From doodle to design

Recently I was asked where I get all my ideas from.  In all honesty, I don't know, but I suspect everywhere.  Sometimes I will wake up and remember dreaming new ideas, sometimes something will spring into my head when studying something in nature or when I see a combination of colours that really speak to me.  I always wish I had a photographic memory to capture those moments to play back later.  But I don't.

But I do like to doodle.  It was quite recently, when feeling a bit under the weather and not really feeling up to doing much except listen to an audio book (yes, Doctor Who for those who know me well) and doodling, that I came up with a motif, if you will, that I have been using quite a lot in my work lately.  I often draw flowers, and I was trying to come up with a new way of doing them: somewhere between a paisley design and a mandala (both favourite doodle subjects of mine).  This is what I came up with.

Initially I was drawing on scrap paper, but I liked the look of these flowers, so I cut them out, added them to my sketch book and expanded on the design.  As I was doing this, it struck me how fantastic these flowers would look as owl eyes.   And more doodling was done.

 I have always liked adding a lot of detail to things -scales and feathers, and it struck me how fun it would be to create these psychedelic looking owls with their crazy eyes and detail of the feathers.  I had already been working with using fabric to create painted animals, so I went for that, scaling things down a bit.

 I started by painting the owls, but found I couldn't get the same detail in the eyes as I had with my flower doodles.

 So out came the sharpie collection to add detail to the eyes and the rest of the body.

 Every owl is, in a way, a doodle.  I play around with how I do the eyes, the feathers and the expressions.

My first lot were pretty similar, but I find it hard to bog out the same thing over and over again, so with my second batch, I ended up with all kinds of different facial expressions and wing positions; each owl has its own personality.

 It then occurred to me that the same motif could be used as a Christmas decoration- half way between a flower and a snowflake.  So I carved a stamp and my Christmas tags were born.  I love how these look on my tree.

 And from that idea, sprung another - bird ornaments, using a hand carved bird stamp, tweaking the design slightly: Can you see the "flower" on the eye area?

So keep up the doodling- you never know where it might take you.  I am sure that there is something in doing things "mindlessly" that lets us connect to our subconscious.  That super sneaky part of the brain that collects so much information and plots and schemes away ideas behind our backs (so to speak).  Finding a way to connect to that lets all those ideas you didn't even know you had come streaming out.  And doodling is one way to do that.

The art of letter writing

When I was younger I was obsessed with letter writing. I had a number of pen friends from all over the world, and I can still remember the feeling of joy I got when I found a letter from one of them in my letter box. I have a box in storage in Australia with every letter and post card I've ever received. Somehow I can't ever throw them out- they are history.

But in these days of email and skype and, dare I say it, blogging, both writing and receiving letters seems a thing of the past. And I am just as guilty as the next person. So in an effort to revive the art of letter writing, I've put together a little "woodland stationary set" using my stamps.

Each set comes in a folder with a tree on the front, for keeping everything together.
The set includes 5 small gift cards with envelopes, 5 standard cards with envelopes and 10 sheets of A2 sized writing paper.

Small gift cards with stamped envelopes.

Standard cards with stamped envelopes.

I will be selling these sets for $25 in my etsy shop which I hope to update with some other things by Monday morning. These sets will be made to order. If you are interested in buying one, please leave me a comment in this post, so I know how many sets to make. And let's all try to write a letter to someone soon!

makings and doings

I spent much of this week feeling very unwell. Typical! The kids start school and within 3 weeks they bring home the bugs. Feeling much better today. And while I didn't do much all week, I did manage some makings...

Owl bookmarks all wrapped up and ready for the fair next Saturday. This was a stamp that I carved.

Some more stamping- this time onto canvas that I'd painted- and then stitched onto some photo books.
And a little "tote" with some more stamping onto canvas. Ella's really hoping I don't sell this.
I've no idea if I'll sell much or anything, but I wanted to have a variety of things. I don't want to become known around town as just being able to spin and to knit.

And here's some photos for the family. Kit and Ella had another martial arts demonstration today...






They've been learning some Bo Staff...

trees

This is one of my tree prints that I framed (I think it cost me $13 with the mat and frame- better than the $90 the other cost). I am going to put some of these prints in my etsy store at some point- I'm trying to work out the best way to photograph them. Scanning them makes them look too flat.

