paper boats and girls who made this....

introducing

FORGET ME NOT

a range of poetry jewellery
a collaboration between
kylie johnson - paper boat press
&
jane peacock - girls made this

this range is going to be launched at
life in style
a gift trade show in melbourne this coming weekend
so hopefully they will be for sale soon in a store near you

they will also be available in a couple of months
in both jane and my online stores . . .
(will let you know when they are in)

this collection has been a long time coming (long long time)
but we are finally ready to show you all . . .

and a big thanks to the fabulous madeleine brown
who helped us with her stamping genius in
getting our samples (some shown above) ready for the fair . . .

we hope you like the fruits of our labour . . .
it's been a labour of love !

kate's online store opens !

good morning, i'm just popping by quickly to give some

shameless promotion to one of my nearest and dearest
with the opening of her
ONLINE STORE
yes, the fabulous ms knapp has her gorgeous and inspiring
prints, cards, and the like, for sale now in her
newly revamped website

it's well worth a visit and bookmarking
for present and spoiling yourself ideas

above are a couple of my favourite of her cards . . .

(the one on the right she swears she was thinking of me
when painting it . . .
lying back on my (yes i have a red) couch, surrounded by
paintings, the telephone, glasses of wine, books,
lamps and cushions every-which-way.)

have a lovely weekend,
i'll be back again soon with an exciting reveal of
a jewellery collaboration i've been working on
for a long long time with a beautiful and inspired friend of mine

so . . .

it's been a long few weeks for me
and i haven't been here (or in my studio) much,
turns out i have pneumonia
which is frustrating and painful and all that . . .
but there's a lot of people not well at the moment and my thoughts
are with them

i feel so overwhelmed with love and support
from my family and friends.
they have been supporting me with meals
and company and love.

one of my dearest friends jane turned up today with
these packages of home made soup. . . so thoughtfully packed too. . .
and she's not the only one . . . you beautiful people know who you are
thank you . . .
taking that photo and sitting at the computer now
has taken it out of me and it's back to resting

i'll be back here soon
with a winter sale in my online store and some new products
for it as well . . . all in good time.

how i wish . . .

how i wish i was in sydney now for the
australian ceramics triennale
but it just wasn't possible for me this year. . .
luckily there's been lots of updates and info on websites
and blogs all over the place including this one . . .

above photo is work from a solo show my friend kenji's has on
if you are down that way - (info on his blog)
kenji's work is always awe inspiring !

form

a little stack of poem-pots
heading off to FORM in western australia
later this week . . .

there are some pots coming to the online store
very soon i promise !

a corner of my home

a corner of my home
where some things i treasure reside . . .
a musical dancing couple inside a dome from an old whiskey bottle
inherited from my grandmother
&
ceramics and paintings
that tell the stories of my travels,
and friends, and loves . . .

the music dome plays - ' fascination '
( from the 1950's film love in the afternoon )

bush life

as i've said many times before i come from a wonderful and artistic
family, a family that has always encouraged my creative spirit

above is one of my most treasured things . . .
a small vase made by my mum in the early 70's
it is the perfect size for violets, and the perfect colour match too.

on showing my mum the post i did about
the cushion covers she once made, she told me
she made them, somehow unknowingly at the time,
as a homage to her heritage
and then she read me a passage from a book called Belle of the Barcoo
( by Jan LeStrange )
a book about the women and families from the barcoo region in
central queensland. . . where generations of our family resided

The harshness of bush life was an incentive for many women to improve the standard of their homes, no matter how humble. The following extract from a manuscript by Mrs Rose Scott Cowen shows how one woman coped with the problem of home improvement.
Mrs Tatten, had her mail exchange hut artistically decorated with drapes, and mantels on the fireplace, tablecovers and cushion covers all done in what was called splash work, which as far as I can remember was of leaves and bush ferns and creeper leaves that she collected in the bush round and about and placed in delightful designs on unbleached calico and then with a nail or tooth brush dipped in ink and rubbed over a comb, splashed or etched out the pattern of the leaves on the material. It was very effective and in such a spotlessly clean room the effect was delightful.
Many of these beauty starved bush women made all sorts of clever decorations for their bare little homes using the seeds of trees or plants stuck to thin strips of cardboard or wood to frame pictures of their families or the coloured illustrations that came with Xmas numbers of the paper.
pages 61-62

this particular passage connected
us all together somehow, the women of the pioneering past,
my mum and her talents, my oma (grandmother),
my artistic pursuits, and those
of the women (and men) around this country and world
that still strive, even in small ways, to make parts of their homes
beautiful no matter how much or little they have . . .

upon having been read this,
it reminded me that a lot us (of course not all) have sooo much at
our disposal in this crazy contemporary world
to make our surroundings beautiful, and indeed have dialogs about
it also, in forums like blogs and magazines
in ways i suspect never imagined by the woman in the passage above
BUT
the intent, the desire to create and decorate is still the same.

it humbles and inspires me too. . . to live more simply and beautifully in my home
i hope you like it - and my rambling makes some sort of sense . . .

( today )

i listen for just one sound among sounds,
among so many clocks just one:
the tired, gentle,
whispering and ancient movement
of a great, pure heart...

- pablo neruda

( photo: out the window facing west, on the way to the willows last month )

scenes from the studio

this past week . . .

sneak peak

every year i create a new christmas bird ornament
and here is a little sneak peak of this years bird
( well, their back wings anyway )

i'll show you the finished product in the next month or so . . .