It's begun....

It's begun! Autumn is on it's way! The first tantilising tell-tale signs of my favorite season are appearing everywhere... berries, leaves and rusty, earthy colours!
I took myself for a walk Monday morning after watching an inspiring documentary about National Geographic's Top 10 photos of 2009. The dedication and skill is certainly something to admire! My camera  has a RAW function which I have been ignoring  (oh...who was it that asked what I use?? it's a Nikon d40x) and I finally decided to flip the switch, loaded my editing software and go and photograph in RAW. In part that's where my problems began! Software that didn't work resulted in my not being able to see my images off the camera or it seized my computer all together. Back in the too hard /irritating basket! Yesterday I downloaded and trialed a few different free photo editing programmes  that allowed me control over my image and then converted them from RAW to JPEG. I settled on one called Photoscape which also has lots of filters to play around with. Here's a couple of images with the Anitquing filters applied...

I have to admit I quite like the way these look although it was time consuming, I wonder how they print out? This effect could look quite good on the right image in a collage!
Below are the originals as well as a few other pics that I took. I actually took about 30 photos but the rest are waiting for conversion.There must be a quicker and easier way to do this? Perhaps I should be taking a better look at the NEF (RAW) + JPEG button on my camera...

Just look at all those spider babies in the nest below...I was brave!

I've also been spending time on Lisa J's book for our Pulp Redux collab, researching my family history (yes that is relevant to my art...more on that later!) and scouring second hand shops for bargains. I came home one day to find a lovely gift from Deborah Eck of Dryadart. Deb was my partner in Lawendula's first paper swap. I love those chickadees! Thanks Deborah for the lovely nesty surprise!

 

So, that's a quick round up of my art week. It dosn't look like much when you put it into a few photos and words...but it represents hours, moments, fragments...who knows where this is actually leading? What discovery is on the verge of being made? I'm just going to follow the road...

Postcards and Placemats

The first two postcards were made for a mail art swap. The lady I made the top one for said her favorite colour was Orange. I don't have a lot of orange in my stash but luckily the power company put out the (orange) pamphlet and I was able to use it for my background...wheew!
The postcard below was made for someone who likes blue, purple and teal....and I didn't really need much of an excuse to use that nest image! Or the teasel:) This one's printed onto tracing paper, which I quite like the look of. The blue weave is the inside of an envelope and I thought the weave completed the nest to well not to use!

The 3rd postcard is my 5th postcard for the postcard book I mentioned a while back. I've got a bit of a 'thing' for pears at the moment...but there will be more about that later all going well!

This is not any ordinary placemat! This is a currently-being-altered placemat! I scored 6 this size for $1.00 at the second hand shop (op shop, thrift shop, charity shop...same thing) and I nearly left them in the shop. I actually went back to them 3 times before deciding that I did actually 'need' them and it wasn't just because I might use them! I've taken over more than my fair share of space in the garage as it is! I thought I would use them as bases for collage..but as I type they are drying in a nice painted shade of "pohutakawa". Tomorrow I hope to paint pears on them. I havn't painted in a very long time. I put so much pressure on myself for every painting to be great that I ended up being totally uninspired and dried up. (Much like the brushes!) I hope to put an end to that tomorrow...and I think even I can cope with pears! I just need to take a deep breath and do it. Tomorrow.

Drum Rollllll Please! Dis-Co Winners Revealed!

A very big thankyou to everyone who came and commented on my DIS-CO postcards. I really appreciate your kindness! As you know I decided to play a game of LUCKY DIP and as promised I will be sending these postcards to the 4 winners! They are of course... The Green Stone Woman (postcard 1) Shari (who signed as anonymous...if you know Shari please let me know! (Postcard 2) Annie from Ink Haven (Postcard 3) and lucky last is Wayne Pitchko! Must have been that smile Wayne! Thanks for playing everyone! If you missed one and would like to swap mail art with me you can find my postal address on my side bar. Speaking of which.. you may remember my post showing what I received from Debrina...well she's been busy and has updated her blog with her most recent goodies, including what I sent her so please drop by and take a look! Last but not least, a little while back my blogging friend Mick added a new piece of art to his Birdhouse series and GUESS WHAT?? He dedicated it to me! I am still smiling:) Please follow the link to see this great series!

