Fantail Flock

After much thinking and working out of finance I decided to buy a new computer instead of trying to get the old PC working again. I thought that if it was going to cost $500 to get the old sluggish thing to work for a few more months, then I might as well spend a bit more on a new computer. So here I am on my new mac. It smells lovely and new and I've already got the Martha Wainwright cd that I borrowed from the library onto my itunes and downloaded BBC radio 4 podcasts! (one of the things I miss most about not living in UK is Radio 4)

So I thought I'd better get on and post on my blog. Here are a few more fantail brooches I have made while the computer has been down.

Also, just to fill you in on the wildlife around here - the Tawny Frogmouth has left his old tree. I don't see him anymore which is sad. Instead I've started seeing yellow tailed black cockatoos over the house and ganggangs over the river, which for inner suburban melbourne I thought was quite surprising. I've also started to see rats in and out of our house which isn't so nice even if I do think they look a little bit cute.

A Murder of ...

CROWS!

I've been looking into the myths and legends of crows and ravens for my new exhibition happening in september. I want to create a new body of work based on the positive beliefs about these birds rather than the ominous. I'm looking into subject matter such as two crows seen on your wedding day signifies an auspicious marriage due to the fact that crows mate for life and are very loyal. Also how the cry of the raven sounds like the latin word for 'tomorrow' which is 'cras' and therefore the romans interpreted it as an expression of eternal hope.

I've also looked through etsy for crow and raven images for inspiration. Here are a number of beautiful examples of how these birds are used in art.

I have to admit, I have purchased a few of these already, I couldn't resist them and went into late night shopping mode!

Oh! also, I've joined twitter. I'm still new to it and not entirely sure what it's all about but i think I'm starting to like it!

New Maggie

My computer is still out, that's why I've not been blogging lately, but I've managed to get a photo onto my cousin's computer. My attention is being sidetracked by "Herbie Rides Again" that my cousin's three year old son has playing in the background, so excuse any mistakes!

Well, I've been gocco screen printing again. I sold my last 'Seven Australian Magpies" gocco print last weekend at the Skirt and Shirt Market at the Abbotsford Convent and I decided I needed a new magpie print, so I've made this one based on one of my sketches of this lovely bird! I've listed it on etsy already and I'm framing one up to bring to Rose Street Artists' Market next week.

Evolution

I've just been looking at my inactive listings on etsy on my bridbird shop and I found these. They are my very first fantail brooches, before they were fantails! They've all change quite a lot since then, changes that I didn't actually realise while I was making them! I find it interesting to see the evolution of a design.

The first brooches were made with synthetic felt, the colours were more limited and I wasn't so keen on the feeling of the synthetic felt. I stopped making them for a few months, but then I found wool felt sellers on the internet that had a wonderful range of colours and I started making them again. I always thought I'd make these brooches for a short time only, my attention span is sometimes quite short and I don't like repeating the same design too often. I decided I'd keep making them until I got bored of them. The birds soon became fantails because I liked being able to decorate their tails, as well as their wings. 

Now the birds have become more stylised, their heads aren't so rounded and I feel the stitching is more confident. I still love making them, I think because each one is different. I'm not going to stop making them any time soon, only when my eye sight starts to go!

Inspiration

I've been invited to exhibit in Bird's Gallery (seems like the perfect place for my work!) later this year and I'm starting to think what new work I could do.  I'd love to do more aquatint etchings but I just don't have the facilities at home, so I've been wondering about collographing. I saw Jo Horswill's beautiful collograph work on her blog earlier this week and it started me thinking. I love the textural nature of collographs and would love to make a highly textured range, yet still include my linear style. Here are a few prints from etsy I've been looking at for inspiration, some aquatint, some collographs, one quirky letterpress matchbook and a fish print, actually printed from a fish!



Now I need to go and research more about how to make collographs, any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Interviews and Lollypops

Wendy from Bags and Buds has posted a feature about me on her blog. Thank you wendy!

And today in the post I received my lovely top made by Kirsten of Assemblage that I did a swap for. I'm wearing it now and sucking the lollypop Kirsten sent with it! Thank you Kirsten!

yum.