Wednesday, December 29, 2010

See you in 2011!


Dearest Friends,
Well a final post before 2011 gets into gear. Working hard on new felt amidst eating too much and trying to sort of Spring/Summer clean up. Christmas was very simple and we had a lovely time doing very little. The house has nearly been culled of all mince pies and shortbread although gingerbread biscuits, nougat and chocolates still abound.

As I felt, I watch fibres and fleece enmesh, get tangled and somehow improve as they become a cohesive piece of work. Each element is made more beautiful by combining them with each other.

It is pretty much like life I guess, members of a family made more strong, more wonderful by being a single unit


and I really feel it is the same with the online community. I have to admit that I barely perceived how much I would gain from this little blog.


So thankyou everyone for your beautiful support in 2010, your lovely words that encourage me with every entry to continue with the artistic life. Just knowing that you are all there ready for me to chat to is so ...............magic!
SO Happy New Year everyone, may all your dreams come true in 2011 even the the tiny tentative ones that are still a bit wobbly,
With love and many hugs
Elizabeth
XX

Friday, December 10, 2010

Fifty One Feathered Friends!


Dear friends,
I am starting to get back to the studio where all school work has gone! Phew! It has been such a big term. Here is another work up and as you can see my pet subject was chosen ( without me saying a thing ....truly!) and the results are just fab.

The presentation was last Friday and I think everyone was very pleased. Children already have been gazing at it trying to find the bit that they made. In some instances it was sewing on some wings or making grasses or moulding flowers or creating some tree trunk.

Each prep designed a bird and started making the felt. The grade ones finished the felt off and the grade fours sewed on the wings.
Once again I tried to include every bright colour possible.


For some sections we had the carding machine out to use up all the scrappy bits and these pieces of felt were used for the children to each take some home.



I think the very hardest thing to tell a child is "No sorry we need this felt for the wall hanging"
when they so desperately want to take some home.



For the first time ever I was making up little kits which were being sold on the side! It felt wrong somehow!



All in all though, the school was thrilled and I can't wait to go back again next year. I think we will be tackling a circus theme for the library - so any thoughts you may have on what MUST be included.........then I am all ears!
Hoping everyone is finding a little creative time at the moment, I am busy drying out one wall of my studio as sudden flash flooding happened and water started pouring down the wall! Thankyou to all the ladies in class on Wednesday who helped rush everything out of the way it was most appreciated.
Love
Elizabeth
XX

Monday, November 15, 2010

Book Update............................


Dear Friends,
Life is a strange thing. It gets in the way of plans, it makes you take detours you hadn't anticipated which in turn make you arrive at your original destination a little late.
Well such has been the case with my book. Back in July when Christmas was literally months away, I was certain I would be ready by now.
My artist in residency commitments have absorbed all my time over the last 6 months and unfortunately I am behind in finishing my felt book.
On the plus side, I am really pleased with the way it is going and am more than half way finished.
I just wanted to keep you updated on my progress and hope you will understand,
Lots of Love
Elizabeth

Saturday, November 6, 2010

A Parasol Moment...


Dear Friends,
Such a busy couple of months I decided to take some time off and go for walk down the beach.
I live about 20 minutes drive from our local beach and it is so lovely. Here are a few photos from this evening. I mean I really can't pretend and call it a walk - a meander is more like it.

A brisk walk down the beach can only be achieved in one of three ways - 1) you have a dog that simply won't go at any pace but top speed or 2) it is so cold you can only think about a cup of tea back home for the entire outing or 3) you aren't wading through fluffy dry sand that grabs hold of your feet at each step.

But a day as pretty as today - lovely cool breeze and warm sun only requires a meander or stroll, dreaming along as you watch what is beneath your toes.


Due to the rotten fact that I am I prime candidate for skin cancer, I have to carry an umbrella - even though it was after 5.00pm. So there was I muddling along with my camera, and a basket housing shoes, car keys, purse, tissues, sketch book and pencils, when I realized a lady reclining on the beach was speaking me.
After I finished tip toeing through all the shell grit, little jelly fish and some star fish towards her, she just wanted to say - " I'm sorry to interrupt you but I just wanted to say how elegant you look coming along the shore with your parasol."


I was so surprised. I felt a bit of an odd ball wandering along with my flowery umbrella and yet there in a simple sentence a fellow beach lover had changed the complexion on the situation completely. My umbrella had changed into a parasol and I didn't feel quite so odd.

So as I continued on my lovely walk I noticed many starfish had washed up and they were just so beautiful perhaps more so as I peered at them from beneath my parasol!



Coming into shore. It must be exactly the right season for starfish. I have never seen them in such profusion.



After two and a half hours I was ready for that cup of tea. Just a shame I couldn't stop at one of these lovely beach huts!
Hoping you have a "parasol" moment this week!
Love
Elizabeth

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Early mornings...............


Hi friends,
This term has been filled with lots of early morning starts again as I head to another primary school. Not as many children as I normally have - but boy have we been busy!
This theme is fairytale and these photos give you an idea of the layout of prefelts we have made before the final push starts and we felt it to completion.



The glorious rosy border was created one evening when I taught a class to all the staff. They got to take a flower home and donate the others to the wall hanging.


You can probably guess the fairytales. Amongst the most popular were Jack and the beanstalk and the Gingerbread Man.

There will be a great deal of add ons created this week. Including other felted items as well as hand and machine embroidery.



