Inchies - Rust & Finished Fibre Postcards

This week's theme at Inching Artists is Rust and, as I love the rusted look, I really enjoyed this theme! I have used rusted paper bought from Dale at The Thread Studio. I stamped it with text, swirls and texture stamps and then edged it with a deep blue chalk ink. I also added touches of orange and teal Starburst Stains as they emphasize the rusted colours and finished by gluing on "found" square rusted washers. I found these in the carpark when I was doing Beryl Taylor's workshops back in August. (I am probably going to do myself major damage with my tendency to always look at ground level!!)

I have also painted a canvas board to display these inchies - I have used Lumiere paints first and then added the same Starburst Stains and also some Verdigris Tintz to give a nice rich background. The scan is a bit blurry - maybe I should try and photograph them.

This is a scan of my finished "Patterns" Fibre Postcards - thanks to my new sewing machine, finishing them was a breeze! These are based on Macro-Suede upholstery fabric coloured with Shiva Oil Sticks, covered with deep blue organza and then stitched and beaded.

Now I must get back to my Circle Journal pages...

Allsorts

If I have to define my preferences I would say I am usually drawn to vivid colours but at the moment I seem to be equally attracted to pastel shades, especially when it comes to fabrics and lace. The photo above is of a whole pile of beautiful shabby chic vintage and recycled fabrics and bits and pieces I bought on Etsy from Whimsie Dots. Don't they just look beautiful together? They make me think of this beautiful blog. Mandy's packaging is so sweet - all the buttons and small bits came in little fabric pouches and the small box while the fabric pieces came in the beautiful cutwork, ribbon-tied bags. I think I will have to leave the whole lot out as a still life in my sewing room for a while!

These are scenes in my backyard (virtually nothing was visible beyond the fence) and out on the front verge (looking in both directions) at 7:40 yesterday morning. There was 97% humidity - very cold and very misty and I am sure if I had stuck my head outside the house earlier, the mist would have even been heavier. Not quite what you imagine winter to be like on the edge of an inland Australian desert (or at least, not what I expected before I moved here 14 years ago next month).


These next two pictures are for family entertainment - Zach before his haircut just a few weeks ago and then posing for me after Wednesday's haircut. He looks like a different person really and there were noticeable sighs of relief from both Joseph and myself (typical parental behaviour I suppose) when he announced his intentions to "go short" again! We had given up on nagging as that just seemed to entrench his 16 year old desire for hair/independence/free choice!

In amongst other things yesterday I worked on the start of a fibre postcard on the embellisher. The wool fibres are from The Thread Studio and are just beautiful - I love the vibrancy and the lovely feathery effects. The scan below is of the postcard "in progress". I will have to add some beads - I am on a bit of a beading kick at the moment but I am not sure what else I will do with it.

This one (if it works out) will be for Jaslyn, seeing she is largely responsible for the embellisher purchase in the first place, but if anyone wants to do an embellisher based ATC or postcard trade with me let me know as I can see I am going to be doing a lot of these. I have just added my email address to my profile so you can contact me direct if you don't want to do it via a comment.

Today I was planning on making some more fabric paper a la Beryl Taylor and painting my new supply of Lutradur (which it seems I have been spelling wrong all this time) but it is pretty cold outside here today so that may be delayed until tomorrow. I like to do this sort of work outside because I am so messy but I don't want to make my cold any worse, seeing I go back to work on Monday. The Lutradur is also from Dale at The Thread Studio and this time I have bought the medium and the heavy weight versions so I can see what I think of the medium weight one.

And now to finish off, I have been honoured by Jen nominating me as an Inspirational Blogger. I find her to be an incredible inspiration on many levels so it means a lot that she finds my blog inspiring. Last time I piked on nominating five inspirational blogs as I find it so hard to pick and choose, especially when there are so many fantastic blogs out there, including many that I read, some spasmodically and others regularly. So, here are my nominations and I should note that I haven't checked whether they have already been nominated. I have selected a mix of paper, mixed media and fibre artists, some of whom I have not met and who don't know I read their blogs as I am sometimes pretty slack about leaving comments. Check them out if you haven't been there before - they are all very inspiring:

Susan Lenz (love her embellisher work as well as everything else)

Dale Rollerson (Queen of Embellisher, Thread, Fibre & Stitch)

Jacqueline de Jong (my incredibly productive friend in the Netherlands)

Deb Lewis (all sorts of lovely photos and artwork)

Karen Stiehl Osborn (again beautiful photos and wonderful collages)

Last Week...

My fabric paper "piece" mounted on mat board
from Beryl Taylor's Fabric Paper Workshop

I have now been back three days and I cannot believe how quickly those three days have gone!! I had great intentions of doing a recount of my week yesterday but it took too long to sort through my week's photos and there was serious competition from Zach for the computer. I thought this was going to be my 100th post (significant only in that the number sounds big!!) but I had a draft post that I hadn't ever deleted so I have another day/post to go.

So to tell you about my week - it was a fantastic mix of socializing, buying, eating and learning with big chunks of inspiration, fun, laughter and new friends! In other words - a perfect week. I loved the Craft & Quilt Fair (the quilts on display were incredible and I was totally won over by two felted ones in particular) - possibly I appreciated the Fair more than many Perth-ites would as I am very restricted in the craft/art goods I can buy here without using the internet and it is such a different experience to see things and touch things before buying them!

I went on both the Saturday and the Sunday and my purchases included the pretty selection above plus a whole pile of stamping/paper arts "stuff" that was seriously discounted on a couple of stalls - you cannot argue with 60% off. I also bought the Janome Xpression (embellisher machine) because Dale and Jaslyn wouldn't give me one good reason not to! I have been wanting one for about 18 months and the Janome is so reasonably priced (even before the show special) that even an embellishing beginner such as me can't really do without it!! When I grow up I guess I'll need a Baby Lock.

