DECISION/INDECISION MONTH 18'S THEME

Hello everyone, 

I hope you are enjoying yourself what ever you may be doing over this Easter season.  Is the sun shining where you are?

Well, it took a bit of a while to decide, but this month's theme has been decided as 'Decision/Indecision' - quite apt don't you think!?  As a person who finds decision making difficult most of the time - this month might be a bit tricky!!!

The due date for submissions is the 17th of May.  Happy deciding!

x

Oh and I picked 'Yes Man' as the visuals for this post.  It is a story of a man who just says 'yes' to everything....not really a decision making process but a possible solution to someone who finds it hard to make up their mind?

GARDEN DRESS BY GILLIAN NIX

Hello everyone, here is my submission for 'Garden'.  It is a little lino print titled 'Garden Dress'.  I just finished it yesterday after a little day using the press at school.  I was led by the idea that our bodies are like gardens and can grow and mend in such an amazing way.  And particularly female bodies - as we can grow babies! When I was researching  found an image of Adele in an amazing red Valentino dress which led me to making the initial ink drawing which I've included a photo of below.

Hope you like it!

Gillian x

GARDEN: MONTH 17

Hello everyone and I hope you are all well and good.  'Garden' is the theme for Month 17...chosen by myself ( I hope that's okay !).  

Around Christmas time last year I heard about a present buying scheme in a friend's family: 'Make, Bake or Grow', as a kind of Kris Kringle type affair.  I love the idea that a present has to be considered carefully, time given to it and not necessarily expensive.  I was thinking of having 'Make, Bake or Grow' as the theme for Art Club this month, but like my friend, Belinda pointed out, that's kind of what Art Club is about anyway as you can make, bake or grow whatever you like!  That lead me to think about 'Garden'.  In addition to this thought, yesterday I reheard a lovely song by Laura Mvula called 'Green Garden', which I just love.  Something magical about gardens is captured in this song, and it really caught my imagination.  So there you have it folks, Garden......grow, draw, paint, sing, plant, water, mend, sculpt, photograph, write.....have fun!

Submissions due by the 6th of April.

Gillian x

CROCHET REPETITION BY KAREN NIX

Hello lovlies, 

Karen Nix is going to become a grandmother very soon!  She has been a very busy lady of late, making a heap of crochet hexagons.  

Thanks Karen! x

Hi, just sending in my very late submission for 'repetition'.

The wait is nearly over! It won't be long now before I become a grandmother for the first time!I'm so looking forward to experiencing all those maternal emotions again - but differently this time of course.

So after repeating the same stitches many times over, there are now enough pieces to join together to make a colourful blanket for the little one. Yay!

108 hexagons in all and only a few that are identical - that's going to be a lot of sewing up! Luckily the cooler weather is still a little way off.

REPETITION BY ISSY ODDIE

G'day folks!  Here is the lovely, Issy Oddie's Repetition submission....all the way from Vietnam!  For those of you who don't know Issy, she relocated to live in Ho Chi Minh City last year.  Her submission is a beautiful slice of her daily life.  Thanks Issy!  (Come home soon!)

x

From Issy.....

speel:

last minute whip up!

had dreams of a repeat pattern made up from elements of vietnamese daily life..... perhaps an etching or even just a sketch.... but ran out of time!

so here's a little collage of iphone shots from the daily life i've been living in Vietnam for the last year.... no day is ever the same! just a constant barrage of beautiful, smelly, rough, old, fresh, loud, dirty, crazy, funny moments.

going across from top left to right.....

fresh fish_HoTram beach 

bananas (chuoi)_Tan Dinh market HCMC 

fence_Go Vap HCMC

crazy building_road to PP HCMC

pottery baskets_Hanoi 

pottery moulds_Hanoi

sand bags_D2 HCMC

Tet flowers + flags_D2 HCMC

sea snails_HoTram beach

limes (chanh)_Hanoi

fake flower vendor_Tan Binh HCMC

packaged goods_road stop Mekong Delta

silk loom_Hanoi

shoe moulds_shoe factory HCMC outskirts

fruit shop_Binh Than HCMC

coconuts (dua)_DaLat 

chillies_outside my place in Tan Dinh HCMC

pagoda flags and umbrella_Binh Than HCMC

ceremonial hangings_Hanoi

Tet melons_Ben Thanh market

REPETITION/ BEARDIE MEN IN WOOLY JUMPERS BY GILLIAN NIX

Hi everyone,

 

I finally got around to finishing up this month's (cough, last month's) art work for 'Repetition'. 

 

I was back in Scotland in July last year and came across a curious little book all about traditional knitting patterns, see here.  In the book were some pretty groovy looking guys that were modelling the jumpers. I loved their cool haircuts and the facial hair combos, as well as the beautiful patterns of the jumpers.  I took some photos of the book during my visit for use at a later date, and ta-dah, I found a use. 

 

Repetition can describe the repetition of the patterns on the jumpers, or the very repetitive act of lino carving and printing.  I hope you like it!

 

Printing...

 

Lino detail...

 

I made a few drawings using black ink....

The original ink drawing of the one I took into lino...

 

Original source photographs from the book (with Gracie hovering around)...

FABRIC BADGES BY BELINDA ASHE, REPETITION

Happy New Year all!  

Our first post for 2014 comes from the lovely Belinda Ashe for our theme of 'Repetition'.  Thanks Belinda, thanks Belinda, thanks Belinda!  (get it?!) 

Story:This year David and I decided to give homemade gifts to our family and friends. Here is a collection of vintage fabric badges made from the fabric that used to cover the 1970's library folders of the Australian Boys Choir. These badges were given to the music staff and parent volunteers of the Choir as a thank you for all of their hard work during the year.