Something for me and something for you...

It is lovely to have time to create and nothing I “have to” make. This necklace has been in my head for months, an old wall hook; rusted and left, some washers, sari silk, an owl in resin, a bullet casing (thanks to one of my students for that), vintage beads and carved cinnabar all combined with copper, brass and steel.

I couldn't resist wandering around the garden and taking pictures of this piece in different lights, on different backgrounds, it has been so, so long since I made a feature piece of jewellery such as this.

I always enjoy the contrast between strong and delicate, old and new, salvaged and made. I think this one is for me.

The old water tank, above had been put out for roadside collection, I rang my brother and convinced him I needed it; is to become my herb garden, a job for next week.

I have cleaned up my garden a lot this past week and been amazed by the number of nests tucked in bushes, obviously my purr-babies don’t scare the birds away. This nest really made me smile, authentic twigs, insects, and leaves on the outside and green acrylic filler on the inside – another contrast.

The magnetic post it-note holders were an eye opener. I was attempting to make something using found objects for a possible class and bemoaned my attempts. Until I realised the only objects designed for art were the Collection images I have had for many years, and five split pins.

All of the other items are salvaged and re-purposed.

I will send one of these pieces (your choice) to the first person to identify all the non-paper elements. Good Luck!

A Beautiful Bargain ...

Recently I hopefully placed some bids in an art auction to raise money for Bernie Berlin's A Place to Bark and Meow animal rescue. From the beginning I had my eye on this delightful Carla Sonheim original and was stunned when I won it for not much more than the cost of a couple of prints. The three dogs, the ginger cat and the bird all have a fish of their own but none will start to eat because they are focused on the other animals. Just beautiful, and such a life reflecting story.

These A7 collages are for a 2010 Calendar swap I am a part of, layers of red papers, gesso, paint washes, stamped images and finally some stitching and rub-ons. They make me smile now, I hope the other 11 artists like them too.

An Altered Book

Lots of stitching and layers on this one for Debbi, as part of an altered book round robin.

Have a wonderful week!

Christmas Cards and Snippets of Life

I needed to make a few Christmas cards to send home with an overseas guest, one led to another and now I am all done - yippee! These two pictures show Christmas cards which feature playing cards from a pack I purchased several years ago and did not do anything with until now.
My gift cards, ready to put on little end-of-year gifts at school.
Last year I bought cards for the first time in almost a decade, and regretted it, I am so pleased to have these all ready to give and send. Now to complete some swaps I have due, and have somehow left to the last minute again.

My Art-of-the-Month for September from Bevlea. A beautiful montage inside an equally beautifully decorated tin.

Beautiful bookmarks purchased from Carole in New Zealand.

Charles: The best excuse for not ironing.

Yum! The beginnings of a red marsala curry sweet on my tongue and then so hot the top of my head was sweating and my lips went numb.

My Art-of-the-Month from Debbi in August. A wonderful fabric collage now hanging in my entrance.

Today was wonderful I taught a jewellery class at school and the class were so interested in the art side of jewellery and the choice of found objects as a focus - bliss. I only teach on special occasionally as I find it takes the joy out of my personal creative time if it is also my work.

The vintage is out of my system, for now...

A 1-4-1 swap on an Aussie art group I belong to. 4 x 4" canvas boards painted, inked and embellished for Lucy.

Take a couple of old hair scrunchies,

.. some old files from the recycling bin, three ink pads and a handful of images. What do you have? A couple of weeks of relaxation, time to fiddle and arrange, without really thinking, after long, long days at work.
At the end I wondered what to do with my offerings, so thee ATC's became notebooks - I am so glad I bought the Zutter.

Cards and tags will be packaged together and, "Voila!", some of my Christmas preparations are made. Nice cards are so expensive here in Australia and packs of hand made tags will be appreciated too.

I have been soothed by my needle going in and out of paper, calmed by the rhythm of my brush as it dances between ink pads adding a little colour here and there and strengthened by the time to be inside my head.

Would you like an ATC? No need to trade, just ask. If you are one of the first three I will send you one.

Thank you Jesus, for the peace I feel today. Thank you friends for being there for me through the hours, days or years.

Have a wonderful week!

Just Sharing...

Another crazy couple of weeks and yet I have still managed some creative time and a laugh or two (usually at myself) so all is well in life. Many thanks to all of you who commented on the earrings in my last post, I am often uncertain when I try new things, this weekend I am aiming to do some more in a similar style. However, for this past week or so it has been back to paper and pieces of history floating on my desk.

