Christmas home decorations 2010

Well Christmas has snuk up on me again. Things have been kind of crazy so I have focused on one thing at a time and finally almost through the list, just a few Christmas presents to make and plan what to make for Christmas day and I am done, yeeha............ This year we have Kirsty (eldest daughter) and family staying with us over the Christmas period so have made more of an attempt at decorating the house so they feel all the mood in our little home. Following is my Christmas decorating using mostly decorations I have collected over the years, here as well as in Melbourne and mostly Sydney who does do Christmas so well, mmmmh Perth not so good at decorating for the season, seems a bit depressed, and off course there is lots of new building and roads re built so overhead cranes and buildings boarded up don't quite lend themselves to decorations. The Madonna above is my Christmas present from my daughters, she is very old possibly over a hundred years old, from Europe, chipped, faded and the head missing of the child, isn't she wonderful?

I have all these gold, bronze and richer colour decorations that I usually put on the hall stand but this year decided to go with glass and pearl baubles, and put the golds on the Christmas tree and added some mauve and burgundy Victorian glass balls, don't show up very well in this photo, but they do look quite nice.The cut glass tree I bought on sale (as I do most of my decorations) a few years ago on the hall stand. I did buy these two white feather peacocks, marked down to 50% off, this was before Christmas, the shops are not doing well this year, they are feeling the after affects of the financial crisis last year, we are losing some of our more beautiful shops, the cheap and tackie always seem to survive. A trio of angels in the bedroom.

I really love how the light catches the colours on these glass baubles, we have a lot of light in these rooms as I have opted to forgo window covers and it looks out onto lights of greenery in the small garden.I have added lots of chandelier crystals and old rosaries onto this candle chandelier, the light shines through these as well.

Can you see those lovely rose coloured crystal pendants on the silver tree, I got those at the Arizza Antique market in Italy when I went over to do Nina Bagley's art retreat in Cortona, oh it seems so long ago now, but looking at these brings it all back.At the bottom of the mantle piece is an embroidered santa I made, oh it must be about 8 years ago, where did all those years go, my sister Phil and I made santa faces out of polymer clay then dressed them all up, each year I made one with the coat heavily embroidered each year, then we exhibited at the Australian Craft Show held at Fox Studios in Sydney. We couldn't sell them in Perth but Sydney people obviously liked them and didn't mind paying the price as we did well over there and had a lot of fun, we did them for about 5 years.A few of the girls exchanging Christmas gifts last Wednesday, mostly we make gifts to exchange which is really lovely. I did mean to put white candles in the jars on the table but didn't get around to getting them so put some lovely red eucalyptus flowers in, the colour stood out well.

Busy Weekend

This weekend we will be having a stall at Joondalup upmarket, Friday night 6 - 9 pm if you are in the area its on Central Walk, between Reid Prom and Boa's Ave, Joondalup. This is the first time In this locality and we will be seeing new customers. Should be fun, I am sure it will have a nice atmosphere.

Saturday I will be off to exhibit at Ruth Lawford's Open day at her home in Whitfield Road, Toodyay. Saves me reloading the car. I do love to get out to the country and there is a lovely selection of fellow artisans exhibiting so will be lots of fun. The hours are between 10am and 3pm.

Have a great weekend
Jacky

Art of John Davis

The use of sticks, a fabric stuffed and painted in asphalt, stitched, what imagination. John Davis died in the 1990's, what a loss to us.....

I was blown away with the distinctive formalist style of Australian Artist John Davis, his use of organic materials, his sensitivity to elemental forces and his connection to the ecological landscape an artist before his time. enjoy....
This wonderful exhibition was on at the Ian Potter Centre in Federation Square, was so worth the visit. I forgo the Tim Burton exhibition to see this, wonderful.

I am multi tasking at the moment, I am making Teesha Moore style journals, and painting the covers only, leaving the rest for the customer to finish with visual samples on cover. So while waiting for the paint to dry I am doing my blog. smart aye.......

Federation Square - Melbourne

Now I have heard people say that they think that Federation Square ugly, I have to disagree, I found it such an interesting square, more so than a lot of the other squares around, not your usual buildings, straight up and all glass I find so boring lacking any creativity. Federation square was buzzing with people, so much going on. Such interesting art and exhibitions, it was here that the Tim Burton exhibition was drawing big crowds waiting patiently in orderly manner.Places for one to sit and admire the angles of steel structure showing through the glass. interactive hobs with moving art. Across the road the iconic Flinders Street train station, you get off and you are in the shopping precinct. Just look at those beautiful row on bright blue bicycles, you put in your coins and a bike pops out for you to go explore this lovely city. How cool is that?

Melbourne part two

It is taking me such a long time getting my blog up to date, so sorry, but you know, work gets in the way. Following is where I stayed when I went over to the Golden Workshops in Melbourne.

Magnolia Court is where I slept and had breakfast, it was a lovely hotel for the time I spent there, walking distance into Melbourne city, down the street is the MCG where the AFL first of the finals was held on the Saturday after I left.This was the view across the street from Magnolia Court Hotel, very pretty, terrace style housing, probably for the more affluent Melbournians.I had two full days to myself before the workshops started on the Monday, therefore I spent a lot of time walking and taking photo's, which I love to do when I am away.I loved the sound of horses clipclopping around the Melbourne Streets, such a comforting sound. I will share more photo's with you on my stay in Melbourne on my next entries.

