.

The remaining colours are on the line, I hope they end up as colourful.

Painting in the round

2011-03-23T21:24:00.000+11:00

At our Altered books and beyond get together last Thursday night we decided to do a Painting in the round session, that's what I call it anyway. We had this huge piece of canvas and then the eleven of us walked around the table armed with paint and brushes and just kept walking and painting.

Doing the rounds.

Almost ready to cut up.

My piece after I'd done some work on it.

My finished piece. I'm thinking of turning it into a HUGE holder for all of my markers and pens.

I've spent the last two days dying lots and lots of fabric and lace, I'll have pictures in the next post.

Paintings plus

2011-03-14T21:32:00.001+11:00

I've been working on new paintings as well as journals, the paintings are for our upcoming exhibition in June, the journals are the commissions I'm working on, they take sooooo long.

This is an 8" x 8" canvas painted with acrylics. I've started painting in my graphicy style again.

This painting's much larger, 20" x 24", and it's not quite finished yet. It's at the 'sitting' stage where I keep walking past it waiting for it to tell me what to do next.

I love the colour schemes in both of these and I'm looking forward to starting another one soon.

I made these owls for the rest of the 'five take flight' group when we had our art get together recently. These are made using my fabric paper as the backgrounds, then layered and stitched with fabrics, sequin waste and beads for eyes. The hangers are sari silks wired with beads and a hand made ring at the top.

These were gorgeous chandeliers in the restaurant where our group, Patsy, Jacky, Dot, Julia and I, met for lunch just over a week ago Julia has more photos on her blog.

We had a fabulous time sharing our show and tell, the food was divine too.

This was part of the garden at the restaurant, there are many rooms inside and lots of garden rooms outside. You could be in Asia, Italy and almost Mexico all here in Oz.

This is another fabulous cafe hubby and I went to this weekend. We have friends living in the very arty town of Daylesford about an hour and a half from here. We spent the weekend with them and visited Cliffys, a great little, very bohemian cafe. I managed to get this picture just before the rush. The walls on the left are fabric panels.

I had to show you these columns as Patsy doesn't have a blog. They are magnificent, you can see how tall they are. Patsy has been painting them with fantastic images of people, animals, flowers, buildings, lovely words, images depicting everyday life and community. They will be on display in Melbourne outside St Michael's church in the city.

This is Patsy's gorgeous dog Milly who is now with the angels.

Some of the people. Don't you just love the birds in the bag of the lady on the back column.

Another view of the column.

And for the cat lovers.

Finally I added a dash of purple to my hair, nothing too radical.

Sketchbook class

2011-03-04T22:52:00.000+11:00

I've had a few of my group ask if I could start a Sketchbook class. I decided rather than hold a workshop I'd form a sketchbook group where we meet for an afternoon at my house and everyone progresses at their own pace. I've had such a great response I've had to generate a weekday and a weekend group. Each will meet once a month, but it may develop into fortnightly get togethers depending on the response.
I've started to sort through some of my sketch books for reference and it was very interesting go back and see some of these.

I use an old ledger for some of my preliminary sketches. I often paint a wash for a background then work over the top, this eliminates the dreaded white page.

This same book also provides a testing place for my stamps.

You can see how I avoid using a white page. This is a photo album which works really well with uni-posca markers.

Another page in the album.

These are more pages in my latest book, I've finally accepted white pages.

If you care to join our sketching group just send me an email for details.

My City - Melbourne

2011-03-02T14:48:00.001+11:00

We had a wonderful day last Saturday, we took a visit to the city, about forty five minutes from our home.
We han't been for awhile so it was good to visit the art stores, galleries etc. The sun shone, the temperature was lovely and there were lots of people milling around and taking advantage of such a glorious day. I thought I'd share some of it with you.

All the little lane ways have taken advantage of our weather and there are wall to wall cafes everywhere.

This cafe even has it's own resident parrot.

This lane way had a fabulous band playing gypsy style music, the little boy at the bottom of the photo was dancing his heart out.

The band.

A very famous tea room in the Block arcade, such luscious cakes in the window.

The new Myer. This is a large department store that was very out dated. This is their new look, very trendy now.

The view over the top rail looking down through all of the levels.

Cafes everywhere even in the middle of the river.

The new and the old, our beautiful old railway station.

Beautiful tree lined walking areas and more restaurants along the river

Finally I've been a part of Seth's Pulse group since it's inception, Seth has been displaying all sorts of information, that the members have provided, on his blog. Last Sunday was another of The Collectors edition, this features photos of members collections and I was lucky enough to have mine included.

