Stocking up my Etsy

It seems like ages since my last post. I've been busy making things for my Etsy store and last weekend's festival. The weather was terrible keeping many people away so sales were down. I had a wonderful day all the same and had some very enthusiastic ladies attend my demonstrations, they see junk in a whole new light.
We have been suffering from a terrible drought for around ten years, but it has definitely broken now with floods across most parts of Victoria. We live in the hills so we have been very lucky, our garden looks like a tropical paradise, everything is so lush and huge.

This is one of my felted brooches. It's so hard to get the right colour in the photos. The main colour is teal/turquoise with a purple around the edges. They look great on black too. They can also be used as pin cushions, if you pin them to the sleeve of your jumper when sewing.

This one is a purple mix with a magenta purple centre, the colours are reasonably close in this one.

They are both available on my Etsy store. I'll be adding more jewellery, journals and stamps in the next few days. It takes so long to photograph everything, especially as it's dark when I get home from work, so the lighting isn't good.

A couple of weeks ago I couldn't resist buying this gorgeous little treasure from Denise's etsy store, it has so much personality. Denise has quite a collection of them happening.

Mine's the one on the left.

and this is the back. They are such a great bargain and so cute.

Also did you know Nina's coming to Australia and New Zealand again. She will be teaching workshops in WA and in New Zealand, here's the link for details.

Jewellery for a change

I've been busy making necklaces these past few days, again for the Art festival in a couple of weeks. Now it's back to the journals. I have to alternate between the two, this way I don't end up with lots of one thing and nothing of another.

This was an old key plate, I cut a piece of copper the same size for the back, added an image to the copper and mica to the key hole. I then made brass spacers between the two and riveted them together. I thought the old key would be appropriate to add. There's one of my fabric beads and a piece of china that I soldered.

This one has a bezel with a very old ad for a movie, 'Edison the Man', I found the ad in the vey old newspaper that the necklace has been photographed on. I've added balls of silver solder, some blue metallic thread and some ancient metal glitter to the resin. I thought it would be appropriate to add a light globe as well.

This one's an eclectic mix of drilled beach glass, more soldered china and my fabric beads. The ring that it's all suspended from is part of a lamp fitting. Not sure what part but I bought it and a few others from a lead lighting shop.

More journals

I've been so busy getting ready for an Art Fest in Beaumaris, where I've had the proud honour, along with some very talented artists, to give a demonstration of decorated papers and jewellery making. I'm also able to sell my wares, hence the rush making journals and jewellery. Today was necklace making but I'll post the photos next week. The Festival in on the 4th and 5th of September. I'll be there on the 5th.

This is the cover of my latest journal, it has my felt stitched circles turned into 'lollipop trees'. These trees seem to appear in all of my art from painting to stitching. I started using this shape, years ago when I began painting in pastel, it seems to have progressed to my collage work and journals. 

This is the journal side on showing the pages, there's lots of fabric and decorated papers inside. This has the most pages to date. They just keep getting bigger.

These two photos are details showing the felt and stitched trees.

This is the first fabric page of my next journal, the photo doesn't really show the depth of colour, it's vibrant with lots of beading, stitching and my favourite sari silks.

The heart was cut out from a plastic cup that I'd used to mix a variety of blue and metallic paints when I made my decorated papers last week. The colours just shone on the side of the cup, so out came the scissors and there you have it.

Another close up, the lace doilies to the left were from my hand dyed collection.

Not all of my op shop broken jewellery finds end up in my necklaces, they've started to appear in my journals of late.

I've hand stitched lots of beads to this side of the page.

One of my favourite fabrics, sari silk, they are so luscious and vibrant.

More to come later.

Papers, yarns and Patsy

I spent all day Sunday decorating papers ready for some new journals. I love the process but it's very time consuming. I build up so many layers of paint and then decorate them with stamping, more painting and doodles. Below are the beginning stages of some of the sheets.

I've also been making and adding tags to my latest journal.

