Art JournaL

I always wanted to make art journal, and what a better time to start than my birthday. I got a spiral bound water colour book and started sealing the pages with gesso before my birthday. When my birthday cards and photos started coming in then I was ready to play. Mind you, I didn't know what to do and what you do these days if you want to learn something new. Yes you guessed it, YouTube it! I had the YouTube playing on my TV while I was messing (messing is the word) with gesso, matte medium, tubes of colour, glue, photos and papers. It was a real mess, but really fun! My birthday journal wasn't that good I must say, so when Roxanne offered an online workshop on Art Journals I signed up and started learning from the basics. 

I have some photos of both my birthday journal and the art journal here to share with you. Enjoy! 

Here are both of the journals. The one on the left is my art journal from Roxanne's online workshop. The dark one is my birthday journal. I will make the cover for it later. I'm thinking, something BORO!

The photo of me and my colleagues at morning tea on my birthday. These guys are the most precious friends I have at work. Some of them are members of my weekly craft sessions.

Journal pages using birthday cards and notes from Jacky and Myra, thanks ladies. They are so special and will forever be in my birthday journal.

More cards, on the left from Linda in the US and on the right is one from Ben, my new colleague. 

DH and DDIL gave me a surprised trip to be with my DGC that weekend and here is a photo of the three of us. 

A card from Geo, a dear friend and my blog reader who never forgets my birthday. Thanks Geo, I love this card.

And the last one is this handmade card from Janine all the way from Abu Dhabi. Thanks Janine, this is so special!

Now for my art journal. The theme for this journal is "eucalyptus spring". It's related to eco-dyeing using eucalyptus leaves that I can easily gather on my daily walk at my university.

In the workshop, we started of with gathering everything we need for the theme of our journal. Mine would be leaves, sticks and gum nuts. We started working with the base for the book. 

Next we were making the pages. I thought I would add related things for my Australian daily life. Tea and coffee are something I have everyday so they have to be added into my journal.

On one of the walls at the end of our driveway I planted this creeper/vine Muehlenbeckia florulentia that I use for basket weaving. I love this plant and use it for a lot of things including Christmas decorations and ornaments. I coiled the vine into a wreath and left it to dry. I painted over it with matt media and glued it to one of the  journal pages.

This page represented my workplace. I collected everything from and around my work. Being a university library, there are so many papers and out of date brochures. It's so nice to be able to recycle them. 

Birds, yes I have to have birds in my journal. Here in Australia there are so many birds. They make amazing sounds, but they can be pests too. In our backyard they love digging the mulch looking for worms making a real mess sometimes. Putting them on the journal page is the way to go!

A little book is part of the lesson. We made a little book to go inside the journal, cute! I received some thank you cards when I volunteered at the basket makers, so I added them to my little book.

One of the pages made into a frame. You can make them out of any picture you find on the internet. I then added a bird and flowers in the frame to make them into a picture. BTW, you can see everyone's journal on Flickr page here. 

It looks like I don't have anything to blog lately, but really, I have been busy knitting, dyeing, weaving, stitching and more dyeing. Finding the time to blog is hard sometimes. I need another few days in a week to do everything!

Until next time
Nat

Artsy Day in the Country

Last Sunday I spent an artsy day in the country. The weather was cool for the first week of summer, but the sun was shining and it was beautiful (for me). My artist friend Jacky and her friends had their exhibition opening at the Lillico Glass Studio in West Gippsland near Warragal in Victoria. It was a nice drive into the country and only took an hour from our house. I was pleasantly surprised when we arrived to find the gallery was set in a lovely garden. Outside the property was a cattle farm with cows mooing along enjoying the green grass at this time of year.

The entrance into Lillico Glass Studio was through the opening in the hedge. The climbing rose was in full bloom for everyone to enjoy...

Once inside you walk through different types of paving. The owner Haydn John has his glass studio/workshop at the end of this walk. What a place for the studio!

Here is my artsy friend Jacky talking to some of the visitors. There was a big turnout that day. Finger food and beverages were plentiful for everyone to enjoy. 