And this little tree made it on to a brooch. I've done a couple of other ones as necklaces and a smaller brooch, but I was having trouble getting the photographs right- the sun was too glaring, so I'll have to do these another day.

And here's all my brooches so far. There was a store closing, so I was able to get some cheap things to display my jewellery.

Oscar is having his 16th birthday party tomorrow (and yes, after days of gorgeous-'though hot- weather, it's forecast to thunderstorm all day tomorrow). Been trying to get things ready for that. He hasn't had a birthday party in nearly 5 years, so I'm glad he agreed to one this year. It's a tricky time of year to organise anything.

framed

I picked up my artwork that I was having framed today. I think I'll enter these two in the art show. I love how the squirrel turned out.

This is my tree stamp that I carved with 3 different leaf stamps I carved on scraps of the rubber and did all over. I had got it framed with the same frame as above, but it just didn't work. So I painted over the pine like wood with a dark paint, and I like it much more now.

I'm trying to convince Oscar to put something in too. Stay tuned...

Oh and it would be remiss of me not to mention that Oscar's rugby team won the B division STATE final on Saturday- a huge upset seeing as the club is only 3 years old and not even an official sport of the high school. That brings to a close a very successful season- they even beat Xavier's ( a private Manhattan school) B team this year, and Xavier won the NATIONAL championships. Of course the boys (including Matt who is one of the coaches) were very pleased with themselves.

My obsessions

I'm really loving this tree stamp- and thanks so much to those of you who have passed on your admiration of it as well. I have posted about the wonderful Staedtler carving blocks before. They are just like giant erasers and so easy to carve. LOVE them. The best tutorial for them is here.

I went and bought some more stamp pads. I use the color block ones- they're really the best and have gorgeous colours. I stamped up a whole forest of trees and I think they look great. I'd love to do a huge "canvas" just covered in trees like this.

I'm planning to get organised and put some of these in my etsy shop - probably next week.

My other obsession is Dr. Who. We are still catching up on the old series- the David (BLOODY GORGEOUS) Tennant series. As some one who grew up with Dr. Who, I am so pleased to have the doctor back in my life. The new series are so fantastic. And best of all is that it is truly a show that the whole family will sit down and watch- and we all LOVE it. The highlight of our day is being able to watch a Dr. Who episode together. I think about it all when I'm at the gym and we even discuss the different doctor dreams we've been having. And yes, I MAY have done a little David Tennant e stalking this week- watching various UK talk show clips on you tube with him on, but I just LOVE him as the doctor. He is the BEST doctor. He gets who and what the doctor is supposed to be because, like me, he grew up watching it. And I love that now MY kids are growing up watching it. You can't say that about many TV shows can you!

I may even have to make a stamp of the tardis- combine my two current obsessions....Ella went to bed the other night and in the morning came down with a drawing she'd done of the TARDIS flying through time and space. The girl is nearly obsessed as me!

frame

A few weeks ago Matt and I had been in the car, dropping him off for work, and we'd had a tiff about something-totally irrelevant, but it really got on my goat. I came home in a bad mood with him and found an email which said:

Can I have a fungi print for my office, pretty please?

So cute, and totally made me get over whatever it was...and how could I say no when he asked so nicely?

So today I got some frames-40% off. I'm quite happy with how they look. Suitable for a lawyer's office, don't you think? He got more than one because I really do love him.

Actually I went to get the frames to find one for this little painting I did this morning. The first of my frog paintings from my photos, and the first painting I've done in over a week.

I've found it hard to get back into my one a day routine-this week I've been tired and running the kids around for various things. But I'm happy with this-it was a struggle to work out how to make him suspended in water-in the photo the water is crystal clear. And the smudgy swirliness was a happy accident. This one I'm going to give to Matt's colleague whose pond the kids swam in.

And while I was buying frames, I found this super cute little iron on transfer book, with heaps of little transfers. From this design team-I love the colours and the funky little creatures. Can't wait to have a play with those...but not today. Today we have a real summer day and we've cracked 30C. Too hot in the attic, although the kids insisted on making cookies.

But a perfect day for wearing my opshop skirt. I love this skirt-it makes me happy, even if it is one size too small.

And since I was already up in the attic sweltering away, I thought I'd make a couple of tiny stamps with my off cuts (I can't help myself)

A squirrel (with enormous feet) and a fishy sharky thing.