Jacky

Golden Teachers Workshop

Well I have finally got to sharing with you my trip to Melbourne and the Golden Teachers Workshop with Patti Brady. It was a wonderful week of art, at the workshop, walking in the lane ways of Melbourne and Fitzroy.

The workshop was held over 4 full days at the beautiful Abbotsford Convent, it was like a little piece of Europe. We where on the ground floor, lovely big room with massive high ceilings.One of the cafe's in the grounds, could have been the old bakery, we had lunch each day, yummy food. Old buildings on the grounds, from another time.

View of front of Abbotsford Convent. The convent 1863 to 1975 is now an Arts and Cultural Precinct, is only 4 km from Melbourne CBD, has 11 historic buildings and covers over 6 hectares. More information on www.abbotsfordconvent.com.au I would recommend a visit if you are in Melbourne, it has a farm as well which I never got to walk around.

Patti Brady our teacher for the four days, we had a trestle each thankfully, as we where slapping paint around everywhere, some of our samples had to be laid out on the back trestles to allow them drying time, the whole four days. David Cole did a great job looking after us all as well as setting up our workshop, plastic sheeting underfoot as well as covering all our trestles. We did heaps of samples and learnt to use all the products to enable us to teach in workshops ourselves. I had learnt quite a lot about Golden Acrylic products but this was from books and Golden's website www.goldenpaints.com which is a very informative website but there is nothing like actually having someone show you and then doing it yourself. The products that just blew me away were the Open paints, bead gel doing the skins to be put through the printer. The airbrush paints where new to us, but unfortunately this is not carried in Australia as yet, but who knows if there is enough demand I am sure it will be.This photo was taken from the back of the class, can you see our sample canvas's at the bottom of the photo, these took ages to dry as we where advised to put them on really thick.Ten Golden Artist Educators with Patti Brady behind the red bag on ground, we are all now certified Golden teaches the first in Australia and from all over Australia, what a privilege. We where wined and dined by Golden, beautiful evening meals at lovely restaurants each night, I don't think we got back to our hotels before 10pm each night and the last night a few of us (the oldest ones I might add, no staying power these young ones) got back about one am. I left feeling so motivated and inspired it was wonderful.

I couldn't resist adding this photo taken at Abbotsford Convent, lambs ears look as if they are coated with sugar. Well this has taken me a few hours so I will do another entry of the rest of my stay in Melbourne.

farewell dear friend

On return from my week in Melbourne, Alex our much loved Airedale had deteriorated and we had to have her put to sleep. I want to share with you some photo's of Alex, she was so much fun, a clown of a dog. Loved all other dogs, never heard her growl at another dog. She especially loved little dogs but i think she terrified them when she charged up to them and then towered above, but she would hanker down to their level to say hello. When we went out anywhere the first thing we would do was to see where Alex was, she slept inside up until about a year ago, was terrified of thunder, in her last couple of years though she went deaf and could no longer hear the thunder. She was friends with everyone, and especially loved Tess (Kirsty's deceased now, border collie), Tess hated all dogs and thought Alex was a particular pain, she would get in Tess's face and when Tess bared her teeth at her she would just swing her back end into her as much as to say come on, get over it princess....She looked such a noble beast just after being bathed and clipped, probably lasted for about a month before she started getting woolly again. This was her come play look. With Joanne, gee this was about 10 years ago, how time flies......And mum's girl, she was my constant companion, just looking at these photo's of her has brought a lump to my throat. Yes she was spoilt, but that is what you have pets for. She would have been 14 next month which is quite old for a big dog, and up until about a year ago she still thought she was a pup and acted like one. She hated being slowed down with her back legs slowly paralysing. Now she's in heaven, and Tess is probably thinking "Oh no, I thought I'd got rid of you" R.I.P Alex we miss you ....

I will get back on my blog in the next few days and share with you my trip to Melbourne and the Golden's Teachers Workshop. I had a ball.....

Golden Acrylic Teachers Workshop

Well I am off to Melbourne, one day sooner than I thought, should check my dates a bit closer hmmm Joanne!!!! Anyway as I have not made any entries lately, thought I'd better not let another week slip by.

I was very lucky to be accepted into the Golden Acrylic Teachers Workshop, starting on Monday and going until late Thursday. Patti Brady is teaching the workshops and it will be four days full on, hope I can keep up. I thought my air flight was for early Sunday morning, but no, its Saturday early morning, will have Saturday and Sunday to get over the midnight horror flight. I had planned on going to the Rose Street Artists Market on Sunday, now I can go Saturday as well or go somewhere else, I also have Friday off my flight being about 11.30pm.

I am excited to learn all the techniques for using the Golden Products and meeting like minded people. When the workshops are completed we will be accredited teachers for Golden and we will be promoted on their websites, so will be all good.

As next weekend is a public holiday here, we are driving down to Collie to spend a couple of days with Kirsty Peter and grandchildren yaaay mmmmh!!!

Will have heaps to put on my blog and I will be setting up a second blog with information and techniques using Golden.

Have a great weekend

Jacky

Great Grandson, he's all boy and building up plenty of immunity