What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday 282 (WOYWW)

OMG the weeks have flown past...had a few stressful weeks as well trying to do a course, look for a job plus a some family issues to sort out and another wonderful visit from my gorgeous 82 yr old Mum so I missed WOYWW yet again for a few weeks. TODAY I am in my art room having a play at last...its so relaxing and I miss doing art when life gets too busy and gets in the way. So...happy WOYWW everyone...WOYWW stands for What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday and every Wednesday arty folk all over the World share what is on their desks. If you would like to join in or know about go to Julia Dunnit's blog here

This is my desk today...it's strewn with some VERY happy mail that came for me from two lovely arty friends. I'm slowly finding it all new homes :o)

On the left I received an amazing care package of art goods from Rockin Robin in the USA. There is an A4 Geli plate!!!!!!! (I nearly died when I saw that LOL), a little Maya Road canvas book, lots of wonderful metal bezels and metal steam punk jewellery components and a Inkadinkado Delux Stamp Gear set with 16 stamps!! It was all totally unexpected and nearly made me cry...I really have to go to the USA and meet Robin one day...thank you again Robin!

Robin sent me this card too...

In the middle of my desk are some yummy large and small cogs plus silver tape that Eliza has sent me plus the gorgeous tag she made that came too. I adore all that is steam punk and I really appreciated this gift...thanks Eliza MWAH

Lastly on the right are some Christmas cards I have started to make. I've always put them off and ended up in a mad rush to make them in the final week before Christmas so I thought I would surprise myself and get them done early this year!! Once I have the new stash put away I shall spread out and get the production line going....well that's the plan anyway LOL

BIG NEWS FOR ME....I finally got a job!...I had been trying for 7 months or so. It was hard as I decided to not be a nurse anymore after 30 years of being one. I start tomorrow at Coles in the deli. It's a large super market chain here in OZ...I'm nervous and excited. I'm part time so I should still have enough time off to do art and I am so happy about that. Perhaps I can make arty things with the sliced meat at the Deli LOL....Anyway I am off to spy on some desks for WOYWW. Thanks for dropping by
hugs
Annette In Oz

What's On Your Workbench Wednesday (WOYWW) 279

Hello all you desk hoppers. It's time for WOYWW where by arty folks around the World share what is on their desks each Wednesday. If you want to join in or read about it go here to Julia's blog. I missed a few weeks again  as life got in the way and I forgot but here is my desk today.

At the left is a recently done abstract painting of the ocean, rocks and sky. This was made as part of my weekly art classes at a local gallery. The process to getting the end result is in a post below this one. In front of the painting I am making "grided viewers" to more actually sketch what I want to try and paint.

On the right I am making a small beaded purse shaped necklace to hold a few coins for when I am caught short buying something.

Just "missed" still being on my desk was a 12 page mixed media book I made using fabric as its base. It's now on display at the council chambers building with other students work. You can see it on a previous post though if you want here. Time to scoot off and spy on what's on other peoples desks!

hugs
Annette In Oz

Abstract Painting

I'm  slowly learning about the principals of design, colour theory and how Acrylic paints work. In the last two weeks in class we did the process to creating an abstract painting. We used a previously created abstract of our own. I decided to use this page from my art lessons book. It was made using a palette knife to quickly put paint on the page and then I folded the page in half to create this glorious mess.

I then used a small  6cm square "view finder" to find a section I found pleasing.

Then I had to paint that section onto a 30cm square canvas...it didn't have to be an exact copy more of a hint of it. Once that was done we tried to make some sense of what we had painted and turn it into an abstract vision of something using thin washes of colour. I thought mine looked like rocks and waves so I dry brushed white on the black areas to knock the colour back. The rock in the middle I decided was in the distance on the horizon line so it had a white wash put on it to make it look further away. Lastly washes of Pthalo blue, Cadmium yellow and Magenta were randomly added to knock back the white areas.

The image above was taken with the camera flash off and one below flash on

I can't say I get abstract but I really enjoyed the process and I actually don't mind the end result which is pretty amazing for me LOL.

Oh goodness. I was just looking at the original abstract in my book and now I see a Man In My Moosh with a map of Australia around his legs

and also a stylized praying mantis viewed from under a glass table?....hhhmmm I think I need medication LOL

hugs
Annette In Oz

Fabric Art Book-Experimenting with textiles and transfers

I have just completed a 10 week experimental textiles course held at Douglas Art Base in Mossman.. It reignited my love of mixed media and I used up loads of my stash. In today's post I'll show you a 12 page mixed media fabric base book full of all sorts of transfers and a mixed media fabric wall hanging.

