Workshop preparation

In 10 days time I am heading up the highway to Ballarat to spend 2 days teaching at the Ballarat Embroiderers Guild conference- Autumn Leaves. 

I am looking forward to it and I have been getting put the materials to take and working out how I will present the class. 

 So far my plan is to focus the class with a theme of 

 " Preparing a Feast : when the ordinary becomes extraordinary." 

I am excited as this will give the participants plenty of scope but hopefully give those who find it difficult to know where to begin, a starting point. 

We will be doing heaps of fun stuff, like printing, dyeing and collaging. 

German Houses and Italian walking art

Well it is has been way too long between posts. My humble apologies, I have been making things truly!! It's just that life got in the way and I couldn't seem to catch my breath, let alone do a blog post.
So enough excuses.

I am on my way to the creation of a body of work, 2 down ..... who knows how many to go.

"The German Book of Houses"was the first to be completed, this is painted and stitched on heavy paper.

Next came "Walking the Cinque Terre." A sculptural piece constructed on shoe lasts I was given when a friend found them in the loft of their newly purchased house.

My visual diary is getting full of ideas and the next piece will emerge soon, hopefully I will get a lot done in the next couple of weeks as it is school holidays now. 

Wishing you a Blessed Easter

Preparation for art time

The time has come to stop procrastinating and start work. My garden is nearly all weeded and dug over so I really need to knuckle down to some art work. The weather here in Melbourne is hot, so being in the studio is tempting as I have air-con to keep me sane.

To start the process I needed to sort out the many brochures and maps I brought home from the trip. I started this by sorting into a bag per country.  Already I feel less overwhelmed!

Next,  a visual diary. I decided that I would make one and try to make it a well organised and visually interesting diary rather than my usual mess. So i have stitched together pages of different types and sizes of paper so that I have different surfaces to work on and the size may help determine the piece.

The next thing I have done is to print up thumbnail prints of photos from each country, as I noticed when I looked at a country/city's photos all together that there were commonalities in the colours, patterns and textures, so I hope to capture these in my work as I start the creative process.

So now I have no excuse!! Just got to stop being distracted.... oh that short attention span.

Holiday Activity time

Wow, I have not posted anything for ages.
It is summer holidays here and I have been busy firstly preparing for Christmas, then having a lovely  holiday up north in Queensland, and now when the temperature is 35 degrees Celsius it is finally time to get into the studio, finish off small tasks and catch up on the back log of emails and blog posts.

One of my holiday tasks was to mosaic a wall on our verandah, I managed to do this on one of the beautiful days we had before the heat arrived.

Gardening came next, but now it is time to get into the preparation for the next body of work relating to the BIG TRIP. Hopefully inspiration will come ( in between swims in the neighbours pool)

Well to those of you in Australia, I hope you are keeping cool!

Big Bargain Sale!!!!!!!!

Sale of Stash...... Begins at 10 am tomorrow!! It will be in the shop Opendrawer - near the corner of Summerhill Rd and Toorak Rd Hartwell 

I have been busy cleaning out and reducing my big collection of beads, embroidery ribbons and wool,  fabric, thread, lace and other assorted an collected materials. I will also have some freebies too- anything to get rid of the pile- mention you read this blog and I will have a gift for you!!

See you tomorrow!?

  

fabric

 beads

more fabric

 beautiful cotton thread and fine crochet needles

and this is what my studio looks like now.... more cleaning up to be done!!

Sale of Stash

 The time has come, I need to clean out my studio.

Opendrawer is having a Recycle your stash Market next Saturday November 10 at 1158 Toorak Rd Camberwell ( Hartwell shops) between 10am and 4pm. 

I am selling various materials, such as embroidery wool - beautiful range all very cheap, fabric, small fabric pieces, beads, lace, the list goes on. 

It depends on how much I manage to prise away from myself..... oh maybe I will need that one day...... 

There will be heaps of others who are doing the same thing.. (I will have to be strong and not get rid of my pile to add to it with someone else's pile)

If you want to stock up in an economical way ( and help me and other fabric tragics out) then pop on down to Hartwell next Saturday between 10am and 4 pm You never know what you will find... you could even just come to say Hi!

Here's a couple of pics just to tempt you

 beautiful embroidery/tapestry wool in colour bags of course!!

 fabric- kids, upholstery, cotton

 glitzy bits - small and larger pieces

                     and of course there will be much more!!

                                 Hope to see you there!

Printing without a press workshop

So you have always wanted to learn how to make prints?
 If you would like to do a workshop with me learning  easy printmaking techniques, there is a class scheduled to run at Opendrawer a lovely shop in Hartwell (near Camberwell, Victoria ) next week, Friday 9 November. For details check out the website.
What a great way to spend a day, relaxed and fun printmaking, you could even get a few Christmas gifts or cards done.