...this week is all about showing off the stamp I designed for Mr. Millicent Crow for his birthday. It's for giving people stamps at the door when he plays, and for sundry other stationery uses. 
To make it, I drew this bird:
added some text, shrunk it down and gave it to my favourite stampmakers and got them to work their magic.
The stall (pre-coffee I think). 
My assistant
My wares
Owl bags that had their debut at the market
Melbournians! Millicent Crow is going to be at the Rose St. Artists' Market tomorrow - 60 Rose St, Fitzroy, from 11-5! See you there perhaps?
and pulled out a name...
Congratulations Natacha Lee, you're the winner of my giveaway! Email your address to me at millicentcrowATgmailDOTcom and I'll pop your prize pack in the post for you.
...is all about the starting and finishing this week. I've been putting some finishing touches on this fellow:
Whom I nearlyruined last night after a midnight inspiration to paint the background blue. Thank goodness oil paint rubs off pretty easily when it's wet! I'm still not convinced he's finished...I keep finding little things to fiddle with or touch up. 
I've also been starting this lass, who is sporting a bit of a pink rinse at the moment. I've been experimenting with using tailor's chalk to draw on canvas after getting frustrated at finding black pencil smudges in my paint. You don't see too many people with pink and blue rinses these days, maybe that needs to be revived! 
I'm having a stall at the Crafternoon Tea market this Saturday! It's going to be held in the Trinity church hall in Kingsland (corner of New North Rd & Sandringham Rd) from 10-3. Do pop in and say hi if you're in the neighbourhood (and maybe have a Saturday cuppa in Kingsland).
My blog archives tell me that this blog is a year old! Which conveniently coincides with my own birthday. So to celebrate, I thought I'd have a bird day giveaway, with a bird-themed prize pack. I'm giving away two feather patches, two huia patches (with a male and female huia) and two gocco-printed cards with a new owl design.
If you'd like to enter, here's what you need to do. See those old-fashioned-looking women above? Well sometimes I get stuck thinking of old-fashioned names for the people I draw. So if you'd like to enter, leave me a comment telling me what you think I should name them. I've given them numbers, so you can use the numbers to show which ones you mean, e.g. 1. Euphemia, 2. Demelza 3. Hermione, 4. Edwina.
Some new ghostly people who will hopefully, one day, be turned into paintings. If you squint your eyes, you can see the traces of a third ghostly figure hovering above them...spooky!
Lately I've been eyeing up this abandoned chair near my house. I really like its Autumnal-coloured upholstery fabric...what's left of it anyway. I wish I had some upholstery skills so I could rescue it!
I made a whole lot of my huia patches the other day, and I've listed some of them in my Felt shop. They're screenprinted this time, rather than gocco printed - I've been finding screenprinting a bit less hit or miss than using the gocco on fabric. This is part of my fundraiser for Christchurch, with all proceeds from my Felt shop this month going to the Red Cross earthquake appeal.
What a sweetie. 
