Lacuna

Here's a piece I was working on before I was rudely interrupted by Christmas preparations! Now that the dust has settled, I can get back into my work routine, at least a little...........it will be liberally interspersed with trips to the beach, casual meals with friends and lots of sparkling wine. We usually celebrate quietly on New Years' Eve with a barbecue and river trip with friends - something like that. We might be boring old fuddy-duddies, but I sure like being off the roads well before midnight!

This piece is called "Lacuna"..........I have some forming ideas about how she will be completed:

And look what my bloggy friend Ron Anger sent me! I called him Lord Cucurbita and this is him lording it over the Christmas tree. Even though he is very Halloweeny, I don't think he looks out of place with the other Christmas decorations. If you haven't done so already, have a look at Ron's blog - he's always got interesting and amusing things to say and I am constantly surprised by what he comes up with and how diverse his skills are - from wonderful portrait paintings to cute dresses for his grand-daughter and amusing dolls like my Lord Cucurbita. The man is amazing!

 

Whew!!

Well...........It's done and dusted for another year - we had a family gathering for Christmas here in my studio, which cleans up reasonably well to be used as a dining hall for a crowd. Here they all are - sans moi - I took the picture. It's taken me a full day to recover, but as I write this I'm starting to feel human again!

And now I can post a picture of this very pink trio, which was made as a special Christmas order, so I had to keep it under wraps! Pink is not really a colour I use much at all, but I had lots of fun making these.

OK.........nose back to the grindstone today - I had lots of orders that came in just before Christmas, so I need to get them ready to post.

Hope you all had a safe and wonderful Christmas with family and friends!

I'm looking forward to sharing more of my world with you in 2012.

Season's Greetings!

To all my readers and followers:
May I take this opportunity to wish you all the best for the Festive Season. I hope you all have a happy, fun-filled and safe Christmas and all good things in 2012.
I'll be back with regular posts shortly after Christmas.
Thank you all for your support during 2011.

Some afterthoughts:

THE WINNER!

............And it is:
Tami @ Lemontree Tales! (Number 65, chosen by one of those random number generator thingys - beats cutting up and writing names on 76 pieces of paper!)

I'm Back!

After a wonderful ten days or so away in South Australia, I'm back just in time to begin serious preparations for Christmas. I had a great time - fantastic students in my classes, which made for stress-free teaching and my hosts, Sandy and Malcolm made me feel very welcome, even though they were in the throes of moving their whole business from a home office to a new factory - lock, stock and barrel! And Sandy was coming down with the 'flu or something, so the poor thing had plenty on her plate.......what a trouper! Here are a few very bad pics from the "Muse" workshop (forgot to take any for the other workshop - very remiss of me, I know). If you want to see more and better pictures, have a look at Sandy's blog (link above) and also Peta's blog.

Busy gals getting down and dirty!

A being is born.

Putting it all together.

A fine effort!

I saw some great ideas emerging during the class and I'm hoping to see pictures of the finished pieces in the near future.

After I finished teaching, I was picked up by my friends Lynn and Margaret from Tassie and we ambled down to Victor Harbour to spend a few days with Lynn's brother and sister-in-law. We managed trips to Hindmarsh Island, Adelaide galleries and McLaren Vale vineyards. Lovely and relaxing and not even hot!

We'd decided to take two days to get back to Melbourne so that we could poke around the Koorong a little - what a stunning place! I've always wanted to see it. Unfortunately, it is so expansive that my camera just doesn't do it justice - you'll have to take my word for it that it was fabulous. And full of water at the moment after all the upstream rains, so we saw it at it's best. We spent a night at a sweet fishing town called Robe and then another night in Melbourne before heading back home on the ferry on Friday night.

Fine travelling companions!

The hills around Victor.

I'm going to draw my giveaway tomorrow, so there is still a bit of time to enter if you want - all you have to do is leave a comment on the giveaway post - just scroll down a bit to find it.

