What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday (WOYWW)

After a busy two weeks pre, during and post cyclone I'm able to join in with WOYWW this week. WOYWW is What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday 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. So this week I'm sharing just my paper arts desk as the mozzies have been insanely ferocious when I have been out trying to work at my metal working desk in the garage.

Here is my paper arts desk. I've been making mixed media backgrounds (at left) to make a card for a friend. At the right I am adding  some more small watch parts to a steampunk puffy heart necklace I made using Ice Resin.

This is the card I made closer. Its for a lovely lovely kind artistic friend Evvie, whom had been unwell for awhile. I hope she likes it and doesn't see it in here before she gets it in the post! :o)

My intro to drawing and painting class has finished but I hope to join a drop in session each week to continue with trying to learn to paint as its been a life long thing I have always wanted to learn. I'm still utterly surprised at how well my first painting went...not that any others will turn out well but I want to keep learning and trying! If you would like to see my first ever landscape painting its here. Now I am off to look at others desks...

hugs

Annette In Oz xxx

All Ok Here!

Hi all
Thanks everyone whom sent well wishes thru here it was greatly appreciated. We are all fine after cyclone Ita....we lost power for 2 days which of course meant we lost the home phone and wifi. A power surge killed the satellite TV decoder so no TV here for a few weeks but that's OK. Thankful indeed that we bought a generator when we moved over plus that we had a gas stove so we could power the house and boil water for a bath (the generator didn't power the hot water service as its on a separate fuse to mains to house). We had several trees down on the block as most is a regenerated rain forest. There was a largish one blocking the drive way which my son Tim cut up and moved and one landed on the roof but didn't do any damage...it was long and skinny...hhhmmm unlike me LOL.
There was allot of local flooding but its all settled down now and I have been able to go to town and buy food etc. No body got killed which is awesome though some families in Cooktown lost roofs and three local families lost everything due to flooded houses which was sad and I feel for them indeed. All in all we are unscathed and grateful for that so thanks again everyone. I wont be playing in WOYWW today as I am still catching up on washing and clearing fallen branches etc  plus I didn't get any art done since last week but I shall pop in and join WOYWW next week. Oh in case you were wondering hubby was away at work during the storm...of course!
Here are a few photos..The first is my son Tim at Wonga Beach as Cyclone Ita approached. The usually blue sea was choppy and brown and it was quite windy.

Here is the tree that fell on the house

and the one that blocked the driveway

We seem to have a native soap tree as this was at  the base of a tree as I walked down the drive!

Flooded Bushy creek near home...someone obviously tried to cross it while it was higher then this as there is a 4WD up against a tree where it got washed off the road mid left in the photo. Tim could walk all the way up to it and said water was thru the entire car.

I did take more photos and some short videos but they are taking ages to upload from my phone. I'll add them later if they ever come thru!

hugs and stay safe where ever you are in our amazing World

Annette In Oz xxx

Cyclone Ita update

Woken at 5 am to a tree falling on house near my bedroom and it's now resting on my roof...thankfully it too was long and skinny (like yesterdays one..not me...oh I wish I was long and skinny though) and doesn't look to have done a great deal of damage. Raining heavily and quite strong winds right now....huge red wood tree near garage still standing PHEW. Oh and at this stage we still have power on woot. Ita is still on the way but at the moment is only a Cat 2 as it hits us so winds around 130kms plus an hour. Here is 7 am BOM update...

Cooktown seems to have fared relatively Ok...of course some roofs off but no fatalities reported thank goodness. It does make me worry about pets and critters in general. I counted ten baby white lipped tree frogs on the kitchen window outside last night. I so wanted to go out a take a photo but it was just raining too much.
Poor Minty dog is too scared to go out for her morning ablutions ! I hope that changes...ah there is enough eerr "wet" things here already! When the rains settle we will go look at the creeks but I strongly suspect the roads are cut...forced to do art due to weather...how bad can it be.
hugs
Annette In Oz

Cyclone Ita Update...then bed

Its been raining heavy for a few hours now and wind has picked up as well but we are still being told by BOM cyclone Ita will be hitting Cooktown within an hour as a Cat 4 sytem (275km hour winds) and shall be around a Cat 1or 2 by time she blows over here...relief for me but I am so feeling for the folks higher north of me and hope everyone comes out the other side OK.. Here is 10pm BOM update image

