In search of peace

My youngest bought us the bone covering for our recent wedding anniversary, 17 years...yay us!

My son has a gift for finding fallen bird egg shells. He's also found 4 of the 6 small nests I have (above and below.)

Who knew tobacco flowers were so pretty?

My eldest girl painted me the birds for Christmas.

The God's Eye is from Mardi Gras.

I find myself creating little scenes like these ones, my life is turbulent and I need peace.

Is it an oxymoron that in this time of darkness that I find myself making happy spots? 

Self-medicating.

The black dog yaps, still, it never goes but so far I have it on it's leash.

My daughters surgery was due to be this coming Tuesday but it got postponed, leaving me in free fall. 

At least I've realized now that I don't have to keep falling.

YES, My home IS my nest and so I create these areas that I love and that bring the calm and peace I search for.

This one greets me and all our visitors at the front door....

Be well, be blessed.

Lisa

landcastle III

The school term has finished (YAY!!) and with our school work done we went for a wander at the park again.The kids built this while I foraged around looking for goodies. I was lucky enough to find a flat nest again, smaller than the last one I found but still a good find in my books! I added it to their landcastle as you can see. They weren't aiming to make anything specific but at the end of it we all agreed it looked a lot like an praying mantis!

We checked on landcastle II while we were there, I suspect people had something to do with the collapse of this one but that's ok. I let go of the landcastle as soon as I walk away.

Below: A pic of landcastle II as I left it about 6 weeks ago, above is what's left now!

The nest you can see in the middle of the top pic got a little digital make-over. I love the softness of this image and the way it shows the delicate weaving of the nest.

Now that it's the holidays I aim to finish as Deb's PULP REDUX book and develop my ideas for the International Signature Swap. I'm creating graffiti papers so if that's your kind of thing watch this space!

Secret codes and altered matchboxes...

I signed up to play in Bad Penny's altered matchbox swap. The swap has a '12 days of Christmas Theme" and I got "5 Golden Rings."  I did a little research on the net about the origins of this song to see if  I could draw some inspiration from it. Interestingly enough I found out that the whole song is thought to have been a secret code which allowed Christians to talk about the Bible and Christianity in a time where they were persecuted for it. The 5 golden rings is apparently a reference to the first 5 books of the bible. I ended up avoiding any mention of secret codes and persecution and doing my own 'recycled' thing!

Would you believe it but I only found these golden rings at the second hand shop after I signed up? I think they are curtain rings. I've only got one golden ring on each box (as you can see) but each box has 5 elements plus the golden ring.The red mesh (onion bag netting), white beads (from an old necklace), coffee dyed fabric and white fabric scrap and the lace.The boxes are covered in white material which is soft and velvety (and someone's thermal curtain in another life!)

Including something inside the box was optional so I haven't decorated the inside of it. I did include 5 small things inside though...like 4 'eggs' in a nest of course!
Small confession: I only did them like this for the photo. The box wouldn't close with the lace standing up like that. It would been cool to have opened the box up and found my nest though!

And last but not least, some pretty beads and gold thread to help keep all the contents inside the boxes on their journey! This was different but fun. I havn't altered matchboxes in ages! Now I can look forward to my ones arriving in the post:)


Next posting: Blog Giveaway winner! There's still time to sign up if you'd like to own the fabric collage below.
Coming soon...PULPY LOVE! I've been busy working on my next part in Kim's book and there's been some other fantastic pulp posts going on lately too. Watch this space!

Where there's smoke...

Where there's smoke there is fire and my creative cells have certainly been on fire today!

I'm so excited! There's nothing like a creative burst to rejuvinate and energise my soul. I went to a mall this morning and hated every minute of it. Busy. Noisey. Artificial. I came home utterly knackered and all I'd done is walk. I knew what I needed to do to break out of the slump I found myself in and I dedicated my afternoon to some 'nest time.' As crazy as it sounds, my first ICE collage for the 2011 exchange came to me the other night as I drifted off to sleep.I've had the concept brewing for a few months now but I wasn't sure how I would express it. Then I saw it. One collage encompassing the whole idea, the colours, the images, the marks made by stitches and paint. I can't wait to get it out of my head and on to paper. I decided to start by photographing some of the beautiful nests I have around my home. I wanted to create new nest images to use in collages and you can see some of the results below...

And then came these ones...

I'm lovin' this one below. Lines crossing and interweaving barely recognisable as a nest yet earthy, dramatic and bold.

My theme for the 2011 collage exchange is "Fragile" and I was thinking about my theme and wondering how I could better express it. I was totally loving the images I created but knew I hadn't quite found 'the one'  and then it came to me.. 

With my 'fragile' series I'm revisting a familiar theme..based on a theory of mine that society is a nest.

A nest built from a foundation of love, hope, warmth and safety will raise children that can fly and prosper. The whole future of our children is dictated by the nest they live in and how far they will fly depends on each of us. What we do or don't do makes our society what it is. The nest is precious and the souls within it...fragile.

Fragile. ICE 2011 Series. Coming soon.

Green/Greener

Green art warms my heart. As you know, I am celebrating things that are greener so I want to mention some green artists whose art and lifestyles I admire before we head back to the hospital again tomorrow. Yes, you read that right.  My son's still unwell and going in to hospital for the 3rd time in 9 weeks. To say we're 'over this' would be a complete understatement but this time I am determined not to let it dampen my creativitiy! My family is my priority of course but I will be taking my sewing with me:)

No surprise to see another nest here! This one was spotted at the Muse Me event I went to last year. I love the eggs! This was part of a land art sculpture about life and death.

