The Exhibition's Open

What a fabulous day we had yesterday despite the wet and gloomy weather. The opening to our exhibition was fabulous. Lots of people, great food and a perfect setting. Cathy, the gallery owner, did us proud. After we set up and left on Friday night, a big thank you to Paul, Jacky's husband, who very patiently hung all of the paintings for us, Cathy did her magic, adding touches here and there to make the whole display meld together beautifully. The atmosphere in the gallery was full of energy, lots of natural light and for a very cold day, to us Aussies anyway, toasty warm from the heating. The exhibition is on for the whole of June which is wonderful. I was thrilled to see two red dots on two of my paintings even before the exhibition was officially open.

The 4G, Jacky, me, Dot, and Patsy

The delightful actress Beverley Dunn officially opening the exhibition.

What a thrill to see two red dots on my paintings.

My paintings, the framed ones are my pastel paintings.

Some of my jewellery, Patsy's fabulous painted tiles, in frames, in the window and Dot's stunning cushions and stitched birds.

Patsy's gorgeous work on the far wall, Jacky's amazing lino prints on the right wall and some more of my jewellery on the glass table.

A view down the gallery.

Dot's amazing framed textiles on the right wall.

Dot in front of her delightful treasures.

Jacky with her gorgeous printed birds

and Patsy with her fabulous textiles and tiles. Patsy also has some wonderful bags and repurposed coats in the exhibition.

The outside of the gallery. They have magnificent gardens but it was too wet to go for a wander.

If you're visiting Warragul in the next month and would like to drop by, the exhibition is at the Lillico Glass Studio Gallery, Lillico Road Warragul.

A special thank you to Cathy, the Gallery owner and her lovely sister. Paul, Jacky's husband for helping us put it all together. Beverley Dunn for opening it for us. Leah for helping out on the Friday and for very generously providing us with a beautiful lunch, the rest of us didn't think about food. Jen for her delicious afternoon tea and Lee for waitressing. Des, Patsy's husband, for being the bar man, my DH for taking all of the photos and a huge thank you to all of the lovely people who ventured out on such a miserable day to make it such a success.

A special big thank you to Patsy, Jacky and Dot, three amazing, inspiring artists.

Exhibition details

I can't believe how quickly our exhibition has crept up on us, it's only a week and a half away. I've been so busy making jewellery. I still have some paintings to finish, nothing like leaving it until the last minute.

I've also been making the exhibition invitation. We'd love to see you there if you can make it.

Here are just some of the things I've been working on.

Drilling and wiring beach glass.

Etching metals with my hand made stamps.

Drilling and soldering china.

Cutting spoon handles, making beads and more yoyos with old tin centres.

My desk top where the jewellery happens, always a mess but I get there in the end.

Caught in action - DH snapped this looking down into part of my studio. He says he refuses to come down unless he's wearing a hard hat.

I also held an Altered Book workshop a couple of weeks ago, I haven't posted on my blog since then, very slack of me. Eight lovely students created some fabulous new books from old ones, with gorgeous pages to sketch, journal, write poetry or just leave as is.

Thanks for visiting, I hope to not take so long for my next post.

I'd better get painting.

The Winner is......

The winner in my give-away is comment number 8 Diane. If you could email me and give me your address, the package will be on it's way to you.

Thanks to everyone who commented and entered. I'll have another give-away later in the year.

Garden

We've been having some glorious autumn weather, the past couple of weeks, although it feels like winter today. I've been working in the vegie patch, reaping and sowing, something I wasn't able to do working full time. It's lovely to sit down to a meal of home grown food.

the lovely sweetly perfumed ginger lily

beautiful pansies

the fading roses

and dahlias

a gorgeous miniature zinnia

I'm also having a give-away to celebrate having 600 followers. Thanks so much to you all. If you would like to enter, just leave a comment and I will draw a winner on Monday the 1st of May.

The give-away consists of

some dyed fabrics

dyed laces

and decorated papers.

Thanks for all of your lovely comments in my previous post.

See you soon.

PS: If you want to see a fabulous journal, check out Sabine's blog, she made this after one of my classes, it's amazing.

workshop and journal

Wow it's been awhile since my last post. I've now completed my latest journal below. I also taught a lovely group of students at the Queen of Arts Retreat last Friday. They made some fabulous decorated papers then turned them into beautiful journals. We had a great day.

my latest journal

the side view

some of the many pages.

Kerry and Denise at the retreat

Shirley, Kerry and Denise

Vivienne

I received these fabulous drawers, from my husband, over the weekend for my birthday. They are for my studio to store my drawing papers and sketch pads etc. Now I've decided I'd like to have them in my sewing and jewellery section too, they glide in and out so effortlessly.

He also bought me some art materials including these fantastic inks made by Schminke, the Rolls Royce of inks. The sapphire blue one at the front was from lovely Jacky who I bumped into at the art store.

Thanks so much for all of your comments in my last post re the Pulse book, it was lovely to meet some new visitors.

I've just realized that I now have 600 followers, thank you everyone. I might have to organise a give away in my next post.