Improvements

I was looking through some of my old badges the other day. I have a small box where my badges go to die. Ones that had issues with the thread or they just didn't cut the mustard. When I first started I had not stitched in a while so making the badges was a lot more hit and miss. I found it hard to do the eyes because I couldn't get them to look the same on both sides where as now I can just stitch them up quickly and they match up.


I have been making the ladies for 1.5 years now, which seems like quite a while. The time has gone a lot faster and I don't feel like it has been that long. It is good to look at my current work compared to older stuff and see a real improvement. It is also good that they are no longer hit and miss and have a consistent look to them. Putting the old and new ones together is quite funny because there is such a huge contrast between them, although the two here were the worst of what I was doing back in 2006. I'm surprised I let them out of the house and that I even thought they were okay because now they just look munted, even when they don't have the current ones next to them!

Cutout

I did some sketches last night and decided to play around with them in Photoshop. I don't normally do this because I don't really know what I'm doing, or how to get it to colour in well. The original drawing, which is on the bottom left was done with a 2H pencil so was really faint and I had to play around with the settings just to bring the darkness of the line up a bit. My scanner is probably not the greatest one and I had to rip the drawing out of the large hardcover sketchbook to get a decent scan. I used some brushes with a wet media preset and they were really great to use as the colours looked brighter and also translucent. I then applied a few filters to the images, my favourite being the cutout filter on the top right. You can see more on my Flickr page, as well as larger sizes.

Numb Fingers

So this is what I did while I was down at the farm at Christmas. I was hoping to get a lot done, but in the end didn't think I would. I was quite pleased when I came home with 60 and I just finished putting backs and pins on them ready to go. I'm now updating the Etsy and Madeit shop with new little ladies as they were looking a little bare when orders started coming in quickly and I had to take them down to send out to some shops. There is lots of colours and hairstyles to select from and they now come in the new cards.

Country Christmas

Gareth and I just returned from our Country Christmas. It was a bit of an adventure with the car breaking down in Traralgon on the way there and waiting an hour for Nicholas to come and save us. I got a lot of badges made watching the cricket and I'm hoping to finish off the new batch I just started while watching some Ramsey Christmas Nightmares tonight. Off rating period is always too much fun. The picture above is one of the ones I took today of the farm, you can see little sections of Lake Wellington if you squint.

Along with finding houses and shifting over the next week I am going to be getting ready for the January Rooftop Markets starting next Friday the 4th, so if you're in Melbourne come along and say hello. Last time I got half price drink tokens and I'm happy to give the out.

Hot Stuff

These are some little drawings I did of Gareth while watching the television. He liked the bottom right hand corner which was surprising because I was laughing as I drew it because it was so unflattering.

I've just finished Project Runway Canada and Survivor China tonight. Both ended up really well and I wasn't sure who I wanted to win going into the start of both finale episodes. I love watching the reunion show for Survivor just to see how much everyone changes when they are no longer on a diet of rice and fish and without a bathroom. I have enjoyed watching both of them so I'm sad they are over. Project Runway Canada was really great and I was impressed with it from the very start. But there is still the US one going, so I'm getting my dose of it after a year without.

I went Christmas shopping today in a shopping center in Melbourne. The weather for the last three days has been a little crazy and Gareth and I got stuck in storms twice in his little Mazda 121. The one on Thursday was really strange because we were driving and suddenly we could not see a thing and had to pull over, but the water on the side of the road was getting deeper and deeper. I was worried it would flood and the car would be like the ones on The Age website, in a metre of water, wonder how they got there in the first place and why someone would drive into water that deep. The shopping centre was total madness, I got a car park in a place I didn't know existed and one of the levels on the carpark looked like it was flooding. I was worried when I came back down I wouldn't get out and would be stuck there, but I needed to do shopping so I had no choice. It is all done now, so tomorrow Eliza, Gareth and I head down to the farm where it apparently isn't raining and enjoy the craziness of Christmas.

