Number 6

Hi everyone, Happy Halloween if you are on the 31st. We didn’t celebrate Halloween here in Australia when I was a child but over the years it has grown with American influence. Mind you, in my childhood, travel and media of the world was not something that was ready available and in my small world America seemed to be on the moon it was that far far away. Mind you I have travelled to USA a few times and guess what? From here down-under, it is far far away but a great place to visit. I am going again in 2012.

It is fun to dress up and have weird food that you would not normally eat, like our bloodied vampire fingers and oh, the next day Michael suggested we have cut-off arms (is there something wrong with my nearly 8 year old Grandson?) Hash browns and fish fingers (yuk for me-fantastic for him) and of course blood sauce.

I borrowed this picture from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween Halloween is an interesting history, well, as in a lot of history the fact gets rather blurred. It seems it may derive from Celtic but I can’t say for sure, I wasn’t around then even though sometimes I feel like it…:))

Number 6. Oh, I did have fun with this. It came together so quickly and I was intrigued that it had children in it given it was a child…ie Michael who chose the papers. I had no idea what it wanted to be until I gathered them together and it was like a little magic jigsaw. I swear the pieces danced themselves around and in place. My natural method of working is by process. I am envious of people who see the finished product in their head before they start as I feel they have a beginning, a direction; I, on the other hand, have to make a mark and proceed from there, often hit and miss. On this particular piece it was such a thrill to almost see the whole thing from the beginning, very rare for me.

Summer sunset - children's delight at pantomime sky

I finished it and because there are so many tiny pieces used I had fragments laying all over the table. I am trying to whittle down my scraps so what is left has to go to the bin. Little brush and shovel at their station – hand action ready – Wait! Oh, look at that little piece, that looks like…oh and that and that. Oh dear here we go, randomrose out of control. I will bin them but I had to just do a little to them before the binning and here they are:

three second scribble and they couldn't hit the bin

o.k. Number 7

Raided my material scraps. I am not very good at textiles, paper is my thing. I have a dear girlfriend who is brilliant at textile, must post her wall hanging she did, amazing. She dyed every piece of material whether it was silk, cotton or whatever, it took her well over a year. Again, I digress…so…material for me is really a challenge.

Number seven

This is all a bit ambitious I think. Far too much for the small page but as I was packing up the bag the little framed acrylic painting fell out onto the pile so he must want to be in it…o.k. I am a softie, you can stay…gulp 😦

• 1 x nosey framed painting
• 1 x thick strand of green felting wool
• 1 x tiny piece of black felting wool
• 1 x brown cord
• 1 x long odd shaped tie-dyed calico
• 1 x stitched threads with dissolvable  fabric
• 1 x handmade piece from calico, glue and thread and tyvek
• 3 x little circles two gold one silver
• 1 x strip of  burgundy velvet contact 
• 1 x the necessary strip of paper – spray painted. I slipped this in to make me feel more comfortable.

Wow!, that a lot, will this be the failure I have been holding my breath about? No, no

FAILURE DEPENDS ON PERCEPTION

I will leave you with Emily Dickinson:

A word is dead

When it is said,

Some say.

I say it just

Begins to live

That day.

Gingerbread and cinnamon “La Cocina de Ekhi

Gingerbread and cinnamon “La Cocina de Ekhi.

Just saw this now, morning tea time. I have the coffee but the Ginger and cinnamon cake didn’t cut very well on the computer…damn. I will make it though. This girl has yummy recipes and well written, step by step which I need.

Number 5

Happy Halloween for those who celebrate it. We had a small party for my Grandson as he was going to be in America for Halloween and was going to a ‘real’ Halloween Party there, but of course with his broken arm the holiday was called off, so, we decorated on Saturday, ate blood vampire fingers (cocktail frankfurts with small bacon pieces for sharp fingernails and of course sauce for the blood) green jelly,purple jelly; ghost chocolates and eyeballs chocolates. He requested with great excitement that we go walking in the park in the dark looking for ghosts then come back and tell ghost stories by candle light, well we began, but he announced it was time to finish Halloween and these ghostie things, he just might not be able to go to sleep. Instead we read Madame Pamplemousse and finally went to bed smiling about his good day.

