Her Heart - and another!

I made a couple more heart hangers over the weekend! I'm definitely addicted -for the moment anyway!

'' Hers'

This one is made of a rusted piece of embroidered linen. I added a little more embroidery, a chiffon rose and some beads I found in my stash that look a little like seed pods or shells of some sort.

Jacobean Heart

The Jacobean Heart is made from an old printed serviette that my SIL gifted me earlier in the year (they had been left in a cupboard in a house she bought!) I added running stitch embroidery, a piece of whitework with some french knots, a Tim Holtz bird stamp and some lovely mother of pearl buttons. The back is plain white; cut from the same serviette.

If I get time today, I hope to add them to my etsy store which has been sitting unused for a while!

...a pair of hearts

I finished the last of the heart hangers in time to drop them off at the gallery on my way to work yesterday. Phew! It's been great to work to a deadline - makes me a little more focused!

Hope and Faith Heart Hangers

These were also made from fabric I painted and then stamped for Alisa Burke's Whimsical Women workshop. I stamped the gothic window stamp I recently carved onto rusted paper and machine stitched them onto the front of the hearts before joining. I love Alisa's 'Grafitti Style' and the black stitching really emphasises it! I added a chiffon rose, text and lazy daisy flowers. The copper stamped flowers are glaring a little in this early morning sunshine lit photo...

Off to do some more gardening! - weeding.... they are out of control after all the rain we've had!

Joy, Love and Bliss............

A really quick post before I leave for work............

The next batch of hearts are finished!

Bliss, Love and Joy

I have 2 more to do to get to the gallery on Friday... These have been such fun to make.

a Haggle of Hearts

I’ve made some sweet little heart hangers (maybe Christmas tree hangers) for the local gallery (Edelweiss Gallery). I had a mini production line going...

These three are finished and are made from the same base fabric

...a haggle of hearts.

3 finished; 2 needing hangers and further embellishment

Left: this one incoroporates some rust dyed paper

and the stamp I made last week

Right: I added further stamping to this fabric and incorporated

a piece of torn vintage doily

I used a mix of the hand painted/printed fabric I made for the online whimsical women workshop I did with Alisa Burke (to which I added more stamping!); vintage doily, commercial and hand dyed fabric and even a small piece of rusted paper!

I loved Alisa's grafitti style so much that I construced these hearts the same way as the art doll I learnt to make, with the seams on the outside!

I’ve embellished the finished ones with a some embroidery; a little chiffon rose; and a vintage button then added a wire hanger. I have 3 more cut out.... I'm on a roll.... (back to work tomorrow!)

Sold!

I sold another of my paintings at work today! Yay! That will help pay for some of the framing I've recently had done!

This one is acrylic on stretched canvas and was painted a couple of years ago.

' Tree of Life - Fragment'

Sorry about the poor resolution photo. I lost the better ones when the computer had a glitch a year or so ago. Note to self - take some more photos of older works!

Hope you all have a fabulous and creative weekend.....

Carving and Dyeing....

Results of today’s dye pot:

A small batch of Brown Onion Skin and Dark Red Rose Petals with iron added after taking out the silk. These will blend nicely with some others I have dyed......... The small square cloth at bottom left is a hand stitched serviette. I love recycling old household textiles!

I carved a couple of stamps- a wee bird and a goldfish that has been drawn for some time! Oh, and a little gothic window…….

I also printed the gothic window onto fabric but forgot to take a photo...

I've had a fun studio day and managed to have an enjoyable lunch and chat at friend's.

Back to work tomorrow......

Hope to be back soon....

of Holidays and Progress..........

Just a quick post....

Hopefully I'll get back and add some more bits and pieces tonight; but for now just some progress on Teapot and Pears..... I've been adding some glazes. I've still got a way to go.

A little something I did one night when Hubble and I were staying at Sanctuary Cove a few weeks ago. I packed a few art materials and thankfully had my watercolour pencils and a brush! This is on postcard size watercolour paper.

Abstract Landscape- postcard size

Pen and Wash on watercolour paper

Not so sure about this one! A little fertility figure...

Later.....

Fun in the Studio....!