Be well!

Lisa:)

PS: Special thanks to my youngest for coming in from her game outside to do the draw for me! She even did a drum roll! The postcards were allocated in the same Lucky Dip fashion as the name draw.

NZ Mail Art postcard book swap

I'm currently doing a NZ Mail Art post card book swap and these postcards are the first 4 (of 5) that I am sending out. In return I will get 5 postcards back from the other players. The postcards will become the pages of the book. We picked our own themes and mine was 'collaged ephemera'. They're shown here in the order I made them.
Gold serviette, raffle tickets, lino cut teasel, rescued encyclopedia images. I made this one before the DIS-CO cards and I can see how it was influenced by the space I was in at the time. To me the others are quite different. I made the bottom 3 in the same day.

Rescued bird images from an encyclopedia, raffle ticket numbers, old ledger paper (thanks Debrina!) paper scrap (the black and white paper is from the inside of a business envelope.) Butterfly image.

Leaf prints, dictionary definition for "natural..." rescued wild flowers from an encyclopedia and recycled fantail from a children's fact book. I love that bird! This is my favorite out of the 3 I made that day!

Vintage cigarette card, raffle ticket numbers, ledger paper scrap, serviette, recycled book images, dictionary definition for 'nature.' Those cigarette cards were such a great score!

So there they are. I will make the last card when the muse takes me, although these are being sent out a one per week so I have plenty of time!

Today's the last day to enter the LUCKY DIP draw for the DIS-Co postcards....check back here tomorrow to see who the lucky winners are!

Dis-Co!! The final reveal...who wants to play?

It's Dis-Co day! This journey started by Seth has been a wonderful one. It's been more than I expected and led me up paths I hadn't yet realised I wanted to follow. Thanks for that Seth! In brief the story goes something like this... I gathered up a bundle of bits, mostly paper, and bound them in wool and hung them out to enter part one of the collaboration with nature. Part 2 involved unwrapping it and discovering what happened during the months it was weathered outside. The results of that were then further disintegrated when I ripped it up into thousands of pieces to make my first sheets of paper. Part 3 saw the sheets of paper bound up again and given a second weathering...and part 4 is this one. The last step in this journey is nearly complete. I used my collection of paper and string to make postcards...I've shown them here in the order that I made them.


Postcard 1: Pandora's box. The text says 'Yet from the bottom of the box flew out a shining bird and as it flew around Pandora's head it twittered sweetly " I am Hope; as I stole into the box so will I also steal into human hearts.." I've used thread and the paper made from my bundle as well as a teasel lino cut and a digitally altered photo from my ICE 2009 image collection.

Postcard 2: The Crow. As luck would have it the words "The crow" survived two weathering's and a dunk in the paper making vat! It also worked out beautifully that I had recently added some vintage cigarette cards to my stash and one of these had a crow and nest on it! Perfect! Also included in this is a recycled book image, thread and a leaf ink print.

Postcard 3: Kakapo. The Kakapo is NZ native mountain parrot and I think this recycled book image aptly shows the cheeky nature of the bird. I also used my "part 2" paper, thread and a piece un-weathered cardinal brand playing card. Weathered bits are found in the paper.

Postcard 4: Gypsy. The vintage cigarette card with a Chaffinch and nest complimented the colours of the weathered paper and cardinal playing card to well not to use. I also used thread and a piece of material rescued from a book cover (it was the outside layer covering the books heavy cover...) dictionary definitions and a leaf print make up the background and the goldy-mustard coloured paper that appears in all of these is hand painted with a plastic credit type card.

Wheew! This has been fun! A postcard however, isn't a real postcard until it's actually been posted so that's where I thought it would be nice to play a little game of LUCKY DIP! If you would like to be the recipient of one of these cards then please let me know in your comment and I will put all the names on a hat (so to speak) and draw out one name for each card. Which one you get will also be lucky dip:) I will post the winners names on the 7th.

Thanks for Seth for organising and to you all for visting...I am on my way to see you now!

Mail Art

Debrina recycled a greeting card/envelope set box to use as the base of her bundle and filled it with some great goodies! I love the twine!