Art/Shop

These are the new prints I did on Calico bags. I have used screenprinting ink to monoprint the design on. I never tried it before because I assumed the ink would be the wrong consistency. Although it dries out a lot quicker it works. This is the first one I did and I used red screenprinting ink to colour in the jumper then black thread to add more line detail. I made them to use as a bag for grocery shopping and I like the idea of having fine artwork on them. My plan is to do lino cuts, some applique and also normal screenprinting on the designs. I have a one hour bus trip today and I'm going to take my sketchbook and sit and draw.

Badge Pack

I got my postcards today for my new badge packaging. I'm excited about not having to print these myself anymore because sometimes the description were a little too long and would print over the edge. This annoyed me a lot because I don't like to waste things like paper much and sometimes I found 20 or more had one letter missing, so they had to go. They also look a lot better and on the back they have care instructions.

I did a big round trip of Melbourne today going from home in the hills to Dandenong for my tax return, then to Fiztroy for lunch with Peter, then to St. Kilda to the printers, then to Sandringham and Highett for a house inspection, then home to the hills. I don't think I have been to Sandringham before, so I went to check out the beach and decided I wanted to live there. I think finding a house might be quite hard as I am sure everyone wants to live there, as it is so pretty. I took a picture with my camera phone to show Gareth:

Blue City

This little blue pouch above is available on madeit.com.au featuring my city print. I made a new discovery with my screenprinting today, although it is still at the early stages and I will post some images as it develops. It might be something lots of people know, but I have not seen it before, so I'm hoping it all wasn't just a fluke and it actually works.

I was having a quick browse on madeit and there are some wonderful things available, so if your still meant to be doing Christmas shopping I suggest having a look for some last minute items. Hopefully Australia Post gets the stuff moving fast, I know my local Post Office was busy the last two days. I think that is one thing I will miss about living in the hills, the people at my local Post Office are really sweet and lovely.

If you're in Newcastle or Canberra I have sent off some new bags, pouches, wallets and coinpurses to Betty Mim and Hive Gallery. At the moment my Etsy shop has no badges, although there are a few up on madeit. I plan on doing a badge update on Thursday as I'm changing the cards and have thirty new ladies ready to go.

Rooftop Market - Melbourne

Yesterday I had a stall at the Rooftop Market, at Curtin House on Swanston Street. It was a great place for a market as the view over the city was pretty cool and even though I went up the Rialto the other day for the first time I think I preferred the view from Curtin House. I also got to meet Jenna Appleton and Lara Cameron popped by as well. It went a lot quicker than Rose Street because it was only 11- 3.30 so I was home by the time I normally pack up. The wind was a little annoying and I couldn't put my badges out because they would have ended up flying around Melbourne landing in peoples drinks. Below are a few images I took of Melbourne from the rooftop. If you're in Melbourne on a Friday in summer come by and have a look and have a drink and enjoy the view.

Change

On Tuesday I finished work and I am now officially self employed. I'm not sure what I tell people I do now, there are a few options and I'm not sure which is best suited. I was part of a little goodbye video at the school prize giving the other night and I assumed it wouldn't say why I was leaving as not many people knew, but in big letters under my name it said "new business venture". For some reason this didn't sit right with me, mainly because when I see the word Venture I think of the Targetesque store we got our clothes from in the late 80's and I do not remember that place fondly.

My first two days of "work" have been busy getting orders ready for shops as well as preparing for the Rooftop Market tomorrow. I was hoping after Christmas I could relax a little bit, but it turns out we will be shifting a lot sooner than planned. I was hoping to move closer to the city in about six months time, but it is going to happen a lot sooner than expected and so my favourite job of looking for houses, going to inspections, waiting for an answer from the real estate, shifting and cleaning will be taking place in the next month. I'm hoping there is a reason for all of this, because at the moment I am looking at this house thinking, I don't want to leave (yet).