I haven’t had much time to think about number five but in between sword fights and other types of fun I came up with

Romantic music

snowflakes decorate the scene

Mid winter movies

I don’t say it is great but I managed to complete it. Did I stop little gremlin? No. Around the fir tree I went with a blue gel pen as I thought it didn’t stand out enough…grrr. Next time little gremlin, next time. I also wanted to write the little piece but should not have. I was wondering if I was being too negative about these little doings but decided no, just analyzing the work when it is done with a time limit and randomly chosen materials. I think in the long run it will teach me something…like getting rid of little gremlin.

Romantic music – snowflakes decorate the scene – mid winter movies

Number six scraps

Number 6 – Michael (Grandson) chose the pieces.

• 1 x Sieved plant fibre paper (it has a look of tissue paper but a tougher texture
•  1 x Bronze colour foil
• 1 x fly wire netting stitched metal clips using very fine wire (this piece was left over from a book I did called “Construction” Throughout the book I used metal bits and pieces on black paper and silver pen shapes. I was fun to do.
• 1 x lovely piece of handmade (bought) paper with embedded leaf and beautiful long threads (one long thread is exposed)
• 4 x pieces of imitation gold leaf (not sure what it is really called some pieces are patterned, it is very very fine and disintegrates easily.
• 1 x Bronze painted brown paper
• 1 x handmade white paper with leaf embossing

I thought he did an excellent job of choosing. I was very relieved actually, I wondered it he was going to innocently make my life very difficult. I have no ideas at the moment but this time I must lock up little gremlin…

To end today’s chat I would like to tell you about the bus and the sparrow:

Waiting for my bus reading beautiful poetry (Emily Dickinson). Sparrow hopped by as I dived into my purse for my bus ticket. He is hoping I am going to retrieve a titbit for him. He circles me, his head cocked to one side as he follows my hand movement.

Sorry sparrow – no titbit today, but thank you for making me smile.

Happy creating everyone

 

Number 4

Hi everyone, hope you are all happy creating in your own way and having heaps of fun, and for those that are creating for a living, I congratulate you. Creating seems to be something deep within us, if we don’t do it we feel starved so to be able to create and earn a living as well is the icing on the cake.

Number four was a nice change of colour. I am noticing quite a few things about myself in this challenge which I have never thought of before. Red, for one, bothers me but if it comes up again I will deal with it and the other thing was I noticed I was feeling uneasy with similar colours on the third; I felt like I was running out of ideas…what can I do with another bird?

This one was the earthy colours, they gave me the message of strength, mystery and meaning. It wasn’t too long before I saw ‘Totem’ forming. I was quite eager to use the fringed hessian piece as a whole but it just wasn’t cooperating, the threads were almost yelling to be pulled apart to have their own identity, so I obliged and they proved to me, to listen carefully, as they do look much better as individuals, knotted strong around the piece of Indian thread paper, which, being only a thin piece is glad of hessian’s strength.

It seemed natural that the long black piece held the key to the totem. I struggled with the lacy white and it wasn’t in a hurry to help me decide what to do with it;  it just sat on my table looking delicate, certainly not ‘totem like’ but again hessian thread came to the rescue. Out with a needle and a quick thread through little miss lacy and she became the (what I like to think) white light surrounding the totem, soft but not so delicate. I wanted to keep the tradition of the roundness of the moon/sun that I have put in the others, so the ‘too many tea leaves handmade paper‘ rounded itself nicely into the circle, the tiny tiny piece of felt wanted to join it then they all wanted a show so on went a little of the black and a dot of gel white, they all seemed happy.