On with the celebrating! My first tribute is to Te Willans of Sowen Earth. I am loving what this artist does! Te Willans is an eco dyer, button maker, mixed media artist just across the ditch from me in Australia. Check out the cool studio shot below....

You can also see some other very cool buttons here as well as dfelteyed works and encaustic pieces.  It's awesome to see an artist making and selling so many lovely, nature friendly pieces so please go and check Sowen Earth out! You won't be dissapointed.

The other blogger I want to celebrate is Jasmine of Natures Whispers. Jasmine also uses natural dyes to create fantastic felted pieces. I had no idea you could actually use felt to depict an image let alone convey a message. I can only imagine how wonderful her dyed wools would be to actually feel and hold in my hands. I didn't ask for permission to use a photo so don't rely on your imagination to find out what Jasmine's work is like:) Please go and pay her a visit!

Last but not least is a NZ project I found today which is a happy coincidence! I listed some old foam on freecycle and the person whose just become the new owner wants to use it for this great project. Sew it Forward is a project that involves using recycled clothing and sewing goodies to make clothing for womans refuge. Great idea! There are collection points in Tauranga and Auckland for any one wishing to make a donation of buttons, zippers, fabric, cotton, gift basket goodies, ribbons....etc!

This is actually my first freecycle deal so it's a pretty good result to move on a piece of foam to a good home and not the rubbish pile AND support a project like this. That's a very cool shade of 'greener' if you ask me!

ICE # 13- Ripple Effect and a special GIVEAWAY

I've finished all of my collages for the 2010 International Collage Exchange! I am feeling so pleased with myself! I love the look of the completed series, I love the feeling of satisfaction I get when I look at each one and I am really looking forward to seeing the ICE exhibition on line.  You can see the complete collection on Lucky Dip ICE. You can see number 13 below.

ICE  2010# 13.

Series: Chain Reaction.

Title: Ripple Effect.

I'm not loving the photo but I am loving the collage! I'm loving the ripped circles and just know that you'll be seeing more of these! I uses various sized bowls and lids to rip around so it's just like ruler ripping but round. Why havn't I thought of that before?? I was so involved in making sure I got the series completed last night (co-incidently 3 months to the day from when I started. The 13th collage was also completed on the 13th day of the 3rd month...anyone here into 3's? )

I've wandered off...sorry. Ripple Effect is one of the first concepts that I came up with when I originally brainstormed the ideas I had for the series. We all create ripples, some fade away quickly others are ever increasing. They are the chain reaction. As I've said so many times before we all need to act respectfully and consider the chain reaction of each of our actions. They all count. Our planet and our own survival are dependant on it. We are imperfect beings, I don't claim to be otherwise. I drive a car, I smoke(!) I create rubbish each day I'm alive...but I try. I try to change what I can and have the smallest footprint I can and hopefully it's enough. It's what we do collectively that counts and I think my series has reflected that. I am happy and I hope you've enjoyed the journey with me. I have certainly enjoyed having you all along on it!

To celebrate I've created a small collage titled ' Ripples" which I am giving away to one lucky visitor. All you have to do is leave me a comment here or on the Lucky Dip ICE blog before the 23rd (another 3 in the 3rd month of the year...what's with these 3's!?) and if your name is randomly chosen  (a lucky dip of course) it's all yours!

I've used many of the same elements that I have in the other collages, just smaller. This piece is 14cm x 12cm, the rest are 30cm x 21cm. Come celebrate with me!

If you havn't done the exchange before but have been thinking about it I fully reccomend giving it a go. 13 collages sounds like a lot but you have until March 2011 to get them done for next years exchange so it's not that big a task really:) If your still not sure then please check out my Lucky Dip ICE blog and see the slideshows of the collages I have recieved in the past 2 years. You know you want some too:)

Roots-Beneath the layers

Page 1. This page is joined to the back of the last page Lisa did. You can see all of Lisa's fantastic work in this book here. You really don't want to miss it! Her cover has the word 'Roots' and the next page said ' beneath the layers' so I made them part of a sentence by adding ' I see beauty.' Lisa's words are ofcourse the books theme. My first page is a collage of 2nd hand beads, my handmade beads, mutton cloth (thicker than cheese cloth) bits of cut up doily and threads. I still don't know what the red disc thing is! I hope what ever it was from still works without it!

Page 2. One of Lisa's pages features a vintage photo of her Grandmother. This page reflects the era I imagine she came from. A time when things were re-used and re-purposed and no-one thought anything of it because it was the way of life at the time.  Lisa also said her Grandmother didn't get to travel, now we can say she's been to New Zealand! I really love this page, it appeals to the romantic in me!

Page 3. This is stitched to the back of page 2. The white book (formerly the scroll) is able to be full removed from the page and then opened to reveal...a 2 and a half page fabric book! All the shades of brown have been made by dying the fabric with coffee, tea or onions skins. The string around the nest was dyed with real nest dye (sorry, it's a little hard to see that here.)

Page 4 reveals another removable book and that seriously cool rusted bottle cap. A nice little piece of Kiwiana! I have 4 caps sitting in cups on my window sill as I type and I am doing an intentional rust experiment using eco-friendly source. Watch this space if you want to know how that goes!

The book is removed to reveal a pocket and a quote and then opened to reveal another page. This page (as you may remember) was created in collaboration with a bird! I used the non-organic parts of a nest that the kids and I found. The nest was beautiful but when its layers were revealed the true makings of this nest were actually a sad reflection on the environment it was made in. It revealed that although we see rubbish a bird sees as good nest making materials...and I eventually came to see it as good collage making material!

I worked on quite a literal interpretation of Lisa's theme and now my part is done. Soon another artist will be having their turn and the journey will continue. Thanks for being part of chapter 2 with me!

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...