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

Shoalhaven Artisans Market for Jan CANCELLED

The January market has been cancelled "owing to the current heat wave, road closures & bushfires". There is a fire west of Sussex inlet where over 180 firefighters are trying to contain a fire which has burnt 8,400 ha. No immediate threat to properties, smoke may impact the highway but it remains open at present. Closed roads: Turpentine Road, Wandean Road and Twelve Mile Peg (in the National Park). see www.rfs.nsw.gov.au website for up to date info.

Shoalhaven Artisans Market Saturday 12 Jan 2013

The weather has been hot enough this week to get us clearing our gutters and moving any stored timber away from the house. Like everyone in the Shoalhaven and Illawarra, we received phone messages about the catastrophic fire danger. We filled our ponds and bird baths and kept the chickens in, in case we needed to leave in a hurry. 

I worked my first day at the Millhouse Gallery in Milton, luckily the highway was open, as it has been closed for some time since then due to a large fire around Sussex Inlet Road. 

The gallery sold another of my watercolours, but I have not been down to deliver the replacement as yet.

A large proportion of my time is going toward developing some canvases, in preparation for an Easter exhibition in Ulladulla. This is a dream and a struggle. I've uploaded a progress photo of one piece I'm working on, which has lots of layers of paint, paper and medium. Many artists I speak to say that working in watercolours is difficult, and that acrylics are easier because any problems can be simply painted over. For me the reverse is true, I love the freshness and simplicity of watercolours and I love everything they do, the weird little cauliflower blooms and the way the pigment flows. I enjoy acrylics too and like working on a canvas structure, but I am never quite happy with what I've done, and therefore never finished. Anyway, I'm sure it's something I can learn, so I'm immersing myself until I do.

This Saturday I'll be at the Artisans Market at the Arts Centre in Nowra, which will be good as I missed last month. No new watercolours, but I still have plenty of stock and some lovely art journals.

Markets Saturday 5th Jan - Lady Denman Produce Markets

I've been sewing some covers for art journals to hold drawing gear together so it's easy to just grab and throw in the bag. Drawing is best practiced often, and A5 sketch books are a perfect take-anywhere size. There's a pocket to hold a pencil and sharpener and the covers button up to protect journal pages. 

The covers are made from op-shop fabrics and accessories, and I'm stuck on this coastal colour palette and quirky applique.

The kit comes with a good quality 2B pencil and metal sharpener.

Art journels are great for jotting down ideas, working out patterns, creating visuals of designs, sketching observations, clarifying concepts, making plans, or recording nice moments, and when finished can be an interesting and intricate record and a great resource. 

Drawing Kit - A5 Art Journal,
2B Staedtler Pencil, and Sharpener $25