Farewell (for a short time)

I'm heading off early in the morning to go and teach in Adelaide and then have a week or so R&R (wineries, art galleries, reading, walks, lunches.........it's going to be HARD!)
But I couldn't leave without saying "goodbye"..........and what use is a blog post without a picture or two? Remember the poly tunnel that Bob built in the late winter? Well, it's been producing really well for us. We've already harvested salad greens, bok choy, radishes, carrots and rocket and now the slower growing crops are starting to look very promising - tomatoes, capsicums, chillis, basil - all things that need a little extra warmth here in Tasmania. Here are some pictures:

We've become quite serious about eating what we produce and not really too much else. For instance, tonight our dinner was roast shoulder of veal which had been given to us (delicious!) with roast potatoes from last years' crop, new beetroot, roasted; new carrots and peas and spinach with garlic ginger and sesame oil. Apart from the condiments and the gift of meat, we produced it all!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway - there's still plenty of time, because I won't be drawing it until December 12th after I get back from Adelaide. Just go to the post before this one and leave a message there - it will be a random draw from all the responses I receive.

Hasta la vista , amigos!

Celebrate With Me!

Yes......it's giveaway time! To celebrate the major blogging milestone of passing 500 followers on my humble blog, I'm having another giveaway. All you have to do is leave a comment at the end of this post and I will draw a random winner on December 12th. I don't know what the prize will be yet, but I will make something nice for the winner. And dear followers: Thank you! Thank you!

Meanwhile............I have been working on a new piece. NB THIS PIECE IS NOT THE GIVEAWAY PRIZE - I'LL BE MAKING SOMETHING ESPECIALLY FOR THAT. Apart from some finishing touches with paint, I think it is done. Here are some progress shots:

Working it out.

Full shot.

Closer.

Angled shot.

And a closeup of the head.

I took the colours to paint this piece from the beautifully rusted metal pieces that I have used on the torso. Working title: "Rust Never Sleeps".

 

Time Warp @ Artisan and a Little Christmas Cheer

Last Sunday saw the opening of a new exhibition at Artisan Gallery at Robigana celebrating the 20th anniversary of the opening of the gallery and ceramic studio in a converted apple shed. It's hard to believe the gallery has been open that long, but all credit to Rudolf and Lisa for making it such a success! As one of the early exhibitors at the gallery, I was invited to put some pieces into the exhibition. I managed three. The show is up until mid-December, so if you are local, you might like to pop in and have a look - there is some fine work there - you won't be disappointed!

And entering into the spirit of the season, here is a very Christmassy "Sukeshi" doll that I have just made.

*Pssst! I know I said I was announcing a new giveaway this week - can you wait a few more days?

New Work

I really like the look of hessian (burlap) and I've been trying to think of ways to incorporate it into some of my pieces. But it is very stiff, unyeilding and hard to work with on a small scale.......and it is so HAIRY. So I've been experimenting a bit. Here's a little head I made in the last couple of days where I've managed to make a kind of cap using hessian. I really like how it looks and I can't wait to get this painted so I can enhance the texture with some dry-brushing.

This piece is going to be more sculptural than doll-like and I plan to incorporate some of the hessian texture on the body. Not exactly certain how yet, but working it out is half the fun!

The finished piece will be along these lines:

Don't forget to watch this space - I'll be announcing a celebratory (500 followers) giveaway sometime next week!

New Work

Here's a piece of sculpture I'm working on:

...........and some finished "Sukeshi" orders.

*pssst*! I have just noted that my number of followers has reached 500 - I can't let that go by without a small celebration..............I'll be announcing a new giveaway next week. Watch this space..............!

Two Girls

One of these might look very familiar - she is the almost-twin of "Spring Girl" I made a couple of months ago. Someone saw that doll and wanted a similar one.........this is as similar as I could get it. She and her brown-haired friend are off to the same place when I get the finishing touches done. I never tire of making dolls like these that represent sweet young things..................but I'm getting an itch to sculpt!

Zozie Class

I have just returned from almost a week away in Victoria at a pleasant seaside town not far out of Melbourne called Tooradin. I was invited by the owner of Bear Essence, the very lovely Kim Garratt to teach my Zozie class over two days. Having it over two days instead of trying to squeeze a lot of work into one day made it quite a relaxed class - and I don't think anybody felt too stressed out (mostly me!)
Here are some pictures of the wildly different results from the class.

Looks like I'll be heading back there in January 2012 to teach a couple more classes, so if you live in Melbourne or Victoria and you are interested, get in touch with Kim at Bear Essence for more details. (Use the link above)

Been Busy!

Here's some stuff I've been doing:

These little softie dolls are a new design.

I love doing the occasional painting

And Julie, the person I made the little jointed "mannikin" doll for, has been having fun with wigs - here's a photo she sent me of the doll in a white wig. She even photoshopped a little tear into this picture! I think she looks amazing!