The book is called "Art House" and the pages are fabric that I have attached to Vliesofix (double sided heat bondable stuff) and then to Vilene (stiffening). That gave me a firm fabric base to alter. Each page was then encased in Opals Embossing Enamels (Large grained thick embossing powders) by sprinkling on the Opals over the fabric page, cover it with Gladbake and then iron it to melt it into the fabric. This gave me gorgeous glass like pages that I could hand sew thru, cut, sew with a sewing machine etc etc. I cut all my pages into a house shape and began decorating them. This is the front-

The face is friendly plastic that I melted into a Krafty Lady mold. The shiny fibers are Angelina fibers. It reads "Hope and memory have only one child and her name is art". I hand coloured the trim.

The second page used Angelina film and fibers plus some foiled lattice glue stuff. Quote reads "It's not what you look at that matters it's what you see" by Henry David Taoreau. You can openb the door to the little glass house in the centre.

The red oriental page has an Inkjet Water transfer to Calico.  The quote reads "The very word "Geisha" means artist and to be a Geisha is to be judged as a moving work of art".  The tiny paper Kimono was made by me. The green side is an Inkjet printed water slide decal transferred to material. It's quote reads "The pebble in the brook secretly thinks itself a precious stone".

Blue and lemon page features a Translucent Liquid Sculpey transfer of vintage children onto organza. The quote reads "Family is not an important thing. It's everything" by Michael J Fox. Yellow page next to that has a vintage image of children inkjet printed directly onto Calico that had been treated with Inkjet Set. Quote reads "The most wasted of all days is one without laughter".

Next is a purplish page with a gorgeous vintage image that had been printed onto glossy photo paper with my inkjet printer and transferred to water colour paper using Isocol rubbing alcohol. The quote reads "The expression a woman wears on her face is far more important than the clothes she wears on her back". Green page next to that has a Toner printed image transferred to a skeleton leaf using Opals embossing enamel clear (Franklin) and an iron. ( A heat transfer of sorts). The quote reads "A good husband is healthy and absent"...I like that one LOL.

I have allot of vintage bathing beauty vintage images so they had to have a double spread too. Red one at left is a colour toner printed image transferred to material using Omni Gel medium. The quote reads "Like as the waves make toward the pebbled shore so do our minutes hasten to their end" by William Shakespeare. Beach Beauty page at right is a toner printed image transferred to cold laminate and then attached to material. I used a real shell part at the top and the quote reads "Miami is where Neon goes to die".

These are the last two pages...well maybe LOL. Blue page has a toner printed image transferred to material using Elmer's Caulk. Quote reads "The man who has no imagination has no wings" by Muhhamad Ali. Final green page features a toner printed image transferred using a Walnut Hollow heat transfer tool. Quote reads "Dance is the hidden language of the soul of the body" by Martha Graham.

Lastly I made a mixed media fabric wall hanging. It has material that has been stamped on, geli printed on, put thru an embellishing machine, solar printed etc The image is a toner printed one transferred to material with Elmer's Caulk.

There was a little bag too but I forgot to photograph it before all items went on display at the Mossman council building so I' ll upload photos at a later time. To read about how I did the transfers I used look here where I did a post regarding them.

hugs

Annette In Oz

What's On Your Workbench Wednesday 275-Fabric Dyeing In The Sun

It's time to play What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday (WOYWW) and its simply a group of creators and artists from all over the World, whom post pictures of what is on their work desks each Wednesday. The ring leader(founder) and where you put the link to your post is on Julia's blog here. I hadn't joined for ages due to various things but as I decided to get creative today I decided to join in!

My knee has been slow to heal and had laid me up for the last ten days after a small operation. The last three days my ability to bend my knee has returned...well enough to do some things but not others...still I'm happy to be moving more freely with less pain. It's coincided with the weather here being so beautiful at the moment. Long sunny days and big blue skies. 

So today I decided to try some fabric dyeing. We have been doing some in the fibre arts class I am doing at the moment but I hadn't tried any at home yet till today. I had some Dala sun colour paints for many years and had never opened them till now. These are very vibrant fabric paints that react to sunlight. I wet the fabric, randomly squirted the paints around and then placed stencils, masks and even plastic faux lace tablecloth on top and left them in the sun to dry. Once dried I took off the items and heat set them in the dryer before putting thru a cold water rinse cycle in the washing machine. I really loved how the T shirt worked out...

These next two I did the same thing but I used prepared for dyeing calico

The last few items I ground up some seeds from this ?African plant below

Then I mixed in alcohol to make a runny dye and this is what the colour came out. I used the lace strips to soak up the last bits of dye.

