Small paintings

I found some great wood bases for small paintings the other week and thought I would play with gold foil as a background.

The berries and vine were found clinging to an old crumbling pink wall.

Perfect little painting to sit on a shelf or sideboard.

Red Berries by Julie Smith

Spring has Sprung

Birds nest with fleece

Spring has Sprung in Australia! yay!

I found this little birds nest on the lawn this morning and was so excited because I HELPED BUILD IT! Mind you if the bird in question had asked for a little more input from me, it would have been a little tidier. But still....

I clean and dye Leicester wool locks for other textile artists and had put some of the scraps outside for the birds earlier in the season.

It was quite gratifying to see them come to use. A nice snug and warm spot for a baby bird.

Loom Knit a Beanie for left handed beginners.

After having a mini break from blogging because of a 'little' surgery on my leg, it is time to let you know what's been happening in my creative world.

The title of this blog is a little bit of a fib. I'm not going to teach left handers how to loom knit because. Well, I'm right handed! How this came about is I happen to have an 8 yo granddaughter who has been hassling me to teach her to knit or crochet.

Problem no 1. I am right handed and she is left.
Problem no 2. My knitting skills are pretty hopeless.
Problem no 3. At this point in time she has the attention span of a goldfish and not the best fine motor skills.

Mikala age 4

She's only 4 in the above pic, but still sports the most glorious auburn hair and big cheesy grin!

Back to teaching her some form of fiber craft skill. (Her Mum was never interested in the finer arts of knitting/crochet)

We tried first with finger knitting with one finger. Nah! You should give this a go (as in teach someone), even with finger knitting you have 3 fingers on one hand doing different things. Let alone the other hand winding and pulling the yarn over! Fail! (totally forget trying to using two knitting needles at this point)

We tried crochet - but then you not only have the right hand/left hand issue, you have the controlling the hook, holding tension and both hands are going at the same time. Fail!

What to do? I then remembered my father had purchased a round loom knitting gadget for my mum when she had her first stroke. She had been an amazing knitter before but unfortunately, dementia was accompanying her in her older age and she had short term memory loss. So knitting was out for her and the loom sat in a box.

The loom pictured was found on Ebay, but you can pick them up anywhere like Spotlight in Australia for under $20.00
I knew I had to keep it simple with Mikala at this point, so decided to give loom knitting a go.

I'm not going to attempt to teach you how to loom knit as there is a plethora of great videos and information out there already. I did find this great little utube video created by what looks like a little girl not much older that my baby. Perfect!

So sitting with the smallest round loom and some red yarn in front of my computer, I created this.

Loom knitted newborn baby hat.

Now, not too bad for a rank beginner! Shame about the pom pom though. Its a shocker! :-)

So then I went and found some pink chunky yarn and started another, but this time left handed. Its actually pretty easy as there is not a lot involved and if I start it off and finish it for her then all she has to do for starters in get the hang of weaving in the same direction with the yarn going from inside to out. I'll let you know how she goes.

But in the meantime, I thought I would have a go at an adult size slouchy beanie for myself. I have to admit crocheting is a lot easier on my hands and this is a bit boring to do. But I will chip away at it!

Loom knitting an adult slouch beanie.

A little hint though, It creates a loosish weave, so to make a warmer hat double the yarn or use a chunky yarn. I am using an 8 ply wool blend here. Plus the special hook provided (which I'm sure makes the job easier) was missing, so I improvised with the handle end of a 2.50mm crochet hook.

I'll pop up a pic when I'm finished.

Have you got creative with knitting looms?

CraftBook Challenge - How to Make a Crochet Flower Necklace

Crochet flower necklace

I am almost but not quite embarrassed to say I have a 'little' compulsion. Some may call it an addiction.... CRAFT BOOKS. I must have them! I have been collecting painting books, sewing books, crochet/knitting books, mixed media books in all their various forms for nearly 15 years.
I love to be inspired and will try my hand at most media.

But.....

