Rusty Reserected

This is Rusty.She is a lrage art doll clock I made from a Tuna can and rusty objects found in the old Gold Fields near where we live.I made her after another I had made for a challenge at the After Midnight Art Stamps yahoo group where we had to use a tuna can to make something with.I can't show you that one yet as Linda is trying to get tall he challenge entries published in the USA.Rusty was in the last Rubber Gazette that got published and she came home in a sorry state with bits broken and missing.I had forgot about her till today when I found her in another cupboard I was cleaning out.So today I repaired her and gave her new batteries and she is working again and now resides on an old glass cabinet in the lounge.I'm not used to looking at my creations LOL but I am happy she is repaired and rusting in peace.She is a mother with a child and protecting the time she has on Earth with her child...there are places represented by charms,faces and words around her head.The hands of life hold her head high and the clock of life reside within.

Inside Rusty is a working clock.Around the clock face are molds and ephemera and words that read "one should be a piece of art rather then wear a piece of art"

On the back is a saying from Shakespear that reads "I wasted time,now doth time waste me".On the back of her head is a rusted escutcheon...maybe it holds the secret of her past love...the reason why she ticks

Under the rusted escutcheon there is an Opals Franklin double transfer of a couple and loving words...I guess just like love rust is not lost but continues to grow...well at least for Rusty it does :o)

Look What Grew In My Garden

Grant was outside early in the AM and noticed this fungi that had come up overnight amongst the leaf and twig litter on our five acres of bushland near the house.It had a helmet of double layered intricate lace like stuff and stunk!!.By lunch a zillion flies,some bees,green ants(see the photo and in the centre top of the fungi you can see the green bum of the ant plus to the left of the fungi) and other insects were all over it and as the sun went down it had gone again.What an amazing view it was.It was about ten centimeters in height and a good few centimeters across.I was in town when Grant saw it and took the above photo.When I got home all the lace stuff was already gone.I hope another one grows one day as I would like to get some more shots up closer of the lace parts.Our planet has some wondrous plants and animals on it that is for sure.
OH yeh...I asked on Stamphappy if anyone knew what this was and the lovely Anna Pang and Claire and Ruth Kelly have told me it's common names are Crinoline Stinkhorn Fungus or Bridal Veil Fungus...its from the Phallaceae family and species Phallus indusiatus(syn. dictyophora).You can read about it here at the James Cook Uni website...apparently all the flies etc are attracted to it and carry off the spores so it can grow elsewhere.The Dry is here and the rains have gone these last few days so I will be looking out for one next Wet season when the rains come again.Thanks ladies :o)

Acrylic Bird Painting

Long ago when I was a teenager and young adult I drew,painted and wrote poetry.Not for any reason just as a creative outlet.I couldn't afford art leasons or good supplies so just bought cheap sketch books,pencils and paints.After I got married these past times were lost to me and it wasn't till I discovered paper arts over 14yrs or so ago that I again found a creative outlet...mind you the time to do it is still hampered by the non creative part of my life taking over my "play" time more often then not.Maybe that will change as the kids get older and move out...I can dream hey LOL
Well the Dry is here in the Northern Territory and this brings long warm days and cool nights.It's when I do a big annual clean.It's far too hot and sweaty in the high humidity of the Wet to do any great cleaning at all.I'm not a super clean freak but once a year I like to get in and sort out things that need throwing out.Well I was sorting out the bedroom cupboard and came across my old sketch books.Birds are in at the moment in the paper crafting World and when I saw this old painting I did I thought I would scan it and maybe print it out and use it in my work.Funny what you keep :o)

Yummy Card In The Mail

Look at this gorgeous card that Celeste Santin made for me...I adore it!!!.I gave Celeste the Fairy in The Secret Garden collage card I made last month for her birthday and she made me this as a thanks.It's sitting right in front of me at my desk so hope it gives me some inspiration when my muse flies off.I wanted to get creating today before I go to work but have all the kids home due to a teachers strike WAH.
I'm hoping to make a few short Youtube shows on how I use Opals embossing enamels soon...waiting for our digicam to come back from repairs.Also I'm having the WORST run in Ranger Melt Pots...they keep on stop working for some reason and I'm not happy....of course I could use my OLD and trusty electric skillet but it's not very nice to look at LOL.The first melt pot was bought here in Oz and worked for a year and then suddenly stopped.I really liked how versatile it was...you can use it with moulds to make chocolates,soaps,Opals molded stuff and even Sculpey can be baked in there...so after a while I took the plunge and got a second one from the USA and used a power converter adaptor so I could use it with the Aussie power source...worked fine for two months and again just stopped working one day.
I swore off them for well over a year but thought I would just try one more time.Surely I couldn't be that jinxed that a third one would do the same thing?...Yeh Right....had it turned on for five minutes and bloomin heck it stopped working.Left it to cool turned off overnight and it still wont work.I've e-mailed Ranger directly and got no reply.The adaptor I used works fine with other appliances from the USA we have so not sure what is going on for me here...I'm thinking the element is burning out for some reason but why me.The problem had occurred here in this house and at the Wildlife Park staff village so it's not just a wiring thing here.I've got friends who have had Melt Pots here in Oz for yrs and they have no problem.

