Such a hotch potch

 And didn't I get some odd auto-corrects with that title!

But it definitely sums it up. I have been working hard on my second book for the exchange with Annwyn, but because we are not posting much about the books until they have been received across the oceans, I have very little to show for my studio time.

There are however, some fragments of this, that and other.

My Dad is involved with a Shrove Tuesday (pancake) event on Valentine's Day and in a rather brilliant and creative venture on his behalf - he asked if I had any heart shaped cutters which he thought he might be able to make pikelets in. And here was the selection I offered him... the adventure has begun.

I am participating in an exhibition in a regional gallery in March; and need to have three shelves to display my work. So here I am at my best, literally cutting and pasting to see the best display options.

B and I walked past this after having a coffee in Caloundra. On closer inspection we discovered it was actually a bandaid and now I want to find me some of them!

B and I joined forces to create these displays for my lovely cousin's optometry business. B's blogpost has the details.

My highly sophisticated book press - with thanks to Liz for the Dewey book (so great to delve into; and to grab when needed for other purposes).

Testing the beginnings of book number 2.

Water drops on one of Dad's orchids this morning

B had a birthday a week or so ago and the deck was decked with twinkle lights and peace...

Life is full and life is varied.

Bookmarks for fun

Sometimes I get busy with preparations for workshops; planning exhibition work; planning work I want  enter into shows and so on. Big things, time-consuming things, schedules and deadlines type things.

Sometimes I just decide I want to go play and make something.

And so I did.

Barry and I have this sort of shorthand phrase "just add it to the list..."

Whenever we are baffled by things or think somebody has done something outrageous, or whenever we feel that generational gap widen, we will say "just add it to the list of things in this world I don't understand"

I thought it would make a fun bookmark so I printed it in orange, and then stamped what look like ransom note numbers on them.

The number 1 is weird - you can see it as an outline within the weirdly cut outline, just. It is not pleasing to my eye. 

I kept track of all the random numbers I stamped - that's funny really, recording the random.

Not sure why this photo is so fuzzy but after a few attempts to improve it I gave up.

And as ever, I loved the edges and the hinting.

Some days, it's good just to play...

An end of year theme emerges

 It is true to say I think I have found my end of year theme! Not that I was looking for one, but there you go, one has emerged nonetheless.

No real surprises here, but it is small, tick-offable tasks of tidying and other accomplishments.

Today I present - sorting my embroidery threads.

As I have been stitching more of late, it has become clear that I had a few boxes with threads in them; the odd plastic bag; some dodgy paper bags; some wrapped; some still in their little holders. Fundamentally all over the shop as we say.

So I gathered them together and began to pop the little circles out of my cardboard thread holders, and took the paper tags off the threads and began to wind.

I didn't do a true before shot, these are more work-in-progress shots.

A couple of the boxes mid-review.

Deciding if this goes with that.

A bundle of greens. The collective noun for greens I wonder? 

Quite the fun grouping!

A close up of corals.

Ta da! A place for everything and everything in its place.

For how long, we do not know; but for the moment, order has been restored.

And my Christmas flowers with fairy lights.

Hoping that all have had some quiet days, some days of joy, some days of gathering and sharing and some days of renewal.

Rollin', rollin' rollin'...

I am very fond of the serendipitous marks the can appear when one is cleaning up ink.

From great swirls of colour left on the glass as you rub, to the colours and designs that can appear as you clean your brayers or your rollers.

It is nice when you aren't in a hurry and can take the time to see if they might take you somewhere.

A couple of times of late I have had the chance to play and have been rewarded with some interesting marks.

From the collagraph print, these appeared - mixing Payne's Grey with Burnt Sienna - who knew?

My favourite - I remembered in time to do some asemic-like writing into it whilst it was still wet. And I was rewarded for remembering!

I also managed a little bit of extra play into this one as well.

After printing with black on some letterpress cards on the weekend, I rolled and rolled and rolled and was left with these interesting, random grids towards the end.

I am intrigued by what they are offering...

Light

And because you travel for work and don't always get to make, sometimes you just have to find the lovely beautiful art-filled moments some other way.

We turned the lights off the other night; and this wee woven basket with twinkle lights was still on. I was captivated by its beauty - its shadows and its simple woven magic.

I am grateful for moments like these...

Pebbles and preparations

I found a bit of time in the studio  and was able to start making some more pebbles, again in preparation for our open Studio in a few week's time.  Whilst this time I will be showing a lot of my higher end work; I also like to have around some small items that folk can take home as a memento of the visit kind of thing.

So it was down to selecting pebbles...

And writing out the missing letters.

Almost ready to be sprayed with their varnish, then packaged up ready to ell.

 Over the weekend Barry and I held a Garage Sale, as the final step in cleaning up and clearing out the house. We had spent each day in January clearing, culling and cleaning and had given plenty of stuff away; but decided the last few items were worth a Garage Sale, with the proceeds going to two women's support services.

We sorted and stored everything in the studio on Friday; clearly no art work could be done!

Advertised for a 7am start; the first folk were coming down the drive at 6am.  I turned them around and we were ready to go again at 6.20am. It was dim and darkish still...

Not the best day for a Garage Sale - the first white-out day in months and months, with mizzle and drizzle and mist.

We had a great day all up tho - everything has found a new home (one carload to the tip-shop, some books to a community book sale and some crockery to the Neighbourhood Centre) and we raised a generous amount to be shared between our two women's services so that was great!

Just towards the end this fellow popped in to check out any last tit-bits.