Xmassy

Hope you had lovely Christmases; here are some photos I took in amongst the Christmas madness...


I was given these lovely flowers at the St. Heliers Market by one of the lovely Flora Rosa ladies, as you can see Loulu loves them too!

Sketchbook

When I do markets at the moment I'm supposed to sew on brooch backs while I'm standing at my stall. At the St. Heliers market this weekend I forgot my needle and thread (along with many other things) so I did a whole lot of market sketching instead...

Drew some funny characters who might get a colourful makeover...

...and designed myself a patterned new wardrobe. I wonder if I'll make any of it? I have high hopes for some Xmas day sewing...

Blueish

When I got home from the Auckland Art & Craft Fair on Saturday night I felt strange not having to frantically print and turn my house into a crazy production line. So I got out my rubber stamps and some offcuts of card and made these little gift tag cards. They kind of match some of the other blueish things I've been photographing lately...

Oh and I'll be stallholdin' at the St. Heliers Bay Christmas Market this Sunday. It's from 10-3 at the Tamaki Ex-Services Association Hall, on the corner of Turua St. and Polygon Rd. Pop in and say hi if you're in the neighbourhood!

The Fair

Here are a couple of snaps from my stall at the Auckland Art & Craft Fair on Saturday:

Peeking out from behind the funny stamped flags I made after a disastrous last-minute bunting attempt went horribly wrongAfterwards I had to have a bit of a recline in one of the deckchairs in Aotea Square......surrounded by giant puppets!

There's a review of the fair at thread.co.nz and more pictures there too. It was a great, busy, well-organised fair, thanks Jess & Kylie!

My creative space

In my creative space this week I've got a plethora of brooches that I've been printing and sewing frantically for the Auckland Art & Craft Fair this Saturday. This is the selection I'm going to be bringing along:

Here are the ones I've finished, all jumbled up on my pin board:

And here are some huia brooches, looking a bit more tidy:

There are plenty more still waiting for brooch backs!

Speaking of craft fairs, if you're in the Wairarapa or Wellington you should head along to Craft Country in Greytown this Saturday! I had a stall last year and it was a great day. You can find details, including profiles of the sellers here.

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

Happy Thursday!

Toasty

"You're going to be making a lot of toast" said the man in the Sallies as I left with three toast racks under my arm. Little did he know I had two more at home. Having your toast sitting in a rack getting cold has never seemed that appealing to me, but it turns out toast racks are perfect for drying gocco prints. They can sit neatly like this:

Instead of like this, risking muddy paw prints:Oh and this is my new print of my seedpod collection, hot off the gocco. I'm calling it "Treasures."

Just a note to say...

...there's an interview with me on the Auckland Art and Craft Fair blog today. The fair's on the 10th of December at the Aotea Centre, looking forward to it!

A little collection

A new drawing of my seedpod collection I've just finished. Hopefully in the weekend I'll have a chance to turn it into a gocco print...any colour suggestions?

My creative space

The other day I fired up the gocco:

Printed and printed and printed:

Printed some more:
And made these:

The colours remind me a bit of willow pattern

The lounge floor was so covered in prints that I had to make a little pathway for the cat to get through! How about you, what have you been making? Got any crazy production lines going on at your place?

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

Hope you're having a good Thursday.

Envelope monster

Funny the things you find when you're tidying up!

Hula skirts and peacocks

 These colourful hula skirts caught my eye the other day. 

These bluey-greeny ones reminded me of a magazine article I read last week about a designer who grew up in a sprawling mansion in America.  As all good sprawling mansions should, it had a whole lot of peacocks that lived in the garden and, as a child she decided that the inside of the house would look good covered in peacocks.  She enticed them into the house with kibbles and got them to climb up on the furniture; her parents were not impressed!  I can't remember who that was...she did have a caravan with a claw-footed bath in it and a Rolls Royce with flowers painted all over it...anyway the skirts kind of reminded me of peacock tails draped over furniture. 

I wouldn't mind a caravan for an art studio actually...wonder if I could get one with a claw-footed bath?

Offcuts

 I've been rescuing some of my cardboard offcuts by making these little stamped cards, I'm always in need of little cards to send out with things.  I've also been printing up a storm, trying to distract myself from my sadness at the election result...more on that printing soon. 

And the mountain of huia soon-to-be brooches continues to grow.  I've got many evenings of sewing on brooch backs ahead of me! 

My creative space

In my creative space this week I've been doing a bit of this:

and a bit of this:
to make these:
and this:
for this.
I'm going to make the huia and swallow prints into fabric brooches. The leaf and petal printed fabric is a bit of a practice using my homemade stamps to make patterns...and to make sure it passes the all-important colourfastness test.

How about you, what have you been making? To see what's going on in other people's creative spaces, head on over to the "our creative spaces" blog.

And at the risk of filling up the internet with pictures of cats, I'll leave you with a picture of a super cute cat called Ernie that I met the other day. Aww, that tongue.

Happy Thursday!

Bunny vs cat

The bunny won.And, letterbox defended, proceeded to read the Ponsonby News.

My Creative Space

My creative space today is a bit of a team effort. After seeing some pretty amazing beards around the place lately I drew this funny hirsute and heartbroken guy:

and these leaves:And Mr. Millicent Crow combined them into a poster for his tour with The Broken Heartbreakers this summer:

Coming to a town near you this summer to break your heart and heal your soul.

What have you been making?

To see more creative spaces pop on over to the "our creative spaces" blog.

Happy Thursday!