All the leaves and the border colour ( which is actually a brick wall ) were created at a parents class. So all in all this has very much been a community project and it will hang in the foyer of the school eventually when it has been framed.



I don't have a favourite bit although the candy canes are pretty special and I just love Red Riding hood and the wolf.



The beanstalk for Jack is on the right hand side of the border with bunches of green beans made by the preps!



Lovely calorie free "lollies" for the Hansel and Gretel cottage.




Wish us luck doing all the final rolling! My arms ache just thinking about it!
Love Elizabeth
XXX

Monday, October 25, 2010

Out the back..............


Dear Friends,
Howdy! No I haven't dropped off the end of the world! Just so very busy - I have schools booked all term so lots of felting at primary level! Pics soon.

Also the garden is yelling with new life! This is the view as you come down the stairs out the back door.



This most magnificent shade of yellow - I haven't retouched the photo at all. In actual fact these are the remnants of the winter broccoli and broccolini (baby broccoli) . They have gone to seed of course but they were so pretty that we couldn't bear to remove them - I think that our bees watched with disgust as they were all ripped out this evening.

New cherry blossoms! "So what" I hear you say - well actually cherries take aaaaaaaaaaaaages before you get any fruit. So after 6 years we have blossoms! I know you are all thrilled for us!


More seeded veges - so gorgeous.



Pink geraniums - whenever I am in the garden -and today was a particularly pretty day - I make up lists in my head of my top fave flowers. I am so easily pleased! It changes a bit but geraniums are often in my top five. There are about 100 different shades of pink I am sure.


A recent nuno felt scarf, shades of blue and cinnamon with a few olive and lavender highlights.

It really is wonderful how you can make a regular colourway less predictable by adding a small amount of colour to act as an accent or highlight. I find that I spend a great deal of time thinking about these sorts of additions - what is the element that will make it more unusal.
Frequently it is the colour. Whether these highlights occur during the laying out stage or are saved until embroidery or beads are added doesn't really matter. There are some really great zinger colours - ones that I often dwell on are red, lime, lavender grey and mustard and olive.

Every best wish for a creative week ahead, dear friends
Love
Elizabeth
XXX

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Spring is creeping in.........


Hi fellow artists,
Just dropping in to give you an update on the felt in the last post. After much stitching it is cut up and starting to take shape into a new figure. She is sitting on a few other felts of similar shades that I may add to her. If anyone is keen to help me out with her name please drop me a line.


Meanwhile the outside is starting to reveal that Spring is on the way. Each morning I go into the garden with my first cup of tea (first of many!) and see what has decided to show its' face. This is the first of many lavenders.


Poppies are just about to burst.



Snapdragons are simply showing off amongst the delicate wild freesias that we do nothing to and they continue to appear year after year. As I garden away with Mum, beds are dug over and manure thrown in, stuff pulled out and new things planted.
Mum planted the freesias when she first built the house (1962). I never can recall the garden without them and yet year after year they poke through fanfaring the commencement of the new season. NOT ONCE have we replaced them and yet like some magnificent wake up call they appear on cue. The bluebells and snowdrops are the same. Pretty groovy isn't it?


This very soft grey bush is sporting these gorgeous lavender shades.



Whilst the euphorbia (green stuff) and the statice are complementing each other well.



Well I can't say I mind the turn in the weather as I am longing to be in the garden again.
Hoping everyone has time to enjoy a garden somewhere this week, no matter what the season
Love
Elizabeth
XX

Friday, September 3, 2010

100th Posting!


Hi to all!
This is my 100th posting! Hurrah! I am so pleased to have started this blog - having met so may wonderful friends. I think I may have held off for a while thinking it was all too hard but in reality it has become a very real part of my day! How important it is to remain open minded.
I check in every morning and catch up on everyones news and feel that before I have left my seat I have travelled to so many wonderful places!

Well Spring is having a wobbly start here in Melbourne. Maybe this has something to do with the shades of this felt I am working on! Very much more subdued for me as you can tell but no less enjoyable. I always find changing just one element in my work a good challenge. The most obvious is colour. But you could easily select shape, size, orientation, decoration or subject amongst others.


These seed beads are so lovely a brushed golden colour - not too shiny! They look a reasonable size here but the whole container is only about an inch across!

Selecting threads to enhance the felt.



Over coordinating is always an easy hole to fall into. Throwing in something out of the ordinary keeps it fresh.







I hope everyone has something really lovely planned for the weekend. I have 5 super students coming tomorrow so I better not stay glued to this laptop all night!
Cheers until next time,
Love
Elizabeth
XXX

Monday, August 23, 2010

Details...........


Dear friends
Hoping this Sunday evening finds everyone well and happy.
Here are a few pics of the finished Underwater Felt installation. All seperate items were made by children from Prep to Grade 6. Many hours have been spent stitching everything into position which has enhanced everything quite beaitfully I think.

I hope I don't make this sound as if it was an arduous task - it cetainly wasn't, far from it!
I really loved watching it become more detailed. I was quite disappointed to have to return it -
although I am really quite pleased to have my tables back!








It now travels to the framer who will have the fun job of box framing it ready to be hung.
I could not get a good shot in of the whole piece sorry! When it is vertical I will be able to get a better shot at it and will post them when it gets back from the framer.

Have wonderful week everyone.
Love
Elizabeth