I have a lot of new things that I have made over the last two days. Above is a little pouch with a screenprint of a cityscape. I have not made the move to exposed screenprints yet as I have not had time to fix what was not working so I'm still working with the paper cut outs. I think when I do move over to exposed prints I will miss working on the cut out stencils. There is something about being limited with design that appeals to me and I often draw something with no idea which part will be removed and cut areas of the design away so the finished stencil is quite different to the original drawing. The image of the houses was a lot more detailed, but I only cut out the windows and roof areas, so it looks much different.

Collage Work

These are a series of collages I did for my workmates for Christmas presents. I used things specific to them including an old Melways. I'm nervous giving the artworks to them because I'm not sure if they will like them. Gareth isn't too keen on the white stitching on the white because he thinks it doesn't stand out. I like it because it is subtle and something you don't notice from far away so when you come up it is a nice surprise.

The last two weeks have gone by in such a blur, I seem to have been so busy that I didn't even realise our aerial was broken so we had no television. I have been watching television, but mainly shows from online like Project Runway, Project Runway Canada (new favourite), Survivor and The Amazing Race. Now that I have almost finished school I will have more time to get things done and the list is piling up quickly.

On Thursday night I went to the I Dream A Highway's opening and met the lovely Sophie from Mistress of the Upper Fifth. When I got to the opening I realised I might have to use some dorky intro lines as I didn't know anyone there, but Sophie came up and said hello so I didn't feel like a total loner.

I also attended the Meet Me At Mikes shopping night and had a lovely chat to Martine and Auntie Shabby, Peta Pledger and Lara. I wasn't planning on staying long as I had a big day teaching on Friday but with pizza, superdoopers (Deep Space Lime is my favourite) and great company and things to look at, I ended up leaving at 9.30. There was a door prize and it seemed very strange when we decided to go inside to see if it was going to be drawn and as we walked in the number being called was Martine! I also got some lovely items which I will post about later as they are Christmas Gifts and I don't want to spoil any surprises.

Soggy

I didn't realise how wet it was today until I got off at my station and the underpass was flooded. It wasn't that deep, but deep enough to get inside your shoes, along with grit, yuck and friends of the floating beer bottle. The woman in front of me was wearing sneakers so I felt worse for her as I just had little slip on ballet flat things. On my walk home, which isn't very far, it poured down so hard I was sopping wet when I got inside. That is summer in Melbourne for you.


I popped into Meet Me At Mikes in Fitzroy today, my first time visiting the store. I thought it looked fantastic and all the softies out the front looked great. Coming from someone who still sleeps with their teddy bear, I know a lot of kids out there will be mighty pleased with the new Christmas present they get. I also found out I'm not too late to take the ones the kids made at school in on Thursday.

The weekend stall at Rose Street went well, although Meringue and I were pretty warm inside under the hot tin roof. We had a few double sales where people purchased items from both of us which was great. I stitched up some lady brooches which helped make the time go quickly and as always Jodie and I had a good laugh at various things throughout the day. I'm glad I can say inappropriate things to her and I don't get strange looks.

This week I have plenty to do to get new things ready for the next market and some stockists. I finish work next Tuesday, but before then I have a lot I need to get done. Makes me wish I got started earlier, although I feel like I have been busy for the last few months. Thank god reports are finished.

I have a new stockist on High Street in Northcote called I Dream A Highway. It has it has been open since August and the shop looks really great. I got to see some of Liana Kabels very lovely jewellery and they had brooches made from the people from Guess Who. My sister and I played that game a lot. She can probably still remember the way we both HAD to have the people lined up. She was always blue and I was always red. Come to think of it it might be around the wrong way. Eliza, leave an anonymous comment to correct me.

Okay last thing, for those of you in Australia there is a great show on tonight. 30 Rock, Channel 7, 10.30 pm (and again on Wednesday night). It is written by Tina Fey who I may have a girl crush on, it also has Alex Baldwin in it. I have not seen it for a while as the new season has not started, and I'm crossing my fingers it wont be cancelled as it is one of my favourite shows, right up there with The Office and Arrested Development. Summer television is my favourite time of year.