Monday, August 17, 2009

I Love this time of year...

This is one of my most favourite times of the year. The wattle is blooming..... We moved to Tonimbuk 21 years ago...July. The thing I remember the most was that all the roads were flanked in a gorgeous yellow. The wattle was in bloom. July/August of each year the wattle appears and reminds me of when we first moved to the farm. It also heralds the beginning of spring and longer, warmer days. I am still having lots of trouble uploading photos to blogger... sooooo frustrating, and the time it takes to upload is rather off putting (thus my posts have not been as frequent as I would like and not many photos). Hopefully I will get it sorted soon.

As you know, I recently did a workshop with Helen Timbury on Linocutting and printmaking. What a FUN workshop. Although I wasnt too pleased with my efforts for the day, Helen was a fabulour teacher and we all came home with a set of prints. I know that my next prints will be better with the knowledge that I learnt. Especially with colour.

Sketch for linocut and actual print from class.
I chose a William Morris design to *play* with in the class. I was quite happy with the sketch, but not having done Reduction Printing before I wasnt happy with colour placement (we didnt get a choice of colours...red, yellow and black it was for all of us). I am looking forward to playing with this technique more. Great for mixed medial art!


My fabric book has returned.
My wonderful fabric book has returned from its trip to the UK. Mmmmm..... the girls, Dot, Sesga and Linda have made some beautiful pages for my book as you can see below. Lots of fun...We made our own covers and also a page for the book itself. My theme was flowers and nature.


These are the pages the girls created for me. Starting from the left Dot has made one of her beautiful bird pages for me....lots of texture with gorgeous fabrics and laces and her trademark velvet ribbons.
The centre page was made by the lovely Sesga in Wales. As you know I love Klimt and Kaffe Fassett (the two go so well together). I love the Tree of Life (Klimt) that Sesga chose and the lovely selection of Kaffe Fassett fabrics.
The wonderful page on the right was by the talented Linda Vincent of the UK. A beautiful mermaid (whom I had admired recently on her blog) and the most beautiful embellishing. Tiny shells, sequins, stitching... lovely textural fabrics. A beautiful fabric book that I will treasure.

I have received some lovely gifts in the mail of late...but havent been able to upload any of the pics...thank you to my lovely friends who have sent them and hopefully when I sort out this blogger I can post some pictures easily.

Wishing you all much creativity!

Jacky xox

"The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts"

- Marcus Aurelius -




30 comments:

Kim Mailhot said...

Wow Jackie ! Your fabric book blows me away ! It is soooo beautiful and don't you just love the collaborative creation ?
Enjoy the blooms of your season ! Cheers !

Linda Vincent said...

I love your book Jacky; I feel very fortunate to have been part of it. I was very taken with the shape of it (wish I'd thought of that!) - your pages are stunning too; you must show those!
Glad you enjoyed your printing class, its definitely a useful skill to have.
So spring's on it's way for you.....my fav season.(Its usually better than summer in England!) Lucky you....
X

Bec Clarke said...

That is a great lino print. The wattle is out here too and I can hear the bees buzzing.
Do you make your photos a bit smaller before you upload them? I used to have trouble but now i go in and shrink them down and they upload really quickly. E-mail me if you want a bit of help.

Caterina Giglio said...

your book is fabulous and so is your print!!

lynne h said...

i swear it's hard to wrap my mind around your weather warming up while ours cools down... i really do like having a perspective from both hemispheres...

jacky, i think your lino print is gorgeous! really, it looks great to me. and the pages you've gotten from the women in your group are truly beautiful. so rich...

happy warmer days to you my friend.

xo

Lee said...

Love the greens and blues in your fabric book! It looks gorgeous. Lee x

Bel said...

Hi Jacky Your home sounds beautiful and so are the wattles, love them. What can I say about your book other than it is fantastic and everyone involved has done some gorgeous work in it, what a treasure to hold. I have tried lino printing once and loved it but have never ventured there again, not sure why but I must give it another go. Take care Belinda

Sharon Tomlinson said...

I'm not at all familiar with Wattle but it is beautiful and I wish we had such a plant. Your print is beautiful I think, I wasn't expecting three colors. Your pages in your book are just wonderful and makes me want to see them up close and personal.

Jen xo said...

its a beautiful time of the year jacky, all the jonquils are out here and the days are warming up Yey!

hubby [teaches printamking] brought nme hom some stuff to play around with but havent had time yet, yours looks wonderful so it might inspire me..

and i just love your book pages, so lovely , from some very talented artists....jenxo

Samantha Marshall said...

The fabric book looks wonderful!!! I love the lino print, too!

