Sunday, December 20, 2009

KK necklace

Lucy has  received and opened the necklace I made as her Kris Kringle present, so I can now show everyone else. The beads were made from Primo polymer clay. I think it is called Blue Pearl. I was surprised that the colour wasn’t even throughout each bead. I’m not sure if it’s meant to happen or if I somehow messed up but I actually like the effect.

005I haven’t got my muse back as far as paper or digital art is concerned, but I am really enjoying the jewelry side of things.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Back on Air

I haven’t posted for  a  couple of months for a variety of reasons. Lost muse, lost internet connection, computer crashes etc. But I think had I anything really creative going on, I would have worked quicker to get all the problems fixed.
Anyway, a visit to Lisa’s fantastic boutique style shop in Upwey, Voski Von Muller, inspired  me so much with the funky clothes and accessories, that I came home full of ideas.
I started off by making some fused plastic and making a little pouch for my phone, plus another purse.
I then started another project which I won’t talk about yet because it involves my Kris Kringle gift for my Arty Oz partner. I also tried the “fried marble” technique which was incredibly easy and has stunning results-see below.
Then last Saturday, I attended a class with Ro Bruhn, and made a rather funky necklace. Ro has a lovely house with a great classroom, she’s a terrific teacher, and her  husband Steve fed us very, very well. If you get a chance to do a class with her, I can thoroughly recommend it.
Then, for the past couple of days, I have been working on a way of incorporating my fried marbles into a necklace. It took a while for me to figure out the wire wrapping but  it was worth the effort. Unfortunately the photo doesn’t really show the crystalline effect of the marbles.
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Yesterday I attended the Walk against Warming in Melbourne. I was tempted not to go because I had slept very poorly, but I believe the issue is the most important one confronting our poor planet, and think that the politicians need to see how many of us are concerned and watching them. It was comforting to be in the company of 40,000 others (accordng to the Age), young and old, who feel the same way I do- that we would love to be wrong, but if we are wrong, not nearly as much will be lost, as will be if the sceptics are wrong.
Sceptics used to deny climate change, however they have really lost that battle. Now their argument has slid to denying that humans beings are responsible for that change – an excuse to do  nothing or virtually nothing-(very reminiscent of the tobacco companies and their apologist scientists).  Imagine the fate of future generations if they are wrong- innundated Pacific Islands, far greater famine in Africa, severe droughts in Australia and massive loss of food production, plus the possibility of more catastrophic bush fires in many countries. I believe we are running out of time to act. We need a Fair, Ambitious and Binding treaty now.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Moon Magic

I am loving the Three Muses Wednesday Challenge as it provides the stimulus to start new or complete old pieces. This one started as an altered book spread in a Joy Bathie  class. As is my form in classes, I didn’t complete it. So the background is painted and stamped and then I have digitally added the foreground image, moon and a bit more texture.

moon magic Moon Magic

Image Googled.I used two DW brushes, one from the Papermoon set and the other from the Special Effects set. The stamp is from the Making Memories foam set, Floral Dingbats.

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Sunday, September 6, 2009

Two for one

Last week I sent Ben a birthday card, only to realise that he would arrive home before the card reached him. I had to think quickly of a card to make, as I wouldn’t have time to buy one. I decided the Three Muses Wednesday Challenge (http://thethreemuseschallenge.blogspot.com/ ) might be the starting point so I made a card with him as Charlie Chaplin.
Being short of time this week I decided to use that image and the original for my entry in the challenge. I wanted to play with ordering layers. I still have a lot to learn, but here is my effort for this week.
A bunch of Charlies A Crowd of Charlies!

Saturday, August 22, 2009

A freebie

Here's a collage sheet I made using some of my stash of postcards etc.

ephemera

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Thursday, August 20, 2009

Wings on things

Here's my entry in the Three Muses' Wednesday ChallengeThe Scream Revisited.

The Scream Revisited

I guess it only very loosely fits the description as I think I was supposed to put wings on something that doesn't necessarily have wings. Still, the bird's wing is "on" the "screamer"...

After last weeks cheery entry I wanted to try something a little gothic. When thinking of wings, I immediately came up Alfred Hitchcock's film, "The Birds". It was then just a matter of finding a way to portray the horror.

The skyline and birds are brushes from JMC Designs- Skyline. The sky is from one of my own photos, and the "screamer" is my rendition of Munch's character.

It is deliberately greyscale to suit the mood.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Never enough!