One of these giant pegs has gone to a new home as a result of a monthly 1-4-1 swap I am a part of, the others will reappear at Christmas.

A page from an Altered Book Round Robin with the theme Still Life.

A breath of spring; the print I was blessed to receive from Julia's blog give-away.

Tags made for no reason other than the fact I felt like playing wi th paper and thread.
A rare picture: Charles and Phantom keeping each other warm on a cold morning.

Repurposing the Repurposed

I've mentioned before that I can't bring myself to waste even a drop of paint; these cards all use repurposed paint. The top cards have as their background some paint slapped on with the intention that it would be a base coat. Earlier in the week the colours appealed to me and I began to doodle trees and birds. Last night I layered them up.

I covered some journals with my multi-layered waste paint paper (and that is a mouthful) last weekend, the left over scraps became the cards below. the top two cards were very therapeutic as I lost myself in doodling designs on the patterned paper. As a child I wanted to design wall paper; I loved drawing up repetitive signs and relaxed just as I did while making these.

The irony in this card production is that I have missed more birthdays than I have remembered this year. I've resolved to send "just because..." cards instead, and hope you'll understand if you have been waiting for a while.

NOT from a pet free home!

Charles seemed to recognise a friend on this journal, or perhaps he just wanted some attention as I dashed outside to photograph my latest journals and notebooks. We had a wonderful few moments of tummy rubs, tickles, and chase the camera cord - a quality interlude.

As soon as I saw the felt ribbon stick-ons in scrapbooking stores I knew that I would use them for backgrounds. The one used above was a bright lime green. It is very absorbent and I should have sealed it before I began adding layers of paint - I think there is half a tube of my beloved Golden Quin' Nickel Azo Gold on the front cover alone. The picture is a favourite vintage postcard of a lovely ginger cat.

These two notebooks started out at ATC's but I added to many layers (pegs and paint brushes to name a few) that made them too thick to fit in any plastic sleeve. The one above features an original vintage photo and mother-of-pearl button.

Now that I have started using my old paint brushes in my art I can justify buying some new ones :). Aren't the leaves wonderful? I picked the last of them from my liquid amber before the rains last weekend and they grace my dining table, a huge bowl of them colourful, crisp and yet so very warming.

No reason for this picture, just the cutest little dog in the world looking at me as I do the blog post and some other work on the net. Hug your purr and bark babies for me!

Faces, with apologies to some beautiful women!

I got lost in the creative zone last night, and I am so grateful! For the first time in ages I lost track of time and played for five hours straight - the result two finished ATC's and two other pieces partially done. These are my first attempts at faces; which I was NEVER going to try, when will I learn not to make sweeping statements?
After creating backgrounds a la Kelly Rae I took some magazine pictures.. and here's the apology, these women WERE beautiful.
I traced over the main features, the first time in blue pen (you can see why that was not a great idea), the second with lead pencil, and then flipped the picture onto my background to transfer the pen/pencil. From there I used paint, Tombow, Distress Ink, water colour pencil, brushes and my trans dermal applicator (thanks Kelsey). I enjoyed 'modifying' the second face, and I guess the next stage would be to draw my own.

Please join my give-away from the previous post.

Stumbling Blocks and a Giveaway

I have really struggled to create since the art retreat, a combination of too many other things to do and some hang-ups. Everything I started seemed to be a copy, I was lost in technique and have not been able to get my ideas to flow. Finally this week I sat down to play and the pendants above emerged, beautiful beads with simple sterling silver joins. They had no purpose other than play so I have given them one, a give-away. Just leave a comment and one of them may be yours - I will use a random selection method and do the draw on Sunday 26th April.

These memory wire bracelets were a lot of fun to make; I have such a lot of beautiful beads that don't work with my vintage/grunge/earthy styles, and spend way too long just looking at them. The bracelets will appear on my Etsy very soon. If you are in my Etsy store you will find some fantastic sale items as I am having a clean out.

I can't seem to capture the translucent nature of the paint on this canvas or the many layers, but never mind, it was a piece I enjoyed making, a piece where I learnt a lot about product and planning ahead.

Despite the fact we have a multitude of pet baskets and comfy chairs, for Charles to rest in, he has made some interesting choices this past week; the box I was dropping work into as I marked and then the shelf. I know, I should have scooped him off and growled, but it was too cute I ran for the camera instead. Don't you love how he is pretending not to see me?