So I am safe here and just about ready for bed. I think we shall loose power overnight but we have the generator fueled and ready to turn on just in case. The creeks will cut the road for a few days I reckon...oh dear enforced creative art time...how bad will that be LOL. Stay safe where ever you are in our crazy World and esp in Cooktown. I'll let you know how the night goes tomorrow...if I can still get internet of course
hugs
Annette In Oz

Tropical cyclone Ita Update

Over the course of the day BOM has been updating hourly in regards to Tropical cyclone Ita and I am relieved to say that they now think she will only be a category 1 system as she gets to me here in Julatten. Cooktown however is expected to get the brunt of it though as its almost upon them as a Category4 system and I am scared for all the people and critters up that way....send good thoughts to them all people please. Also of great concern is expected tidal surge of up to 2 meters for all low lying coastal areas!

Here its started raining allot and we have had intermittent gusty winds...a tree has already fallen near the house near by bedroom but luckily wasn't too big to do any damage. Here is the 5pm updated image from BOM

Tim and I went down the mountain range after lunch to have a look at the ocean. The sea was brown and choppy...it's usually blue and quite calm...it was quite windy down there then and no doubt worse by now. Thanks to Shaz, Ike and others whom have sent well wishes. I'm confident we will be fine...well so far...I'll let you all know how this pans out.
hugs
Annette In Oz xxx

Cyclone Ita Is Nearly Here- NNnnnoooo

Well I had a restless sleep and suspect that will be the same tonight. Cyclone Ita is a large Category 5 tropical cyclone currently north East of me and she is now tracking south west with still a chance she may stay a cat 5 and brush along the coast as she goes south. Bureau Of Meteorology (BOM) is updating hourly now. Its grey and drizzling outside, no wind at the moment and birds are chattering away(they were really quiet yesterday). Here is current BOM image...

Category 5 cyclones are our highest level of storms and carry winds of up to 280km/hr. I live in Julatten...somewhere near the red line where it downgrades the cyclone to a 2 after it hits landfall and moves down near Port Douglas which is on the coast from me. If it continues as they expect the winds shouldn't be to bad for us here on the tablelands but where it crosses the coast up near Cape Flattery as a cat 5, there will be allot of devastation.Where its thought to make landfall isnt hugely populated though Cooktown is a good sized town.

At this stage I'm all prepared and I am thankful we have a generator as the power will probably go out. I may loos the internet too. Ita should be around a Cat 2 by the time she gets to me...here is BOM's category breakdown if anyone is interested.

Category	Strongest gust (km/h)	Typical effects
1 Tropical Cyclone	Less than 125 km/h Gales	Minimal house damage. Damage to some crops, trees and caravans.Boats may drag moorings.
2 Tropical Cyclone	125 - 164 km/h Destructive winds	Minor house damage. Significant damage to signs, trees and caravans. Heavy damage to some crops. Risk of power failure. Small boats may break moorings.
3 Severe Tropical Cyclone	165 - 224 km/h Very destructive winds	Some roof and structural damage. Some caravans destroyed. Power failure likely.
4 Severe Tropical Cyclone	225 - 279 km/h Very destructive winds	Significant roofing and structural damage. Many caravans destroyed and blown away. Dangerous airborne debris. Widespread power failures.
5 Severe Tropical Cyclone	More than 280 km/h Extremely destructive winds	Extremely dangerous with widespread destruction.

So everyone stay safe and that shall be my priority here too.
hugs
Annette In Oz xxx

WOYWW or WHAT's ON YOUR WORKBENCH WEDNESDAY!!!

Wow its a whole six months plus since I have poked my head into Julia's blog at The Stamping Ground here for Whats On Your Workbench Wednesday. Here I am I have moved from the Northern Territory to Far North Queensland in the mean time. We are settled now in a gorgeous part of Oz and I now have TWO workbenches to share. So here is what is on my workbench this Wednesday. First is the paper arts area...I'm learning to paint!

The card at the right of the sunset photo on my desk is this one made from embossing enamels, stamps and fantasy/angelina film

To my left is my first ever acrylic landscape painting on my easel...the photo I used as a reference is above the painting and the progress shots to it being painted are in a post below here

On my right is the completed Kaiser Lazy Susan thingo....I think I'll use it as a paint holder

I now also have a bench in the three bay garage for metal working. I'm REALLY enjoying being creative again after all these months

I have some new jewellery in my shop including two puffy steampunk hearts if any of you are interested or share my link if you could. Off to see others work benches!
hugs
Annette In Oz

New Steampunk Jewellery now in my shop

Hi all. If anyone is after some of my new steampunk jewellery its just been photographed by the awesome Bevlea and its now in my shop HERE.