Jigsaw, I think, became the reason for the totem. He was subtle, sitting quietly with his whiteness knowing he was important. He kept drawing my attention to his shape and strength. I wrote ‘TOTEM’ and gave him eyes to to see the world around him,but left him till last to see where he wanted to be, he would let me know.

There were a few little scraps scattered around the table looking left out so half moon shapes, a couple of feather shapes and everything looked right…then…me again. Went off to make a coffee, came back and like the dots in bluejay I picked up a brown zig pen and off I went around the border? Honestly, I am beginning to believe I possess a little gremlin that giggles his way on that last bit that I don’t know i really want there. Maybe in number five I will catch him before he gets me started.

If anyone would like some scraps, email me your address as I am happy to share and would love to see what becomes of them.

Totem

Number 5 scraps

Number 5 – Not sure when I will finish this one, my Grandson is coming for a sleepover Saturday and Sunday so excuse me if I go missing, maybe he will help me.

• 1 x piece of film strip tissue paper
• 1 x handmade card from an old book
• 1 x embedded leaf on handmade paper with leaf missing
• 1 x small piece of white handmade paper with…yikes a birdshape (just noticed that)
• 1 x piece of non-descript blue card
• 1 x very small piece of Japanese silk paper I think it is
• 1 x cellophane piece with silver snowflakes…oh yum
• 1 x piece of handmade paper with a little Christmas tree cut from it – wonder what I did with that little fellow

Be creative every day 

Number. 3

Ooooo, this is getting scary and this is only number three. I sat with the scraps and asked them politely to talk to me…nothing…please, I pleaded…nothing. Second coffee and the largest blue piece called for a square with a roof, I took the dive and began to cut a solid square with a roof shape, not right. Almost with shaky hands I cut the middle out and I am sure I heard Bluejay applaud. A birdhouse came into being. I do not like cages for birds, well not wild birds and definitely not bluejays but a swing would be nice (I think bluejay suggested that quietly).

I slid the photo of the flowers behind him, on top of him, under him, too big. Attacked them with the scissors and as they fell, they landed down the bottom of the picture and I saw they just wanted to grow in that beautiful silver/green marbled garden. I borrowed bluejays leaves that he had been sitting on and moved them to the garden for foliage. The delicious plant fibre with the gold splashes made a perfect background for bluejay and his swing. So far so good I thought. The roundness of the sun or moon represents the circle of life to me so I felt I needed to include it again so mauve, blue and then that red. I do have trouble with red. I have just discovered that is bothers me. I just didn’t know what to do with it’ still don’t particularly like it but this challenge is about using everything, not fussing toooo much, and, getting one a day done means getting on with it. I was out all day today so this morning I got up a little earlier to begin (I never thought of my busy life when I put this on myself but then that is the beauty of a ‘challenge’ isn’t it). Sorry, I digress.

Can”t just have one red, it looked unbalanced so begrudgingly I put two more little pieces around…mmm (still don’t feel happy…sorry red). I thought I had finished with the scraps when I saw the purple paste paper with print but it quickly became a decoration for the swing and something to hang it up with otherwise it would have just been floating in midair.

Finished and had to run out the door, just made it to the bus. Came back and took a further look tonight before I scanned it in and felt there was too much of a blank space near the flowers. I should not have looked at it as that is one of the dangers of ‘overworking’ something. I picked up a purple gel pen and began dotting here and dotting there, then I became possessed and dotted everywhere. I am disappointed I touched it but, that is what we do sometimes.

Whilst I was sitting on the bus I was thinking of bluejay and hoped he like his swing, especially as it was not a cage. Then the little haiku came to me. I am not saying it is a great haiku but again, this project is not a professional happening, it is just fun…whew number three finished.

