Another Stamp to Carve.

Moving right along to the next project, a new stamp to carve. This native Fringed Lily is so pretty and the buds are such an elegant shape that making the stamps will be a lot of fun. The plant itself doesn't have much in the way of leaves, just long strappy ones, but those buds make up for the lack of leaves.

Back to the Textile Art Work.

With an exhibition looming, it's time to get back to the artwork. This piece was started some time ago but has been set aside for a while for various reasons. With the first stage completed, that is the stamp of the flower head made, and the rest of the design worked out in Photoshop from my own pressed grasses and leaves, it was time to get out the sewing machine.  I printed the design onto fabric that had been treated to make it waterproof so that I could paint onto it without blurring, but the first step was to stitch around the major features, before starting to paint. Unfortunately I think that the leaves at the top left are too dark..................but I'll wait and see.

New Holland Honeyeaters.

These pretty little birds rule the garden, chivvying birds many times their size, always darting around, they seem to be such cheerful little things.

Owlet Night-jar.

It took us a while to identify this little fellow as he was quite some distance away and was just peeking out of the nest box. At first we thought it was a mammal, but nothing we knew looked quite like that and it wasn't until we could see his little feet gripping the edge of the box that we knew it was a bird, almost certainly an owl by the side to side sway that he did occasionally. A new bird to add to our list.

Prince Parrot?

Here is an adolescent male King Parrot just starting to get his adult plumage.  He looks a bit moth eaten around the head but before long he will be as gorgeous as his father.

Mechanical Monster?

Actually this isn't mechanical at all, just a wonderful scorpion sculpture created out of waste metal pieces. can you identify the horse shoe and other bits?

Mixed Bathing!

There are at least 2 different species of birds here enjoying a cooling bath. Centre front is the Eastern Spinebill, with Wrens and possibly a Thornbill in the background.

Queen Parrot?

This is the female King Parrot, just as beautiful in her own understated way. They really are stunning birds.

A Beautiful King Parrot in the Garden.

Whilst Parrots usually feed on seeds of indigenous plants, this male King Parrot and his harem of 4 females, were having a great feast of the seeds of a European tree, probably a Sycamore. They were very cleverly nipping off each winged seed and in one deft movement eating the seed and discarding the unwanted wings.

A Bee's Bum.

The 4 Spot Cup Moth Caterpillar.

This rather spectacular caterpillar has fine stinging hairs on it's body; we used to call them Spitfires when we were children. While photographing this one I inadvertently brushed my inner arm against another one that I hadn't seen.  It certainly stung me, bringing up a red welt that took some hour or so to disappear.

Alien World 2

                                       Not sure about this image, the lightning is out of scale I think.

Alien World?

This is actually a slice of polished stone, not sure what kind of stone, maybe quartz. I popped it on the scanner bed and put the resulting scan on a black background and to my mind it looks very like a moon or something similar. I think it's an image that is worth playing around with anyway. Watch this space!

Birthday Treat.

No party with balloons and games for this young man, a day at the Wildlife sanctuary and a play in the creek is much more to his liking. He did however get to pat a platypus as a very special treat, the grown-ups enjoyed the encounter just as much I think.

More Photoshop brushes.

                                 I couldn't resist making another one, it's very addictive actually.

Photoshop Brushes Play.

This looks like a bit of a mess really, but I was surprised at how complex an image can be made into a Brush in Photoshop CS4. This was originally just part of a large and complicated wooden print block that I isolated and made into a brush and printed it randomly in different colours. Lots more fun to be had here I think!

Happy 4th Birthday!

A turtle cake was requested by the birthday boy, so Mum & Dad made one, plus all the little cup cake baby turtles for the kindergarten friends.

Nothing like a Good Massage.

Gathering More Stuff.

We are fortunate to have two recycle outlets in the area. They stock factory offcuts and all sorts of goodies for art and craft work. I wanted some pieces of Perspex for mounting my hand carved stamps on and I also wanted to get some interesting foam shapes for stamps or stencils as well. A large plastic garbage bag full costs $25, but I made the mistake of carting it around the  factory with me instead of loading it into a trolley and wheeling it around. By picking it up and dragging it around, all the pointy things like the corners of mount-board offcuts tore the plastic and I couldn't fit as much in. Still I did get a fair bit of 'stuff' including the Perspex, some very long heavy duty zippers, foam sheets with different sized holes punched in them (stencils) the mount-board and a huge quantity of coloured paper, balloons, sticky labels and goodies for the junior craft box. I spent a fun hour collecting up the bag full.

Seed Pods 2.

And that's all folks!

Seed Pods.

For many years now I have collected seed pods from around the country, adding them to an old wooden bowl full as the years past.  Noticing today that there were several falling apart and that the whole lot needed dusting I collected them into similar looking groups and photographed them. More to follow tomorrow.

News from the Past.

The coronation featured in this old copy of the Illustrated London News is that of King George V in 1911,  and the Royal Jubilee being celebrated is his 25th. The Star newspaper is dated 1935.

Still Clearing out the Old House.

                                                 I haven't seen any of these for a very long time.

 A lunch party for 7 today to welcome home one of the group who has been visiting India on a textile tour.

We had so much fun as she showed us all the goodies that she bought, mostly textile, but not all.

Old Leather Working Tool

I recently came across this tool and had absolutely no idea what its purpose was.  No-one else that I asked seemed to know either. After contacting our wonderful Melbourne Museum we were delighted to find out the identity of the tool. To quote the museum... It is a ‘glazing iron’ used in leatherworking and is described as follows:

These apparatuses were used hot after applying wax, inks, special polishes or heel balls to give the leather surface lustre, particularly within the soles and heels. This particular tool bears the tool manufacturers trade mark "ALS / Barnsley/ Sheffield / England". George Barnsley and Sons produced shoemakers' tools in Sheffield, England (1835-1990)