Magic Milestone!

It's not often that a family can get five generations together for a celebration......but that is exactly what we did yesterday! Five generations of us celebrated my mother's 90th birthday - and what a wonderful day it was! My mother - Edith Johnston - turned 90 and members of the family came from near and far to help her mark this special day.

Mum looking spritely at 90, with Mabel, the newest addition and the first of the fifth generation.

The whole clan - well most of them, anyway.

Five generations - Mum holding Mabel, Rhiannon, my grand-daughter ( the new Mum), me and my son Andy.

Oma's cake, made by my sister Linda

Happy Birthday, Edith!

It's Here!...........It's Here! And An Exciting Announcement...........

After a month of almost incessant rain, which broke all August records, Spring was heralded by a number of warm, sunny days. Right on the dot. The swallows are back, having arrived about a week earlier than usual and you can almost hear things growing (especially the weeds!). So I have been very busy in the garden planting vegetables and getting things under control. Mulch is my friend!

I had a birthday last week.........and look what my sister Linda made for me:

Isn't he the best?

He's all of about four inches high, seated. You can check out more of her work on her blog: http://bensonbears.blogspot.com 

This is a new doll I am working on - she's going to be finished in a very monochromy kind of way - like an old sepia photograph. I'm going to use the piece of fine old Irish crochet in her clothing somehow.

And I've been working very hard to get my studio re-configured to include a small gallery area, because I am one of ten artists on the West Tamar who will be opening their studios/galleries to the public this summer as part of the Tamar Valley Art Trail. (Check out the FB page: http://facebook.com/tamarvalleyarttrail ) The official launch will be in December, but I think most of the spaces will be open before that.  I am planning to be a "working studio" - people can come and see me work, but I will also have a number of my works on display: sculpture, dolls, paintings and drawings. I will also be displaying a selection of Bob's wonderful landscape photographs. I'm excited! I'll post some pictures as soon as I get it all done.

A Big Week!

Well, dear readers, it's been a pretty big week for me - it was my birthday........and to my utter surprise, I find I am now sixty years old! How did THAT happen? Seems like only a few yesterdays ago that I was a student, a young mother, a young grandmother. (I'm pleased to report that greatgrandmotherhood has not happened yet - and I hope it doesn't for a few years yet - though with my eldest grandchild approaching nineteen, who knows?)

So I had a lovely day shared with some special friends, even though the weather was pretty wild  and typical of Spring in Tasmania ("In like a lion, out like a lamb" they say - hope that's right).

Here's what I spent yesterday doing, after dropping my husband at the airport at 5:00am - he's headed off to the Flinders Ranges in SA for a few weeks of rock-climbing. With Resident Grand-daughter also heading off tomorrow for a week in Queensland, I have a week of solitary bliss stretching out in front of me. For me, that means not much cooking or housework and uninterrupted hours in the studio with the fire blazing! I should get lots done.

This piece is still a work in progress - plenty to do on it yet. I wonder if you can work out what some of the unusual things are that I have incorporated into this piece?

Happy Birthday To Me

Yes, today is my birthday.......not that I make too much of a song and dance about it any more  (nah....just do a posting on my blog so the whole world knows!) having almost reached an age when people might start referring to me as "venerable" (well, possibly, but a very least "old"). But I did celebrate with a few friends around for a lovely lunch yesterday. I was up at 6 am to start cooking...........not quite sure how that works when you are the Birthday Girl, but the day was lots of fun and I really DO enjoy cooking.

 I quite like being an Older Person - I like to kid myself that it lends one a certain air of gravitas and that maybe one has acquired a little wisdom along the way.

Wet Day, Birthday and Boys Make Puppets

So what do you do when it is pouring with rain all day and you have two active grandsons to entertain? Obvious - you head to the studio and make puppets! These are what my two grandboys Laurence (14) and Xavier (7) did to make the rainy day pass faster. They sculpted the heads with paperclay over foil and a cardboard tube and sewed the cloth bodies. Even Xavier managed some of the machine sewing all by himself - his first go! Then it was into the paint - green for the frog and purple with spots for the alien. I made Xavier an insect on a wire (which is just visible in the photo) to tease his hungry frog with. It stopped raining last night, which is just as well, because I was considering the possibility of needing to make an Ark if it rained for much longer.
It is my birthday today (not that I really like too many reminders of advancing age these days!) and it is wonderful to have the grandchildren around to celebrate the double (Father's Day). Might pop the champers tonight!

Here is a picture of part of my exhibition in the barrel room at Holm Oak Vineyard. The room has a gorgeous fermenty smell and pleasant ambience and by some serendipitous turn, a couple of my pieces were painted in almost identical colours to the subtle and stained barrel colours. I sold a number of the pieces, which is always a bonus.

A Wonderful Thing to Behold!

Three teenagers, tech savvy, mobile phone-toting, plugged into i-pods and Myspace, just spent two days of their September break from school making dolls in my studio. They used my 'Lou-Lou' pattern, but had very definite ideas about how they wanted their dolls to look. As you can see, 'Lou-Lou' has had a bit of an update. Some gentle guidance and help when they got stuck and here are the fantastic results! I've never seen young people so intensely absorbed in what they were doing - all the other stuff was forgotten for a while. My conclusion? Kids can still be entertained by doing simple, constructive things if the adults around them take the time to help them do it. The rewards for all are boundless. Well done, Leila, Meg and Erin!

Since I last posted, another birthday has come and gone - I like to keep them a little low-key these days for obvious reasons!

New Doll Completed

I have just completed this new doll - she is another as yet un-named "Redivivus" doll (made mostly of recyclables). Her little vest is knitted from that fabulous recycled sari-silk yarn.

This doll will be going into an exhibition next week at a local gallery.

Today my grand-daughter is celebrating her 13th birthday with a party for her friends at "Kids Paradise" - its pouring rain (again! - enough, already) so I'm glad its an inside affair!