some sculptures

well art school has wrapped up for the year, now just have to get organised for assessment next week, have actually been able to sit back and put my feet up for the past couple of days to recharge my batteries as I haven't really stopped for the past couple of months, so here I sit in front of the telly with my laptop on my knee.
Below are a few of my pieces that I've finished off over the past few weeks in the studio at school in between my travels.
Can you tell what the spiky bits are?

these are some cork tile offcuts one of the others in the studio was throwing out and as usual I can't bare to see anything thrown out!

this was a bamboo wind chime that had seen better days

can't decide whether to hang this piece or lay it flat, what do you think?

These are my pieces at the gallery down in Milton that I drove down on Sat to pick up as I need them for assessment next week, don't you love the old plate stand that I've displayed them on, again a piece I rescued form one of the others at school before it got cut up.

my 2 boys

just thought I'd share this photo of my 2 boys with you all, Mackenzie on the left and Callan on the right with Zelda our old dog,
I needed a photo of the 2 of them and didn't have a recent one so dragged them away from their computers out onto the back verandah

catch up

well, have I been busy since my last post, have taught a monthly class in Sydney, a 2 day class with The Illawarra Quilters and been to both Brisbane and Adelaide to work the Quilt shows in both states, plus in between still sort out all of the fallout from the accident, oh and also still found some time to go to Art School and make some sculptures.

Just before I went to Brisbane the gear that had gone to the desert with the guys arrived back on a truck and I've never seen 3 so relieved guys in a long time, they had a show the following weekend so the gear was desperately needed.

we have many strippy marsh frogs in various ponds around our yard but we've got a new visitor, Tim found him last night, he's a tree frog that looks like someone has splattered fluro green paint on him, though the spots don't show up in the photo, he smiled for the camera

I have discovered a form of doodling called Zentangles, I have decided to do one a day, this is what I've done so far, haven't done todays as yet, need to get a different sort of pen as this one bleeds, but I'm happy with my first efforts.

"vote for us"

As some of you know my husband Tim and oldest son Callan are acrobats and we have an acrobatic troupe called "The Leaping Loonies"
They have been nominated for Best Street Performer in citysearch's Best in the City Awards, so if anyone is feeling generous and wanting to help us win this award can you please visit citysearch.com.au/awards or SMS "Vote' to 1999CITY(2489) and cast a vote for us.

It would be much appreciated, thanks

Felting day

a few weeks ago I did a felting workshop with Anita Larkin
http://www.anitalarkin.com/Artist.asp?ArtistID=19686&Akey=7MYMJXAN
who is a fabulous felt maker and also does Assemblage sculpture like I do, so I was doubly excited about the day.
We started off the day making a piece that was joined with the other ladies pieces so we could see how to make larger pieces if we needed to, the large piece was rolled up in a bamboo blind then in canvas, then was rolled with our feet and stomped on in the traditional way that Anita had learnt in (I think) Kirghistan? as if we were making panels to go on a Yurt, the only difference was we didn't have a camel or horse to drag it behind around the paddock.
Our pieces were then cut apart so that is why there is some purple and light blue on to sides of this piece.

In the afternoon we made a resist bag, that means we had a cut out shape inside to stop the two sides felting together, here is the back side of the bag with the flap open.

here it is from the from with the flap down, I will eventually make a strap and bead a catch.

I had always been hesitant about trying wet felting as I wasn't sure if my back and shoulder could cope, but it didn't cause me to much pain, so now I feel I may be able to do other workshops in the future.

Silk Bowl class

Recently I taught a class at Peg's Pieces at Kirrawee where the ladies first made a piece of silk paper then made a bowl with it.
Here they all are hard at work.


and the finished bowls, all fabulous

a thoroughly enjoyable day was had by all

Memory Tree

one of the things I was working on before the car accident and my life became all consumed with insurance stuff and getting my husband and son home safely from the dessert, Nic Bridges and I had been commissioned to make a "Memory Tree" for the Alzheimer's Memory Day Walk along the beach front in Wollongong.

In our eagerness to get stuck into it we forgot to take photos of the frame which was a base of wood and twisted wire.
While I was getting the basics of the frame started Nic painted many metres of Tyvek, which is a plastic type paper that shrinks, distorts and bubbles with heat. Some car covers and forensic police overalls are made from this.
We stitched big pieces together for the trunk of the tree then hit it with a heat gun and it did magical things distorting and bubbling, we then wrapped strips around the branches and hit them with the heat gun and it shrunk beautifully around the twisted wire branches.

Here it is at the beach when we first installed it.


Throughout the morning people wrote their memories or loved ones names on leaves that were tied to the branches with ribbons.


Here's Nic and I at the end of the day

We were also given a booth next to the tree to showcase our art, we both had some small art quilts, Nic had paintings and I had sculptures and fibre pieces

What better way to spend the day than with the sound and smell of the crashing waves