Zoya said...

I gave up on blogger photo upload and use Flickr instead. (Upload photos to Flickr, click on "All Sizes" button, click on the size you want, scroll down and there will be HTML that you can copy&paste to include the photo into your blog post)

I think your print is pretty good for the first time. Good luck with the future ones.

Belinda said...

beautiful, colorful, fabulous book you have received.
a linocutting and printmaking workshop, you lucky duck! right up my alley, look forward to seeing you make use of your acquired knowledge and skills

Ro Bruhn said...

What brilliant pages Jacky, can't wait to see the finished book, it's beautiful. I love the lino cut print you're gong to make too.

Dot said...

Hi Jacky
Always enjoy seeing views from your home. The wattles are gorgeous and a nice reminder of when you moved to Tonimbuk.
I think you have done a great job with your lino cutting. And can see you incorporating lino printing into your art.
Your fabric book is gorgeous! It was a fun round robin and I look forward to seeing your finished book when we catch up next (can you bring it over on Saturday?).
Love that quote too!
Dot xx

Jo Wholohan said...

wow you are a busy girl!!! all these fabric pages are just beautiful, im sure the books together are amazing.... xx

Zorana said...

I wonder is wattle is same as mimosa... I don't see them here and I miss them. Beautiful image! Don't know what you don't like about your print. I love everything about it! And the book.... it's beyond words. I always wish that I can 'touch' the fabric books you girls exchange.

Karen said...

The lino cut sketch looks fantastic and the book, well, it's just lovely!!

Debbi Baker said...

What a fabulous post!! Love the book - it looks so colourful and tactile too! Your lino cuts look great but I can imagine how limiting it felt with just the three colours!

PS Happy happy Spring!!

Lady Di said...

Wow, what beautiful pages in your book and I really love the lino print you did, it's gorgeous, especially since it was your first attempt.

rivergardenstudio said...

Oh! This book is incredible... I love all the pages by your friends, and how they all are the things that you love... And I am so happy the beautiful yellow is returning to your land and that spring is on it's way... Roxanne

rivergardenstudio said...

I forgot to say I love your print too... the reds, so deep... I am carving in the softer lino lately too. Very fun! Roxanne, again...

Judy Scott said...

Hi Jacky how wonderful that youve been printing too, I love your design and the colours look good, so cant wait to see what you do with colours you love:) The fabric book Im drooling over and would love to have a jolly good look at it, Scarlett was telling me yesterday that their weather in Brisbane is warm again ~ not so here. It was lovely to hear from you again, take care and love to you ~ Judy xxx

Philippa said...

I sympathise with your photo problems - I wrested with it for an hour this afternoon myself. It takes all the enjoyment out of blogging. I smiled when I saw the wattle tree in flower. I too have memoried of this from my time living in Sydney as a child. I remember loving the look of them so much - shame I was allergic!

Love the fabric pages - lucky you! Enjoy.

Unknown said...

Thanks for the links to such great blogs. I like to see what's new
also and I just love to find someone showing how something is done!

--
Venus
You cannot go wrong on the

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Pursuing Art... said...

Hi Jacky,

I've never seen wattle before. It is beautiful and what a lovely memory you have of it flanking the roads when you moved to the farm. So happy that spring is around the corner for you.

I love your linocut and print from your class...it turned out great! I used to do it years ago and it is so fun to cut and to see what you get too.

Your fabric book is so beautiful! Dot, Sesga and Linda's pages are just gorgeous. What a treasured keepsake!

Sorry that you are having problems with Blogger...it can be so frustrating! ~Lisa

P.S. I almost forgot to tell you how much I LOVED the scarf you made with Dot! Simply beautiful...

Anonymous said...

Hi jacky
just noticed when i came back for second look I had not commented .
Your Fabric book is stunning ,a lovely scale to work on .It was a pleasure creating for you .
LOVE LOVE LOVE your lino Print its amazing .A fabulous effort for your first attempt .
Have a good weekend
Love from sesga xxx

~*~Magpie's Nest said...

Lovely to visit your beautiful blog today (Jenxo sent me :)
So many special things to see!
Linda certainly does do gorgeous work!
Thank you for so much inspiration!
~*~ Patty

Cathie said...

Hi Jackie. Came to visit you after your lovely comment about my leaf piece on Carolyn's blog.
WOW - what a spectacular book this is - so full of colors and textures. How fun to share eachother's art in a project such as this. Beautiful.

sea-blue-sky & abstracts said...

Beautiful work by three clever ladies - Dot, Linda and Sesga - something for you to treasure. Lesley

Connie said...

Your fabric book is beautiful!