Number four. I went to another scrap bag as similar colours seem to be scurrying out and I wondered if another bird was in there as well. I think we need a change…so…yikes, am I mad? I chose at random with too much looking. I wonder?…

Spring – Bluejay resting

Number four

• Number three consist of – strip of indian paper with a subtle weave in it
• Brown paste paper (when it was wet I just folded it in half then pulled it apart which has given it an interesting pattern and texture. I must have been triangle obsessed at some stage because this is yet another piece with a triangle shape cut out.
• A very small frail piece of plant fibre paper with tea leaves added to it. Too many I am afraid which made it fragile.
• A teeny tiny pice of Indian fibre paper brown and little orange and beige fibres running through it.
• Gosh, an even tinier piece of felt. I loved doing felting and have used it for covering books. Why I kept this tiny piece amazes me
• A piece of hessian fringed
• A beautiful piece of which blow paper. (when it is drawn from the vat you just sprinkle water on it to disperse some it it and you get a lovely holey look.
• Last but not least a piece of jigsawl. I bought a jigsaw puzzle from the Op Shop and have used it often. The pieces are good to draw on, paint or stick materials or anything else you find to do with it.

http://klacenklaiart.wordpress.com/2011/10/28/paperdolls/

Hop over to this site and check out the paperdolls, they are fantastic. Love the concept.

May the circle of life be your guide to happiness

Number 2

O.k. number two. I started this piece with the ‘red‘ paper as it was bothering me(I try to get the problem things out of the way first). It is too red, too shiny, I couldn’t see a beginning, middle or end for it. Finally I turned it over to the ‘silver‘ side and the scene began. Thanks to Nia’s suggestion about these pieces being a book I used the other side of No.1 which ultimately will become a concertina. The size of it is approx 10cm x 15cm (4in x 9in). I only seem to have four of the same pieces in my scraps so I will have to cheat and make othe pages.

The silver side of the red looked ‘moonlike‘ so I began with that. The sturdy gold foil was not that hard to cut and I felt it wanted to be a sun so an eclipse happened. Next came the yellow warbler. I felt like he wanted to be cut from his anchored background so I released him. The handmade onion paper became extra branches for him to land on, the other handmade paper became leaves for a contrast to his green ones and more silver dotted the tree branches with blossoms.

More foil became leaves and it was nice to draw the veins in with a small awl. They felt right at home down the bottom on the left hand side  and a few little circles cut from the left over foil made nice centres for flowers over on the right and that was when I saw a reason to use a little of the ‘red’. It was terrible to cut a circle out as it is flimsy and slippery but managed two petal surrounds around the foil circles, lovely little spring flowers, their stems are of handmade paper then came the last piece of scrap; the paste paper. They quickly chirped their way into birds, one to keep warbler company,(he refused to stick all the way down so he is very perky with his head raised from the paper; one flew straight on the foil leaves, one very proud fellow stood tall in the middle and finally little Miss cheeky was happy smelling the spring flowers. A few strokes of brown ‘zig’ permanent pen for grass, more twigs on branches and little seed pods scattering around and ‘Spring Warbler’ was born.

The hardest part of anything I find is the beginning, next time I will not start with the problem piece, I will let it sit till it is ready, can’t force these little critters.

I scanned the picture into the computer and the weirdest thing happened, the colour came out completely different but it is amazing what a different feel it gives it:  It is funny how I put the sun and the moon together as an eclipse and I have two pieces, one sunny and one blue moon…mmm, a little magic at work.

No. 3 scraps

Blue Spring Warbler

Spring Warbler

So, No. 3 what will you become?

• A piece of wrapping paper blue on one side and brown paper on the other
• A Bluejay, another bird which I was surprised to see.
• A small piece of transparent fibre paper with gold acrylic paint splashes.
• Red painted watercolour paper (heavy coldpressed by the look of it)
• A photo of a garden in Holland taken a looong time ago and cut into an oval shape with shapey scissors.
• A very small piece of mauve handmade paper
• A yummy piece of watercolour paper marbled and cut with shapey scissors (I remember using most of this in an under water collage.
• and finally the last dregs of the purple paste paper with printed text.