If you'd like to see it the links here

Commissions and journal pages

2011-02-23T21:25:00.001+11:00

Now my secret project is complete, I'm now back to working on a couple of commissions I received before Christmas. One is a very large fabric and paper journal with lots of embellishments. The other is a junk journal. I'm working on them both at the same time, this allows me to take a break from each one, that way I can see if more needs to be done when I go back.

one of the fabric pages

some paper and fabric pages

more paper and fabric pages

a section in the junk journal

papers to be added

my journal pages for Valentine's day

left hand page

right hand page

These pages are of our dressing table

close up detail showing the reflection in the mirror

more reflections.

Finally please spare a thought for our friends over the Tasman in Christchurch. They suffered a bad earthquake last year but that had nothing on the one they had yesterday. Out hearts and prayers go out to them. Mother nature is making her presence felt in a big way in both of our countries.

I also have a link to a great youtube video created by a lovely bunch of kids in Perth, if you click on the link and watch the video it raises money for the Queensland flood appeal, just wait until the ad at the beginning finishes, it's not long.

http://www.youtube.com/storytellermedia

Jewellery, sketching and workshop

2011-02-17T09:24:00.001+11:00

Busy, busy. I've finally completed a project that has been occupying my time of late, but I can't show you pictures. I can now concentrate on a couple of commissions I have. I will be able to show photos of these as I progress.
I've been asked by some of my students if I could organise a sketching workshop that will be on going. I decided to form a sketchbook group meeting on a weekday afternoon or a Saturday afternoon once a month, the idea has been so popular that I'm now going to hold a Saturday and a Wednesday group with the possibility of an evening group too. What a wonderful bunch of students I have, so supportive.

This was the photo from a recipe book that inspired this page. I often use the designs from crockery as inspiration, changing it to my style.

The total page.

This necklace is now in my Etsy shop

I had a wonderful group of students last Saturday attend my Gelatine Printing workshop. They produced some great prints on fabric and paper.

Heads down and concentrating.

Some of their work.

Journal pages

2011-02-10T21:49:00.001+11:00

I've been out of action for a few days due to a dicky knee (sorry the Aussie's will know what I mean).
It all started Saturday, I got into my car, drove for fifteen minutes, got out of my car and suddenly felt a tightness in the back of my knee. I walked around our major fabric and haberdashery store, carrying a couple of rolls of fabric, it was still playing up. Had a coffee in a little cafe, went to stand up and that was it. I had to limp out of the cafe, luckily my husband was with me, struggled back to the car and home. The doctor tells me it's tendon problems, I've had a few very relaxing days sitting with my leg up, fortunately that's worked as I'm teaching a workshop this Saturday.

I did manage to get a couple of pages done in my journal. I also prepared the kits for my workshop so not all time was wasted.

The double spread

Close up of my sketch.

Another double spread

Close up of my sketch

This is a peak of a project I've been working on for weeks, I can't show you any more but hopefully all will be revealed during the year.

This is a new style of jewellery that I've been working on. The fabric is a piece of my sun dyed printing, stitched to a leather backing. I've hand wired carnelian beads to the chain. This and a few others will be added to my Etsy store soon.

Speaking of jewellery the master Keith Lo Bue has a new e book, fabulous value for 7 dollars. It features his blog with step by step processes of his projects, but Keith also includes some additional fantastic photos of his work. There's a whole 352 pages in the book. Better and cheaper than a magazine. It works on the ipad too.

For all of the Aussie Flora Bowley fans she's coming to Melbourne in March to teach, if you're interested in attending please contact Julia for details.

Stamps and Fabrics

2011-02-01T16:41:00.001+11:00

I finally made time to carve some more stamps, three of them are now in my Etsy store as well as some more packs of sun printed fabrics.

A series I'm making called simple folk.

Abstract flower

Another abstract flower

Another fabric pack

And another

Summer here has been late arriving but boy has it arrived with a vengeance, hence all of the sun printing, 39 deg c yesterday, 40 deg c 104 deg f today and then within ten minutes it's dropped to 26 deg c, that's Melbourne for you, take your coat to work just incase. Tomorrow's another day.
As if Queensland hasn't suffered enough with the floods, they are now waiting for a cyclone to hit the very north of the state, they forecast it to be one of the worst on record, Thursday morning will tell.

Good Luck to anyone living up there, who stops by here, we'll be thinking of you.

