The Winner

Thanks so much everyone for entering my 21 SECRETS class give-away. I wish I could give you all a prize but unfortunately there can only be one winner and that's

HEATHER

I will email you Heather with details how you can receive your free workshops.

Thanks again everyone for participating, sorry there could only be one winner.

You can still enrol to take the 21 SECRETS workshops, details are HERE

They start next week on April the 1st

Here's another peek at the classes I'll be teaching

recycled envelopes

plastic plates

making and printing with foam stamps

You get these and 20 other classes from some fabulous artists ALL for $59

You can do them at your own pace and in whatever order you like, they'll all be there for you to pick and choose. Usually on-line classes start around $50 upwards each. This is $59 for the whole 21 workshops, that's great value.

I've nearly completed my commissioned journals and will have some more photos in my next post.

Thanks Again Everyone

21 Secrets Give-away

Connie from 21 SECRETS has kindly allowed all the teachers to give-away a free class. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post and I will draw a name out on Saturday the 23rd March. The workshops open on April the 1st so don't be an April Fool and miss out.This is a great chance to participate in 21 different workshops.

Good Luck in the draw

I'm also very proud to announce that a piece of my work will be published in Seth Apter's new book 'The Mixed Media Artist: Art Tips, Tricks, Secrets and Dreams From over 40 Amazing Artists'. 

The book will be released in October 2013 and is available for pre-order on Amazon

Here's a view of the cover

Just a couple of pictures of what I've been doing, apart from filming three videos and setting up my pages on 21 Secrets. I'm still working on three journal commissions and hope to have them finished shortly. 

I taught a Junk Journal workshop from home last Saturday and think I might start this as an on-line workshop very soon.

this is the cover and spine, this journal has a hidden binding

the signatures

some of the pages

the pages before they have been worked on

and these pages after they've been altered

Thanks so much again to you all for visiting and your comments.

Thanks so much too for those of you who have signed up to the on-line workshop 21 SECRETS, it's still open, so click HERE if you would like more info or care to join us.

and the information for the workshop I will be teaching for the Calligraphy Society of Victoria in July is HERE

Don't forget to leave a comment to be entered into the draw to win a free place in the 21 SECRETS workshops

Summer School in Winter 2013

I feel extremely honoured to have been asked to teach a workshop for the 

Calligraphy Society of Victoria's Summer School in Winter 2013. 

I will be teaching an altered book with a difference. This book can be used as a place to record poetry or your sketching. It will make a unique book for adding calligraphy. We will be making simple stamps to decorate the pages and building up the pages with lots of layers. The workshop is over two days on July the 3rd and 4th

Bookings are now being taken.

Contact HERE

Below are just a few pages from my sample book.

I'd love to see you there if you can make it.

Thanks everyone for visiting and for your kind comments.

Where has the time gone

I can't believe it's two weeks since my last post. I'm working on three journals, getting ready for an exhibition, preparing work for my online class for 21 Secrets, planning a junk journal workshop from home, finalising details of a workshop I'm teaching for the Calligraphy Society of Victoria in July and getting ready to look after my three year old grandson, two days a week, while my daughter goes back to University again (this is her third time), ain't life grand. I love it all.

Here a few photos of some of the journal pages in the three that I'm working on.

I love making trees, this time I added some sheep and a stone wall

I hand painted the flower and the fabric

a print of one of my graphics and a felt flower I made

the houses are becoming an obsession like the trees

this is a patchwork page with lots of free motion stitching

I'll have details about the workshop I'm teaching for the Calligraphy Society of Victoria in my next post.

Thanks so much again to you all for visiting and your comments.

Thanks so much too for those of you who have signed up to the on-line workshop 21 Secrets, it's still open, so click on the link above if you would like more info or care to join us.

What I'm working on

My desk is usually in a mess, but never quite like it is at the moment. We have our annual exhibition coming up again in May so I thought I'd get in early and do some paintings. I like to work on a few at a time and move around from one to the other. They're all in different stages of completion, and all are still being worked on.

I'm not sure where this one is heading, I might add some sheep.

This one's almost completed. I've added black stitching around the flowers. I love combining stitching and paint.

This has a long way to go, I'll be adding sheep and stitching around the poppies when they're finished too.

I'm also working on more journals and have some workshops coming up too.

Thanks so much again to you all for visiting and your comments.

Thanks so much too for those of you who have signed up to the on-line workshop 21 Secrets, it's still open, so click on the link above if you would like more info or care to join us.

Daily journal

I started a daily journal last year with very good intentions of working in it everyday. That idea worked for about two months, then it became every couple of days, now it's down to once a week. I'm really endeavouring to work more in the journal as it frees me up from the structured work that I do. Following are a few of the pages from the past few months.

this page uses Pitt pens, black and white marker pens and water colour background.

I painted and decorated a piece of deli/tissue paper and glued it to the pages. I cut out some flower heads that I had painted onto white paper. The leaves and stems were created by painting over part of the background, like a mask, then outlining them with white pen and made veins with black pen.

this page used a piece of patterned paper from a magazine that I then altered with paint and white marker. I copied and created simple forms from the patterned paper on the opposite page.

this page was created using acrylic paint, ink, markers and oil pastels.

Thanks so much again to you all for visiting and your comments.

Thanks so much too for those of you who have signed up to the on-line workshop 21 Secrets, it's still open, so click on the link above if you would like more info or care to join us.

More Eco Dyeing

We were very low on rainfall over January, so that's a good time to collect fallen eucalyptus leaves, as they have a higher concentration of colour. I still had some recycled silk left and and a pure cotton top that I'd bought at an op shop recently. I added red onion skins, red cabbage and tumeric to the mix and here are some of the results.

this photo shows the detail where I wrapped the fabric around an old rusty spring

the total piece, the left is quite a deal more purple than shown, the spots are from steel wool.

this piece is very dark, I wrapped it around a steel bar and placed the cabbage inside the bundle.

this is the top, it will need remodelling, I'm not a fan of frills or ruffles so I'll remove the sleeves and the trim around the base and probably open it up down the middle.

I've also added another collage card or picture to my Etsy shop

and I forgot to add a side view of the journal in my Etsy.

Thanks so much again to you all for visiting and your comments.

Thanks so much too for those of you who have signed up to the on-line workshop 21 Secrets, it's still open, so click on the link above if you would like more info or care to join us.