Retreat art

This is some of my work from the classes I attended at the recent art retreat. The book above isn't quite finished yet, I still have to work on the cover. The class was Nina's Parlor Question book class. It's a tiny little book that fits into your hand and is made from small cabinet cards. I thoroughly enjoyed this class. We all went at our own pace, I haven't finished all of my pages, but I can add to it later. Poor Nina had an awful flu virus while she was here and was slowly loosing her voice. Nina's such a professional teacher, she continued on regardless.



This was my effort in Traci's Art Quilt class. This class was amazing. I learnt some wonderful printing techniques and made lots of papers. I'm looking forward to experimenting further. Traci's a great teacher, sharing so many of her ideas.




What can I say about Misty's class that hasn't already been said by her other students. This was my first class on the Friday and was called Mixed media layers. We worked so fast with Misty demonstrating and then we trying it out ourselves. Misty's a fabulous teacher, again sharing so many of her techniques. I learnt so much, I hope I can remember it all.

Very special guests

I'm working backwards here. Some of these photos were taken before the ones in the previous post. Two of our special guests arrived early for the Artistic journey retreat. I was going to pick Misty up from the airport on Tuesday morning, but she called me Monday night to say she'd missed her connecting flight to Oz, so she would have to stay the night in LA. In the afternoon I met Nina at the airport after her weeks teaching in WA. I took her back to my house, what a nightmare of a trip on the free way, it should have been free that day, it took three hours. My husband and I took her to one of our local restaurants in the hills for dinner. Nina seems to meet up with fellow Americans wherever she goes, one of the young waiters was from the US and had recently visited Nina's neck of the woods.



Bright and early, 6.00am to be precise Nina and I left to pick Misty up from the airport, she made it this time, early in fact.



We came back to my place then off to meet with two very special people, Samm and Mandy, they were so excited, they'd been communicating via email with Misty for some time so were very keen to actually meet her. We had a great lunch at one of the galleries on the Peninsula then went to the beach to hunt for sea glass.



Two very excited ladies.



Treasure hunting.



Misty the photographer.



Nina the beachcomber.



Back at the apartments. The three musketeers.

This was the last day. Traci was off to Sydney so she couldn't go with Nina, Misty and me to explore down town Melbourne. We walked our feet off, stopping at one of the many cafes in the little lane ways and arcades Melbourne is famous for. Again Nina met up with a fellow American who was a waiter at the cafe where we had lunch. I think they must love working in our cafes. We only managed to see about a third of the city before the light and our stamina faded. The city turned on it's magical night lights, where Southgate on the Yarra comes alive. People hustling and bustling to get home. Black suits everywhere. It was the end of a wonderful day and a wonderful week of excitement and creativity. I made some very special friends and I'll miss them all very much and can't wait until the next event.

Great class

What a great group of ladies attended my Altered book workshop at the Artistic Journey Retreat, here in Melbourne. They were all so enthusiastic. It was the start of the four day retreat with other teachers being Jacky from Artistic Journey, Nina Bagley, Misty Mawn and Traci Bautista, what a fabulous line up of tutors and I was lucky enough to be among them.



Shirley came all the way from WA to attend, it's wonderful to see how far people will travel to help make it such a great event. Shirley was wonderful too, she bought one of my necklaces on vendor night. She also created some beautiful work. Shirley's colour combinations were divine.



Julia created some lovely work and really stretched herself as she's used to creating in more subdued colours. The style I teach though can still be adapted to paler or sepia colours.



Jacky created a mixed bag of work from darker colour to the brights, her work was lovely, some of her beautiful pages almost had a patchwork style.




Dot is used to working with lots of colour as her beautiful pages show. Her work definitely has her style stamped on it.
Even her darker pages had a lovely tapestry quality about them.



Rebecca came all the way from Canberra, along with a friend to help look after her nine month old son while she attended classes. That's a true friend. Rebecca's work was stunning, she used a beautiful Italian nature book and utilized some of the existing images beautifully.



Finally a group shot. It was the start of a fabulous four days. I'm sorry Rebecca and Shirley, I don't have your blog details, if you have blogs let me know and I'll link them.
More to follow.

Slowly progressing

I can very slowly see the light at the end of the tunnel, still a fair way to go, but getting there. My decorated papers are finished and all cut to A4 size there are seventy two sheets altogether.
I've also managed to print out more business cards and package some of the earrings.
All of this is for the Artistic Journey retreat here in Melbourne which starts on the 15th May.





These are some of my finished (almost, they still need sealing) collage canvases, I still have a few more of these to complete.
My journals are almost done and I have the big task of turning all of the jewellery jumble in the last post into necklaces. I'm enjoying every minute of it as I can see progress on a daily basis, although my poor studio is screaming out for a tidy up again.
Oh well there's always tomorrow, or the day after.

Lots and lots to do

Canvases and hand made journals in progress.



Class kits being assembled.




Jewellery bits to be made into necklaces.




Decorated papers for kits and turning into journals.


Busy, busy. I don't know where the time goes. I had a lovely friend Patsy come and visit me and we spent the day decorating papers. It was great fun, we produced so much. It makes a big difference having a like minded friend working with you, the ideas bounce of each other.

I'm also creating some canvases to sell at the retreat. They are in various stages of progress, none finished as yet.

I have a pile of jewellery drops all waiting to be matched and combined with complimentary pieces and then moulded into necklaces, it's quite a complex process and very time consuming, but I love seeing the end results.

I'd better get back to it before I slack off too much.

Stamps

I had a great decorated papers and journal workshop on Sunday. The students all went home with fabulous journals that they had created. The class was go, go, go. We were so busy I didn't get to take any photos, which was very disappointing as there were some lovely papers produced.

I've also been making stamps. I managed to find the blue blocks at Paperific when it was in Melbourne. I made some of the images from Indian wood blocks that I have. The wood blocks are great for using with paint but are not very successful with stamp pads, so I decided to imprint them into the blue blocks. Now I can print them with stamp pads. To create the stamps you heat the block with a heat gun then press an image into it. I would suggest you do this outside and I even use a mask, I'm very conscious of what damage the fumes can do to your body. The black stamps are a material that I got from the reverse garbage Art Truck in Ringwood. It looked the same and I had brought home quite a lot of it. As usual I'd forgotten I had it until Joy, in my altered book class, mentioned she had some and wondered if it would work. I gave it a try and these are the results. The cogs are the cardboard ones that you buy in a packet. I spread them out on a brick then heated the foam and voila, they worked.





This is a page from my journal. I loved the expression on the woman's face.

More sneak peaks

These are the sneak peaks from Timona's book in our ABRR. Timona's subject is 'Do your thing and I shall know you'. I was really able to let my colour muse go wild. These books are amazing, the quality of art is astounding. It has been a most successful swap with all books being passed on like clock work, all under the guidance of the very efficient and talented Ursula. Thanks so much Ursula for your wonderful organizing of this great event.

I now have more Dremel power. My dear husband bought me a Dremel blow torch, soldering iron and heating tool all in one.
It uses butane gas. I'd never seen one before. I also received an anvil, clamps, perfume and roses all for my special day. How spoilt am I. The guys I work with have given up on me, nothing surprises them anymore, they said I'm the only female they know who would request a blow torch and anvil for her birthday.

I've also received the Arte y Pico award again, this time from the very talented Margaret. Thanks so much Margaret. I'll pass it on to all you lovely people who I didn't mention the first time.