Gocco Giveaway

I'm having a giveaway to help with the stock lessening for my move from Australia to Northern Ireland! All you have to do is go to my bridbird etsy shop, look at all my gocco prints and leave me a comment on this blog post which is your favourite design. The winner will receive a set of 6 different coloured fantail gocco prints similar to the one below. The closing date for this giveaway is Monday 14th September. My bridbird shop $10 sale continues until 15th September, after that the shop will be closed for a number of weeks and possibly not sell these items when open again. This could be your last chance!

Good luck!

I'll also just mention for Melbourne readers the fantastic girls of Thread Den, who are truly amazing, are putting on an extravaganza fashion show for Melbourne Spring Fashion Week. It sounds amazing.

They say "it's going to be an amazing night out - with a cast of dancers, live strings, opera singers - and of course stunning couture and ready-to-wear collections from emerging Australian designers.

Tickets are cheap cheap at only $12 (plus booking fee) at the Thread Den shop. And you go into the draw to win a pre-show makeover (and who doesn't love a makeover?) dinner at Sosta Cucina, 
bar tab at the after party and accommodation for two. So what's stopping you? Eh?"

Booking details:

Friday September 4, 7.30pm &
Saturday September 5, 7.30pm

The Lithuanian Club
44 Errol Street, North Melbourne

Tickets: $12 + credit card booking fee. Phone:( 03) 9329 5305

Duck Story

A little while ago I mentioned how I had borrowed a stuffed duck from a pub called The Marquis of Lorne. In order to take the duck I had to give them something in return for the time duckie spent with me. So my little soft toy lamb, that I saw in a junk shop in Northcote, and couldn't resist, sat dutifully on the shelf in the pub for almost a month. I bet it was the time of his little soft toy lamby life!

So, Duckie became my model, I drew her, painted her and finally made a plate. A large perspex dry point plate. Almost didn't fit on my press!

It took a lot of rubbing and wiping to ink up this large perspex plate. Perspex isn't as nice to work with as copper is, I find it takes extra effort to get the ink just right on the plate and it's confusing because you can see ink on the back of the plate too. 

I inked up in sepia brown tones with black rubbed over the top in areas. I rubbed the ink clean in areas I wanted white and then over the wing I inked in a mixture of turquoise and black to give that flash of metallic green. That part of the duck has a special name, my mum knows what it's called, but I can't remember. Anyone else know?


And here is The Marquis Of Lorne's Duck. She'll be in my Exhibition next Thursday!

Follow the Red Thread

Oh Oh oH! I just spent a lot of money but don't regret it in the slightest. 

I've been on the trail for these for quite a few months now and after a walk from hawthorn to abbotsford in the rain two sundays ago only to find they weren't at the skirt and shirt market I decided I had to up the quest.

So, I discovered them on the internet (probably something I should have done earlier on in the search), found out they had an open studio day today and went to Brunswick Street to look for them, and there, on the corner of Victoria Street (a little one off brunswick street, not the big one with all the vietnamese restaurants) and Brunswick Street was an A frame with Fibre Red written on it and a red thread leading a path up the street. Up the street and into a building, up three flights of stairs, down a corridor and finishing in a room full of the most gorgeous knitted garments you have ever seen.

photo by Fibre Red

photo by Fibre Red

I tried on a lovely red skirt and a perfect tan wrap top and didn't take them off. Im still wearing them now! I had bought a green Fibre Red skirt from the market about a year ago and I basically live in it so I knew these would be good buys. Their next open studio has not yet been disclosed but keep an eye on this page, I highly recommend a visit!

Have a look at their lovely website here.

Also remember my etsy sale, all my gocco prints are only $10USD, I'm relisting sold items all the time so keep an eye on it. Sale ends 15th September.

Website Dreaming

I was over at Anna of Able and Game cards house yesterday. She helps me with my website and I had a number of things  needed to do before I move to Belfast. I thought maybe I'd buy Dreamweaver program so I could continue to update it when away, but it costs $700! I don't understand why they don't make it more reasonable then less people will download it illegally. So just wondering if anyone out there has Dreamweaver for mac? I'll give you a free etching if it works! Seriously I will.

So, I invite you to have a look at my updated website www.bridgetfarmer.com. I have put up new etchings in 2009 gallery and made the sketchbook section. I'm finding on pc computers the images in sketchbook are a bit blue, but on macs they look fine. not sure what to do about that.

I've given you a sketch of my friend Tina and I while on our USA train trip a few years ago. We are sitting in Macey's cafe in Flagstaff Arizona. We loved that town! even with the train noises!

