adding a few words

The images are gathered and either printed or glue transferred onto cotton fabrics and now I'm wanting to incorporate a few words into my current work in progress. Normally my approach to adding text to my textile pieces would be through stitch or running the stabilized fabric through my ink jet printer both methods work well and both reliable. For this project I'm working towards having the words with different vibrancy thus adding depth to the final piece.

So I've been playing with various pens, pencils, paints etc and sampling how they mark fabric. When I'm sampling, experimenting, seeing how things work I work quickly and onto materials that I'm not precious about this enables my mind to work freely. As I'm working I make notes documenting my thoughts, findings and any side ideas that spring to mind.

 For my current work in progress I'm leaning towards using pencil to add the text, I'm liking the color density of the pencil on the fabric.

simple pleasures

Taking time to enjoy the simple pleasures the peach rose at the top was at New Farm Park as was the flowering grass. The orchid in the middle and the red rose are in our garden and the white flower at the bottom looked so spectacular along the river banks, we spotted it while out enjoying a stroll on the boardwalk in front of the old woolstores in New Farm.

something old

While thumbing through the newspaper this morning an ad for the Lifeline Bookfest caught my eye. It starts this Saturday 19th January 2013 and goes through to Monday 28th January 2013 at the Brisbane Convention Centre. The books are mostly sorted and divided into three main price points, high quality and priced these two sections are usually where the new, rare and medium quality books can be found and the third section is the unpriced area and this is where the "well-thumbed" books are. While I enjoy all three areas I do enjoy fossicking through the unpriced area this is the area where bargains can be found but also books to later alter and use in mixed media creations. We spotted this cookbook by Margaret Fulton at a previous Bookfest and while the book is obviously well-thumbed we noticed that it had several bookmarks and discovered all these hand written notes and recipes were contained within, I've had a wonderful time scanning the handwritten notes, printing them onto fabric, using them in collage etc it's well worth having a look all three sections, you never know what you'll find.

something new

What a wonderfully inspiring way to start a new year, with a pile of new books of course. I ordered several online at the end of last year and they turned up last week the box a little travel worn but everything inside in perfect shape. I do enjoy my books and I'm very happy with this selection, looking forward to rereading them. When we had our virtual tour of my studio spaces last year we saw a portion of the room I mostly have set up as a library it's is also the area I expand into when I'm working on multiple projects. Now to fit these new beauties into the bookcases and put new inspirations into practice.

back in the studio

Well with the festive season over and me almost being baked out (only almost, I do actually enjoy a bit of baking etc just the washing up one creates can be somewhat tiresome) anyway I've been enjoying my return to the studio with a little bit of playtime. A while ago I purchased a box of water-soluble wax pastels (Neocolor II by Caran d'Ache) and have really enjoyed using them in my sketchbooks. So it was time to have a bit of a play onto fabric. I started with a piece of leftover upholstery fabric and added some color to the rose pattern that was already printed on the fabric. I then moved onto a  couple of leftover pieces I had from when I was practicing using the gel medium method to transfer digital images onto fabrics. While the images hadn't transferred the way I was envisaging at the time, I liked the texture and shading the imperfect image transfer had created so I had popped the pieces aside for one day. And this week is my one day week. The above images are the progress thus far. I'm really enjoying working with the crayons, being soft they don't pull the fabric as much and I also really like their vibrant colors.

delicious cherry jam

 Already we're into the second day of a New Year - Happy New Year!!! everyone. Do hope everyone had a safe and joyous Christmas and New Year celebrations. Always so much yummy fare to prepare and enjoy and all those delicious summer fruits to enjoy. We day tripped up to Stanthorpe just before Christmas and came home with a selection of stone fruit, apples and 7.5 kilos of yummy yummy cherries. Inspired by German Rumtopf I marinated several of the cherries with a combination of sugar, rum and coffee liqueur. These marinated cherries where then included into the trifle, a chocolate-cherry mud cake and drizzled across a serving of ice cream - all very delicious. Also grabbed the opportunity to make up some Cherry Jam which went beautifully with the ham and turkey.