Kokeshi Doll Chandelier

Bigger than than the sum of it's parts? For my daughters bedroom I made this chandelier, combining two of our favourite things - Kokeshi dolls and an old chandelier -a lucky junk shop pick up for $5. The kokechi dolls were a fair bit more expensive than we would have liked but by then we were fixed on the idea and just had to run with it.... 

Tracey Emin Lite.

Tracey Emin was my chosen contemporary artist for Contextual Studies last term. I didn't know a lot about Trace before that choice, only that she'd made some pretty cool quilts which had subverted the idea of traditional quilt making by appliquéing her thoughts and messages onto them in large felt letters. The subversive bit coming from the nature of her thoughts - angry, tormented recollections from her difficult upbringing which included several incidents of sexual abuse by her mum's boyfriend, a stranger and then a rape at age 13 by an older boy from school. Then the promiscuous teenage years ending in her reputation as a the town slut. I love that quilting is such a traditional female past time and that women throughout history have probably stitched away as therapy for whatever was going on in their lives - their anguishes and joys somehow being stitched in as they went. However here Emin actually spells it out in uncomfortable truths that meet the viewing eye. See more of her work here which includes everything from textiles to drawing, installation art and photography.
As for the CRAP quilt up top, part of the requirement for the presentation I gave on Tracey Emin was to produce a small sample of our own inspired by the artists work. I have never quilted or done any patchwork before and had only half a day spare to do this but I was driven on, I have to say, by the fun of the subversive element and the excuse to avoid writing said presentation. Alas I can find no further need for the CRAP quilt but if you think you might have a use for it let me know. More than one will result in a "giveway" style draw. Less than one will have it donated to the school fete later this year where it will be snapped up by a cheeky second grader....

Brooch Swap Completed - "The Daydreamer".

Well here I have it, finally, my finished effort for the brooch swap - "The Daydreamer"-  so called because I still have the Surrealists on my mind from last terms study and thoughts of the unconscious mind! I hope my Swapee likes it! Mailed right on the deadline, started 3 days before that once I had my essay and other work out of the way. It's the first brooch I've ever made and I really, really enjoyed it - I'd like to make more but I think I need that little bit of pressure to  get things done (unfortunately). She's made out of mostly recycled materials too. There's a couple of process shots below....

I'm off now to have a look at everybody else's efforts. I've resisted until now in case I got intimidated and stressed about not having started!!!

Brooch Swap.

Hello. It's been a little while for me since engaged in blog world. Lots of study commitments to get through (made it though - hooray!) and lots of illness (not hooray). Not to worry, have found my way back in today by engaging with this exciting idea I found at flowerpress.blogspot of a brooch swap. I've been thinking of making some brooches once time allows and more lately becoming quite excited by the idea (as you do). Also I've never done a swap before and that's got to be fun so why hold back? Also Susie is allowing lots of time in the deadline which gives me heaps of confidence. Mind you I pretty much just wanna start now. First things first though. Think I might have a little look around  all the sites I follow and see what I've been missing out on. See you there :)

Pepper Stitches Mix Tape Cushion.

Pepper Stitches is the very clever person who did this embroidered cushion of a Mix Tape which I have been meaning to put up here ever since I saw it (ages ago now). I love this so much. Firstly because it is a really good design but also the great nostalgia for mix tapes it brings back. For anyone old enough to remember mix tapes were incredibly laborious and sometimes as you waited with your finger over pause for a song to end you wished there was an easier way of bringing together your choice songs. But as we realise now, that was the whole point - it was a labor of love. For the music or for the person we were making the tape for. That's what made them special and a really great way to say, as Pepper illustrates "I Like You". I guess that has been lost with the ipod - convenient and compact as they are. And the itunes store in their own kind of cleverness makes it hard to deliver your choice of songs to someone else in any kind of comparable way. A bit sad. I definitely miss the slow thoughtful process of the mix tape....

PS This clever design is available free to download from the Pepper Stitches blog along with several other great patterns here.

Giving Thanks, Ex- Voto And Detatchable Frida Kahlo.

I know I complained to anyone who'd listen (Hi Karen!) about having to write an essay AND give a PowerPoint presentation on Frida Kahlo a couple of months ago but the fact is the process was enriching (learning hey, who knew?). I've always been fascinated by Frida Kahlo's circumstances but not so enamoured with her actual work - I just didn't like her style. Researching Frida however and her paintings turned that around somewhat. Now I get it. Still, I wouldn't want to have Frida's My Birth hanging in my living area (Madonna owns the original and decides who'll make it as a friend depending on their reaction) but I do love the kitsch that has grown up around her iconic image and has it's roots in Mexican folk art - the very thing I disliked about her style in the first place. The best part though for me was discovering ex-voto and retablo which were popular in 19th century Mexico and which Frida drew inspiration from. They are small religious paintings on tin which give thanks to a saint for intervening in a tragic event or illness. Sometimes the retablo will depict the tragic event, inscribe a sentence or paragraph abut it and in the corner have the intervening saint. In ex-voto it's just a painting of the saint. Searches on google images or etsy will turn up ex-votos or retablos of Frida Kahlo herself. Like she's the saint now. The saint of suffering or rather triumph of the spirit over suffering I like to think. Which is why when I had lots of tin left over from my chandelier project it seemed obvious that I should make my own Frida ex - voto with a little polymer clay. Then it seemed obvious that with a bit of  blu- tac it could be a detachable element of the chandelier - especially if I wanted to push the chandelier over the line into kitsch! As for Affluenza maybe it's just a reminder to give thanks for what we already have. Hope you are enjoying the festive season! 

Inspired by Scandanavian Design.

Have constructed 1950s kidney shaped coffee table for dolls house out of balsa wood and recycled kabab skewers. (Yes, I know there may be some who think way too much time on her hands, get a job, yet still others may say You Go Girl!!! After all what better way of laying your family's financial future to waste than staying home all day constructing retro miniatures????

making.

A card made to thank my acapuncturist Mei Wu. I like this because I think it actually looks like her. How many people can say they have been honored in a polymer clay collage? Hope she liked it.

Hip embroidery

You know how it is when you're fixated on something and then you see it everywhere - whereas before it would slip below the radar? Like when I was learning to drive I saw cars with L plates everywhere. Or when I was pregnant other pregnant women would turn up every place I went. Well, now that I am into embroidery (another rite of passages) I see it all over the place and suddenly it seems hipper than ever. This for example in the New Frankie just off the press. They're by sublime stitcher Jenny Hart.

DOLL MAKING

These are the dolls I managed to make this weekend from polymer. Harder than I thought. Not the sliding in of pins and creating the connecting 'joints'. More the modelling of the limbs etc. Obviously more practise needed. The prototype however had her first shoot in the 'dolls house'. She has no joints so tends to look uncomfortable, possibly even dead with encroaching rigormortis. Not ideal for your first modelling assignment is it?

PS For more crap craft, seriously amateur photography and art gone horribly wrong return soon.