At last! Here I am with some studio time... I've done dishes and washing and housework-YUK (the rest can wait now!)

Still Life SetUp in Studio

I’m going to paint 2 still life’s in a similar style to “Succulent in Terracotta”- (See pic in the bar at right.) Linda at Edelweiss Gallery has asked me to do a couple and given me some rough guidelines as to what her customer wants. I found a couple of old paintings which I've gessoed over. Some of the textural paint of the original paintings showed through so I used modelling compound to add an even more textured base. It dries a milky white colour so I overpainted that layer with a mix of 2 reds which I'm keen to try out as underpainting!

I’ve been inspired by the work of Katie Trinkle Legge who’s work I saw recently in the Monmo Gallery just north of Auckland NZ. Hers are oils and I noticed taht she used red underpainting. Her sense of colour and light is just fantastic. I would happily hang these in my home!! Wish I could paint like that!

Here are some shots of the progress of the first one!

Textured Red UnderPainting. Basic shapes marked out with pastel pencil and initial blocking out of areas.

Adding a bit of shading.

Adding some base colour

I'm going to use mostly glazes to change colours/shading and then add some finer detail last. Fingers crossed this works out!

of kiwis and a minature horse.

Wow! What a busy few weeks it’s been…..! Hubble and I were lucky enough to go to New Zealand for a short stay. We did a circuit around the tip of the North Island commencing and ending in Auckland (I’d not been to that part before) and we had a totally grand time…! I can recommend NZ as a holiday destination to anyone. It is an amazingly beautiful and diverse country. The people are wonderful, friendly and creative. (I'm not biased because I lived there for 10 years either!! )

Silly me let my driver’s licence expire so I couldn’t help Hubble with the driving (I only realised when we went to sign up for the hire car :< I was more than a little embarrassed and worried about what the process would be to have it renewed once back in Australia. Thankfully it was easy and I’m happy to say I’m a fully licensed driver again!)

Here are a few snaps from our little holiday….

Cape Reinga, the northern most tip of the North Island. Traditional Maori stories of this area are fascinating. Signage describes both the stories and topography brilliantly.

The waves of the Tasman Sea and Pacific Oceans meet here.

Our new favourite place: Mangonui

A historic village right on the sea. Local art and craft; lovely atmoshpere and views to die for!!

We stayed right in the heart of Auckland. This was the view from our hotel room.

Green rolling hills filled with sheep and dairy cows, leading to sand dunes and onwards to the sea.....!

Home again. And here is the latest member of our menagerie…!

SuziQ

Her name is SuziQ and we collected her on Sunday. She’s a miniature horse as opposed to a Shetland Pony and is not quite a year old. She’s quite a wild little thing but I’m sure she’ll get used to Puddleduck Farm and the other creatures and the comings and goings…. And that she’ll settle in beautifully!

On the creative front; I feel like I've hardly had any time to spend on anything slightly creative! I've tried to keep a bit of a journal of our trip. I have a commission for a still life painting. I'm going to do 2 simultaneously... I've prepared the canvases and will hopefully make a start later today or tomorrow before heading back to work on Wednesday. Where are the weeks going? The kids are still in Europe... and having a fabulous time. No doubt they'll have some great stories to share when they get home!!

We gardened most of yesterday. Both of us on mowers; one push mower and one ride-on. We attacked a few of the beds over-run with weeds and the nearly 2 acre house-yard is looking far from perfect but a lot more presentable!

Wishing you all a wonderful and creative week!

of Anniversaries and Amazing Castles

Wow! It’s been an amazing week! It was our 6th Anniversary on Sunday and my 45th Birthday on Tuesday. Hubble requested that I was ‘his’ for the weekend….! We set off on Saturday- destination unknown to me (I tried to get hints from him all week – but to no avail!) What an amazing and gorgeous surprise! We stayed in a castle (we’re talking rural New South Wales, Australia! Not Scotland! Not the UK or Europe.) This castle turns 100 years old this year and up until 7 years ago was owned by the one family… here is a link to a website with a little more info and some more photos; and another here.

We had perfect weather and even a misty morning........

