April Update

I have found a great local spot for seaglass and sea urchin spines, so now I have some ideas for my massive order of earring hooks! The sea urchin earrings are based on a gift that Prue brought me from Spain years ago. I'm going to try and be at Huskisson Markets this Sunday.

Hand-made earrings from Sea Urchin spikes and Jewellery Wire

Earrings - sea urchin spikes, sea glass, feathers from a black hen and bower bird, and a seaglass pendant

Mid -February Update

At gallery duty at the Millhouse on Sunday I learnt about a product called Liquid Pencil. Apparently it has been around for years and have managed to miss hearing about it. For anyone who has been under the same rock, it's graphite in a liquid form which is available in permanent or erasable, and several different colours. I've been experimenting with a permanent blue. I've used it in the piece shown here, which has a tea-stained background, and also white ink and watercolours. It's still in progress... this is how it's been cast aside to make room for family meals and everyday things.

Here's another crocheted rock. I honestly don't know how anyone could not love these. Sigh.

Also my orders of earring hooks and lovely bird charms and beads has been trickling in and I'm very excited for when I finally get time to make things again. No markets for me till Easter I'm thinking. I also learnt about crafting with fish scales and fish leather, from a lovely gallery customer, so as usual I have more ideas and inspiration than I can handle at the moment.

I hope everyone has a very nice Valentines Day tomorrow.

Millhouse Gallery, Milton

The markets at Lady Denman were a bit of a washout yesterday. Such a contrast to last weekend at Mollymook where I received a fantastic response and came home on a high. Yesterday after I dried out all my stock and marquee, I packed everything away and decided to have a break from markets for a while. I still have plenty of stock, so if anyone is wanting to anything, please feel free to contact me.

I've just ordered a bunch of lovely things like bird beads and pendants and jewellery bits like earring hooks and beading wire to make some more nests - the new ones will have white eggs. So it will be hard to stay away from making things once the order arrives. I feel like waiting by the letterbox like Spongebob Squarepants.

Today I have gallery duty at the Millhouse in Milton. I have several paintings hanging there including this one below. This is my daughter and her friend bathing in the river at the Peat's Ridge Festival. Anyone who has been to that event knows the wonderful, relaxed, community atmosphere and simple carefree lifestyle that four days offers. The Millhouse Summer season ends at the end of February, all the unsold paintings will go home and a new collection will go up. There is also a special Easter exhibition in the Ulladulla Civic Centre which offers prizes and attracts some great work I'm told.

Slightly off-topic, a weird story. We found a dead Rosella in our garden, and because I draw and paint birds, I took the opportunity to photograph the feathers while I could get a good, close look. (I also have several small birds in the freezer - but that's another story). My partner makes flies for fly fishing, so he has a strange collection of fluff and feathers, and he decided to keep the wings and dry them out in our garage. I also have some fittings for making feather earrings and thought rosella feathers would be perfect! Anyhow, now it seems the wings have disappeared, perhaps taken by a rat? 

'Peat's River' Watercolour 27 x 32cm

The wing of a Crimson Rosella

Drawing on Brown Paper Bags

I love brown paper, I used to make potato stamps and print my own wrapping paper at Christmas. I love it's natural colour, and fibrous texture.

This was a bit of an experiment, a drawing on a brown lunch bag. I'm not sure if this is something worth exploring, I wonder about the archival properties of brown paper. And yet there's something quirky and satisfying about bringing a mundane brown bag to life. 

I'm also thinking these brown bags would make a neat little notebook, bound up nicely.

Charcoal Pencil and White Conte
on brown paper bag

Lady Denman Produce Markets Saturday 2 February

Some new products for Lady Denman this Saturday. A wooden box from my garage turned out to be a useful display so it's part of my market gear now, it looks so lovely with pebbles and driftwood and coastal colours. Apparently it has quite a history with my partner Andy, so it's journey continues!

I've had the best summer holidays, filling the house with my crafting mess, enjoying having the kids home, all of us sitting up 'til late and going to the beach most days. It all ends very soon with school and TAFE and such routine-imposing activities.

I've been exploring knotless netting and also rediscovered crochet, digging out my primary school crochet hook to embellish some river pebbles. I've had a couple on display at my stand, some experiments,  but I will have a few ready for sale by this weekend. 

Another tea-stained notebook! 

I was inspired by a documentary about a 500 year old portrait drawing which is now thought to be the work of Leonardo Da Vinci. The docco had an artist recreating the piece using materials from the time, and it was so beautiful to see the white chalk going on to the mid-tone vellum, creating the soft skin tones of the girl. I'm thinking tea-stained paper would make a great mid-tone, or possibly even brown paper bags (a customer told me about an artist who produces work entirely on brown paper bags), so I'm hoping to explore this idea in coming weeks.

Pebble Hearts - Wire, Chicken Mesh and decorative pebbles
with a cotton twine hanger $10

Crochet Covered River Stones $8

Tea-stained paper A6 notebook, deckle edge,
handmade endpapers, coastal fabric cover,
coptic bound in natural cotton twine $15 

Mollymook Beach Market Saturday 26 Jan

This Saturday is the Mollymook Beach Australia Day Market. I haven't even been to Mollymook before so this will be all new. I've used the excuse of approaching Valentines Day to make some new products with a 'heart' theme. 

Wire heart earrings which came together nicely once I worked out the hanging bit at the top, and embellished with some red beads I found in spotlight. 

The fabric hearts on cards have gently fraying edges. My favourites are the coastal colours, but the red ones are more valentinesy.

The paper heart garlands and wire bookmarks are packaged up neatly so they can be given as nice little gifts. The garland hearts are a folk-ish shape and strung with a needle on to cotton yarn. Hand-cut from scrapbooking card, they have a pattern on the reverse side. The bookmarks are made from wire flattened out with a hammer, which gives them a bit of an antiquated look, and random thicks and thins which are quite charming.

Also experimented with some paper earrings, though I'm not sure I'll do these again as they are quite fiddly and there are already so many jewellery sellers at most markets. These ones are made from 2 layers of tissue paper glued together, cut into small disks and then finished with 2 coats of clear varnish. They're quite sturdy but fine enough to have  shell-like translucency to them, and a love the nice natural colours.

Some more tea-stained notebooks, a bit more fancy this time. I love the look of the stained paper and the wild edges, especially matched with a nice tailored-looking cover. I hope to make some more of these this summer.

Wire heart earrings and pendant
Bead wire with surgical steel earring hooks $20 set

Paper earrings.
Varnished paper and surgical steel earring hooks $10 pair.

Heart cards for Valentines day. Fabric hearts stitched to white card $8ea.

Tea stained paper notebook. A6 size,  fabric hardcover,
hand bound with coptic stitch in green cotton $15  

Paper heart garland, red front, patterned reverse,
8 hand-cut hearts strung on 120cm cotton cord $8ea

Heart bookmarks made from hammered wire
Simple wire hearts $4ea, hearts with red plaited tassel $6

Tomerong Market January 19

New products for the markets this weekend include notebooks made from tea-stained papers. The paper is quite a heavy weight and has deckle edges, and the staining of the tea is uneven, so the blank pages themselves are quite interesting. The cover is made from recycled breakfast cereal boxes embellished with white ink and postage stamps, and is held shut by cotton twine and a fastener.

Also some bookmarks made from photographic prints of my paintings. They have a portion of the painted image on the front and the back, and are decorated with tassels I made and embellished with beads.

Tea-stained paper
notebooks A6 size $6

Double-sided bookmarks
with handmade tassels $4