Butterfly Award

Thankyou so much to the lovely lady who awarded me with the Butterfly Award. Darlene, who has a great blog, Artticulation I have not received any blog awards. So I am very honoured.

Here are the rules for receiving this award

1. Put the logo on your blog
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you
3. Nominate 10 other blogs for this award
4. Add links to those blogs
5. Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

These are the 10 others that I would definitely like to give this award to as well.

1. spun-Kaye
   
2. Spark Fiber Arts
   
3. Alis-Clair
   
4. Felted fibers
   
5. Sue Bleiweiss
   
6. Felt faction
   
7. Debbi Baker
   
8. Sacred Circle Mandalas
   
9. Digital Gran
   
10. Purple Missus
    

Journalistic Creations

As you can see I have started Sue B's fantastic journal making classes, this is an online class.
I have completed my first journal and gave it to a friend for her birthday at her party tonight.
I was very pleased, I have made other journals but Sue's instructions enabled me to finish it off with a more professional look. Love it and the instructions were so easy to understand.
I have started another one, more photos soon.
The one above was made using patchwork fabrics, of which I have heaps. To make the discs I used the same material as the outer cover of the journal and embroidered gold coloured organza on to it,and then just cut it out using a template. The paper inside is computer paper, I didn't have time to do much else. But I think I will make some paper for the next journals, because I so have time to do that. Laugh.

Felted Serendipity

Another photo of the mermaid, on display for a few days at a fibre exhibition held by the Coffs Harbour spinners and weavers, at the botanical gardens in Coffs Harbour.
The middle photo is a nuno shawl I made using hand dyed silk chiffon and hand dyed merino roving. The last photo is a piece of silk chiffon that I dyed. When I went to lay it out for felting I noticed the middle section looked like Australia, minus Tasmania. Sorry about that, Taswegians. But it was completely serendipitous.

Rebirth, or how we changed directions

If anyone remembers, or cares to search previous posts they will find a large felted mermaid I started making a few years ago. Now I did quite a lot of work on her and she was progressing quite nicely, but then I had a bit of a crisis of creative faith and life got in the way. So she was on the back burner for a long time.
Well, I have rescued her from the stagnant pool of lost interest and she has been reborn. I have fixed her face up and am now working on her hands. So far I have remade her hands twice. When I first started her I didn't have much of any idea of how I actually wanted her to look, so she was all blue eyes and pink cheeks. Now I feel more confident in my vision of what she needs to be, so she has green eyes and at the moment her lips have no colour because I have not been able to find the right colour. I may have to dye some wool for that.

The first photo is how I think her hair may look but she still has blue eyes. The middle photo is how she originally looked, not quite right. The last photo is on track. The hair is not done I am leaving that until last so it doesn't get tangled. I have been spinning various things together to get the right effect. It is coming along nicely.

Birdwatching and Sue Bleiweiss

On our trip to Victoria over Christmas we were also fortunate enough to visit the Melbourne Zoo. What a fantastic place!! We had a great day, the weather was kind, not too hot. I love the birds, these were taken in the enormous, walk through, bird aviary. The left photo is a pied heron, the middle picture is a wounded gannet, and the last is a blue billed duck. I am hoping to draw a couple of these in pastels. Or maybe watercolour, who knows.
Now the other thing I have done recently is signed up for one of Sue Bleiweiss' online classes. It starts January 23rd, I am hoping this will help inspire my creative will, which has slipped a bit lately. It is a class in making journals, I love paper, journals etc. They will make great presents.
I have been making some anyway, but I don't get the professional finish that Sue does.


These are three of the padfolios I have made. I was not unhappy with them, actually I quite liked them, but I need to learn more. Don't we all!! Then of course, I can make better ones. I am really looking forward to doing Sue's class. I am a subscriber to her Fibre & Stitch magazine, which I absolutely love. Her work is outstanding.
The above journals are made from hand dyed and handmade silk paper. I am keen to learn different surface techniques. Especially the brown paper bag surface.

Faraway in Yass

We travelled to Melbourne for Xmas, it was a long, hot drive. We drove from Sawtell to Yass, and stayed overnight. There were some beautiful buildings, the town hall with the clock. We went into an building that was a gift store and you could go upstairs for a look, the walls were missing plaster in some areas. In the days these buildings were erected the walls were plaster and lathe, as you can see this is what they looked like under the plaster. It was a wonder they were as smooth as they were. Lovely tiled patio, can't remember which building this was. It was a bit of a sad place. Many buildings were closed and boarded up. I can imagine in it's heyday it would have been a bustling, country town. But not anymore. Built on the sheep's back, I would imagine.

Another Year

Isn't it amazing how quickly time flies. My New Year's resolution, is to never make one again. No, that's not true. It is to keep up with this Blog. I love reading everyone else's and I do get easily distracted.
Have been doing some creative work. Mainly drawing and exploring different mediums, can't make up my mind if I like pastels or pencils the best. Haven't tried acrylic or oil paints yet, don't know that I should. The above is a partially completed pencil drawing of my youngest daughter. I have only recently started drawing, after developing an repetitive felting injury to my elbow and having to rest. Just hate that.
Made a nuno shawl this morning, in dark blue, with some brown and orange, it turned out quite well. Will make another one in the morning. The local spinners and weavers are having an exhibition next week. I have a table to fill. It is being held at the Coffs Harbour Botanical Gardens. Great venue, if you are in the area, do pop in and say hello. I will be there some days, but as it is the school holidays not too much.
The photo in the middle is just a bouquet I liked and the far right is a patch of yellow Kangaroo Paw. The red and green versions are the floral emblem for Western Australia.