I can highly recommend it for a weekend getaway! We were so lucky and had it COMPLETELY to ourselves for the weekend. We thoroughly enjoyed exploring all the nooks and crannies and the parapet and numerous balconies…. and we revelled in being King and Queen for the weekend!

A rotunda in a garden centre we stopped at on the way home.... would have been right at home in the castle grounds!

I caught up with my eldest daughter Kat for our birthdays this week.... about 8 hours driving to meet up for lunch. She's at Uni in Sydney and was up in Newcastle for a few days; so I took the opportunity to go and see her while she was a bit closer. Cee-Cee came too and was an angel all day! I'm so pleased she travels well.

I had a call from my work on my way home to say I'd sold a painting....! Wow, I'm so thankful. (that'll pay to get a few more framed!)

So, I've had a wonderful week.... back to work now.... Jon's boys are coming up for the long weekend and I hope to get some painting and gardening done! Maybe some art will created too..! Have a great creative week!

Oil Pastel Landscape

My first few hours in the studio for quite some time this quiet Sunday afternoon! I'm missing just coming in here whenever I like... my day job is taking up more and more of my time. I'm still enjoying it very much but will have even less time as I pick up an extra day/week as of this week..... The kids are away (going to Europe for 5 weeks with their Dad- lucky things!) So, it's just me and hubby and my beautiful wee Cee Cee (and the rest of the menagerie of course)...

I had a play around with my scrap/sketchbook and drew this small oil pastel landscape based on a trimming from the bottom edge of a magazine clipping I glued in. It wasn't a landscape but certainly had the feel of one....

I haven't posted any art or textile work on here for quite some time and feel a little guilty! Hopefully I'll be able to spend some more time in here on Tuesday!

Meet Cee Cee

Here is my new baby! Cee Cee.

She’s a 6-9 month old Maltese-Shitzu cross who we adopted from the RSPCA…. Jonny found her at the pound and thankfully no one claimed her! So, after a week we were able to bring her home. Mocha and Jazz - my crazy Burmese cats have their noses severely out of joint! I have them locked in the other half of the house and will gradually introduce them. BJ the Border Collie has welcomed her but he does make an awfully big play mate!

She is absolutely adorable! She's house trained and is just the gentlest wee girl! I love her so much already. I've wanted a little lap dog for so long and Cee Cee certainly fits the bill perfectly. Thank you to my darling hubby for finding her for me!! xxxxxxxxxxxoooooooooooo

Face Drawing Tutorial

I've signed up for a face drawing tutorial over at A Drawing Project with Judy McCarthy. Wow, I only spent a few minutes watching a short video and am amazed at the improvement already!

Judy's other blog can be found here!

The first two are quite quick sketches in a fairly cartoony sort of style. I drew the bottom one whilst watching the video and taking notes. The linework/ small amount of shading etc is the same; Really the only diference is simply the proportions! If you're interested in drawing better faces you might like to pop on over to Judy's drawing blog.

I hope my scanned sketchbook page shows up clearly enough here.

Books, books, book...!

For those of you interested in Books; my daughter sent me a link to a wonderful book sales site (UK) called the Book Depositry and the books seem very reasonably priced - the bonus being they don't charge postage! Worldwide!

For example that wonderful Boro book that we would all love to own is only $57.11 AU and no postage. It is $70.20 US on Amazon plus postage (and they have only 1 copy!) They seem to have a great selection of textile titles too.....

I'm heading back over there now......! ; )

Headless Tuesday!

Here’s a quick update on my Whimsical Woman! It seems that a lot of the things I work on are auto-biographical…..(maybe even everything in some context)

This is made from hand painted and then stamped fabric. See last few posts. It also has some textile dye pastel, fabric marker and various fabric scraps. This is inspired by Alisa Burke’s online workshop. I just had to add legs though! The pink and black stripe is a commercially printed cotton which I over printed with a stamp and black acrylic paint (I’ve only ever made one other Art Doll to date – my Gaia Earth Mother)

Now that the body is stuffed I wish I’d put the little fabric collage a little lower.. oh well, I’ll remember for next time! Don’t quite know what I’m doing with her hair yet – I just know that it will be wild (like mine!) Gaia’s hair was ripped fabric – I may do something similar if I can find some suitable locks!