I have mentioned my friends, Claire and Kirk, before and how I love the sunsets viewed from their property in north eastern Victoria. I visited them again recently and didn't bother to take my camera from the car as I thought I had enough sunset shots from their place. How wrong I was.

Kirk and I were talking, when I looked out the window and flew out of my seat shouting, "oh my god!" The sky outside was the most amazing streaks of pink and gold. Of course I couldn't immediately find the camera in the bottom of a suitcase in the car, and by the time I did, the best of it had gone. Here's some of what I did manage to capture -

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I don't actually know if these are the best shots, 'cos i still haven't got full colour. Long sigh......

Anyway my new laptop should arrive on Wednesday and then I just have to figure out how to connect it to the internet via a wireless network.

On the way home from their place the following day, I saw a rainbow such as I have never seen before. It wasn't so much in the sky, as entirely in front of a row of hills, so that the hills themselves were painted different colours. Of course I couldn't find anywhere to pull over so I couldn't capture it. However,it has inspired me to try some digital imaging to try to recapture something of what I saw. This will be one of my first projects when my new computer arrives.

Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef Project

Did you know about this? Until yesterday I didn't. Aussie mathematicians Christine and Margaret Wertheim, who run the Institute of Figuring, in New York (I think), have started this project. Apparently hyperbolic crochet is the best way to represent the growth of a coral reef. So to raise awareness of how coral reefs are endangered and to celebate women's handcrafts, they have run workshops and invited people to add their own little bit of reef to the original project. 

 Check it out here

There are also a number of side projects.

On the main page  there is a link to the Sydney group who are exhibiting in August.

Collaborative projects with yarn are certainly taking off. Have you seen Dneese's guerilla knitting projects?  How cool is that!!!

Saturday, August 15, 2009

HATS

 

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This is  my first entry in a Wednesday Challenge in The Three Muses. I was particularly attracted to this challenge because one of my favourite pics from my trip to Turkey was the photo I took in the hat shop.

I chose a new project with a transparent background. I then created a new layer, opened the hat photo, selected the part I wanted, cut it and pasted it to the new layer. Then I resized it to cover the entire background.

Next I created another layer and then opened the picture of my friend wearing one of the hats. I used the elliptical marquee to select what I wanted and then cut and pasted to the new layer. I resized it and moved it where I wanted it. Then I used the eraser tool to take away the edges and create a torn look to the image.

I then went into the layer styles and played around with blending until I found an opacity level I was  happy with. At this point I also selected the notepaper filter to  give the image the faded sepia look.

Now my dodgy computer decided to lose most of the colour, but I valiantly soldiered on! I merged the top layer down.

Creating another layer I used the eyedropper to select one of the hat colours (not being able to distinguish the actual colour!) and then chose the text tool and the warp/arch mode. I wrote the first word, and chose +50 bend   and -30 horizontal. I then resized and moved the text. I repeated this whole process (with -50 and +30) for the word on the other side. Last, but not least, I flattened all the layers to reduce the size of the file and saved it as a jpeg.

The title comes from the fact that my friend was beside herself with delight when we discovered this shop behind the Blue Mosque and tried on almost every hat in the shop before deciding on one to buy.

I am very curious to see how it actually turned out if ever the colour comes back on the screen/or when my new computer arrives!  In the meantime I think I am going to experiment with replacing colour and applying filters and see what happens of it. I might get some interesting art. Then again it may end up as rubbish. I guess which it is will be in the eye of the beholder!

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Sunday, July 26, 2009

A nightmare and a dream of a workshop.

Yesterday started very badly. I woke up around two thirty chanting this catchy little number, ''crack crack sore head, crack crack brain dead"! The immediate image in my head before I awoke, was looking for someone and finding a whole bunch of bloodied people hanging from the wall in a freezer room. This really freaked me out and  it is still visually very strong in my mind. It's been a long time since I had a nightmare, and I can usually track back my dreams to some sort of influence during the preceding day. I hate to think what inner depths  this came from!!

Anyway, things rapidly improved, as we, SisterArts, had our first day of workshops with Keith Lo Bue. The workshop focuses on techniques for using re-bar wire for jewellery and to embellish small sculptural pieces. We had 11 students apart from Kathy and me, and all of us got a lot from the class. Keith is a great teacher and I learned so much, even if, as an organiser I didn't have quite as much time to practice all the techniques.

