Sardine dream

A fishy little drawing from my sketchbook...

Anemone

The dairy up the road from me has the best anemones.  I got a bunch of them and rushed to draw one before they dried up or the cat wrecked them by smooching them too much !

Fished for my wish

Just a funny little drawing of a sardine that I did on my lunch break the other day.  Thinking I might turn it into a print or something.  "I fished for my wish" is what we used to say when we played "Go Fish" and got the card we were hoping for from the pickup pile...did you say that?

Green ribbons, tall mountains

 I've been experimenting with some new ribbons for my huia brooches and thought I'd try out some in my favourite colour, a mossy green (I have an embarrassing number of cardigans that colour).

 And I've been planning a painting of Mitre Peak, probably one of the most painted places in New Zealand, but after I visited Fiordland earlier in the year I thought I'd love to have a giant painting of it in my lounge.  I'm having a (legitimate) sick day off work with a cold, so I thought it was a good chance to steal some time and get started on it!

Say it with flowers

 

I was running up a street near my house the other day when I found an apology written in daisies in somebody's garden.  It intrigued me...I hope the apology worked!

On brown paper

 I've finally gotten around to starting my "things I didn't buy from the op shop" zine.  I've been redrawing images from my sketchbook on brown paper and I'm going to paint over that.  Here are the ones I've redrawn so far:

 And you can see them in my sketchbook here, here, and here. 

Left behind: not what they seem

Here are some more of the things I've resisted at the op shop lately.  Even though they have double uses! 

My Creative Space: left behind in Kohukohu

 While one of the attractions for going to Kohukohu over Easter was the op shop open on a Sunday, I ended up leaving empty-handed.  I did, however, admire the jam-packed space that is Secondhand Rose, and was very tempted by a few goodies.  Here are some of the things I left behind:

I also didn't buy these teddies making a desperate bid for freedom, but they looked like they needed rescuing!

Joining in with "My Creative Space" today over here.

Happy Thursday!

My creative space: loot

After drawing so many pictures of things I didn't buy from the op shop I thought I should show you some of the things that have made it home with me lately.  Here's some of my op shop loot:

Hmm, two of those things haven't been worn yet...I might have to be ruthless with them.  The polka dotty dress has had plenty of wear though!  I'm thinking about redrawing my op shop sketches and maybe turning them into a zine...it might help to convince me to bring home fewer treasures!

Joining in with "My Creative Space" over here today.

Happy Thursday to you!

Trash or treasure?

 

Here are some more things I didn't buy at the op shop, looking a bit crinkly I'm afraid from spilling a whole jar of water on my sketchbook.  Might be time for a desk clean up methinks.  

 And hooray, it's that time of year again...

 I might have to do a "Things I didn't bring home from the inorganic collection" edition of drawings. I have already resisted a beautiful '70s couch (severely broken) and a pair of knitted gold sparkly pants!

Left behind in Onehunga

I find it hard to leave Onehunga empty-handed - it's such a treasure trove of great op shops and temptation.  Last week was no exception (and I'm in the process of drawing a few lucky finds) but here are some of the things I did manage to leave behind at the op shop...

 

Left behind again

This week I didn't buy at the op shop:

Seeing as my house is starting to resemble an op shop, I thought I should put myself onto a bit of an op shop diet.  So far I've been having fun writing down all my op shop tempations and saving them to draw in a quiet moment.  I don't think I'll be able to go cold turkey though, I'm going to Dargaville soon and have heard it's a bit of an op shop goldmine!  Any Dargaville op shop tips gladly received!

The balance

I noticed that my internet banking has a function where you can get it to make a pie chart of what you spend your money on.  It reminded me of something I read...maybe in Frankie magazine...about a girl who set herself a challenge of drawing everything she purchased.  I think I like that idea better, time consuming though it would be!  For what it's worth, here's what I did and didn't buy at the op shop the other day.