It's been a fun day and I think I shall be doing more dyeing soon! Now though its time to see what's on other peoples desks around the World. Oh and if you would like to see some photos from my local area here in Oz (I live in World Heritage listed wet tropics) look below as I did allot of sight seeing while hosting Flat Susan for a month for Neet.

hugs

Annette In Oz

Julatten in Far North Queensland, Australia-long post and lots of scenery photos

Hello folks. I've been trying to get this post up for three days but I was having some trouble sitting to do so as I had an operation on my knee 9 days ago....nothing scary but I was left with allot of swelling and pain and I have only been able to bend my knee and sit and type at the computer for short periods the last few days. Anywho here I am at last! 

Over a month ago a special little art doll lady arrived here in Julatten, far North Queensland, Australia. Her name is Flat Susan and she has been roaming around the World for over a year. Her adventures started when she left her home at Neet's place in England in her tiny suit case June 21 2013. Susan has been to quiet a few countries and you can read about her venture here

This is where Julatten is on the Australian map. I live up here with my husband Grant and our 18 year old son Tim. We moved here from the Northern Territory just before Christmas. Julatten is gorgeous and our home is on a hill over looking rain forest covered mountains. You can see and read more about our new house in a past post here. Julatten is part of the World Heritage listed Wet Tropics here in Oz and is very green with luscious rain forests, pristine water ways/beaches and glorious one of a kind animals, birds and plants.  

The day after Susan arrived we took her on a bush walk just ten minutes from our home. Its called the Bump Track and its 6kms long. It  was the old road from the coast up to the Atherton Tablelands where Julatten is located. There's Susan sitting on the signs at the start.

Along the track there are "Wait A While" palms. They have these long tendrils with rear facing spikes. If you brush up near then the spikes dig into your clothes and you have to "wait a while" to get them out. Susn was small enough to sit on the spikes with no problem.

About a third of the way along you come across a gorgeous Creek. It's called Robin Creek now.

At the rear there are some rocky little falls. My hubby Grant took Susan up there for a look. Below she is resting on the rocks to the left of the falls.

We had a small cyclone come thru earlier in the year and there were several trees down with large fungi growing on them. Susan thought they would make a perfect chair for herself to sit on.

3/4 of the way along there is a seat so you can rest at the scenic look out. That's the Pacific Ocean out there. The Mowbray River below winds thru sugar cane farms and has a 2-3meter salt water crocodile visible from the highway bridge which is just before the land meets the ocean in the distance.

Once we got to the bottom we drove over the bridge to show Susan the crocodile.

The nex few days Susan and I hung out in my art room. I'm making an art book with transfers in them. Susan was really interested in them and in particular this one I did using clear embossing enamels onto a skeleton leaf.

Every week I do art classes at a local gallery so Susan climbed on my easel to get a good view of a practice painting I was doing while I learn to use acrylic paints. This is a monochromatic study in reds.

On another day we went up to Mount Lewis which is also near my home. We passed this lovely bubbling creek in the rain forest and saw huge ferns and lots of moss covered logs

One evening we had this cute little visitor on the grass outside the house...its an echidna. Susan wouldn't go near it!

On the 3rd of August Susan helped Grant celebrate his birthday. She loved the Lamington Cake

Over the next few weeks we went sight seeing and saw heaps of waterfalls, a nice island or two and some interesting prehistoric looking birds called Cassowaries....the Dad's raise the chicks!

Over at Mareeba  (35 mins from my house) there are cute rock wallabies that are a little too friendly so Susan stayed in my pocket. From there we went down the Palmerston Highway and stopped at Henrietta Creek

Another place not far from our place is Mount Carbine. There is a rugged dirt track up the mountain. We stopped at a little look out for Susan.

The road ends at the McLeod river. Susan had a rest on a log along the side of thr river...can you see her?

There she is a little closer

I carried Susan as it was a long four hour walk. This is taken near where the river drops to a gorgeous valley below

On the way back we went thru the bush so Susan could get up close to some ancient Aboriginal rock art.

It was nearing the time for me to have knee surgery so we did a last trip with Susan to Undara lava tubes which is 259kms  inland and down from Julatten.

We stopped to look at Millstream falls on the way.

We had a little wait before the lava tubes tour so we climbed to a little lookout above Unadara. Susan is hanging off the tree at left...

here she is in a closer view

The lava tubes were amazing and are the longest known in the World according to the guide. There is Grant and my son Tim as they climbed the stairs down into the lava tubes

This was the view from the top of the tube in...they are very large. The pole you can see was put there 40 years ago for scientists to assess if the tube was straining in any way that may imply an imminent collapse.

Susan stayed with Annette as it gets quite dark inside

There are arches where parts of the tube have collapsed

Susan spent her last day helping Annette make a tag for Eliza who also lives in Australia and is the next person hosting Susan

There is so much more Susan could see here and this was the tip of the ice berg...maybe she will come back. For now though she is on her way to Eliza's tucked away in her little suitcase mid air I suppose. Have fun on your adventure Susan.
hugs
Annette In Oz