This guy's a regular visitor to our garden along with his friends, he's a black cockatoo. They sit in the tree in the photo and crack open the rock hard seed pods with their very strong beaks. They eat the seed in the middle, then drop the rest onto the metal roof of the shed below, it sounds like a hail storm.

Sun printed fabrics

2011-01-25T22:55:00.001+11:00

I've decided to add some of my sun printed fabrics to my Etsy store, I currently have three packs for sale. Each pack consists of ten pieces of fabric all with different designs. They can be used for quilt making, journals, collage etc. The pieces are approximately 6 inches by 8 inches, some slightly larger or smaller.

This is typical of the fabric in the packs.

and this.

These are the packs.

I'm also working on my embellishing machine between creating my new journals, this is what I've been working on.

close up detail

another view

There's still quite a bit more hand stitching to add before it's finished.

New Chair

2011-01-18T22:23:00.001+11:00

I've been busy getting ready to teach a workshop this weekend, so my journaling a day has missed a couple but I managed to get one page done today. I also revamped an old chair I have in my studio. This is the result.

This is it finished.

This is what it looked like before I started. I was going to cover it with fabric but then decided to paint it. If it didn't work I could always go back to idea one and cover it with fabric.

I painted it with gesso and then attacked it with acrylic paints and just kept going.

I seem to be obsessed with circles. I spent a day in Elizabeth's studio last Friday and we decided to do a two person version of the painted canvas that I made with my art group. This time we worked on our own canvas whilst we listened to music, at the end of each song we swapped canvases, it was great fun.

This is my piece in progress.

These are our finished canvases. The top one is mine. Elizabeth developed a tree in mine which was wonderful, I loved that idea so added two more, she also added a cute little bird, bottom left, so I added one at the top right. Elizabeth's was a beautiful swirl of colour, very much like lollipops. It was a great day and I can't wait until we can do it again.

My journal spread.

Close up of the painted page.

I'd also like to send out best wishes to all of the people in Victoria now who are suffering from the floods. They have covered over a third of our state. They say you get what you ask for and for the last ten years we have suffered severe drought, so much so that people have been asked to pray for rain, well it worked, well and truly, more than we can handle.

I'd also like to thank Angelia at

Angelia's Art Journals

She very kindly did an interview with me about my life and art, if you'd like to check it out click on the link above.

Latest pages

2011-01-13T21:57:00.000+11:00

These are my journal pages for the past two days. I ended up taking my journal with me to a cafe today and worked on the pages, it's a great time to catch up with journaling and very relaxing.

I love adding decorations to the sides of the pages.

These are nasturtiums that were in the garden at the Heidi gallery.

I add a few of my stamps for decoration and more words for my goals for 2011

This is a beautiful native plant we have growing in our garden, I don't know it the berries are edible.

It has very long leaves similar to a flax plant.

The photo and the sketch.

A Land of Extremes

2011-01-11T20:22:00.000+11:00

After ten years of severe drought in the north and east of our great land, a HUGE area of Queensland is under water. Floods, the likes of which have never been seen before. Nine people have died and 66 are missing. The torrent of water is amazing. There are some graphic video clips and images here on the ABC news web site. We have been having rain almost everyday but nothing like they are having up north, we don't mind, while it rains it won't burn.

This is a detail of the sketch in my journal. I've decided to try to journal everyday.

This is the complete page showing my interpretation of the globe artichokes in the photo below.

This is one of the photos I took in the garden at Heidi gallery last week.

These are the two pages together. I've decided to work on a double page and add a border to both edges.

I'll then add one of my photos to one of the pages and then do a sketch on the other adding text that represents my goals for the year. That's my aim, I hope I can keep it up.

What a Bargain.

Today I visited my local Spotlight store to purchase fabrics for my next workshop, when what did I spy all of these wonderful products going out for 50cents an item. There are transfoils, silk dyes, paints, dyed fleece and bags of tapestry yarns. The goodies in the photo came to the grand total of $23.50, a true bargain.

Again thanks to everyone for your comments in my previous post, I'm still trying to answer as many as I can, I really do appreciate your support. I'm hoping to blog more too now I'm working from home.

Five Take Flight

2011-01-09T23:26:00.000+11:00

'Five Take Flight' is a possible name for an exhibition that our little group of five art friends will be holding later on in the year. On Saturday we had our art get together at Patsy's home and what a day it was. In spite of the very hot weather, we had a great time, fabulous food and lots of laughing then down to the business of the day, to 'create a large piece of art'.
We started with this huge piece of canvas that Patsy generously provide, along with the paints, and just walked around and around the table adding paint, changing colour, not even thinking, just letting our minds go. This was a fabulous way to paint, no planning, no inhibitions, just freedom. Below is the result. This will be the banner for our exhibition.

