A day of TWELVES

Today we record our day as 12/12/12 a Numerical Coincidence. As a calendar year doesn't have 13 months it will be nine hundred and eighty nine years before we scribe the day, month and year with the same numerals 01/01/01 (1^st January 3001). The number twelve has captivated and influenced us throughout history and it seemed like the perfect day to reflect on the year and list twelve memorable moments that occurred throughout the year.  Simple enough task right? Well summing up a busy and hectic year into just twelve moments is an achievement in its’ self. 

Anyway here we go in no particular order twelve memorable moments throughout 2012:

Celebrated turning 40

First Solo Exhibition – Sunday Drives

Enjoyed having more time in the studio

Enjoyed doing more baking and preserving

Loved sketching my way round Brisbane with Urban Art Binge

Totally enjoyed a very inspiring master class with Ruth Hadlow

Featured in Textile Magazine - first magazine feature (3 pages)

So much fun decorating a tree as part of Jumpers n Jazz festival

Enjoyed doing more Sunday Drives - all in the name of research of course

Delighted and honoured to have art works that are now part of private collections

Very exciting to have artwork accepted into State of the Art Quilt, Stanthorpe Arts Festival, Beneath The Southern Sky and Infused 2: all things Tea

And of course taking time to enjoy and contemplate the day with family and friends

fabric release through Spoonflower

 

Added four new fabrics to my collection today, they have been inspired by recent photos captured while out and about around town. The flowering balconies of our State Library, further photo study of pallets and the stacked containers and cranes out at the Port of Brisbane have been the inspiration for this collection. 

These fabrics are now part of my fabric collection available through Spoonflower

End of Year Exhibition

Dropped off my pieces this morning, I'm looking forward to opening night

Gorged on Creativity...For Now

An Exhibition of Works by Participants of Urban Art Binge 2012

                               7th - 12th December 2012

Opening night will feature a free sketch event, live music, dancing, and fresh food from SFA Street Food Australia.  The exhibition gives a unique insight into Brisbane’s diversity and spirit in what we believe to be a first as it shows the city through the eyes of 45 budding Brisbane artists. Images will range from the Port of Brisbane’s cranes through to the pirouettes of a Saturday morning ballet class in Bardon.

  Opening night: 6:00pm - 9:00pm    

Friday 7 December 2012  

Jugglers Art Space 130 Brunswick St, Fortitude Valley, Qld

Exhibition runs 10:00am - 4:00pm Saturday 8 to Wednesday 12 December 

(excluding Sun 9 December)

 

markets around town

Where has the year gone? With only a few weeks till Christmas it's time for me to finish projects and start Christmas shopping. Totally enjoy creating and making handmade but I also really enjoy purchasing handmade. Here are a few of the markets I enjoy visiting and shopping at for 

handmade, fresh produce and / or atmosphere.

Fair Trade Christmas Market

Sat 1st & Sun 2nd December 2012 :: 9.30 am-3.30 pm both days
St Aidan's Anglican Girls School, Ruthven St, Corinda QLD 4075

BOTANIQUE Christmas Bazaar
4 – 9 December 2012 :: 10am–4pm
at Richard Randall Art Studio
Brisbane Botanic Gardens, Mt Coot-tha Road, Toowong.
A wide range of artworks and gifts

Handmade Twilight Market

Sherwood State School (cnr Sherwood & Oxley Roads)

Saturday 8^th December 2012 :: 3pm-7pm
handmade art, gifts and yummy edibles

BrisStyle indie Twilight Markets
King George Square, Brisbane City
Friday 14th December 2012 :: 5pm-9pm
local designers and handmade

Chandler Markets: Twilight Market
Friday 21st December 2012 :: 2.00pm - 9.00pm
Cnr Old Cleveland Rd and Tilley Rd, Capalaba
Fresh Produce, plants, handmade, bric a brac

