Little corners

These are some of the trinkets that live in the corners of our house.  I don't think I could be a minimalist!

My creative space: shells

I've acquired a bit of a shell collection - the small ones are perfect for carrying in your handbag for a bit of drawing practice on the run - and I thought I'd paint some of them for my new zine. They're watercolour on watercolour paper and were definitely a challenge to draw!

I think I'm going to paint two more collections for my zine - commemorative teaspoons and...hmm...any ideas for the other one?

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

Happy Thursday!

My creative space: enemy of the capsule wardrobe

This dress pattern. It's ruining my ambition to have a capusle wardrobe, with only 24 items of clothing cleverly mixed and matched. I thought for today's creative space I'd do a bit of a roundup of the 6 (!) dresses I've made from this pattern.

This was the first one I made...it's rustly and very synthetic and is fantastically fast to dry.I made this one to wear to a wedding. It has a matching belt and is a bit like a '70s couch.

This is the one I wear all the time. It's made from grey wool crepe and it used to have (wonky) pockets. This one's my go-to cheerful dress for wearing when I'm doing my market stall.

I made this one to wear on New Year's Eve. I need to do some surgery on its seams but I love the way the fabric looks like it's covered in stones. This is my most recent version; it's a thin cheery cotton summer dress.

Hmm, that capsule wardrobe might not happen anytime soon. I've got plans for a plain green version and a crisp linen version too! Speaking of collections, here's what's going on in my drawing corner this week - lots of drawing of collections for my new zine:Hope you're having a good Thursday; to see more creative spaces head on over to the "our creative spaces" blog.

Button collection

Here's another watercolour for my new "Collections" zine. Some of these buttons and the old button packaging are from my nana's sewing box, but I took a few liberties with the colours. Next up is a shell collection...some of the shells are proving a bit of a challenge to draw!

Collections

This is an illustration from the new zine I'm working on...it's going to be about people and the things they collect. This little collection of weeds is done in pencil and watercolour - I'm hoping to turn it into a gocco print too...

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?

Poppy petals

The wind has been blowing poppy petals all over our lawn and I've been capturing a few of them; I like the way they're like little wings.
I turned one of them, and this leaf that's from something like a kaka beak, into some stamps. They're carved from erasers like these ones and these ones. Here they are on my favourite brown paper:Next I'm going to have a go at printing them on fabric...maybe for a tote bag? A skirt?

My creative space

In my creative space today I've got a drawing I've just finished of a little collection of...stuff I found lying around the house. A minimalist I am not!

I've got a few plans for this drawing. I'm hoping to turn it into a gocco print - maybe a multicoloured one, seeing as I've got a whole lot of new gocco inks I'm itching to use. I'd also like to use it to practise colouring in Photoshop - my sister and I are doing a night class at the moment to learn how to use InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator and we're doing Photoshop next week. The other plan I've got for it is to make it part of a little series of miscellaneous collections from around the house...I sure do have a lot of trinkets and things lying around!

What have you been making?

To see other people's creative spaces for today pop on over to the "Our creative spaces" blog.

Happy Thursday!

Smash palace

If you've accumulated a china collection, you're bound to have some casualties. My broken china shelf in my kitchen looms over me, a constant reminder that some day, some day, I should get round to turning all those pretty and colourful and sentimental shards into a mosaic. In the meantime, here are some mosaics that I've photographed for inspiration...

I'm sure I recognise that leaf plate!

...and that teapot lid!

Maybe I shouldn't worry about having a broken china collection. I heard a guy on the radio last night talking about his beer can collection. Apparently when you collect beer cans you drink the beer out of a small hole that you puncture in the bottom, so that you leave the tab on the top intact. But that collection wouldn't be so easy to turn into a mosaic.

Happy Easter!

Keep it clean

Here are some photos of my accidental (yes I'm sure it's accidental) collection of white & blue china. Which is really just an excuse for me to say "Look at that clean benchtop underneath them!" That benchtop, my friends, was cleaned with my homemade spray & wipe that I made last night. Would you like the recipe?

You will need:
Water
Sunlight diswashing liquid
Tea tree oil
Baking soda

Fill a litre bottle nearly to the top with water. Add a teaspoon of baking soda, a few squirts of the Sunlight diswashing liquid and 10 drops of tea tree oil. Give it a shake.

It smells so nice that I have done extra cleaning. And that never happens.
Ok, enough blogging about cleaning products; I'm going to do some painting on my newly clean art table!

Royalty

Don't have a lot to show this week - I've been busy setting up my Felt and Etsy shops...more on that soon! So lots of administration & no drawing. But I was making a cake for a friend's birthday and noticed all the royal family themed things in my kitchen, so I thought I'd show off some of those...

Silver Jubilee mug




Commemorative teaspoons:



Charles & Di tea tin
And somewhere round the house I've got a little coronation plate. I reckon that counts as another collection!

Collections

As well as green cardigans and old photos, I have lots of other collections. Another thing I collect is green china that looks like it's made out of leaves. Now that's pretty specific!







Sometimes there are casualties. Like this one that got smashed by a cat that jumped through our window.

I'll put up some more photos of my collections over the next few days, even though realising how many things I collect will probably be a bit scary!

Old treasures

One of the things I love to collect is old abandoned photos, left behind at op shops, markets, on the ground...
These are some of my favourites:

I always wonder about their stories.