And even with culling a few boxes in the last shift, I still have piles and shelves of books and magazines that I just cannot (at this moment) bear to give away.

And this doesn't include the shelf loads inside the house!

So...

I had one last box of books in our office waiting to be tidied up and as I was pulling out the mags from this box and finding that they were all 'needed', decided there had to be a reason that each book was purchased in the first place.  Some image or tutorial must have pressed a button? Lots of good ideas, lots of inspiration with no action!

Now was the time!

So folks. With no further ado. I am giving myself a challenge. And I would be more that happy if you would like to join in and have some fun as well!

Each week I am going to pull out a magazine or book from my stash. (From the top of the piles, no cheating) And find something from that book to create. I have stipulated with myself that I will either copy the tutorial (changing it up of course to make it my own) or be inspired by the elements of the tutorial to create something new. Sound good? Fantastic!

First cab off the rank (or pile) was a HANDMADE magazine Vol 34 No.12. There were actually a few tutorials that 'spoke' to me in this mag, but the one that stood out was a Crochet/Bead Wall Canvas by Michelle Torresan. I felt this would be a great craft idea for a little girls room, but not having any little girls available but still fancying some crochet had a little think.

Crochet flower canvas art. Do drop by to Michelle's store on Etsy. She features the most adorable children's toys and decor.

Now I have been wanting a crochet flower necklace for a while. So off I went to the yarn stash and found some navy and white cotton yarn - Portsea Cotton by Moda Vera. Perfect. This would look great with a t-shirt and jeans!

The tutorial has two different size crochet flowers and a butterfly which are easy to do but I settled on the large flower.

Using the Portsea yarn and 4.5mm crochet hook created the flower. The only change I made was after finishing each flower I then added 20 chain and created the beginning centre ring of the flower by sl st into the 5 ch from the end of the 20. Create as many flowers as you like then fasten off at the first flower made.
As my crochet is fairly loose I found the flowers a bit floppy, so using a matching thread I fastened the crochet chain that ran from the middle of each flower at its rear to the top of a petal.

The crochet hook points to the stitch made to hold the single chain in place.

So there you have it. I love my new necklace, and may not have got around to making one if I had not been inspired by the flowers in this tutorial!

So if you feel inspired, then I would love you to create your own flower fun. Take a pic and send me the link so I can pop it up here. 

I have taken photos of the instructions and popped them here.

Crochet butterfly tutorial

Small crochet flower tutorial

Large crochet flower tutorial Part 1

Large crochet flower tutorial part 2

How to make the flower wall canvas 

Crochet flower art

Painterly textiles and yellow tulips

 

Yellow Tulips

Another Mothers Day done and dusted! I had a wonderful if not slightly sad day last Sunday. It was wonderful because I had all of my siblings, my Father, one of my children and her family plus a niece and her children over to celebrate! 19 people! It was bigger then Ben Hur! But everyone brought something to share and the day was sunny, so perfect and I felt very blessed.

But sad because it was also the first Mothers Day that we have shared without my mother. Mum passed on 1 year ago the day after Mothers Day, so it was sad for my Dad. They had 65 years together and he misses her dreadfully. I can only aspire to having a marriage as full of passion and as long lasting love as theirs.

Mum and Dad

The tulips were a gift from my daughter and they are my contribution to Floral Friday and I feel a painting or textile coming on featuring them!

And of course it is Paint Party Friday! I have been a little preoccupied to paint this week, but have been spending the cold evenings in front of the fire with embroidery instead. I consider these little brooches painting with thread! I hope it counts? :-)

Dragonfly brooch

Little Bird embroidered pin

Well that's my lot for the week. I hope you're all well and having lots of fun, cause I am! :-)

Friday Tulips

How's it going folks? Ive been a little 'ho hum' with a nasty cold. Hmmm, it must be nearly Winter!

Actually, I love Winter. I'm a 'green' girl. The pastures fill with grass again with feed for the horses, my garden gets watered more regularly (more weeds to deal with as well of course). But I also have a great excuse to play more in my studio! Plus we have a tin roof and there is nothing better in this world than listening to rain on a tin roof at night time. :-)
Which is your favourite season. Why?