Highlights of a social nature were meeting Jaslyn "properly", catching up with Dale & Ian (The Thread Studio) and Jo and Jacky (Artistic Journey), having coffee and good chat with Kim Jones and also a quick chat with Jen Jones and Julie van Oosten (who has some great new chipboard products).

I stayed with my wonderful friend Jude, her partner Pete (and of course, Rosie - the dog!) for the week in her fabulous new house and it was just so nice to have the time together. Here is a photo of us (minus Rosie) at dinner on the Friday evening (at a lovely Thai restaurant - name has been forgotten already unfortunately).

I had a lovely dinner with my son Josh and niece Jasmine on the Saturday evening at Chutney Mary's in Subi - here is a quick shot of Josh in his college room before dinner, and yes I know that Josh will hate this one but I only took two and the other one is blurry. Unfortunately I forgot to get a photo at dinner (Jasmine's boots would have been worth photographing by themselves!).


Joseph was in Perth for a meeting on Monday so afterwards we visited his second son Jacob, his wife Melanie and the beautiful (of course!) grand-daughter Skye. It was an exceedingly wet day and I got drenched trying to get a parking ticket in Perth while I waited for Joseph. I didn't end up with any decent shots of Mel, Jake & Skye all together so these are all of Skye with us. The hardest thing about living in Kalgoorlie is being so far from family.

Skye combing my hair - a picture of concentration!

Tuesday to Thursday was spent doing three very inspiring and informative workshops with Beryl Taylor (whose website is now operational). I bought Beryl's book when it first came out - one of the few times I have bought a book sight-unseen direct from the publisher - because I had loved her artwork in magazine articles. Needless to say the book didn't disappoint and it has been a fantastic and very well-used resource. It was even better, of course, to have the opportunity to learn direct from Beryl - she is a very friendly, relaxed and sharing person and her art is incredible. She bought heaps of her pieces to the workshops so we could really look at them in detail. I did three of the four workshops and the first two had only small numbers so it was a terrific opportunity to have "personal" tutoring! I got to share with and meet some great women at the workshops (special thanks to Jaslyn - hi!!) and a particular highlight was Annie coming down at short notice from Kalgoorlie for the Wednesday workshop. That was a lot of driving for one workshop but it was great to be able to enjoy the day together. Thanks too for transporting my Xpression home for me - it would have been a pain on the train. These photos were all taken at the Thursday workshop and show only a portion of the room and participants.

Dale telling me not to take pictures of her taking pictures!

The Embellishments Workshop (maybe not a lot produced, but a lot learnt!)

Various fabric paper pieces made at the workshops (better in real life!)
- these incorporate various papers, wall papers, organza, dryer sheets,
tyvek, foil, spackle, paints, dyes, stamping etc

Wednesday night I had dinner at the Left Bank with my lovely sister Kathryn and her partner Roger. (And Kathryn I did take a wrong turn on the way home and toured a bit more of Fremantle than I had intended on my way back to Jude's!!) As always, Kathryn, it was so special to have time with you - just wish we weren't living so far apart.

Friday was extremely wet and cold in Perth and I spent the morning and early afternoon, before catching the train home, with my dear friends Jen and Suellen (seen here in Dome before we got drenched moving cars and changing locations). The train ride home seemed much longer than the ride down just a week before (it really was the same though - around 7 hours). It was a lovely week and I am so glad I have another week of holidays to follow through on all the inspiration.

Having trouble tonight with Blogger

For some reason Blogger won't let me upload anything tonight unfortunately, so this is just a quick little post to say that a big chunk of today was spent working on my tags (and doing the week's washing, which was actually a pleasure on such a glorious autumn day).

I'm making good progress on the tags and it is mostly a case of assembling them now. Tonight I am going to work on my "paper fabric" quilt a la Beryl Taylor. Can't wait for her workshops in Perth in August - she is so inspiring and I love the way she mixes paper and fabric together. I must contact Dale at The Thread Studio to find out if details are confirmed yet as I'd hate to miss out. I'll be taking some annual recreation leave to get to this as I lose a couple of days travelling (by train or car) unless I fly ($ I would rather spend on a Janome Xpressions).

Hoping the latest Cloth, Paper, Scissors arrives in my letter box on Monday - once I know a new issue is out I find the wait so hard! Until tomorrow - when blogger may be a bit more cooperative!

Weekend Bliss

Well it is now 1pm on Saturday and I have managed to use my Friday evening and Saturday morning very productively. The house has had a good vacuum and bit of a dusting (!) and several loads of washing have been done so I am free to play! Joe has gone to watch his beloved Dockers at his club (where he can shout at the TV screen and not get me agitated) and Zach is doing a full day shift at his part-time job at Target. This means I have nearly five hours before anyone else will be home and I can play my music loud and get creative.

I am going to continue working on my Nina Book (I think 12 pages was a bit ambitious actually) and hopefully get a start on my "Serenity" fabric postcards. Up until now I have only made one fabric postcard as an experiment (the daisy one pictured above) but I have been collecting appropriate supplies and I am really looking forward to making these. I think the size is better for me than ATCs when it comes to fabric - it doesn't feel as fiddly.

And if creativity doesn't happen, I can happily lose myself in the latest Quilting Arts magazine (No 26) which arrived yesterday from The Thread Studio (fantastic service as usual, thanks Dale!).

Vanity confession - I changed my profile photo today. The one I first used was taken at the Art Retreat in early March but I got my fringe cut tooooo short thinking it would be better than having my hair in my eyes. Joe took this quick snap at the wedding last weekend and it is a bit blurry and I am a bit pink from the champagne, but at least the fringe is three weeks longer!