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.

Could I trouble you for the time Mr. Wolf?

Look what I was able to do!! I still think I'm not very good at computers and internet, it was only last week that Anna explained to me how the internet works, but I found this!

oh, maybe it hasn't worked, maybe I'm not so good after all. But I have managed to put one at the side of my blog page, not entirely sure why I needed it, but I liked the look of it. It may be gone in a few weeks.

ah no! It is there after all. hooray! Actually it looks quite similar to our kitchen clock that I made in rather a hurry after our bought one fell off the wall.

Thank you to Gigibird on who's blog I saw this lovely quirky clock!

This is The Reason

About a year and a half ago my little mac laptop died, so I started using Jeremy's old laptop. I struggled through the learning how to use a PC instead of a mac and I became quite good at it!

Now, the PC laptop has died, oh no! I'm typing this from Jeremy's new laptop (a mac) but it doesn't have photoshop, it doesn't have dreamweaver, I can't scan things onto it, or print things from it or put my photos on it...So, blog posts have somewhat come to a halt! I'm contemplating getting a new laptop (a mac!) but it seems such a lot of money!! I'm just hoping the PC resurrects, it did before. Fingers crossed! 

While I'm here I should also mention my new website. My friend Anna of AnnaLaura helped me understand the world of Dreamweaver and I got quite far until the above mentioned struck. I've still got a few things to add, but most of it is there! I think it's far better than the attempt I made by myself with the horrible 'page mason' program!

More New Felt Brooches

Here are a few new felt brooches listed on my Featherstitch Fantail Blog. I've also listed a number on my etsy shop.

Mission Accomplished

I've been wanting to do this for ages...

...and now finally I've managed...

...thanks to Curious Llama who I met at the Melbourne Etsy meet up a few weeks ago I found an outlet that supplies wool felt balls. I had started trying to make the balls myself, but they were just taking far too long to make it possible...

...but now I can spend my time on embroidering the felt balls and piecing them together...

...to make a fantail felt necklace!

I'll bring it with me to Rose Street Artists' Market this Saturday. There is a fashion show happening this week which should be fun and hopefully bring lots of people. I've heard the market is going to be chock-a-block full of stalls, so it would be a good week to check it out if you haven't been before.

At Queenscliff

It was a long weekend this week and Jeremy very nicely decided to take me to Queenscliff which is a very old town (by Australian standards) situated at the mouth of Port Philip Bay. He told me there would be lots of birds so I should bring my drawing things. He brought his ipod for that eventuality.


We walked along the marina and as big fighter planes from the Avalon airshow zoomed overhead I looked into the water and saw so many funny little fish. Pufferfish, cuttlefish, a stingray, tiny little fish with very shiny heads, and lovely stripey fish with ink dipped tails.

But for me, really it was all about the pelicans...


...and crepes, pelicans and crepes!

I'm going to be at the stitches and craft fair happening at the Melbourne show grounds in Flemmington this week. I'm teaching a couple of classes of crochet and helping Thread Den man their stall. I'll have some of my felt brooches on sale and there will be lots of other Melbourne made designer clothing on show and for sale. It should be good fun, maybe see you there!