One of Jacky's prints the famous Sunshine Owl.  I am so proud of her. Jacky sold most of her work that day. I bought some of her beautiful Christmas and greeting cards to be used this festive season.

This beautiful blue button necklace was part of the exhibition. It's such gorgeous creation from the simple buttons. I would have loved to get it, but I rarely wear jewellery, so it's no good for me! 

This cheese cutter set is the work of Haydn John, the proprietor of the gallery. They are made from wine bottles pressed down on flat boards. I think it's such a cleaver design. I got one for a Christmas present. 

The garden contains many interesting and artsy objects for people to enjoy, like this bench made out of cart wheels. 

And this is an old Australian public phone booth. I was told that not too long ago (pre-mobile phone) you could find them everywhere in Melbourne. I am pleased to see one in this garden.

While I was walking in the garden I came across this tree. Sorry I don't know the name. It was dark purple with lovely glossy leaves. I borrowed a couple of branches (the bottom branches) for eco-dying. On the right is the result from the leaves. I love how it turned out. I might have to have one of these trees in my garden. Nothing like having your own dye plant in your backyard!  

I have been indigo and eco-dyeing a lot lately. I will show them to you on my next post. I haven't spent much time on my blog lately. Life is getting in the way of blogging, so sorry if I haven't visited many blogs recently. 

Enjoy

Nat

Artsy Weekend

Today I am pleased to share with you my artsy weekend. Never too busy to visit some galleries whenever I can. I love a gallery that allows photography. It is not likely I will copy the painting from the photo! I must say I have taken a lot of photos lately with my iPhone. So much so that I am planning to put on an exhibition at the university where I work. I am only using photos I took on my daily walk at my university. First I have to go looking for a suitable venue for it. My exhibition will be entitled "EyePhone" because I used my iPhone to take the photos. Watch this space for more details. 

I am glad I finished the scarf I started at the beginning of our winter, yeah! It took me long enough, but I did finish and wore it out today. I love this basket weave knitting pattern. So simple to knit, but it looks great!

I had to be in Benalla on Saturday. While I was there I visited the Benalla Art Gallery. The picture you see above is not a painting but it's a tapestry of the painting by Sydney Nolan entitled "Ned Kelly" I haven't seen the original painting before, but I just love this tapestry version of the painting. 

I also saw and love this small painting calls "Beach Scene" by Ethel Carrick Fox - 1910

Today I was at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne. There were a lot of exhibitions at the NGV, but I particularly enjoyed the art of the Pacific. It could be that we lived in PNG for 6 years. The above is a re-purposed  jacket using tapa cloth over denim jacket, it is cool.

This year is 150 years of the Royal Botanical Garden and can you see this clock made from colourful pansies. What I like is the blue sky above it. 

These are a collection of Pacific street art at the NGV. How proud the artists would be to see that their artwork is in the NGV gallery! 

The Sunday Craft Market was on today too. I love craft markets and if I could afford it I would buy something to support the artists. I came across Mattt's stall selling these 100% handmade bags.The fabric he used was designed by his textile artist friends. I didn't get one today, but I would next time I go back. 

Art to eat! We had Granny's Turkey pie for lunch. The pastry was made right there by the two grannies. The pie was delicious. There are many varieties you can choose from. We had lamb, spinach and feta cheese which was very yummy! I love Turkish food and I have visited Turkey twice now. I hope to go back there again soon.

On our walk back to catch the tram I met the angel. She was so pretty and kind. She sprinkled stardust over me. I hope she wished me good luck doing that. I can do with some luck these days. 

Hope you enjoy my artistic weekend. Today in Melbourne we have had four season in one day. It was raining, windy, cold and sunny! In-spite of that my friend Sophia and I still had a good day out.

A couple of weekends ago I was in Sydney helping Kit to move into the shop Mini Mart she won as a grant from the Rocks Popup Project. It is going well for her and she seems to have a lot of fun with it. It's still open for another two weeks so if you are in Sydney please drop in to check it out. 

Enjoy

Nat