Leafygal

I'm still alive!

How many times have I said that I'm back and blogging again? Too many...so here goes again.

View from OG Living Room

Since I was last here we have moved a couple of times, one a temp one for about a year to my family home in Ocean Grove and now to our new, hopefully forever home, in Leopold, about half way between Geelong and Ocean Grove so we can visit both places fairly easily. We moved in last May so have been here for a year now. Still have some things to hang on the walls.

Corona Virus has kept us confined to barracks for a couple of months now - apart from the terrible nature of this virus and the devastating effects on lives and the economy, I have quite enjoyed the chance to have a quieter life for a while. I miss having dinners with friends and family, but not having to go to meetings or activities has made me more settled and calmer I think

I'm still playing with Arty Things - Embroidery and Mixed Media stuff. I thought I'd be catching up with lots of unfinished pieces but a sense of inertia has pervaded the place and I don't seem to be getting much done. Quite a few friends have been feeling the same.

Currently doing an online course at Fibre Arts two which is the group that usually runs the course that I have attended in Ballarat and last year in Adelaide. This course is Inspired by Nature - Exploring Mixed Media with Tara Axford. It involves doing some walking in a natural environment, taking lots of photos and collecting bits and pieces to give a sense of place. We made and photographed vignettes of the things we had found and then tried to create a colour palette that reflected that place. Next up to do some Gelli plate printing to create background papers for use in collage.

Catch up, or, you're never behinder than this!

Well Xmas has once again whisked by without much of a trace (a few Kilos of extra weight are a sad reminder of much merriness and jollity!)

We enjoyed a break with family at the house in Ocean Grove and are now back in the swing of a new year. Already time is passing at a fearsome rate.

Notable events so far include a new addition to the family - my brother's new baby - shown here on the journey from South Australia back to home base.

He plans to restore and run this 1965 Bedford bus for Weddings Parties and Anything including tours of local wineries and eateries. It will run as Menzies Passenger Services, reviving the busline that my grandfather used to run between Ocean Grove and Geelong.

I think it's a great idea and hope that the work required goes swiftly - I'm looking forward to winery services!

One of my more achievable resolutions this year is to devote more time to the creative side and to this end have once again joined in a "Background paper for Art journals" swap for the group Collage Unleashed. I've been working on the papers for a week, having to wait for bits to dry. I've finished my 22 pages and they will be on their way tomorrow to the States. The theme this time was Year of the Rabbit with the emphasis on Chinese New Year - hence my colours of red and gold.

Here are some samples - back and fronts. Colour looks a little washed out here. They were done with acrylic painted backgrounds with stamps, torn chinese papers and gold and red tissue collaged on.

Gold circles were made using the bottom of a container as a stamp with gold paint and a final spritz with copper coloured Moon Shadow mists gave an aged look to the fronts. I hope the others find them easy to use for journalling. It will be interesting to find out how others interpret the theme.

I can't not mention the disastrous floods in Queensland and northern NSW - the worst recorded.

I know that several friends are safe  above the flood level but are without power. Imagine the clean up that faces everyone once things get back to what will pass for normal!  The fires here in Victoria were a major disaster but I can't help thinking that the clean up of ash - heartbreaking though it was, is nothing compared to stinking, putrid and disease ridden mud.

This is truly a strange country - we struggle through droughts for years, praying for rain then the heavens open and we get back all the water that evaporated in one massive deluge. We are never satisfied, but sometimes it just doesn't seem right!!

 

LIttle Boxes...not ticky tacky I hope!

Here are the altered tins I did for my mmartfriends group swap.

We were supposed to use Altoids tins which are cute rectangular tins with hinged tops sold in the USA with mints inside. I know I have one somewhere in my stash but couldn't find it for the swap. They don't seem to sell them here any more, and I didn't like the mints either!!

One person in our swap said she hates them and had to give away all the mints  - she can't even stand the smell! Such dedication to art!!!

I resorted to round tins sold here with what I know as boiled lollies in them - flavours that we were forced to eat were "Lemon Drops" and "Pear and Blackcurrant drops" - just for the record.