I hope to get this finished today. Art group and visitors for dinner tomorrow and then back to work on Thursday… where does the week go?

I couldn’t upload the photos from my camera as the battery had died...... I’m back after recharging it and now have the head on my WWW (Wild Wee Wiffy) or Wicked Whimsical Woman perhaps?

I’ll attach a few more found objects; cover the neck joint with a scarf and perhaps jewelery and her hair isn’t quite finished yet either………

Whilst I was waiting for those batteries to recharge, I also had a little go at smooshing some violets onto cotton- what a lovely image! I hope they retain some of the colour. Even if it fades or browns off I’m amazed at the detail! (Actually, it was a little more than smooshing; more like smashing!! :) )

of August progress...

Firstly a little something I whipped up one night last week. Inspiration was from something I saw on Alisa Burke's blog (actually. I think it was her website!) I've worn it a couple times already and really love it. The gold colour is hand dyed silk, and the black is cotton. Very quick and fun to wear! Thanks Alisa!

Hand stitched pendant

I’ve just started quilting this after basting it to thin cotton; I’ve now added a hand dyed upcyled fabric piece to the back and it feels soooo nice as I’m quilting. Not sure about adding creeks or rivers now… I’ll see how I feel about it once the quiting is done. Loving those little ripples!

Earth Skin - Hand stitched silk

I did a little stamping onto my hand painted fabric pieces –(destined to become the bodies of my Whimsical Women (dolls). I’ve jumped ahead a little with my online course with Alisa Burke. It’s very enjoyable and it’s making me combine some techniques both new and familiar. Most importantly I’m having fun…. And I think that’s what life’s all about!

Flower Stamp (acrylic paint) on hand painted fabric


Eye stamp (acrylic paint), textile marker and textile dye pastel

Mixed Media WIP

My third post for the day! ... but I'm hoping to make up for the lull in postings!

I've also been working on this piece after being inspired by Jesse Reno's work. Please do yourself a favour and check out his artwork on his website and any video you can catch of him working.

Mixed Media WIP

Detail

I came across his work a few months ago via someone else’s blog but lost the link and couldn’t remember his name..... By chance I came across his work again a few days ago and spent some time checking out his brilliant artwork & watching a few of the videos of him working. I find his technique fascinating… so…last night I had a bit of a play around; I’ve done a little more on it today too, but fear I have already got too precious and there are parts of it I don’t want to cover up.

Will attack it another day or maybe later on tonight when I can free up a bit again. I don't want to think about it too much. It is great fun to do and so hands on. Not my usual style or colours or anything really- Just wanted to have a go! (Don't let this put you off looking at Jesse's work! I adore his work but have just tried the technique and materials to see what I could come up with!)

He says in an interview that he wanted to do archaeology as a child... that was my dream also! I love the detail and layers in his work... If you're lucky enough to be in the US- he does workshops too!

of Whimsical Women...!

So, What do you do when your online course finishes? Sign up for another course, of course! This time with Alisa Burke. I have visited her blog before and came across it again yesterday. I saw that she runs online workshops and so have signed up for Whimsical Women! It is a mixed media course and runs over 5 weeks. Although I can access all of the lessons at once; I am going to attempt to follow in order and spend a week on each lesson as suggested! (Now there’s a challenge in itself!)

So, today I have been playing around with fabric and paint! And haven’t I had fun? Back to work tomorrow so I’ve made the most of my studio time today! I'm very much interested in learning lots of new and different techniques which I can apply to my own work.

I also like the little bit of structure a course gives me. I'm sometimes pretty hopeless at motivating myself or setting goals to achieve!

These two pieces were just paint onto white cotton... I like the heading on the newspaper under!

This one was just a simple monoprint on glass... easy... and quick and fun!

I love the colours in these two monoprints. I added a bit more paint to the glass for the second one, drew in another image and just love the ghost effect of the previous image showing up.

These will be overprinted/ stamped/ painted/ embroidered or whatever before cutting up to make Whimsical Women! This is such fun....!