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The great thing about using this wire is that it is very cheap so one can really be adventurous without worrying about messing up. As I am not taking any regular classes or doing any regular committee work this term, I intend to spend lots of time playing with things I have learned today and in a number of workshops over the past year or so

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Working on Workshop

The last week or so I have been trying to get together the supplies Kathy and I need for our Keith Lo Bue workshops. It's taken quite some time and many visits to various hardware stores, craft shops and jewellers' supplies. I sure it will be worth every mile, hour and cent.

Now it's time to get together the supplies needed to run the workshop, so no art or photography has even been attempted. However I have uploaded some more pics of our trip to Facebook.

Even if you aren't a member you can still view the pics on the following public links-

The magical Istanbul

Album 2

It looks like I will have to buy a new computer. I have been having trouble with the graphics crashing for a time, and no tech has managed to fix it, but now the picture frequently loses colour-leaving me with two shades of purple and yellow! Not ideal when my major use of the computer is art. I have put this off for so long because I'd rather spend the money elsewhere- travelling mainly! I am considering a Dell Studio 15 notebook which has had pretty good writeups. Any comments very, very welcome.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Next stop Jet lag Junction!

It seems like forever since I last posted. In the meantime I have been on the move in Turkey and Greece. I had intended to send the occasional post from O/S but getting access to the internet was not easy. It seems more and more hotels are providing hotspots rather than actual computers, so I am thinking that before I go away again, I will have to investigate an iphone or netbook or something of the kind. I'd like some opinion on this, if anyone has had experience of one or t'other or both.

This trip to Turkey was with the same tour group (Turkish Magic) and several of the people from my first tour in 2007. As Margaret, one of the first timers, said to me, it was like meeting up with family again. We did have to explain to our guide, Metin, that we do have a range of first names in Australia , even if on this tour we had four Margarets (though one has never been know as this) two Denises, two Helens and two Johns!

I have had a massive dose of jet lag since I got home. Seems getting upgraded on the final leg from Dubai, and having my first ever real sleep on a plane, was to be paid for by days and days of not being able to get to sleep before 3am at the earliest.

Still it was all worth it. I left Turkey loving it even more and feeling more than a little sad that I would probably be there again. Then I decided that this is too final and maybe someday I will have to make Istanbul a stopover on the way to somewhere else. It really is a magical city, and the Turkish people are regarded by all I have met, who have visited Turkey, as the warmest, most hospitable people in the world.

I will be posting albums of photos on my Facebook Page page so I'll only put a few here.

On our first day we went looking for, and found a former medresse which had been turned into craft studios. It was still there, but the small restaurant was gone and was replaced by a much posher affair in the hotel next door. The outdoor area was gorgeous.

lunch first day backlamp at hotel My travelling companion Denise is carefully cut out of the first photo as she likes her privacy and doesn't believe we need to reveal our lives on the net. So you won't see her in any of the pics. Shame really.

crazy hats A small part of the hat display in a store in a shopping lane behind the Blue Mosque.

The contrasts are quite amazing-modern hotels and shopping lanes, minutes from derelict Ottoman buildings,

derelect buildingreflections

and the obelisk in the Hippodrome (with the Blue Mosque partially visible in the background.

obelisque

And then there's the Spice Bazaar!

spices

On another note entirely, I am very pleased to announce that SisterArts' Keith Lo Bue workshops will go ahead on July 25th and 26th

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Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Keith Lo Bue workshops in Melbourne

Kathy and I are very pleased to announce that Keith Lo Bue has agreed to teach a couple of workshops for us on July 25 and 26.


WORKING WITH WIRE - SAT 25 JULY 2009
GETTING ATTACHED - SUN 26 JULY 2009

Details will be in the files on our Yahoo Group SisterArts shortly.  If you're interested, and not a member already, click on the sidebanner icon to join.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

A slip, a trip and a blip.

Over the past couple of weeks life has been interesting, to say the least. My friend Denise, with whom I am going to Turkey and Greece in less than two weeks time, managed to break bones in her foot. She is on crutches and we have been keeping fingers and toes (unbroken!) crossed that she will be healed enough to do the trip. It is looking pretty positive now as she will probably be at the stage of wearing one of those most graceful blow up boots. A plus for having such an injury is that we will be well looked after by the airlines involved. A downer is that if she is still on crutches, much of the climbing at historical sites will be beyond her.

I am a little worried about dealing with the whole luggage thing though, as with tendonitis in my shoulder, I am not really capable of dealing with her luggage as well as mine, on the tour itself. I also know that, no matter how kind they are, fellow travellers can get pretty sick of helping someone at every stop.