Right, I'd better get ready to go to work. Cheerio for now!

Bird Stories

Opening night for my exhibition, (well, mine and Ilse's) is Thursday 10th September at 6.30. Do come along for a glass of wine and some nice things to eat and see lots of birds!

At Bird's Gallery, 236 High Street, Kew

It's Either This Or My Sofa

Hi there! I seriously need to reduce my stock before I move from Melbourne, Australia, back home to Belfast, Northern Ireland. I'm moving home for a couple of years to spend time with family, friends, to meet my new nephew and for Jeremy to experience life overseas and to get to know my family better.

The thing is, I have so much stock for my Bridbird etsy shop and I just can't bring it all with me. So, I'm having a big sale. Everything in the shop has been reduced to just US$10 (from $15 and $19) AND!!! if you buy 2 items you get a third complimenting item free! How can you resist?! Sale ends on 15th September.

Below are a few examples of what is on offer in my shop and I've linked lots of words and pictures to the shop too. 

Now, if nothing tickles your fancy you could always do me the huge favour of looking after my lovely old sofa for a couple of years!

It has a matching armchair too.

See The Gulls

I've some more new pieces just out of the drying boards this morning, the excitement of which got me out of my nice warm bed! I've been working on these plates for a while because they are recycled plates from my earlier small etchings of Australian native birds. I sanded down the backs of the old plates with varying grades of sandpaper until they were shiny and new looking. Then dry point etched my seagull drawings in to them. The seagull drawings are from sketches I made while doing my MFA a few years ago. I sketched such a lot then and it's great having so much base to work from. I really must make more time to collect new sketches for new pieces of work.

So, I've made a four plate etching and four single plate etchings. The seagulls were all sketched from outside the Melbourne State Library where they all seem to hang out in large numbers. I'd also like to make a book of the seagulls, I'll see if I get round to it before the exhibition on the 10th September. Getting close now!

Seagull I

Seagull II

Seagull III

Seagull IV

Thread Den Market

This Sunday (9th August) Thread Den are holding a market at the Lithuanian Club in North Melbourne. There will be lots of stalls (over 50) with a variety of work for sale and activities for children. I'll be there! and there'll be lots of designer/ maker clothes and accessories, bric-a-brac and vintage clothing too!. I think it should be a good day and it's undercover so it'll be fun whatever the weather. And North Melbourne is a great wee area with lovely restaurants and cafes. I recommend Oskars Pizza on Errol Street, YUM! (open for dinner only 5 - 10pm) It's an easy 20/30 min walk from the CBD or you can take the no. 57 tram on Elizabeth Street. You can also pop into the Victoria Market on your way home! Hopefully see you there!

Some Photos

A fellow stall holder at Rose Street Artists Market gave me a cd of photos that her photographer friend (Carla Gottgens) took. The photos were of me! They were taken a wee while ago while I was printing at the Australian Print Workshop. You can see me struggling to turn the wheel of the lovely old printing press!

Also I should announce that Rose Street Artists Market is now open on Sundays as well as Saturdays. The stalls on each day will be different, it's a chance to get more artists/ makers involved in Rose Street Market. I will continue to do Saturdays until mid September, then I'll be packing up all my things and heading over to Belfast, Northern Ireland to see what's happening there!

Rose Street Market has also started it's online shop, so if you can't make it to Fitzroy, Melbourne on Saturday or Sunday then log on here and see what's available!

Sticky Hands

My hands are all covered in dried glue and it's hurting the fine hairs on my wrists as I pull it off, though it is strangely addictive. My brother when he was little, attending playschool, used to  paint his hands with glue, or if that wasn't available, paint, and spend the rest of the day peeling it off. I'm not quite that bad and I have actually achieved something today.

I decided it was about time I tried to bind my Crow Story book. The components of it (the etched pages and the embossed front covers) have been sitting in my studio for a week or so, I've just been waiting for a day off work to buy some board. I'm now back down to 2 days a week in the gallery where I work, after working 4 days for the past month (didn't enjoy that) so I went to Dean's Art yesterday and bought all the things I needed and got down to it today.

As you can see the book is concertina style, but with a regular hard back cover. The cover is made from lovely black Hahnemulhe cotton rag paper which I embossed using a plate made from cut out pieces of card arranged in a feathery pattern.

The plate (below) looks like it is made from balsa wood, but that is just the layer of shellac painted over the card. I actually used the reverse side of the embossed prints in order to get the full wing effect, otherwise it would have been in relief. I have also made a number of embossed prints as pictures in both black and white. I like the effect.