This is the start with the blank canvas, Jacky, Pats and Dot.

The progress, Jacky, Julia and Pats.

Almost enough.

The finished piece.

We were so 'in the zone' we decided to cut another piece of canvas into five sections, go around the table painting at random, then after about ten minutes we chose a section each and just continued on our own piece. Below is the amazing results, all very individual pieces.

Julia's panel, Patsy's, Dot's, mine and Jacky's

Part of Dot's, mine then Jacky's

What a great day, I could definitely recommend this to everyone, go and grab some friends and go for it, so liberating.

This is the second page I created in Julia's book in our round robin.

Patsy loves textiles and stitching, so I made this button necklace for her birthday with lots of red and purple buttons. Happy Birthday Patsy for tomorrow.

Change of direction

2011-01-06T23:19:00.000+11:00

I decided I would use my journal that I created in Traci's Discovering You workshop to use for my daily journaling, that way I avoided the blank pages, however, Traci's prompt number two is to make backgrounds, so I will go back to my journal in the last post for that. Confused, I am? In other words I will be keeping two journals running simultaneously, for awhile anyway. Below is the first two pages showing my goals for 2011 in my business plan journal.

Yesterday we went to the Heide Gallery in Templestowe to see the Mirka Mora exhibition. I've been a fan of Mirka's for years, she creates wonderful mythical creatures in her paintings, her dolls are amazing too.

She's now in her eighties but has had a fascinating life, from her days when she escaped the holocaust to migrating to Australia and starting a new life here, you can read an interview she gave on the ABC here.

Here are three of her paintings from other exhibitions.

Mirka also painted some of the windows of the Gallery as part of the exhibition.

See this link.

I couldn't resist taking photos of the gorgeous globe artichokes in the Gallery's cafe kitchen garden.

The colour is so intense, the camera hasn't come any where near to capturing the brightness. I think this could end up as a new stamp design.

Today was a glorious day, balmy warm weather. We visited one of our favourite beach spots at Mornington. They are re building the jetty so there weren't as many boats as usual. They have some fabulous street cafes and shops along the main street, all doing a roaring trade today.

A bit of everything

2011-01-04T17:40:00.001+11:00

During last year I joined Traci Bautista's online classes and found them extremely inspiring, especially her 'Discovering You' course, all about starting your own business and marketing yourself. Traci is now running an Art Journaling Daily event on her blog where everyday you spend 5-20 minutes journaling. I make lots of journals but haven't made one for myself in a long time. Now I'm working full time at my art I decided now was as good a time as any to start. My journal is very basic as you can see, the only art is on the cover, this is going to be a real challenge as I always start out with decorated papers. I'll be posting the progress along the way. Visit Traci's site, you might like to join the event too.

The cover.

The inside cover.

All of the pristine white pages.

Art Journaling Daily link

I received this magnificent piece of equipment for Christmas from my husband. I've been working on two journals, one a commission and the other a secret for the time being, this little (or should I say not so little) piece of machinery is helping me add some wonderful embellishments to the pages. I've been using a hand felting embellisher for some time now, but this one is the way to go, it saves so much time and embellishes pretty much anything that stands still long enough for me to get it under the needles.

This is my new embellisher.

I've still managed to find a little time to do some hand work on my gelatine printed quilt. I love the fact that this was just a pile of plain calico before I started printing. It's a lovely feeling to have created something from your own fabric, making it totally unique. I'm adding circles of varying sizes, these are cut from some very old pure linen (the dark blue) and raw silk (the khaki green) pants I had many years ago adding to the 'aged' look.

The buttons are very old linen ones and the label is from a brand of 'hippy' clothing I used to wear some years ago, although I still have the clothes and they do make an appearance on occasions.

These circles will all be linked eventually.

I'm never one to pass something by if I think I can use it to create texture, and these little bamboo goodies jumped out at me today and said 'take me home'. The other end is actually tongs but I'll be using this end to decorate paper and fabric, at 3 for a dollar I couldn't resist them.

Finally I regularly visit blogs and gain so much inspiration along the way, and every so often a technique comes along that knocks your socks off. Susan Lenz has a textile technique that does just that. I did a textile swap with her some years ago now and was most impressed with her piece but what Susan's doing now is amazing and if you go back through her blog files she actually explains how she does it, a very talented, generous lady.