A visual diary of sorts...

Things are getting busier as we build towards opening the studio to the public - there are lots of behind the scenes things like stocktake and banners and signs and DL cards coming together as well as the making of many things.

In between art and life have also been places of many moods and many moments. Here are some from the past week.

Playing with my phone's camera I took this in the studio as I was reading and writing.

Early one morning in the studio - the gift of light.

I shellacked my cardboard plate.

One of THOSE mornings...

Dyeing threads with avocado skins.  We have a bumper crop at the moment, so why not dye while the avos grow? The gentlest baby pink emerges.

On a side note the other bumper crop is macadamia nuts...after roasting the house smelt divine.

  

There has been rain...

This fireball rainbow sunset back in April...

Has now become a jigsaw!

And whilst we stay here, the daffodils and broom and gorse are glorious at the cottage. Thanks to Anna our neighbour for the photo.

Studio time

It seems some weeks see me dreaming of the studio; other weeks find me there every day doing something different.  It's a bit of a mystery to me how it all works, but I have found some days of late to get down and make things which has been grand.

It's also not always the making; but the magic moments along the way.

Like when I tore this carbon paper...

I spent a day and a half helping a friend add letterpress to their prints. It was an intense couple of days - on our feet for all the hours setting, proofing, cleaning and dissing type - there were about 10 prints which need to be set and printed.

As is often the case, as we had finished the prints, we decided that we'd use some spare up and make covers with a title. And into the dusk we printed...

This is the print I was gifted - love the ghostliness of it.

I have also been setting samplers of the 20 odd trays of the type we received in January. It all takes time! But I am really glad I came up with the sampler books here we could simply add the cards in without having to create a whole new book.

And then I got around to thinking about printing my Go Girl print for the year - here I am sampling all my random wood type letters for the print.

And unrelated to art at all, but a photo that  I loved.  My Dad is at the cottage in Scotland at the moment and in a frenzy of spring cleaning he popped all the cushions out on the front patio to get some sunshine into and onto them.  I thought they looked rather lovely!

Spring is calling...

I heard Spring whisper it was on its way this week...

I popped my head around the corner and found this poppy had bloomed and was letting me know with all its colour and style that winter is on the wane.

Here it is getting closer, whispering louder and then gleefully announcing - Spring will soon be with us!

More garden bounty

The hot weather has certainly see the vegetable garden take off - the corn is high and ears are growing, the basil has already gone to seed, and the tomatoes are taking over.

We picked some zucchini and pulled up some onions this week. One of those zucchinis was just a little bit over done; but will be stuffed for dinner tonight we think.

I love garden bounty!

Bounty from the garden

I had the best fun this afternoon. It was time to "lift" our very first crop of potatoes. We had planted 6 Desirees and would you believe they produced about 4 kilograms of new potatoes!

It was alchemy, it was magic, it was like digging for treasure.

The garden has been kind to us - today we ate white mulberries and plain mulberies, drank lime juice from our limes, ate our avocado on toast at lunch time, managed to sneak two blueberries before the birds got to them, and ate broccoli, snow peas and bok choy we had grown in our stir fry for dinner. What a joy!

The first potato and what remains of the mulberries - and yes the evidence of eating the rest of the mulberries is on my fingers and my lips!

Spring flowers

Two posts in a day - but it is Spring and we welcomed our first poppy this week! They always make me smile - so bright, so delicate, on these long squiggly stems, too gorgeous for words!

So in honour of Spring flowers - the poppy and some other wiggly squiggly flowers I have been fiddling with in the studio.