My tins started with a lovely paper with Ginkgo leaves printed on it. I added some contrasting red paper around the edges and gold tissue inside the lid.

The medallion on top is a round cut from a polystyrene meat tray with impasto medium stamped to texture it. Painted with gold acrylic paint and them scattered with paper punched Ginkgo leaves. (I love my little leaf punch!)

To finish the top was some greeny gold fibre from one of my mother's stashes.

Inside were the little treasures - I collected charms, transfer stickers, Aussie postage stamps, coloured brads, fibres, painted music sheet, swing tags - some blank and others that I had aged with paint and spotted. I included a scatter of Ginkgo leaves that I punched out.

Feedback from the 2 recipients, one in Portland Oregon and the the other in St Paul, Minnesota. One loved the postage stamps and the other loved Ginkgo trees so a win-win there.

Seeing Red

I've finished my ATC's for the mmartfriends swap. I decided that I really ought to do something NOT blue or purple or turquoise for a change. So...RED

Painted the background with acrylics and stamped a background stamp.

The little pics have been in my swag for a while - they are from a copyright free book of old advertising designs. I decided to glam them up with some gold tissue and was going to swoosh a colour over the pics but decided that I liked the black and white contrast to the red.

I went to the Australian Quilt Convention exhibition on Friday and now my bank account is red as well!!

I'll show you the yummy stuff at a later date!

Scrummy Squares

Boy have I been arty lately!

Here is the next installment of the Mixed Mania book study.

This time they are 1.5inch squares - actually a few of mine are 4cm squares. They are bigger than inchies and smaller than twinchies.

I seem to have to be very neat with mine.  The goat ones are done on a background of my own painting but the 2 others are ready made papers.

Very simple if you want to try it - I do strips of the basic paper and then cut out the squares. Decorate the edges, find pictures that say something to you and go searching for appropriate words in glossy magazines.

I've tried to keep the words in sets as well, although not always possible.

The cocktails, the shoes and the goats are cut from wrapping paper. Saving paper has its rewards at last.

Crazy papers

Killed 2 birds with one stone here. In our mixed media group we are doing a book study and we got to the Crazy papers chapter. Basically very simple with watercolour or acrylic paint wash and then some simple shapes added to become background papers.

I had signed on to do a paper swap with another group so ......

The theme for the swap was spring ( I know it's Autumn here but you have to roll with the group if it's in the USA) I used blue and green colours - not a big departure for me and added some decoration down the sides as these pages are destined to become journal pages for writing or further decorating.

Green leaf like design is from an Indian wood block I bought recently, as is the pinky bird.

Eggy shapes and lilacky flowers are just paint and watercolour pastels with a touch of pen work to finish.

After I took this scan I added some spritzes of coppery mist to add a bit more dimension to the main part of the pages.

Pending

Here are the gorgeous pendants I received in the swap. One is a coffee stained Mahjong tile. Another is paper cutouts and the next one is possibly embossed leather. The small red one is Fimo with embedded beads and the last is a heart made of beads (the bottom one is actually a blue see through stone but looks open here)

Aren't they lovely?

Paper gals

Here's another mmartfriends activity. We are working our way through another book. This time Mixed Mania

I don't remember playing with paper dolls as a child and I think I know why.

I didn't get all excited by this task and just completed one outfit for each doll? I'm not cut out to be a dressmaker - Project Runway will just have to manage without me!  PS..... and I didn't even have to draw the dolls - they were given in the book. (I did have to colour them in though! - I liked that part!)

Hearts and Flowers

I had fun using up some of my paper fabric to make heart pendants for a swap on Mixed media art friends yahoo group.

Here are the results! Fronts and Backs.

I added some flower stamps and couldn't resist the tiny hearts drawn on with gel pens. Threading the beads was a challenge but by the 3rd or so I had it figured out. I guess that is why we do these things - learning experiences!

Front Pager again

Just discovered that my Voodoo Love Doll  made the homepage of our mixed media art group

It's great to have this recognition.

