Mythical Creatures Class

pegasus by niece-the-elder

I’ve been lesson planning for my next art class, starting next Monday (20^th). My nieces have been a big help these past holidays, as I’ve been trialling the classes on them! 

I’m very excited about this class. The theme is mythical creatures, with a focus on things that fly. That means we’ll be taking a close look at all sorts of wings, as well as using a great deal of imagination (and lots of paint!). I’m also planning some flower and leaf pressing, to make mixed media art works. The plan is that these flower and leaf fairies will be joined by some flower and leaf dragons soon.

flower fairies by myself and the nieces. Niece -the-elder did the top left and two bottom right, niece-the-younger the top middle and bottom left, mine is the top right.

Craft Central Market

I had a fantastic time at the Craft Central market on Saturday. lines out the door, friendly sellers, beautiful stalls, so many talented artists, and the amazing organisation of Libby and Katherine made the day wonderful.  I do hope it runs again, and I’d love to be back.

In related news, chatting with the great customers (and other stall holders) has finally pushed me to join facebook. I even have a Dora Papers page! I look forward to connecting with many of you there. I admit most of my internet time the past few days has been absorbed with my attempts to figure out just how it works.

Quilled Snowflakes

Even though we’re only just into October, I spent last month immersed in Christmas. This Saturday is the Craft Central Artisan Market, to which you should all go, as it’ll a fantastic market and really fun day. Among the other awesome things, it’ll be the debut market for my new snowflake Christmas decorations.

I’ve made snowflakes before; I’ve even blogged about them. These snowflakes, however, are a new and superior kind. They’re a design I actually worked out around Christmas last year, but I only made enough to decorate my parents’ living room. They’ve been hanging up all year, and still look great, so I’ve gone into mass production mode. Almost forty snowflakes later, I still like the design.

Art of Faces Review

These are some acrylic paintings by my Art of Faces Class, which they made after looking at portraits by Freda Kahlo and Rita Angus.

With another term over (at least for me) I wanted to share yet more amazing art the children in my class did this term. We were focusing on portraiture, and I was specifically aiming to introduce them to as many different mediums and art styles as we could fit in - and have a lot of fun. 

Tree-Paper-Tree

There must be, I feel, some awesome philosophical point being demonstrated by this tree. Just think, it started life as a tree, became paper, and is now, once again, a tree – this time with added words. I actually made this last year, to prove a different sort of point. On telling my art class we would be making papier-mâché bowls, I was informed that ‘papier-mâché’s boring’. This tree was my response. I have since had a lot of questions about its construction, so this post endeavours to illustrate just how it was made.

Puzzles Take Two

I said months ago I’d do a post of my larger puzzle magnets – then I realised I’d completely forgotten to photograph then, and many are now out in the world decorating other people’s fridges. I have since made more, and some I’ve even managed to get photos of. All the puzzle pieces are wood, backed with magnet tape and decorated with my marbling and quilling. I cover them in varnish so they're somewhat protected from the hazards of fridge living.

I've made a lot of flower magnets

I think of these as pohutakawa

Cherries are great decoration for a fridge

 My favourite design is the penguins, but even though I’ve made a bunch of them I have hardly any good photos. I’ve yet to hang on to one for more than a week at a time, except this particular one. I suspect he’ll head off to another penguin lovers fridge soon enough, as he’s one of my favourites.

Markets Ahead

Dora Papers has an exciting market schedule set up. Come and say hi next month at the Paekakeriki market, on Saturday the 6^th September. Can’t make it that month? I’ll be in Paekakeriki on the first Saturday in November too. I’m looking forward to being back in the lovely St Peters Village Hall, with such friendly stallholders.

Or perhaps you’d prefer a market closer to Wellington? Can’t get closer than the Craft Central Market, held in the St James on the 4^th of October. It looks like it’ll be a fantastic market, and I’m very excited to take part. It’ll be the first outing for my new snowflakes, as well as having plenty of my earrings, magnets, and other fun and fancy paper products. There will be some great stalls, and workshops for children and adults. I hope to see you all there.