Apart from helping Denise get set up, I have been up country again, visiting a friend near Wangaratta, and then spending a few days with Mum, taking her to Deniliquin and then having Mothers' Day together.

The sunsets from Claire's verandah never cease to grab me. I have taken so many photos of them over the years, in all seasons, and I couldn't resist this time.

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Look how it transforms a cream wall

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And what is is drying on the verandah?

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and

 

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and

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Claire and Kirk have always had a fabulous vegetable garden and have been virtually self sufficient with their veggies until now. But the drought has caught up with them, the dams are virtually dry, and the veggie patch will be pretty small this year.

 

 

By cheer bad management ( I just zoned out) on the way to Claire's, I ended up having to cut across country from Healesville to the Melba Highway just near the Kinglake turnoff. How fortuitous that turned out to be.

The route takes you through the country side where much of the Black Saturday fire activity took place. What struck me was the juxtaposition of the bright green regrowth and  the brilliant autumn colours of the exotic trees not damaged by the fires  over the blacks and greys of the fire damage. I found it incredibly beautiful.

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I nearly always have the camera at the ready these days but couldn't find many places to stop, so I planned to come back the same way hoping to find more opportunities to stop on the other side of the road. Unfortunatley at the crucial points where I had especially wanted to take photos I had a whacking great bus bearing down on me at breakneck speed, and I couldn't go slowly enough to find appropriate parking spots.

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So I never did get that juxtaposition I found so appealing.  A shame, as at the moment, photography is almost all I am doing artistically as I don't need to get out or clean up any gear. I expect this will be the way of it until I get back from our trip.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Lest We Forget

I spent the my usual ANZAC Day crying as I watched the service at Gallipoli. It has become very meaningful for me since I visited Anzac Cove in 2007. As I watched the service today I was so glad  we were able to visit the peninsula without hordes of other visitors. It was a time for walking amonsgst the gravestones, quiet meditation and  horror as I saw the ages of the Australian, New Zealand and Turkish men who died in that battle. In that quiet, beautiful place, one needed solitude to imagine the ships coming in, the men battling and maybe dying before getting to the shore, and the bullets raining down on them (in the museum we saw bullets fused together as they had hit one another, so many were flying through the air).

 

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As the mother of a son, I looked for, and found plenty of young Anzacs and Turks of around the same age and the emotion was overwhelming. Was it ever thus, young men dying in old men's wars.

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It was really striking just how small the whole cove is. I wonder why it seems quite large in the televised service. Perhaps it's the type camera lens used. It has also struck me that the pilgrimages being made every year for ANZAC Day, is actually destroying the peninsula, as the Turks widen roads etc to accomodate the tourists. Perhaps the dawn service there should be limited to officials, forces and family members. The rest of us can visit another time.

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There has been talk about whether or not ANZAC Day should become our national day. I hate the idea. I don't think ANZAC Day is  a day to celebrate: it is about commemoration, honouring the dead,  acknowledging mateship and great bravery, and reflection upon the chaos, destruction and futility  of war. Australia Day is about celebration and rejoicing in our way of life. The two may have links but I don't think they're the same thing. Still, I think mine is a minority view.

What do you think?

Some freebies

I've been pretty slack artistically lately so I thought I'd make some recompense by putting up some freebies from my collection of postcards, playing cards and cabinet cards. They may take a while to load as I kept the files larger than usual, so hopefully they will print better. My computer is dying. It's like a TV where the picture tube has lost most of the colour. I can't afford a new one and a trip to Turkey in June , so I'll just have to make do. I hope these are OK.

baby's birthday

children

girl in blue

child

young man

More to come!

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Tuesday, April 21, 2009

To thine own self be true...!

A few weeks ago I caught up with a couple of friends in Bairnsdale. On two evenings I took very different photos a sunset and a cloudy sky (see earlier post) Then, the week before Easter I took my first walk at Birdsland since the fires. I was upset by the damage but also pleased with how, so soon, the green is starting to come back.

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On Easter Monday, Ben and I went for a drive into the hills. I wanted to see for myself the damage on the Black Spur, and to have a look at Marysville, where I had been to several conferences and always planned to go back to. I thought I would find material for 'arty" photos and ignored the nagging doubt about whether or not it was the right thing to do.

I should have listened to the inner me.