But I digress. Even though I have been feeling pretty yuk, I have managed play with some paint on a little canvas for Paint Party Friday. I am working on a series of flowers at the moment, and had thought that after applying some varnish to make the colours pop it would be finished. But looking at it now, there's a little more work to be done yet. Maybe? Any ideas? (other than sorting out the horizon line)

Pink poppies acrylic painting

Addit - Mothers Day! Happy Mothers Day to you all!

Well, I had another look at my Tulips and decided that after a little advice from the clever Linda, I would add a little birdy and a few golden stenciled blossoms. I am now happy!

And I had some lovely lush yarn that I thought I would crochet up into a nice scarf. 

 And just to finish off for the day, I found this rather showy hibiscus that was almost bigger than the plant itself! Perfect for Floral Friday.

Well, that is definitely my lot for today. Time to go in a say hello to hubby as it must be cup of tea time. 
Tarrah all. :-)

Beaded Shawl Pins

The latest in-store is a pretty blush pink scarf pin. Pink swarovski crystals and matching glass pearls with a lovely little silver rose.

Rose Blush Sweater Pin

Layers apon layers

Have always loved the look of encaustic wax on canvas. The idea of secret layers being built up with only snippets from previous layers peeking through. Some of these art works can look almost ethereal.
I have over the years used similar methods of semi - transparent layers using acrylic paint. Placing washes of paint over dried layers then wiping off to leave just a hint of what came before.

When you let go - Julie Smith (mixed media on canvas)

 But then I came across the book below. ( I receive no income from this link)

Encaustic effect using acrylic

And found wonderful ides for building up layers using acrylic mediums to create a wax like effect. Yay! No fumes!

Well, I had a wonderful old time! Lots and lots of layers - about 8 in all then finished with pencil and Posca pens just for a little depth.

Acrylic mixed media on canvas

And then found a little easel. So cute.

Abstract landscape 1

I'm very pleased with how this turned out and the brain is ticking over with more ideas. So many ideas, so few day light hours!

Fluffy Bits

I played with some fluffy yarn the other day and created a faux cat! Well no, not really but my husband thinks it is and it will probably be the closest I will get to having my own little kitty in the near future. (We live on a bush block with lots and lots of bird life, and cats are too destructive unfortunately).

But I digress. Using a combinations of different yarns, I created an infinity scarf.

Faux fur infinity scarf - silver fox

And my goodness! This yarn is not easy to handle!. It slips and slides around like no ones business! Hubby was no help, so I ended up with a tangled heap on the floor which was painstakingly untangled and wrapped around a plastic bottle.

Fake fur scarf with pin

Using an 8 ply acrylic yarn doubled with the faux fur helped hold it together with a simple half double crochet stitch used to create the scarf.

It is so incredibly soft to the touch and feels gorgeous against your skin!

Faux fur scarf pin

And as I was having so much fun with this yarn, I thought I would make a little crochet art pin to match. Using a combo of the same yarns and adding beads, it adds a little more pink to the mix.

Sea anemone art brooch

It reminds me of a little sea anemone. What do you think?

Autumn is in the air and a few new totes.

Autumn is in the air! Can you feel it?
Well it is here in the southern hemisphere. :-)

Proteas

Here in the southwest corner of Australia (on the coast), we don't get the striking colour changes of the leaves on trees as it reaches a chill rarely and does not snow during Winter. But what I notice is a change in the colour of the light. It starts getting a bluish tinge about. We get a few more showers of rain and the sun's warmth is a little softer.
Yes, soft would be my descriptive word for Autumn. Our summers can be harsh, hot and dry and I welcome this change with open arms! Its much gentler on my garden with new growth apparent and the little birds coming back to visit. I love it. 

