What a memory and "the flower"

Today I made a piece of memory cloth.  These are my totally over the top, fabric and lace collages, lightly stitched together. I have called it "the flower".

I love making these. They are quick and so rewarding and I can daydream about the pieces.  Who used that doily and who crocheted that piece of lace and how come I ended up with them? What is their story?  They really do beckon -  tell me tell me.

My need to make this stemmed from a gift from my mum yesterday.  She gave me 2 hankies; the one with blue flowers was the last Christmas gift my Dad gave to her just before he died, 34 years ago. The second, was one of my Nan's.  I remember her as always crocheting her newest coat. Her hanky has a hand crocheted edge. I'll never know if she did crochet it, but am hopeful she did. It is so soft and must be nearly 100 years old now.  Then I went searching to find other hanky treasures.  I found a hand painted one from my dear friend Helen, which she gave me more than 15 years ago.  Then the 4th treasure is a daintily hand embroidered monogrammed one.  The embroidery is so neat and tiny with it's 'A'. Another treasure.

But can I cut them up for my memory cloths?  Not likely!  I would love to be a fly on the wall to see what my granddaughters do with them many moons from now. Especially my Gwenhwy who is a real kindred spirit.

enjoy and happy creating Ann

Make art every day

I have been perusing my old cloth paper and scissors magazines and playing with mixed media.  Yeh!

Here is today's finished effort inspired by graffiti doodle houses in magazine #52 Jan/Feb 2014.  I must admit this is the second go as I painted over my first attempt. I am determined to use the paints I have so am quite limited.  I do love the jacquard textile yellow glaze on the background and the houses are glazed using this too.  It is quite glossy and a bit cutesy but it feels good to play again. The wonderful thing is I have no expectations of myself so can just play quickly using lots of techniques.

I have also been visiting all my old journals. It's like I have lost the last 4.5 years of my life.  Nothing done much at all after January 2012 when I restarted working in the health industry.  I can't say working in health was good for my creative health!  boo hoo!  It is time to start again!

But I did discover some wonderful drawings I did prior to this time of my imagined stump dolls.  All very gentle. I just love them and feel quite proud discovering these.  Working with mixed media and finding these drawings has opened up my heart to lots of possibilities for my art going forward.  I have direction if I dare!

I am determined to make art every day!   enjoy!  regards Ann

A beautiful Sunday morning in Broke



Broke never ceases to amaze me.  This is what I woke to this morning looking out my west side window.  A yellow misty morn.



These guys weren't too sure when I opened the door to venture out to the studio.  He was only about 10m away.  They thought I wasn't too much of a threat so continued to graze which is always a delight.  I know it sounds really cheesy but the maggies were singing their beautiful song and then the kookaburra started laughing. I just soaked it all up, what a wonderful way to start the day.



It's going to be a beautiful day.  I love this view in any weather, it's one of my favourites.



I am not a gardener and these succulents are left to run riot under the pine tree.  How wonderful is mother nature to create these amazing flower colours.



A gentle walk around the house yard.  The day is looking so brilliantly wonderful.



Yesterday I played with some acrylic paint, stencils, stamps and gelipad printing with Marion at scrapneeds. It was fun to play again with a like minded soul.  Just getting colour and a figure onto paper felt so wonderful.  I didn't worry about it looking wonderful or getting it perfect, it was just play time with what was available and I had a wonderful time.

Today I really want to play some more. I just loved this and want to start to fill up my new journal.  It is a beautiful creative journal with heavyweight cardstock from ranger, so it can take all sorts of mixed media.

Let the playtime begin!  At long last I say.  Have a wonderful day and enjoy!
Ann