Brisbane Markets @ Rocklea
  Saturday 22nd December and Sunday 23rd December
  385 Sherwood Rd, Rocklea
Extended trading hours 6.00am-2.00pm for the
The Saturday Fresh Markets and Sunday Discovery Markets
 fresh produce and gifts



handmade stars by friend Kaylene

from the sketchbook

Last weekend was awash with rain. I'd signed up for a drop in sketch day with Urban Art Binge initially the plan for the day was to meet at the City Botanic Gardens and sketch our way round to the Kangaroo Point Cliffs. With all the rain a more indoor venue was sort and we met at the State Library and enjoyed some sketching from the reading areas with the fabulous river and city views, 

lunched in the cafe and then across to the QLD Art Gallery to sketch statues and artifacts

another wonderful day sketching

decorating little books

I spotted these little notebooks in our local stationary store the other week and grabbed one pack of each color. Each book has 60 lined pages with a sewn binding. Since purchasing them I've been having a wonderful time making up collage pieces to attach to the front of each little book.

re-purposed doily + potholder

I have acquired a few doilies over the years some as gifts, a couple thrift ed etc. A few of them are ripped or stained in sections and I had worn out my potholder. So I decided to re-purpose one of the doilies, combine it with a couple scraps of check fabric and make a new potholder. 

Using block 'Double Square' from the book Around the Block by Judy Hopkins as my inspiration
added a small border to the block

layered and quilted everything with a couple layers of wool wadding in the center and finally

added a binding which incorporated a loop

Wild Things & The Language of Nature

A couple of upcoming exhibitions to enjoy

A selling exhibition by artists Sharyn Hall & Wendy Bailye

featuring art, homewares, wearables & accessories

this weekend 2nd - 4th November 2012

and then next weekend

we get to enjoy an exhibition by Tricia Smout "The Language of Nature"

6-14 November 2012 (10-4pm daily). The exhibition is celebrating the culmination of Tricia's 12 month residency at the gardens. Both exhibitions are in the Richard Randall Art Studio

at the Brisbane Botanic Gardens, Mt Coot-tha

a perfect day for a barbeque

A few workmates and partners from husbands work come over for a barbeque on the weekend. 

I decided to take a few kitchen shots as I prepared the salads, desserts etc

and of course you can't have a BBQ with out devil eggs or dessert.

Brisbane Craft & Quilt Fair

Went along to the Craft and Quilt Show today. It's on for the remainder of this week 17th - 21st October 2012 at the Brisbane Convention Centre. Had a wonderful day shopping, viewing the displays, watching demonstrations and catching up with friends including my lovely friend Pauline from Funky Friends Factory (Pauline and I first met each other when we were both working for an optical retail company and discovered we both harbored a driving passion for creativity)

Today was also my turn to be on the 2QAQ (Queensland Quilters Art Quilts) demonstration table. There were four of use there throughout the day and each of us sharing one of our favorite techniques and/or inspirations. I had samples of the image transfers that I enjoy doing so much. I had samples for three of the methods I use to transfer image - the glue transfer method, inkjet printed using bubble jet set & ink jet printed using ink aid. The glue transfer method is the most transportable so I also had a couple of works in progress. Had a lovely day chatting with people, hearing and sharing the inspirations and learnings of each others creative journeys.

finished - enjoyed making a pencil case

Like so many of us - I often end up with small pieces of fabrics, papers etc and what to do with these. I also had been wanting to make up a bag/case to pop a few of my pens and small sketchbook into. I tend to keep my ink jet printed pieces together in a folder, so I started with these and laid several pieces onto a piece of steam a seam then fused this to a piece of fabric and finally ironed

a piece of 'iron on vinyl' over the top. I now had a front and back piece. Cut two pieces for lining, cut the zip to size and sewed the case together.

signage: instructing/directing/informing/telling a story

Wonderful husband recently rebuilt my computer and installed Photoshop Elements so I've been enjoying a bit of creative playtime figuring out what one can and can't do. I've been playing around with a few of the sign photographs I've taken over the years. From time to time signs and written word grabs my eye. I'm drawn to the shape, color, message, the deterioration, the location and/or the frequency of placement. 