Open wide....look what's inside:)

I noticed that Debrina had a "mail me" button on her blog so decided to send her a 'little something' in the mail. Above is the bundle I recieved back from her! Arn't I lucky? Thanks Debrina! The photo below shows the bundle I sent to her. I didn't photograph the contents but I made this little envelope from water colour paper and then treated it like a postcard. I am sure you can well and truly recognise the elements I have used by now!

WORD mail art call

When I came across a mail art call put out by someone wanting to collect 'words' via the postal system I knew exactly which word I would contribute to their collection. I never seem to tire of it!

This is a slightly different nest image to the one I usually use, I like the twiggy-er look of it. The viewpoint is different too and that made it a bit harder to work with. I like this post card though and it will be on it's way to The Netherlands tomorrow. I have made sure everything's glued flat to help it survive the journey.
If you want to play to simply send your postcard and word (with a definition) to H.R. It's that easy...


Today I had all good intentions of starting my Lino cut. The kids are all back at school after time off with the flu and I had finally settled on my image choice...but when I went to do my cut it turns out the gremlins have run off with my cutter's handle and I have everything but the handle! A new handle and fresh blades have been ordered and should arrive in the mail tomorrow. In the mean time here's a sneak peak of what I am going to carve... you can see the colour version of it here if you wish. I can't decide which I like more...

Autumn Inchies

Hand painted paper backgrounds, recycled bird images from encyclopedias, words from NZ house and garden (mostly advertising text.)

20 inchies for a NZ Mail Art Swap, Autumn themed. NZ Mail art is now international and just based in NZ so if you want to join let me know and I will get an invite sent to you:)
Autumn for me is about delicious warm colours- orange, copper, browns, deep reds and the rusty tones of the them all mixing together.

The birds were making a real racket in these trees! One of the trees had berries that were obviously considered to be very delicious by the wide variety of birds that had congregated there. Little wax-eyes, native Tui's and common Thrushes are 3 that I spotted. (Unfortuntely with my zoom you will have to take my word for it!)

Happy Autumn or Spring to you wherever you are!

Hand Made postcards and Altered Bread Tag, Tags!

Altered Bread Tag, Mini Tags. Bread tags, recycled card, gifted embellishments, beads, wool.





"Tree" theme. Recycled greeting cards, sewing pattern paper, magazine image (for back ground) arcylic paint (I used the end of a felt tip to make the ring marks.)

"Pockets and Tags" theme. Recycled greeting cards, magazine images, sticker backing from a book of stamps (you know the stuff left behind when you peel off the stamps and you're left with little 'windows'...even they have a use! lol.)

A group called "Decorative Envies" that I belong to also does monthly postcard swaps. Last months theme (which I just made yesterday! opps!) was "Trees" and Pockets and Tags.

I recently hosted an 'altered bread tag' swap on my yahoo group "alternative artists" and we had to use a bread tag as an embellishement. The idea is not original, a friend of mine sent me some she had altered and I thought it was such a great idea that we should do it on the group (with her permisson!) If the card board looks similar to those on the postcards it's because I used the scrap from the postcards! The original card was found at a 2nd hand shop for 20c! How's that for good milage? lol.

Thanks Andrea for leaving me Sweet Irene's address. I am waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay behind on my tour of the globe!

Poetry Puzzle and Altered Playing Cards

These playing cards are the last 4 in the hearts suit that we've been altering in the Alternative Artist's group. The 10 is mine however as I havn't gotten the permission of the other artists I won't name names!

These look better in the 'real' but due to camera issues I'm doing the best with what I've got!
These are 'puzzle pieces' for a collaborative poetry puzzle swao I am hosting on the NZ Mail Art group.
We each have a segment to illustrate for our group and at the end of it we'll get 6 puzzle pieces made my 5 other artists or 9 by 8 if like me your in both groups! lol
The complete poem will read...
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
and sings the tune without the words
and never stops- at all.
and sweetest in the gale is heard
and sort must be the storm
that could abash the little bird
that kept so many warm
I've heard it in the chillest land
and on the strangest sea
Yet never in extremity
did it ask a crumb of me.
I can't remember who wrote this origianly but it's a lovely poem and probably my favourite.
The complete poem will be put together how ever the artist chooses.