Pink renuculi

Today's inspiration for one of my fashion accessories in my store is from my Dad's garden. Last year, when Mum was still with us. We were sitting out in their backyard, having a cup of tea and surveying their late summer garden (yep, this time last year). 
My folks are pretty handy in the garden and their crop of anemones and renuculi were particularly
stunning, so out with camera I went and took a few shots.

Pink and yellow renuculi

These images have sat in a file waiting for inspiration to hit for a while. But then I came across a place that could reproduce my images onto tote bags. I'm not the best at sewing, so thought someone else could do this much better than me!
Well, I wasn't disappointed. After I have played with my images, I sent them off to a company in the States and they then sent me back some of the totes. Well made, lined with strong handles. 

Floral shopping tote

I created one other peony rose tote which turned out very pretty as well. I think my Mum would have loved one of these to cart her knitting around in. :-)

Pink peony rose library bag tote.

For the love of Blue

Blue Hydrangea

I love blue.

My eyes are blue as are my father's and my mother. 

And like my Mum when she was with us, I tend to 

wear blue. A lot. 

It brings out my eyes, so my mother used to tell me. :-)

The blue door

I tend to also keep going back to blue 

when creating my art work and felts.

Particularly wearables. I find that blue scarves do

not last long in the shop, which is lucky.

I like creating in blue!

Blue Silk and Wool Nuno Felt Stole

Anemone Wool Felted Painting

My Mum passed away last year and one of the gifts I inherited from her was a love of flowers. She would grow them, embroider them, paint them on porcelain. I think that after my Dad, flowers were her great passion.

Roses were first on the list, closely followed by Renuculi and Anemones. In all colours! The garden was always full to the brim and Dad made sure that new ones were planted each year to add to the bounty.

Red Anemone

As I was browsing through a few of my photos I came across one image taken from Dads garden and thought this would make a nice wool felt and embroidered painting.
So gathering up my supplies it was time to play.

Wool Felt Floral Painting

Using different micron Merino wool roving which I had dyed myself. Some wool nepps and slivers of art yarn for texture.

Wool Felted Flower

Needle felting followed the wet felting to add a few details and then it was off to the machine for machine embroidery followed by lots of hand embroidery embellishments.

Machine and hand embroidery detail.

I think I may pop this one in a little box frame. :-)

Wet felted and embroidered Anemone by Julie Smith of  Sesenarts and Crafts

My Big News. And other smaller events.

Sesen Textile and Mixed Media Art Studio

Drum roll please.........
I am incorporating a gallery into my studio! Yes! I am so excited!
Having been involved with little co-ops and had scarves and paintings in other peoples exhibitions or galleries for a number of years, there has been this little voice whispering that I could do this in my own space.
So when we were designing our house, I made sure that my studio would be big enough to include a little section for the public to drop in and check out what I make and how I make it!

But of course life gets in the way and the past two years had been taken up with building our new house and making it a home and I had been caught in the rut of producing same ol', same ol' for the on-line stores. Well, it was easy. People like what I created and it helped pay its way. But in the meantime my studio was becoming an embarrassment and I didn't like inviting people in.

So there I was deciding that enough was enough with the mess and disorganization that was my work space. Something had to be done because I had become lost. I felt like I was achieving nothing and going nowhere. ( mid life crisis/ menopausal hissy fit?).

Mixed media cards and canvasses

 
By the end of December a lot of stuff was thrown out and generally made tidy, when a little door in my head opened and said. "Remember Julie? Remember that you wanted  to invite people in? Well now you have the room!"

Hand painted silk scarves

So my little gallery has become a work in process.
And little section it is too! Only 3.3m square (11").
My wonderful hubby (extraordinaire)built a sectional wall for me to hang paintings up and we put together a shelf for bits and bobs.
I have approached a local artists collaborative to be included in their open studio map and approached the council for zoning to be told that  because I only have a little space and will be open by appointment rather than full time no zoning was needed on their part (yeeha!).

Silk and Cotton Nuno Felted Scarves

So now I need to design a sign for the verge and need to create wall art and other yummy things! I'm thinking I'm about 4 weeks away.
So wish me luck on this next stage of my artistic life!