Sharon Van Etten

I am a little obsessive about Sharon Van Etten at the moment ....so I thought I would share some of my favourites....

Crochet Rug Update

A couple of weekends ago I went to a wedding in country New South Wales which was just lovely, however, it also gave me some serious crochet time as the drive was about 8 and a half hours.  Coming from Scotland, 8 and half hours is a ridiculous drive, but in Australia, its nothing to these Aussie peeps. 

Here are some pics of how the rug is coming along.  I am hoping to get it a bit bigger still.  When the centre of the rug is at my knee, I would like the out circumference to be at my toes.  As you can see there is still a bit to go!

P.S. I love fluro nail varnish!

Porcelain Christmas Decorations

This week I had the chance to play around with some porcelain, led by my very knowledgable friend Jenny. Armed with a pile of newly purchased cookie cutters I rolled and cut out these shapes. For a textural finish, I also rolled lace onto the surface of the porcelain.

After firing I simply knotted ribbon, wool and waxed linen thread for hanging. Et voila!

In the kiln ready for firing.....

All strung up and ready to go...

Some lace texture on the surface....

Do you like the moose shaped one?  I do!

Finished Clay Fish... Herbie!

Here is my completed little fish who goes by the name of Herbie!  I made him as an example for the year 7 art course.  I was experimenting with using underglazes for the first time and really loved the whole making experience!

Making, making, making...(for Christmas)

I've been a busy little Christmas elf over the last couple of weeks! I have made christmas cards by Lino printing and some hand made screen-printed tea towels (currently en route to the UK from Australia). It's always such a busy time of year but I really enjoy making cards and gifts - even if it does stress me out a little.

Merry christmas folks!

Cutting paper stencils for the screen printing.....

I printed onto 100% linen, a few different colours as I was just playing around really...

I also made this fluro pink print - which is a bit like an Easter egg now that I see it, but was really just a bit of a doodle when I was cutting the stencil.

Clay Fish

I have been making some ceramic fish with a couple of year 7 classes lately and here are some early finishers ready for the kiln. Looking fab!  

All the fish have their mouths open as an air vent, and I think that they all look like they are singing together...a choir of fish!

Taken by Trees

I used to love the Sweedish band, The Concretes so when I heard a familiar sounding voice on triple R the other morning, I was delighted to find out that the lead singer of The Concretes Victoria Bergsman has created some solo songs I was delighted.  She's going by the name 'Taken by Trees' and I love it. x

Screen Printing

After my recent weekend workshop at Harvest Textiles, I was so inspired that I wanted to pass on the new love to some of my year 11 students.  Equipped with some newly purchased fluro inks and some pre-sewn calico bags, the students made some pretty groovy bags, check them out.....

The last two images are my examples that I made to show students, which I will most definitely be sporting this summer!

Flowers in Bloom

Our garden has just burst into bloom over the last few days with all the recent hot weather. It's changing daily and it is lovely to observe. As we have only recently moved into this house I can take absolutely no credit for the beautiful flowers, but beautiful they are......

Our new house!

Last weekend Chris and I moved into our new home. After years of having our belongings spread across different continents, we finally got all our stuff in one place! Hooray! It has been lovely unpacking and remembering what we have.

Cheers to new starts!

Screen printing at Harvest Textiles

This weekend I had a lovely time at Harvest Textiles in Melbourne on their two day screen printing workshop.