Open Studio Day & Urban Art Binge

Joannah Underhill and Emily Fong the co-ordinators of Urban Art Binge will be hosting an Open Studio Day tomorrow Saturday 13th October at Emily's Woolloongabba Studio as part of the BARI (Brisbane Artist Run Initiative) Festival. The Studio address is 58 Maynard Street, Woolloongabba.

The Studio will be open 12noon - 4pm join them for chat, tea/coffee/beer, cake

sketching and mixed media

fabric release - spoonflower

Yippee the sample pieces arrived today. I've been working on a couple of new fabric designs inspired by images that I've captured on recent adventures about town. Applied a  bit of 

digital modification and hey pesto another yummy fabric to play with.

The bark of a Pine Tree.

A modified image of an aging wall. An aging wall at Boggo Road Jail.
The decommissioned jail has lots of interesting texture.

An aging nut n bolt on a disused boat ramp along the Brisbane River.
All three fabrics available through my Spoonflower shop

a creative day in the country

A few of us Broadstroke gals and partners headed out to Tarome today for a creative playday

had a wonderful day catching up, sharing stories & ideas, a bit of sketching,

capturing the texture of an old fence post and this magnificent gum tree onto fabric, 

 and of course enjoyed capturing a few more photographic moments

Thanks Ali for your wonderful hospitality

inspired by river gums

I was delighted to receive an email from Val with a picture of a wall hanging that she has made using my 'peeling away' fabric available through Spoonflower and an Australian Themed Embroidery designed by Tea Tree Embroidery

Thankyou so much for emailing me,

I so enjoy seeing how my fabrics inspire people to create

pine tree bark, a natural texture

 Spotted over the weekend, I was drawn

to the texture of the bark on this magnificent pine tree. 

 

hooray the kookaburras are back

Washing the dishes is so much more enjoyable in spring than any other time of the year. I do enjoy gazing out the kitchen window in spring and seeing which birds return. The kookaburras had a wonderful time hanging around while we were working in the garden today, waiting to see how many worms and grabs we came across. As we restore the side garden which neighbors onto parkland we're replacing a few of the exotics with native plants which will then naturally feed the birds and attract bees etc 

Today we planted a few Gravillea plants

creative playtime - altering envelopes

The work in progress at the moment is what I refer to as creative playtime. I so enjoy doing little challenges and/or small projects were I feel totally comfortable pottering with technique, mixing products, painting over it if it doesn't work or just simply starting again. And at the moment I'm enjoying altering envelopes. Once I've finished pottering with this piece I'll be posting it into Tricia's collaborative 

AIR-Mail project

Urban Art Binge (block 4) - journey so far

My confidence when drawing/sketching isn't the same as it is when I'm working with textiles, photos, stitch and collage. It's been in back of my mind that my next creative growth steps would include breaking down this barrier and embrace drawing/sketching. Sometimes when it's meant to be, the right tools appear and this is certainly the case when I stumbled across a link to Urban art Binge

Everything about the workshop appealed. My recent first solo exhibition 'Sunday Drives' drew inspiration from my immediate surrounds. So to be building my confidence towards drawing through a workshop which incorporates live sketching sessions around my home town is a perfect opportunity. The format of the workshop is two sessions per week for 6 weeks - one session in the studio and the second out in the field sketching various Brisbane landmarks, locations & events.

The workshops are co-ordinated by talented and inspiring local artists Emily Fong and Joannah Underhill

Each week Emily and Jo have shared with us many techniques, guided and inspired us to have a go, built our confidence thus ultimately enabling us to enjoy the journey. So far we have live sketched at the Home Festival, Queens Street Mall and Boggo Road Jail and we still have a couple of weeks left in our block to enjoy and continue growing. The next workshop block will be starting on the 15th October 2012, go to Urban Art Binge for full details/enrole.