Earrings

I'm still working on another journal but decided to take a break from it over the weekend to make some earrings for my etsy

I had my one hundredth sale on my store last week so as a thank you to all of my customers I will be putting your names in a draw for a prize. The draw will take place next weekend.










I also made a scarf with fibres and fabric. I may end up teaching this as a workshop next year. It's a fabulous way to use up scrap yarns and fabrics and would make great bags and journal pages.



This is how it starts out,



and this is the finished scarf, all made in a few hours.



a detail of the scarf.

Saturday we went to Ballarat which is a country town about an hours drive out of Melbourne. They had a photographic exhibition in various parts of the town. The town hall was one of the venues and I couldn't resist taking photos of their magnificent stair case and carpet, the colours were divine.






They also have wonderful mosaic tiled floors through out the building too. These have great potential for future stamps.




There are some magnificent buildings in the town, this used to be and still is, on a small scale, a gold mining town. The buildings are some of our earliest and the Chinese building is a reminder of our diverse heritage.





Finally, I have been a fan of Maria Wiley's art for some time now. If you haven't seen Maria's paintings you can visit her blog here. I love Maria's colour and style, she contacted me and asked if I would trade a bracelet for her new book she has just had published. I said yes and was thrilled when it arrived on Friday.
It's a lovely book and shows the development of her work. She has them for sale on her blog, in her side bar.

Largest Journal to date

Back to journal making. I've just completed another one to upload to my Etsy. This is the largest one I've made. They just seem to be getting bigger, not in height, but more pages. SOLD. Thank you.



This is the front cover, it has a piece of copper that I embossed with a poppy seed head then coloured with inks. This is enclosed in an old slide holder.





This page also has a piece of embossed and coloured copper. I added a metal element to this piece too.

More of this and that

It's been one of those weekends, out all day Saturday and inside Sunday. The weather keeps threatening rain as you can see in the photo from my studio below, but it just can't quite make it. The sun comes out then, when you go out into the garden the rain threatens. I gave up in the end and came inside to my studio. I feel for such an interrupted day I've achieved quite a lot.

The image above is a sketch I drew and coloured of pomegranates, or they could be poppy seed heads. I intended them to be pomegranates but they aren't sure.
I scanned them into photoshop, put some of my decorated paper behind them then added a layer of grungy brush marks. I was quite pleased with the results. Once I saved the file I changed the hue and saturation so I now have four different colourways. I'm printing these onto 160gsm laser paper to add to my journals.







Above is an almost completed journal for my etsy. I still have to add a few more bits and pieces and then bind it into one of the new covers I made below.

I hope to hold a decorated papers/hand made journal workshop either on Saturday 26th or Sunday the 27th of September, I need a minimum of five to make it viable. If you're interested in attending please email me for details.






Below is a technique I'm experimenting with for journal covers. I've covered heavy duty watercolour paper with pre-mixed polyfilla, a product used for filling holes or cracks in walls. You can buy it in a tub pre-mixed so it has a very spreadable consistency.
I carved into it and added texture will it was wet, then when it dried I added a few different combinations of paint.






I also dyed some more lace and ribbon doilies for journals. I just cut out little sections of the lace to stitch into my books.








Finally I picked these lovely daffodils from our garden on one of my trips outside. They are definitely my favourite flower.

Thanks also to Sylvia for awarding me the MeMeAward. I can't think of seven things that you don't already know about me (or that I'm prepared to tell) that I haven't already said from earlier awards.
Thanks again Sylvia.

Hand made journal and disintegration project

I have been busy assembling another journal for my etsy site. My journals are very time consuming but I love making them, adding lots of details and artwork. I have also added some more collage prints to my shop too.

Below are some of the pages and covers.
There's lots of fabric and pieces of hand dyed lace doilies, sari silk, buttons and collage work, old clothing labels, prints of my artwork and original cut out pieces of my art.













DISINTEGRATION AT LAST

Finally I've made something with the disintegration project that was conducted by Seth from the Altered Page blog. We hung or buried papers and fabric etc outside for six months to see what would happen. Mine went through drought, bush fires and eventually some rain and lots of wind.

Below are the stages and results of my bundle.

There was very little change, just a touch of rust.

I've decided to add some of the papers, including the gum leaves, rusty washers and raffia that I used to tie the bundle with, to some of my textured papers and use them as future journal covers.
I don't seem to be able to get away from journals at present.