A busy week

I have had a very busy and fruitful week, mainly inspired by  a visit from my gorgeous daughter, Bec, and her wonderful little boy, William.  Will had great fun exploring our tiny little house and pointing out just how designed it is for adults, not children, and full of unnecessary objects, without breaking a thing.  He wore out mad Maisie, our younger dog, who was in heaven having someone to play with, and enforced the older dog, Toby's belief that humans are on top of the pecking order - thank God for children who understand dogs and not afraid of them, and parents who encourage their children to like and understand animals.  We ate out and visited parks and laughed and played trains.

Will also demonstrated his artistic side, as you can see.  He carried these skills home and created a mural on a wall.  For some reason, Daddy wasn't impressed.  So must Picasso and Michelangelo have suffered as children.

While they were with us, I managed to finish the ak Traditions doll, "Ella", I started a fair while ago.  I can't believe I used to design and make jumpers!  Knitting has really turned into a chore for me, and my doll certainly bears no resemblance to the ak one.  Ah well, at least it is original, finished and has been sent to my young friend, Gemma.  Hope you like it, Gemma!

 
 After they left, I reorganised my designer studio aka the tin shed at the back.

And  prepared a screen for some printing  - more trees.

And cleared the older prints  off my sophisticated drying rack.

Only the best will do!

I finished all the inserts for my Copenhagen diary/ art journal.  Now all I have to do is  join it all together.  Ps.  I have discovered that the cardboard backs on the watercolour pads make great covers for handmade books.

Then I started on the plant project I have been mulling over for the past few years.  I think it will be a wall hanging but it could be another fabric book.


This painting of the roots of a banyan tree is done with Shiva oil paint sticks on cotton.  I am waiting for it to dry a bit more before I iron it to seal it then machine embroider and quilt it.

This one of a monstera twining itself around the trunk of a tree is also done with paint sticks and will get the same treatment.

I also printed some photos of the bush at Bogong, Victoria, onto cotton, and sealed them with  Hydrotex Print paste ( I hope) in preparation for emroidering and quilting.

I'll keep you up to date with my progress.

Classes started this week, with Nancy Brown and a group of some inspiring students,  We began with simple stencils on fabric, cutting the stencils from telephone book paper.  These are my efforts on calico.

I am all excited now, so I have spent the past week trawling through books for ideas.  After perusing Susan Briscoe's great book, Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match ( 2008, A & C Black Publishers Ltd, London, GB),  the Japanese heraldry in Ottfried Neubecker's Heraldry: Sources, Symbols and Meaning ( 1989, Black Cat, Twickenham) and the inspiring The Grammar of Japanese Ornament by George Audsley and Thomas Cutler ( 1989,  Studio Editions, London), I decided to adapt some of the Japanese images and cut out some stencils from easy cut plastic.  I am hoping they are not too fine, but we'll see.  I am hoping to combine them to make a quilt.

  If they don"t work, I also have some bird and feather drawings that might work, and a mother and child drawing I have been playing with.  Stay tuned