I have had some new and very interesting visitors to my site and I would like to share them around. I will get them into my blogroll as soon as I can:

http://klacenklaiart.wordpress.com/

http://homemadewellbeing.wordpress.com

http://mrdavidemmanuelnoel.wordpress.com/

http://lovethybike.wordpress.com

These are just a few, pop over and see them. Some have the yummiest recipes from different parts of the world, others are just as talented in the arts, music etc.

Happiness to everyone, may your days be filled with wonder and love.

Scrap picture No.1

Sunshine, early morning (daylight saving) my beloved coffee and scraps in front of me. Oh to choose, help…finally a little of this and a little of that.When I say little, I mean little. If I keep finding tiny pieces I will be doing this for the rest of my life so I have put a limit of one month on myself. I accomplished this small picture this morning which is a ‘stand alone’ piece…as in…what do I do with it now? My dear friend Nia asked if I was going to make a book from my scraps, love her forever. doh! didn’t think of that; so that is the way I will go. How? not sure yet, will ponder on that question. Maybe this first one can be the cover.

So here is ‘You are Creating’.

You are Creating

• Purple paste paper I made many years ago. I remember printing text on it to see how it reacted in the printer (it behaved admirably) but I never found a use for it.
• Hand made  paper that I made, again many years ago and used it in handmade books. Just this teeny tiny piece was left but of course I couldn’t throw it away and now it is making the soil for the flowers to grow in.
• An even tinier piece of beautiful Japanese tissue paper print (purple flowers sitting on the left hand side).
• The last (I think) of a wrapping paper that I just adored and used a lot for covering books now lining the nest and bordering the left hand side of the page.
• My little egg was sent to me by a dear girl in USA when I was involved in ‘artist cards’. She sent me a little package of goodies that I cherished, little egg, little egg, how I love thee.
• A brown Zig pen anchored the nest and green and purple gel pens added more flowers.
• All gluestick’d (love making up words) to a hand-made paper of which I made heaps of a long time ago with onion skins and recycled shredded computer paper. Just boil up the onion skins which colour the water and takes the ‘white’ away from the paper and the skins add a nice texture and interest.

I have decided to choose the next days scraps as I finish the current one. It took more time looking at the pieces this morning than choosing them which was a time waster when the day has to begin. This is tomorrows and now I am looking at them…yikes, what am I doing to myself? I will not be using the information about the Warbler (I don’t think) just thought I would put it up as they are beautiful little birds. We have a few species here in Australia.  Australian warblers occur in many different habitats throughout their distribution area including, mangroves, rainforests, eucalyptus forests and woodlands, shrub lands, and desert. They are hard to see as they are so little.

 

•   Top: Sturdy gold foil
• Handmade paper with leaf pieces cut and used elsewhere at some stage.
• A small piece of yellow and green paste paper
• A square of handmade plant paper
• Picture of an American Yellow Warbler (another gift from a person doing artist cards – such kind people).
• A little information on a cute little birdie.
• The final piece and a bit of a concern is red foil wrapping paper with a hologram pattern. Will it fit anywhere?…mmmm.

Oops! why is my text getting smaller????

Zany doodles

Yes, well….where these people came from I am frightened to imagine. Tucked away somewhere inside they wait in line to get out …mmmm. This little lot below followed in time and line last night.

I have decided on a challenge and that is to take out one box of ‘scraps’ and wade my way through them making something from each piece. I wonder if I can. I am not good at my own challenges because something interesting comes along and I tend to wandle (saw this non-word on another site and stole it cos I like it) off over to that project and leave a trail behind me. We shall see. Who else does this? Surely for my own sanity I am not alone in the world of changing at the drop of a hat?