When we arrived the places was absolutely packed. I have never seen so many cars in the town. Everyone was walking around with cameras and I thought of flies around a dung heap. I felt sick and couldn't stop or get out of the car. I couldn't even stop to have a look at the guest house where I used to stay. To be honest, I found it very hard to orientate myself anyway. Anyway,I felt we were all voyeurs and vultures and just wanted to get out of town, I felt so ashamed to be part of it.

So I have no photos of Marysville or any little parts thereof, just an abiding sadness for what has gone. I also have the knowledge that my first instincts are usually right, that I am unlikely to ever be able to make art of something which has caused others so much pain and I certainly couldn't be a photo journalist, much as I might admire them.

So, here's to new beginnings rebirth

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And here's a digital collage using the cloudy night and one of my burnt forest photos.

digital collage2.

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International Charm Day!

If you'd like to join this celebration of all things charming (pardon the terrible pun!) click on the title to head over to the International Charm Day blog. There is no swap, just a sharing of pics, ideas, links and tutorials. You could also be in line for a prize by simply following the blog.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

A gift from Ben- professional photos taken.

Ben had two weeks at home for Easter and informed me he had arranged for us to have professional photos taken. The last ones we had, I think he was about 10! I was chuffed to think that he'd want  to do something like that, but I do hate having pics taken as I am not at all photogenic, and hate the forced smiles.

Anyway, the process was not at all painful, though I did discover I actually pull away from the camera and it it felt very awkward and unbalanced to  lean forward.

Heidi  used a digital SLR to take  over 120 photos, which were immediately uploaded so we could make our selections before we left. I must say I was really  happy with lots of the photos and it was difficult to narrow them down. We eventually got it to ten.

The pics arrived today and I couldn't be happier.  My favourite is this . IMG_3315 It was the only one that looked any good in black and white. We ordered an 8 x10, but when I got home and had another look at our smaller images on the receipt I decided I wanted a bigger one again so I ordered it in a 12 X14, which I may just have mounted behind glass rather than framed.

There were several of us that I really liked but these in particular-

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BTW Ben is semi crouching in the first one, so the height difference is not so great!

And who'd have believed I could look this glam!

IMG_3247 I had mentioned to Ben that I hoped Heidi didn't attempt to take out my wrinkles. Admittedly she used a portrait lens but I still have my crows feet etc but they just don't stand out! This photo is pretty much as it was originally shot.

It was well worth the money, but I am trying to get Ben to accept that this could be my 60th birthday present rather that just a gift out of the blue.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Back to normal-I hope!

Life has definitely got in the way of art over the past 5 weeks. The death of a relative, and those of parents of two close friends,the serious illness of my close friend's husband,  3 evacuations and two trips to the country  meant that a lot of the time I didn't know if I was coming or going. On top of that, I have either had a nasty virus or I was very badly affected by the smoke coming from the fires, so I was feeling lousy most of the time.

Also I never seemed to be able to find what I wanted because it was in a suitcase, or had been taken out and put somewhere else! I did have to keep reminding myself that by comparison with those who had lost family members or houses, I was really pretty lucky.

The past week has been much better. I spent 6 days with two old friends, one recently rediscovered. We talked, ate, slept , read books (one I had started 3 times previously) and visited several galleries. It was just what I needed for mental and physical replenishment.

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I love the night sky in the country. The sunset on our first night was stunning. Two nights later, the moon and clouds were much more sinister.

                                    anticipation

On a drive to Nungurner, these mail boxes looked like little mouths open in anticipation

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On a walk along the old rail track, I saw these rusty cans. Can't resist a bit of rust!

The day after I got back, I attended a workshop by Stephanie Lee which was organised by Bevlea Ross, and her daughter, of Soul Arts. I loved the workshop, particularly as as it was largely techniques and there was no pressure to finish a product. I rarely manage that in a class. I have some bits that I will finish when I find the right elements to incorporate.

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A few of the "bits" waiting on the Muse, and the purchase of some flux, for completion

The retreat seemed to be very successful and I would have loved to have attended more workshops but, as I am going to Turkey and Greece at the end of May, I just couldn't afford it. Mind  you, with the dive in superannuation funds, I can't really afford the trip either! But some of it was planned and paid for before I knew how bad things were.

Now I hope life can start getting back to normal. I have a lot of house cleaning to do, as there is a layer of dust/ash over everything. I also have to unpack all the stuff I had in the car to evacuate. In addition, I am  planning a big clean out of ornaments and such. For some time I have felt very oppressed by "stuff". I feel burdened by possession and even things I love are giving me little pleasure. The problem will be to determine which of those bits and pieces that I love I am prepared to part with.

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