I bought:

 

And I didn't buy:

 

I wonder what that says about my spending habits?  Maybe I need a pie chart. 

My creative space: incidental drawing

 I feel like I've had to steal time to draw lately, so I've been sketching in strange places.  Today when I was having my Thurdsay day off coffee in my local cafe, I had a crab's claw sitting on the table to sketch.  It'll be handy for the zine I'm working on. 

I finished it off in the laundromat. 

 

I drew these kowhai leaves early one morning when I was watching Mr. Millicent Crow play on the bFM breakfast show:

Then I gave them a lick of paint at home.

And the other day when I felt like I'd been unusually restrained in the op shop I drew a list of the things I didn't buy that day, also over a cup of coffee:

One thing I did buy from the op shop that day though was this cake stand.  I'm going to use it on my stall, for displaying brooches or patches. 

 

Isn't she a beauty?

Joining in with "my creative space" today over here.

Happy Thursday to you!

My creative space: lunchtime drawing

I've been trying to squeeze in a bit of drawing in my lunch breaks this week, so I've been taking my sketchbook to work and collecting leaves to draw when I get a chance:

 I worked on this drawing in stages

 

 Finished it at home

 

And trapped some more leaves in my sketchbook to use later on.

How about you, when do you steal moments to make things?

To see lots of other people's creative spaces, head on over to the "our creative spaces" blog.

Happy Thursday!

My creative space

 In my creative space today I've got some kowhai leaf drawings that are ideas for part of a fabric design I want to make.  The other parts of the design I've been practising are here.  I was reading in a craft book today about photocopying fruit and using the photocopies to embellish your dinner plates - it made me laugh but I think I've done a version of that here scanning the original kowhai leaf alongside the drawn ones!

I also just learnt how to do a repeat pattern in photoshop - here's one I've been playing around with.  It's my "dots on sticks" pattern I made up a while ago but repeating properly this time.  The green needs a bit of tweaking I think - I'm always searching for the perfect green fabric.  One day I'm hoping to get some fabric a bit like this printed by Spoonflower. 

How about you, what have you been making?

To see more creative spaces head to the "our creative spaces" blog.

Happy Thursday!

Practice

 Last night I learnt how to make a repeat pattern in Photoshop, something I've been wanting to work out for ages.  So now I can work on designing an image to repeat on fabric...here are some of my ideas - trying to get the feather right has meant lots of repetition of the hand-drawn variety!

Playing with stamps

Sometimes when I'm making things I get too hung up on making finished products, ticking things off the to do list, and I forget to play around with materials and try things out. Rubber stamps, however, are great for just playing with, and I've been making some wonky little patterns with them and my watercolour pencils. Up the top here is my new gingko stamp that I made last night.
I reckon they look a bit like the designs on '70s enamel saucepans. These stamps were cut from erasers; I've just ordered some stamp carving blocks so I can make stamps on a bigger scale...and play around on a bigger scale!

Oh and I've just listed some new prints in my Felt shop too...you can see them here.

Rubber stamp ideas

I just bought a huge piece of canvas and I'm hoping to make some stamped canvas bags. I thought I'd design some new stamps to cut out of erasers and here are some stamp ideas I sketched:


I made a gingko stamp but the eraser I used had kind of curved edges so it didn't quite work out. Back to the drawing board with a flatter eraser for that one. I did make myself a new feather stamp and played with it on paper:and on fabric:I should test it out on the canvas before I end up covering my whole sketchbook in feather stamps!

In quiet moments

One of the things I like about doing the door for bands, or having slow patches when I'm doing my market stall, is drawing in my sketchbook. On Saturday as I was running out the door to do a market I grabbed a couple of shells off the top of the cupboard, thinking that if I had a quiet moment I could practise drawing them. So here they are; I had a bit of a play with them in photoshop afterwards. Mr. Millicent Crow bought me a small sketchbook for Xmas and I must remember to keep it in my bag so that I can steal little moments of time for drawing.