Sunny weekend.....

It was a bright and sunny autumn weekend in Melbourne.....after the rain of recent weeks,  the sunshine was glorious.  We all wanted to get out and about in it!
Below is another version of the sunshine owl lino cut I have been working on.   A few additional handcarved stamps placed after masking and printing and a touch of colour applied to the tree and sun before printing.  It's fun playing around with this owl.

Sunshine owl

 On Sunday I met up with Dot, Patsy, Ro and Julia.  Our outing into the city was to check out the venue where we are having our art group exhibition.  We always love a chance to get together and this weekend was very special as we celebrated Ro's birthday...see her goody bag and flowers.

 After visiting then venue and making plans we wandered around the streets of inner Melbourne, deciding where to eat.  In the end we went into Chinatown......very BUSY little street, lots of wonderful eateries and shops.  Lovely place to visit and eat on a sunny Sunday.

 We all just loved the window adornment in the little eatery where we lunched.  The food was absolutely YUMBO,  lovely and spicy.  After our lunch we strolled around Chinatown and of course found a little shop with some Japanese art goodies......we were very happy.

 I have been stitching a little boro cloth.  Wonky bits of fabrics scraps stitched together in the Japanese way.

Japan has been on all of our minds lately and we have all wanted to help.  I found this lovely blog where Maki has been making and selling these beautiful little birds to help her family and friends in Japan....what a lovely way to donate and support an artist.  I bought six little fellows to share with my art friends.

 

 

 

Busy, busy, busy.....

I've been busy lately....lots of things on the go!
Last weekend I had my get together with Nat to do some of our shibori class homework.  We are both doing the workshop with the lovely Glennis Dolce and loving the results of our samples.  Great online class.  These are some of the samples I made with Nat last weekend.  This time I have used the indigo dye rather than a few colours like my last effort.  I would like to include these pieces in a boro cloth I plan to start later this year.

 I have also been painting....my art group are putting on a little exhibition at the end of June,  so I need to get into some painting and get things happening.  The work below is using artists gouache....still a WIP,  needs some finer detailing,  but close to being finished.  As you may be able to tell,  I love still life and a quite naive style.

Lillies and chinese ginger jar

I've also been doing some linocut......Below is a piece called 'Sunshine Owl' (of course I had to do an owl, my favourite).    Sunshine Owl is approx. 12" x 13".  I have plans for this owl.... I will add more detail to the background maybe....and later .........more plans for him.  You never know where he'll end up.

"Sunshine Owl"

 I want to hand colour my final prints so I have played around with different colours and colour variations on the sample below,  just to get an idea of what will or wont work together....lots of fun!

I've also had fabric out,  playing around with different options.  Will play around a bit more and maybe have something to show you next week.

Meanwhile I hope you are all busy creating.

LET MIRACLES FIND YOU

- SARK-

Jacky xox

Shibori moments ......

As I said last week,  I am participating in a shibori workshop with the lovely Glennis Dolce....it is such FUN!
Last Sunday I met up with my fellow classmate Nat to do a few class projects.  I know I'm starting from the wrong end...but couldnt resist showing you my shibori pieces drying on the line.  They look like prayer flags I thought,  so I've decided I will use a few of my class samples to make myself a set of shibori prayer flags to remember this workshop.

Shibori samples drying on the clothes line.

Getting organised.....we made up our dye bottles,  had our instructions/recipes at the ready and collected a myriad of shapes to use for our shibori dyeing.  Then the fun began.

Here we have our little dye baths with our fabrics all folded, clamped and soaking.  It's so exciting...you just dont know what to expect.

And these are some of the results...very colourful and I was very happy with some of the designs we achieved using mosaic tile,  cut up CD's etc. (some may need a little overydying next time the dyes are out,  I'm not sure if I can work with the turquoise....but you never know!). 

The top piece is one that Nat had eco dyed (using either gum leaves or bark...sorry cant exactly remember which),  but they had not coloured very well.  Thus we thought we'd do a bit of over dying and see what happened.  This was the result of being dyed in a leaf green dye bath...very happy with the results and the different colour.

 

Nat and I plan to get together again in a couple of weeks and do more dyeing,  its so much fun doing the class with a friend....nutting through things together,  sharing ideas and bit and pieces of fabric etc.

EACH DAY IS A SUCCULENT NEW BEGINNING

BE STILL AND LET THE BEAUTY COME.

- SARK - 

Not long now until the weekend.....

Jacky xox

Altered book.....

Last weekend we had our Art Group get together.  This time it was DotS  turn to host and we all lunched at the lovely La Bel Amici cafe in Frankston....this cafe is owned by an artist and has such a wonderful bohemian feel.  Beautiful food and surrounded by gorgeous art.  What better place for us all to meet.  As usual we shared art we had been making,  fabrics, collage elements, arty goodies.  It is always like Christmas when we meet...such generous girls.

As you know we are doing an Altered Book Round Robin and each meeting we swap books so we can each work in each others book.  The pages below I made for Ro's book.  Ro's theme is Africa (and at first I was quite daunted.  But once I got going things just flowed.)

Ro loves colour!!!!!  So I thought a colourful elephant would be perfect for her book.  I have a lovely wooden elephant whom inspired the spread below for Ro.  I am loving this naive style of painting.

 

This is the full two page spread.  I left a little of the wording from the book showing through.

 

This is the second spread I did for Ro's book.  It has more of an African feel.  I really enjoyed doing a little collage on these pages and loved the images of the young African boys singing.

Our group doesnt meet again until early May and in the meantime I will be working in my friend Dots book.  Another one who loves colour, so this will be FUN.