Now I really must show you my Good Fortune Birds that flew off to the swap some time back now.  (I'll scan a better image later)
I'm also in the pendant swap so must think about what I'll produce for that.

You might also like to see the cushion that my sister made for me for Xmas. It is just beautiful and I'm very impressed with it.

Fabric?...Paper?...

I'm doing another swap with my mmartfriends online group. We have been doing a project following a book titled Stitch Alchemy which is all about fabric paper. Lots of different ways to add colour and to embellish it.

The beauty of this medium is that it is strong because the backing is calico and it is a good surface to paint on or stamp or to use any other paper based medium. You can cut and sew it like fabric as well.

I found that it is a good idea to do it in batches so you can get out the PVA glue, thin down a large quantity, tear up some tissue paper (I used old paper patterns and paper napkins for some of mine) and spread out a large plastic drop sheet...this is a messy part.

Once it is dry I painted with acrylic paints and used lumieres and metallic mists to add sparkle.

I have finished 2 sheets with embellishments of Gel pens, stamping and, best of all, dimensional paint (I love metallics here too - especially the copper colour)

I've drawn my bird shape for the swap, it can be seen drawn around on the pink sheet and I'm about to cut the shapes out...fingers crossed that they look OK

Samples here show A. Basic tissued cloth, B. Painted backgrounds and C.  Embellished sheets

 

The Yellow sheet at the bottom started out as the RH one at the top. Amazing what a bit of paint can do.

I'm going to have fun now making 3 strings of Good Fortune Birds and a Voodoo Love Doll.

I'm excited because my partner in the Love Doll swap is the author of the book, who is a member of our group. Mine will have to be pretty special to send to her!!  I'm dying to see what she sends to me.

Recycling envelopes

For some time now I have been saving security envelopes. You know - the kind that are printed inside so you can't read through the envelope and get someone's innermost secrets or bank account details.
Well Tony finally found out what I wanted them for.
Our mmartfriends group is having another Fat Book swap, this time on Techniques.

I decided to do a Serendipity Squares background using the envelopes.
First tear them into chunky pieces. Then glue them down onto a sheet of paper or card and make sure you cover all the paper.
Get out your rubber stamps and stamp all over the pages to help integrate all the various bits of paper into a whole. Then comes the fun bit.
I used embossing powder - gold metalic to emboss a few more stamped images on the backgrounds.
I enhanced the whole thing with a bit of scribble using watercolour pencils.
Cut out the squares to size.

In this case to show the technique we are doing 4x4 inch pages.
To use the squares you actually cut them much smaller, into "inchies" 1x1 inch or to use as the background to an ATC 2.5x3.5 inches.

These are some of the 22 that I had to make. The gold is a little dull in the scan. It is actually shiny bright.
Here is a single square a smaller piece that I had left over and an inchie .
As you can see each inchie is a mini art piece in itself. Imagine each of the squares divided into 16 and each one is an inchie  Aren't inchies cute!!

Isn't that the best way to use up old envelopes?

Wuthering along

About time - I just finished an artwork swap to post off to one of my art groups.
This one was for a 5 x 7 canvas on the theme Wuthering Heights.
I casually agreed to the swap and then thought What on earth does one do for Wuthering Heights??

It is many moons since I read the book or saw the movie. The first image that came to mind was those silly ones that Dave Allen used to do of Heathcliff and Cathy running with arms outstretched towards each other on the moors, wind and rain swirling all around, then missing each other and running off into the distance. No, I think not!

Then I had to do a bit of catching up with the story and realised that I had forgotten that they never really got together and that it was a rather dismal outcome all round.
Finally I read the lyrics of the Wuthering Heights song that Kate Bush did and inspiration hit.
"It's me, I'm Cathy - I'm so cold Let me in"

I had a canvas with a darkish silvery background and a purple splodge. I used a sketch that I did years ago for a friend of the old bank doorway that is now in the outdoor theatre at Everglades - a National Trust property in Leura in the Blue Mountains.
This became the imposing door and a cutout from some collage paper was used for Cathy - a rather pre-raphaelite version but she looked suitably distressed.
I stamped at random over the background and tried to imply turrets in the top part

Watercolour pencils did the colouring and I used a new paint called Micaceous Iron Oxide by Golden which looks like it has tiny iron filings suspended in it. It gives a shimmery but dark effect.
I used my little alphabet stamps for the words.
The centre of the work seems to glow against the morbid background and I was rather pleased with the result. Hope the recipient likes it!