There are these two steampunk puffy heart necklaces....They have their own page HERE

Then there are two pocket watch poppets-one in silver tones and one in vintage brass tones...they are HERE

and lastly the propeller ring is HERE

Please feel free to share the links to my shop and facebook page :).  I'm thinking of doing a paid tutorial on how to puff metal without a hydraulic press...its how I puff the steampunk hearts....would anyone be interested?

hugs

Annette In Oz

Boab Sunset Painting

Morning all. Well I have almost finished my first ever acrylic landscape painting. I really had no great expectations this would turn out OK and now I am near the end I am astounded that it does indeed look fairly OK...even to the point I would frame and hang it on my wall. I've had 2 three hour lessons in my intro to painting class and only have one more lesson day to go where I'll do any final highlights and adjustments needed. After that when I have some spare money I'll join in a drop in session at the local art gallery/teaching place which is for beginners and advanced people and has a teacher there to help if you need it.

In case any of you missed it I'll show you the progress photos and then where I am up too. Firstly here is the PHOTO I used as a reference

Here was how my painting looked at end of first day of lessons which was a 3 hr class!

During the week that followed (while I was at home) I added some more highlights to the sky, some grass and a hint of water to the background plus sketched in where the Boabs should go

On last Saturdays class I started to block in the boab colours and add branches

Over the last few days at home I have finished adding the branches and have also added some highlights to the trunk and highlights to some branches.

This is how it all looks now

There were so many branches I had to stop looking at the photo and just put them where ever I wanted in the end. I need to tidy up the blending on the truck but its nearly fully done and when I place the original photo near it its darn not bad for a newbie at all I think.

I've really enjoyed learning to do a painting and hope to do more soon.

hugs

Annette In Oz

Drawing and painting classes-so far

My introduction to drawing and painting classes are going well. I'm trying hard to not be critical of my results and just enjoy the whole process. Two week ends ago we drew our own hands and then we had to draw a skull using a real skull as the reference.

My skulls still need some shading done but we only had three weeks of lessons left so we were all keen to start the painting part of class which we did do last Saturday. Two of the students used to paint and were quick to pick up their past abilities. Me I found it all interesting and a great learning curve indeed. I chose a landscape photo of some boabs to paint and we are using acrylics to paint with. This is my reference photo....

At end of class I had blocked in the background colours and during the week I have added some highlights on top and started to sketch in the boabs.

I'm not sure this will end well LOL but today in class I'll paint in the boabs...well at least block their colour in I hope. For a first time painter I don't think I am doing too bad though my ability to mix and paint colours exactly like the original needs allot of practice!

hugs

Annette In Oz

Steampunk Puffy Heart Necklace, Pocket Watch Poppet Necklaces and a Commissioned Cuff

The mosquitoes are still a problem here but I really wanted to make more jewellery so I lit mozzie coils and kept the garage doors closed to get some work done. The mozzie coil smoke smell gets in my clothes and the lighting isn't that good with the doors closed but I did get some items made! I finished another steampunk puffy heart...here it is with photo taken inside using the flash.

And next photo was taken outside with no flash.

The back is etched copper left overs that have been soldered and cold connected back together again...like a mended broken heart that has been fixed again. The propeller, cog under the propeller and the arrow on the bottom dangle can all be moved.

I also had wanted to re-create "The Time Keeper" necklace that I had made awhile ago and I made two of those...these I have called pocket watch poppets as I think there maybe more to come....One is silver toned and the other vintage brass toned in colour. They both have watch parts, cogs, vintage child image, tiny keys etc and lots of ice resin.

The propellers on the silver toned one can be moved

I drilled thru a little light bulb to use it as a little dangle on the vintage brass toned one.

Lastly a friend asked me to make a special cuff for her sister using an image of them as kids...such a great idea! Jen's sister loved it and cried when Jen gave it to her!

This evening I shall be working on my first ever landscape painting. I started it in class last Saturday...such an interesting and eye opening process this is and will continue to be. I may show you all where I am at tomorrow...maybe LOL...if its too hard class is this Saturday again. My teacher keeps telling me to relax as you can always paint over mistakes on acrylics but committing that paint to the surface with my shaky hands scares me none the less. I have to ignore the critic within and just remind myself I'm just a beginner at painting.

hugs

Annette In Oz