Canvases

 

Some of the canvases so far...They each have names...let me see this is: Cynthia, Charlotte, Katie Sue, Josie-Lu and Hettie.
I have more girls drawn and canvases ready to make up today. Fun!

Group of Girls

 

This little family of girls is growing.
This is just some of them so far...I can't wait to get in create more
These are off to Melbourne to a trade fair. I hope they have fun!
I kinda wish I was going too but ooOoOo I bet it's super chilly down there today!!

New Girls

 

I'm loving using these girls on the canvases; creating little patchwork environments for them. I love that I can hang some of my favourite fabrics on the wall to see them all the time :)

I'm making more dolls too knowing that Ruby will want to keep a few. I love that she likes to play with the dolls that I make. She gets very upset if I sell one that she loves so I do try to keep one or two for her from each batch. She has a whole family of them which she loves to play with including a little boy. Ruby is almost 10 and being an only child loves to sit and play for hours with her toys, I adore listening to her twitter away to the dolls playing out little scenarios, which quite often involve the boy doll being the boyfriend or more specifically Harry (Potter) or Merlin or Edward from Twilight (her favourite movie...despite my hesitation about her being too young to watch it!!)

I'm liking the colours of these girls.....I'm very attracted to really warm colours at the moment I guess because it is the middle of winter here. Though quite warm and beautiful...still a little chilly for me :D I know that when summer comes around and the incredible heat it will be difficult to use these hot pinks and oranges but right now I can't get enough of them!

 

Another girl!

Saturday Shopping

For our Saturday morning shopping trip I am so excited to show you the beautiful dolls by The Poppy Tree I am so wishing I could zap these little woodland friends over to my house for Ruby and I to play with :D
They are a combination of plush and felting and are all together so sweet. Just look at that little blue bird and tiny hedgehog! oh gosh!
You must really must take a looksie at Kellys' etsy store to see her other gorgeous dolls, art, even brooches and pendants featuring her wonderful characters and critters inspired by woodlands and fairytales.

...Oh and If you would like to indulge in a few more shopping selections you can find a wonderful list of "shopping" bloggers on Charlottes blog Fancy Picnic

New Dolls

 

I've been so busy sewing clothing in past month or so...which means I have not really had time to focus on other styles of work that I love to play with. But yay I got to play with drawing dolls and girls in the past few days.
Here are the first few 'flat dolls' finished that I have mounted onto a canvas.
Having fun with this using up some vintage fabric offcuts; old floral sheets. I like the way the flowers of the fabrics randomly fall over their face, creating sometimes interesting results.

Our House

 

This is looking from the dining/work table to the kitchen and (bottom photo)the main living area of our home...
I love the old house we live in altough some areas can really do with a little revamping! My partner Gary and I have happily spent many hours dreaming up ways to gently transform our old home which has seen a few very questionable revamps and extensions over the years by previous owners, some necessary due to cyclone damage. It really is a crazy patchwork of eras and building ideas. We considered restoring it to it's original state but decided that it would seem more true to the spirit of the Queenslander and be a little more flexible in adapting the house to how we live while still acknowledging its history.

Being the style of Queenslander that it is; a workers cottage designed for the hot tropics, having a large central room surrounded on all sides by open or semi open verandah which would have originally been covered in wooden louvres. There are no designated functions of 'rooms'. The balcony area would have most likely functioned as sleepouts or sleeping areas and living areas. There was no designated kitchen area, although it would have been in one of the corners of the verandah. The bathroom and toilet would have been in a seperate building or "outhouse".

Aside from the floor and the frame, only a few original features are still intact, like old verandah rails hiding behind fibro cladding and wooden louvres that are locked in place from years of painting. While wanting to retain those few features that do remain we have otherwise come to veiw the house as basically a frame with floorboards and a roof within and around which we can design and build away to our wishes, while giving a little nod to its history. This provides so many creative options that it makes my head spin!

Luckily we've had time to think and dream about it...not wanting to go into any more debt, finances have limited action. Also we are currently waiting on local government aprovals for our workshops to be built in the backyard. This will free up huge areas of the house; meaning we will have a lot more space to perform renovations; living in one section of the house whilst changes take place in others.

Being in the tropics we choose to live with the house very open and have removed a lot of the newly added (probably 70s)glass louvres and cladding to reveal open spaces that connect to the outdoors; our dining table is outdoors, our kitchen is semi-outdoor style. Thus we sleep under big mossie nets and live with frogs and lizards and birds and the occasional snake inside the house!

We intend to replace the glass louvres and cladding with a mix of materials hopefully mostly second hand. We have for example replaced one area with corrugated iron found at the local tip. I love the look of the old iron and it functions perfectly for certain areas of the house, we will be using it a lot more in future. Gary has created a door out of old packing timber, this is really lovely and I hope to see a lot more like it around the exterior of the house where needed. Other areas we plan to create shutters and various combinations of recycled timbre louvres, slats, fretwork (that i am keen to design and create myself)and screens and lattice, and small amounts of coloured glass. (regular glass windows we will aviod due to cylonic winds at certain times of year)

The approach is very similar to how I aproach my other creative work...using recycle d materials and transforming existing pieces...The result will be very decorative but also functional; fretwork and latticed screens and shutters will allow breeze and light through while providing some protection from wind and rain and possums!. I also hope to keep the designated areas of the house fluid as it would have originally been. Bedrooms being able to move with the seasons; walls which are removable or sliding; corrugated iron shutters which can be completely removed when the weather is perfect or replaced to become solid wall in cyclone season.

I am going to start ocassionally documenting the transformation of our house more in my blog as I see it as a huge creative venture in my life...probably the biggest sculptural project I will ever undertake. (In collaboration with Gary; which is a huge challenge in itself as we often have VERY different ideas about what should happen, although that difference does create a perfect balance most of the time...so the process and result should hopefully be a creative success!!:D)