I've already received my swap and this person went with the film idea.

Mail Art

Some time back I sent off an altered postcard to a mail art project in the US.
Here's a link to the results  (Serendipity) The cards were sent out all over the world and we altered them as we saw fit. I think the results are fascinating  - see what each person thought to do.
Here's my one again just to remind us!!

NOIR indeed!

Had a bit of a race to finish my ATC's for the Noir Chunky book.
I ambitiously decided to do 2 rounds so was faced with producing 50 cards!

The background was fun with black acrylic swiped one then a foam brush dabbed gold and silver acrylic all over. I loved the effect.

I had already chosen the slightly sinister pictures from my book of Art Deco illustrations and decided to add a sea shell and some funky furry yarn to each.
I only had enough shells for about half, so used my newly aquired bead wire to string some beads and add those to the rest.  Another new technique conquered!!

Curious Women

Finally completed my 4x4 mat board artworks for the 2 current swaps.
First was Women - quite a broad topic really but I shuffled through some of my collected pictures and decided on these five.
Background was done with acrylic paints mixed with a touch of iridescent medium, which I find fun.

The Carnival of Curiosities was more difficult. I feel it should have related more to carnivals but I just found odd pictures which appealed to me and went for strange wordings.
I like them anyway!
Same Collage technique with acrylic backgrounds.

Kid Stuff

Finished the ATC's for the artexplorations fat book swap. I found some small pictures of children playing that seemed to go well with the colours of my paste papers.

It has been much too hot for creative ideas (last Sunday was in the 40's) and today was originally meant to be 40 but  has been revised down to 38!
I used the Children - they came out quite well - I hope all the other book recipients enjoy them.

My work sometimes seems to be much more modern looking than the others

Waves and Umbrellas

About time I put up some more pics of the current artworks. These are ATC's made for a chunky book of the Alphabet. Each participant sends 26 cards all of the same letter and we then get back the full alphabet.
I'm looking forward to my 2 books worth.

I've also done some real kindergarten fun stuff with the backgrounds for my paste paper ATC chunky book. You mix paint with pva paste and treat it like finger paint. Use combs or cut the edges of cardboard into fun shapes. Lots of Fun!!! (Go on have a try!!!)

Last night went to the first SnB knitting meeting for the year. We tried out Sailor's Rest and found them very accomodating and fascinated by our strange habits. I'm continuing with my Mauve Top which I expect to be ready by NEXT summer!!  I've made several deliberate mistakes to keep the tradition of only the gods being perfect

Artwork update

I've just finished two sets of Artist's Trading Cards for a Chunky Book swap for the Artexplorations group. (I'm not sure what the difference is between a Chunky book and  Fat Book!!)

They are Alphabet Books and I put my name down for W in one  set and U in another.
We are so keen in this group that there are now about 6 sets of cards on this topic.
I thought I'd better stop at 2, as this means 26 cards for each letter

First ATC's

Here are the ATC's I made with the crayon batik backgrounds.
The sheets looked more exciting cut into small pieces.
These are the ones I did for the St Brigid's Cross swap (the first swap within Australia) We had to use the cross as the inspiration for the cards

Busy being arty

I've been busy doing arty things rather than publishing about them.
Here's a selection of recent works.
Dress Forms and Poems swaps for the 4x6's group

APC's and ATC's

I've started dabbling in APC's and ATC's
These are Artist's Post Cards and Artist's Trading Cards.
Post cards are the obvious 4x6 size while ATC's are playing card size or 2.5x3.5 inches (or 64 x 89mm)
Here are a couple I did for a friend from the knitting group using the torn paper backgrounds

On the left are my first crayon batik explorations - I have once again been flabbergasted to have my work chosen for the group's Home page art this month!