Journal frenzy

I'm a bit sore and sorry at present, I had a tooth removed tonight and the injections wearing off, it hasn't stopped me from doing art though, they'd have to take my whole mouthful of teeth before that happens.

I've been so keen to start a new DJ journal using my colours and art. Last night I dyed a whole lot of fabrics and doilies in bright colours to use between signatures.




Decorated some papers using my stamps





Sketched some poppy seed heads, figs and flowers, then painted them with my Caran d'ache water colour crayons.
Cut them up and added them to my papers. I cut the daisy in half and used it on two pages.












I still have to make some more signature wraps and some more artwork for the pages, then assemble the journal. I really love all of the processes in these books, they're fun to make.

Decorated papers and sneak peaks

These are some papers I've been decorating for journals and my paper packs. I will be teaching this and other methods in my next workshop at Hann Made Studio in Mentone on April 20th. The workshop covers decorated papers and them making them into a journal. The phone number to book for this class is in my side bar.






Above are sneak peaks of the pages I did in Judy's book in our ABRR. The title of the book is protection and was quite a challenge. If you want to see a fantastic book visit her blog here and see Judy's latest work, this is one very talented lady.

Necklace and Photoshop art

I haven't been well for the past two days. I had a massive dose of food poisoning, I felt like I was going to die on Monday night.
Thankfully I'm over the worst now, I still feel weak but hope to be able to go back to work tomorrow.
The necklace above is one I completed over the weekend.



The paper above is a piece I decorated a couple of weeks ago.



This is one of the beautiful tiger cubs I saw at the weekend, he's about nine months old. He was busy watching a very large goldfish in the water.



I scanned the paper into Photoshop, changed the colour with hue and saturation, then added some background with brushes, some from this site. I then added the tiger and faded out the background, it took all of a half hour, the wonders of Photoshop.

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.

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

Found objects pins and Journals

I've completed the journal for the shop where I teach decorated paper and journals, now it's back to jewellery making. I had a successful January with the two galleries selling four pins, two necklaces and three pairs of ear rings, I can't wait until I can just do art full time, although I probably achieve more now because I only have a restricted number of hours. The more time I have the more I seem to waste.
The fire which has been burning out of control in Victoria since December 2nd last year has finally been contained today, not out yet but contained. It has burnt over one million hectares of land. We are the most bush fire prone region in the world, a title we would love not to have.