A couple of great sites I have been visiting lately seem to have it altogether. http://photographyofnia.com/  Nia is a beautiful person in all ways and what she manages to do with her camera is just amazing. She is very creative with her work and her site is always fresh with new ways of manipulation and storylines.  Her love of photography will inspire anyone to pick up a camera and have a go. Nia is just talking about Emily Dickinson which is a coincidence as I am off to the library this afternoon to Pick up Emily’s poetry, she is a favourite of mine.  Also if you check out Nia’s site she is also mentioning James Peat’s photography. I checked him out and boy, has he got talent with his camera.

The other site I really like is  http://www.donnadidit.net/  Donna is kind, generous bright and colourful and a damn good artist. Love her work and her ways.

Of course there are many many more I love to visit, I will mention more as time goes on. They are all on my blog roll but sometimes they effect me so much I just have to talk about them. hello to both beautiful ladies.

O.K. here are these quirky little people  from last night, finally out in this world. I took scraps with a triangle cut in them. It was going to be a concertina book at some stage and the other pieces were a part of a rusted iron gate that didn’t work.

If you are looking for something to play with, get out all those little cut-offs, cast-offs, crinkled and wrinkled pieces and see what you can do. I would love to see them.  Don’t think twice about what to do on them, just make a mark or glue pieces, splosh paint, scribble crayon and see where it all takes you.

Worried William

Triangle Terrence

Punk Paul

Noseless Ned

Keyhole Kenny

Just a small part of my scrap pile

Caged Cathy

An ongoing collection of Doodles

I have been missing for some time. My little Grandson, only 7 years old broke his wrist on the monkey bars at school. Nothing unusual for children but my poor little man has had three operations so far,wires, an infection and stays in hospital. Plenty of TLC from us all and he is hopefully now on the road to recovery.

So, back to the ‘doodles. These little drawings have been adding up. I tear up watercolour paintings that haven’t turned out or I tear up watercolour paper and splosh paint or collage on them (usually 10cm x 6cm – 2 and a half by 3 and a half inches approx) and take them away with me when I travel or just wandering around my home town, sit down in a park, or having a coffee and ‘doodle’. Today I did a few whilst relaxing at home so I thought I would post them up. Some of them are actual sights, some are a mixture of reality and mood, others are just a figment of my imagination.

I took up the challenge of trying to draw faces for the Sketchbook Project 2012 and was fascinated what popped out, I am even more fascinated that characters are still coming, it is as if I have a whole family inside somewhere wanting to get out…

When I am travelling I use a metal ring with a hinge, make a hole through the paper and clip them altogether. It is what I like to call my ‘travelling ring books’ (hence some of them have the hole where I have pulled them apart to scan). I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoy doing them. Because they are ‘playthings’ I use anything I have at hand. Textas, gel pens, acrylic, collage, pencil, watercolour and inks.

The ring that caused the holes

Wired William

Abstract Doodle

Autumn Companions

Bali Flowers

Bat Fish

Broken Engagement

Butterfly Man

Cambodia Flowers

Cambodia in the Shade

Camel Shadow

Canal Sights – Den Haag

Cappadocia

Checker Street

Coffee Coming

Calico Man

Countless Catchings

Den Haag in the heat

Dutch Sheep

Electric Erik

Gandopha

Goddess Genevieve

Green Flower

Gulhane Stork

Hetty Hair

Holland Bikes

Humpty Dumpty

In Safe Hands

Le Jardin – Cambodia

Locking Horns

Lucy Lost

Mimsi the Feline

Odd Annie

Pergatory

Racy Ruby

Scrappy Kathy

Spring not yet Sprung

Sunset Cambodia

The Farmyard

The Juggler

The Land of Thinking

The Red Room

Vietnam Sights

Vietnam View

 

Little Free Library – Home

       Little Free Library  – Home.

How cute is this idea. I would love to have one here in Australia…mmmmm. Can you picture walking past a house that had a little free library housed in their own little building. Not only would it be amazing to swap books but imagine how many new people you would meet whilst browsing.