Sometimes I buy balls of wool that have more than one type yarn in them. I like to separate them for different projects. I decided to wind the yarns onto a cardboard roll from inside the plastic wrap, I then tied some string to a small piece of bamboo skewer, dropped this down the centre of the roll and spread it out at the base. I then tied a knot into the top of the string and hung it on a hook with all of my other silks and ribbons. Instant colour and easy access.

I visited my friend Patsy last week and as usual came away so inspired. Patsy is hand stitching a beautiful quilt from some of her fabric scraps, Patsy, like me, so loves colour. She also makes wonderful bags, custom orders or off the shelf.

One of Patsy's fabulous bags

Below is Patsy's latest painting, her works are quite large. I love the people in the centres of the flowers.

It makes me want to get my paints out.

Junk Journal workshop plus

I've started to stitch and add beads and felt motives to the piece in the previous post. I'm going to add washers and beads to the centres of the circles.

I also made some silk paper to add to my journals.

These are fabric and decorated paper pages waiting to be turned into another journal.

Above are some of the fabric stitched pages.

We've finally found a wonderful aged care facility for my eighty eight year old father. It's taken so long. He's been in hospital for over fourteen weeks. My sister and I moved him into the home last week, he has a fabulous room and the facility really  encourages family participation in all things. He's only been there a few days and we've noticed his walking has improved already. The home is close to my sister so she drops in each day to visit him. He looks rather apprehensive in this photo as he's about to leave hospital. He seems quite settled now, we just hope it lasts.

I had another wonderful group of students on Saturday attend my Junk Journal workshop. It was a hive of activity sorting and assembling junk papers and then binding them into a journal. The covers take the most time as the process involves using moulding paste and lace or stencils, this then has to dry and be painted. The results were fabulous, each one totally unique.

Play day

Last Friday I had a day off work and spent it playing in Elizabeth's studio. I've mentioned before it's like being in Aladdin's cave, such wonderful colour and beautiful artworks everywhere, including a fabulous carved piece Elizabeth had made by Robyn from Art Propelled, it was lovely to actually be able to touch the real thing, so sensuous.
Elizabeth made a gorgeous little journal while I made a very colourful piece of felt, I love being able to add scraps of this and that to add interest and texture. Elizabeth's publishing such an inspiring book about her work, with some how too's, I got to see a sneak peek, it's gorgeous, I can't wait until it's available, hopefully by the end of the year. What a fabulous inspiring day.

This is a section of the felt, it was too large to get an overall photo

Close up views

I'm now adding some hand stitching.

These are padded brooches, with leather backs, that I've made using the hand embellisher.

Now back to the felting.

Epic journal workshop

I sent off my postcard today to Sophie Munns, for her homage to the seed exhibition in Brisbane. I used watercolour paper and my hand cut pomegranate stencil. There's also some sari silk ribbon and a dictionary definition of pomegranate. It was fun to make. The exhibition starts on the 12th July.

On Saturday the 24th July I'm holding another Junk Journal workshop at my home.

There are still a few vacancies. If you'd like to attend, just email me and I'll send you the details. 

This journal is made from all recycled materials eg junk mail, envelopes, brochures, paper bags, scrap papers, gift wrap, packaging anything that can be stitched into a fabric spine. I use my journal everyday, partly as a diary and also as a place to experiment and let go. It sits on the bench in my studio waiting patiently for it's turn to be noticed. I paint lots of the pages then go back and add to them when I find something to suit. It's a great place to add those special cards and postcards that take your eye.

Here's some of the pages that are in varying stages of completion, but then what does completion mean.

I was very inspired today when I received LK Ludwig's latest book in the mail. It's fabulous, featuring all of these wonderful artists and their journals. I was thrilled to see my buddies Judy and Karen in there as well as many other wonderful blogging acquaintances. Misty, Katie and Seth are in there too. 

There's a bonus too, a wonderful journal in the back made from the printer's leftovers, what a fabulous idea.