Picture This 8 Swap

At Arty Oz group I participated in a swap run by Greta Young where we were all sent a picture and we had to use all or part of it to make ATC's.The picture above was the one sent to us and as you can see its a very powerful image.I'm not completely sure of it but it looks to be a poverty line of sorts.It took me by surprise at how sad I felt looking at the photo.I initially felt OMG what can I do with that.I printed it out all different sizes and sat looking at it for ages.I wasted a day doing gel medium transfers to discover the transfers made the people look dull and even more gloomy.I then looked at an A4 size print and started looking at the faces.It was interesting to me that some of the people where looking out at the photographer and these still had a vitality that seemed lost on the ones looking straight ahead.Finally I settled on setting just one person free from the cue...I would give her wings so she could fly away and below is what I came up with.

I used one of my Vilene and tissue backgrounds as the base,stamped all over with white gesso and added texture paste at the corners by pushing it thru a plastic stencil.Then I cut out the ladies dress coat and layered the image onto a word bg paper.I stamped her wings with white gesso and then outlined areas with a white perm marker.I applied some Golden acrylic paint washes of Hansa Yellow,Green Gold and Phthalo Green being careful to not cover the ladies face.Lastly I highlighted the texture paste areas with gold paint and added the words and gold heart brad.Below are my gorgeous received ATC's from the other players that arrived today in the mail.It was amazing to see everyone else's ideas made from the same image

Left ATC done by Vanessa Henry and right by Kaeren Sutherland

Left by Phillipa Barr and right by Elaine Hannam

Left by Greta Young and right by Ruth Spitzer

Left by Diane Whatford and right by Liz Aitken

Textured Gesso Canvas At Last

OMG don't you hate when your computer dies.I have had this project done for two weeks but haven't had a computer to upload it....well that isn't quiet right as we actually usually have three computers at home but one completely died two weeks ago and the other has been in at the repairers for two months(it was only three months old gggrrr)...this left the oldest slowest computer for the three teenagers,Dad and Mum to use.Well now as all us Mum's know we are the last to get to do anything and with the others hogging computer time I didn't get a look in.So by last Sunday I had had enough and went off to get this new PC.The old computer used XP and this uses Vista so it has taken me ages to get all our old hardware drivers updated to work in Vista let alone find my way around it LOL
Anyway here is the canvas I made with my Textured Gesso stuff from my long ago previous post.It's A4 in size.IT says "Our lost loved ones are never for from sight for they are the scattered stars just beyond the blanket of night".You can see the plastic mesh I embedded into the textured gesso and Opals mix at the top.The Angel scattering heavens stars is a foam cone cut in half and covered with Liquid Nails on top that I dabbed up and down to make texture with ala Michael De Meng.When it dried I painted it with Golden acrylics.The face is air dry clay pressed into a cheap face mold I had from Spotlight and her hair is made with more liquid nails and paint.The city scape glittering in the fading light of dusk at the bottom is mat board cut to shape and painted with Golden acrylics.Just above the city is the nights "blanket " which is dressing gauze painted with black gesso and then Jo Sonja Opal Dust

Here you can see some of the stars closer.They are all Translucent Liquid Sculpey transfers of black and white vintage images.I then stuck them to little wooden stars and trimmed them to size.You can also see my Angel wing here is Angelina Fibres that I stamped with my home made polymer wings stamps I made with the stamp making machine I won.The Angel arms were tree twigs that I covered with paper masking tape,then Liquid Nails and Golden Acrylics.The scalloped German scrap parts I painted and used as her clothing trim

This the view from top down so you can get an idea of the texture in it all.The Angel crown was an old gold jewellery finding I had that was meant for a necklace.The boarders of the canvas have German scrap painted with black gesso and I then highlighted the edges with gold paint.

This is taken from the side and the image below from the bottom.

I have no idea what I will do with his piece.I have never kept anything for myself that I had made in my past yet I think I may keep this.It was inspired by making textured gesso backgrounds but once it got to look like a stary stary night it did take on a meaning for me.See my Dad passed away when I was 15 and at that age I was neither a child nor really an adult.He went to mow an elderly ladies lawn and never came back and I never saw him again.So I clearly have these memories of that time thinking he had become a star in heaven and it made me feel safe then to think he was watching over us all from the heavens.I imagined an Angel scattering the stars of lost loved ones at dusk to shine on down for all us living people to see....these thoughts are why I made the canvas I think. Wether I can stop looking at the peice in my critical of self way is another thing LOL