Meanwhile I am doing a shibori workshop with Glennis Dolce,  so  Ishould have a few new fabrics to share with you and include in my art.  Dyeing day tomorrow!

Meanwhile..... IMMERSE  YOURSELF  IN  COLOUR....it will make you happy!

Jacky xox

Sunflowers and Indigo ....

My friend Nat and I are soon to being a shibori dyeing workshop with Glennis Dolce (Shibori Girl)....in readiness we decided to have a dyeing day last Sunday.  Nat is a very proficient dyer...I am quite new to it, so it was lovely to have Nat teach me more about dyeing with colour (procion, rit etc.).  I have done a bit of eco dyeing using gumleaves,onion skins etc.  but LOVE indigo and especially shibori, so I'm very excited that our online workshop begins this week and I dont feel quite so intimidated after Nats help.!

 My fabrics all folded after their dye bath, rinse and dry.  I'm very happy with this little stash.

 My fabrics once dried....we used indigo and a leaf green.  We used cotton voile, calico, linen, silk, silk chiffon, silk noil...lots of different colour variations which I am looking forward to using in some of my Jude Hill style cloths.

 And now for the sunflower......  This is a WIP from my day at Megs.  At this point sketched in pencil with a touch of gouache.  I will add more gouache and some pen and ink.  I am enjoying sketching from nature and think I will do a little botanical journal.  My friend Coral and I have made some concertina style books using good quality watercolour paper for this next project.

And this little sketch I drew after visiting the Mirka Mora exhibition earlier this year .... I was inspired by the womens head dresses in a few of her sketches and I thought of the five girls in my art group all gathered around admiring Mirka's work....taking in every detail, discussing, enjoying being able to share the moment.

So......this week.  I am getting to the end of my online workshop with Jude Hill, will have some work to show soon and I begin my shibori workshop with Glennis.  Another full week!

"WE  CAN  LOVE  OURSELVES

THE WAY WE WISH TO BE LOVED"

Have a wonderful week!

Jacky  xox

sketching and journalling....

This week there hasnt been much stitching going on....I have have my fabrics out playing with some blocks to send off to a friend,  but mostly I have been sketching, a little bit of painting and a little journalling.

 

Most Friday mornings I go to a friends studio and we sit and paint....very relaxing.  I have learnt a lot about drawing and painting since I began these mornings at Meg's.  Each time we go Meg has a theme, or a still life, or maybe just a colour for us to draw/paint.  It challenges me each time, and I'm sure I wont be able to do it,  but with Meg's gentle prodding and some perseverance we get into it.   The last couple of weeks we have been working on these sketches of agapanthus from Megs garden in an old vintage jug.  I thought you might like to see some of what we work on so here are a couple of close ups of the piece (30 x 42 cm).

 

Agapanthus in vintage jug.

The finished piece....not perfect, but I'm getting there 

 

I think those gentle blue/mauves are beautiful and as you can see from my journal have been appearing in my art these past few weeks.  Even in my fabrics,  I love those demin type blues too and of course indigo.

But,  I think this blue/mauve phase is over.  This week at Megs we had to draw this amazing sunflower.  Such details in this beautiful flower as it shows signs of aging.  Click on the photo to see the intricacy of the centre....its like a swirl of tiny flowers.  At this stage I have only drawn this up and added a little yellow to the petals.  I am using gouache for this sketch instead of watercolour as I used in my previous sketch.  Will take a pic next week to show you my progress.

Van Gogh was renowned for his sunflower series, so after the day at Megs I did some reading up on Van Gogh ...he lead a rather tortured life, but produced the most amazing paintings.  Van Gogh is said to have liked sunflowers for their yellow colour and exuberant celebration of sun light and summer.  They are a very likeable flower....I think I will plant some in my garden next summer.

I hope to have some fabric work to show you again next week too.  Tomorrow I am heading off to my friend Nats home for a stitching/dyeing day.  We are both doing Jude's CWB workshop online, so looking forward to seeing what Nat has been doing.

BE SILLY

BE HONEST

BE KIND.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson -

Have a wonderful week!

Jacky xox

Valentines Hearts ......

I've been stitching these 'raggedy hearts' for a few friends for a Valentines Day swap.  I've used some lovely old battenburg lace from an old doiley of my mums,  Some sari silk and lovely floral embroidered sheer fabric that I have been hoarding forever.  The hearts themselves were old linen blend fabric samples.  Lots of recycling and stitching fun.

 

The fabrics below are from a workshop I did on the weekend with Ro Bruhn..... gelatin prints.  I loooove gelatin printing and it was so much fun creating different patterns and colours.  We used anything and everything....old egg cartons, bubble wrap (one of my favourites), indian print blocks, stamps, embossed fabrics and papers...FUN class and I look forward to including these fabrics in some cloths soon.

 The past few weeks I have also been taking Jude Hills online workshop, Advanced Cloth Weaving.  I made the little cloth below weaving without a foundation.  You finish with such a light and soft piece of cloth.  Initially I was thinking I would use this piece (all fabrics gifted from my friend Dot and sister Lee) in a boro cloth I intend to make this year.  But,  after visiting the class site and seeing what everyone is doing...I'm not sure.  Jude has made a beautiful cushion, others incorporated the pieces in clothing, boro style.  So much to see and so much inspiration as always in Judes classes.

 Close up of small boro type cloth.

I havent been able to post much lately...as you know,  I'm not so good when it comes to things computer related at times.  We put a new antivirus on our computer which has been blocking me posting pictures to my blog.  Finally worked out how to fix it, so should be back to normal again now.

ONE  SHOULD  ABSORB 

THE  COLOUR  OF  LIFE

-OSCAR WILDE -

Wishing you all a wonderful and colourful week.

Jacky xox