Spring is in the air

I am a winter baby and have loved snuggling up this year with my crochet in front of the fire.  My dear friend Ruth made me a knitted hug which is also really wonderful for snuggling up in.    And here is Gwenhwy's birthday present. She loved them as much as I loved making them for her.

Also made were scarves for Toni, Ruth and Chris.

I am waffling but there are some beautiful crochet patterns out there this year and I just want to crochet all the time.  I have started making swatches inspired by colour postcards and pictures which is a great way to come up with a colour scheme.

I love making flowers and flowered motifs.  We made Narelda an amazing afghan for her 40th and it was just lovely.  Mine are the corner motifs with flowers.  what a lot of fun

Here's our very talented friend Narelda with her afghan present.  Also check out her roos on the sculptures by the sea in Sydney this year. 

happy creating and happy spring, what a wonderful time to be inspired by colour.

hugs Ann

Check out my new AVON eBrochure!

Check out my new AVON eBrochure!: Hi Everyone! Here's a sneak peak at some of the latest products available in my Avon eBrochure. Be sure to click on the link  I don't mail order but do hand deliver to friends and family.  Happy Christmas shopping from the comfort of your own home! hugs Ann

Contextart Blue Mountains with Anita Larkin

I have had a wonderful week doing some sculptural felting with Anita Larkin.

There were 6 of us and it was most relaxing. We made many wonderful pieces

I learnt so much about using the properties of fibre to sculpt. Anita is a very experienced sculptor and we were so lucky to have the benefit of her experience for a week

I made some neck pieces and a bowl, basically trying to play with the techniques.

Sculpting in felt takes a lot of strength. The forms are so very hard when fulled. It is a totally different concept to felting for clothing.

I learnt a lot, had a lot of fun, and met some very talented gals, and just want to felt. It was wonderful.

One highlight was meeting up with Stella, an old doll club buddy and amazing felter.






Here are some class photos. I made the white bowl in the background, and the 2 neckpieces in the foreground. One is very modular and the other is over wire These pics are from our last day exhibition. The other pieces were made by Pam from Vic and Pam from the Blue Mts.

Greg came with me and being foodies we weren't disappointed with Katoomba, k town. It has been spruced up a bit since we were last here a couple of years ago. We didn't have a bad meal at all. Some were promising but basically really good pub food style. Better than we remember.

Our 2 best meals were takeaway from gourmet delis in Leura.

We paid a lot to stay in forget me not cottage in K town and it was lovely

Would I do context art next year. Sure will.

Ann

A yellow journal page

I've been playing with colour in my journal this year. Boy these are a lot of fun and I just love to play with stuff Yes yellow makes me smile and happy.

The second one was fun too. It started out yellow but ended up more rusty.  I used a bit of old gate wire and squashed beer tops picked up off the road plus some buttons and tea dyed lace.  I just love this image - jumping for joy.  Although it's not quite finished somehow.

I'm still procrastinating about my water theme doll for our exhibition. time is running out. 
until next Wednesday. 

My creative year so far

I am besotted with these detachable all cloth scultped heads and have made many this year.  I am getting some great facial structure by using stitch and moving stuffing around and then stiffening them to keep it all in place. 
here are some heads:

They have sparked my first series of dolls for the year which I call my landscape series. I have made 3 so far very simply using a head and torso on a stand and a beautiful piece of textile. The simplicity of them was a real light bulb moment for me.

The textiles:  the blue one was a piece of fabric made by some dear friends in a group called "ladies who lunch".  Some very talented gals. We called this round robin "fiddled fabric". We gridded our fabric, advised a theme, then passed it around.  Everyone covered over their worked grid piece and we unveiled after 15 months of the piece travelling around. It was most exciting.  My theme was an underwater garden and it is just wonderful.  

The green and pink piece is wet felted on black cotton using yarns, silk and hand-dyed silk gauze on top.  I love making these. 

The third pink piece is felted the same way as the green piece. I have donated this doll to Wilma Simmons' exhibiton which is opening tomorrow night at Timeless Textiles in Islington Newcastle. Wilma is a wonderful gal trying to raise some money for a local womens' refuge. I hope she can make a few $ from this doll.  All the best for the exhibition Wilma! 

here they are:

"if you chose something because it matches your soul it is art"

enjoy your day Ann

My first blog

It is now Wednesday. I don't work on Wednesdays and it is wonderful.  I have started art journalling and making dolls again after a hiatus. If is so much fun to walk into my wonderful studio and just be me. I must say though after working full time for over 30 years it was really strange to have a day off. I didn't know what to do, I felt guilty, I was overwhelmed.  But, it only lasted a day and now I relish and look forward to the days! 

I had a huge clean up and reorganisation of my studio last weekend. It is wonderfully relaxing. I am a bit of a neat freak and can't stand mess unless I am working on a project then it looks like a hurricane hits. It has been nice to have it clean for a couple of days!  smile!  And it's pink!

Here are 3 views of my studio. All dry areas for working with my machines, jounrnals and dolls. I am so lucky to have this space.  Yes my man spoils me.

my quote for the day:  I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells.   Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life's realities."  Dr. Seuss

enjoy your day  Annie