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.

Don’t Eat the Train!

I’ve been icing again. My nephew’s birthday was last month. He still thinks trains are the best thing ever, and Thomas the Tank Engine is the best of the lot. Wanting to cut down on the piles of icing these cakes use, I thought I’d try a simpler round cake this time, with an inedible cake topper/toy. This led me to bothering all the seriously awesome staff in toy stores around the region.

Paper Art Class

This term I got do a paper art class for a bunch of seriously fantastic children. I’m proud of what they made and very impressed by their creativity and talent, so I’m posting a few pictures. I actually forgot to get photos of their finished products, which were bookmarks and notebooks. They got to take them home the day they made them and I never remember to take photos at a class! 

Here is a look at my living room, covered in some of the 50 sheets of homemade recycled paper they produced.

A collage of their marbling – the textured paper is their own homemade paper.

Next term’s class is portraiture, and I’m already planning some very fun lessons in different art styles. Check out Days Bay Play’s blog for sign up details.

Art that Isn’t Paper

Aquarelles are my favourite sort of coloured pencil

The last couple months I’ve been teaching general art lessons as well as paper art classes. It’s been great fun heading back to ‘traditional’ art. I forget how much I enjoy drawing and painting when mostly I just do thumbnail designs for paper art concepts. 

Chaffinch

I’ve been working on these chirpy Chaffinches for a while now. I started making them thinking they would be cards, but I find they suit framed pictures better. They’re done in a combination of paper cut out and graphic quilling style, with the graphic quilling mainly outlining the cut paper. The papers used are a mixture of my own marbled paper, various scraps I have lying round and papers Miss Millicent Crow was kind enough to send me.

I have a whole stack of the chirpy birds already cut out and waiting for quilling, so I’ll probably have another flock of them flying around soon.

Market Time

After a great Eastbourne Market in Days Bay a last month, I’m very excited to tell you all that I’m off to the market again this weekend. 

This Saturday I’ll be at Paekākāriki’s wonderful market for the first time. It runs from 10-2 in St Peter's Village Hall. I hope to see you there.

Puzzle flowers

 Once upon a time (very recently) this rather nice puzzle was absentmindedly left half done in the sun. The predictable fading left its picture rather unsatisfactory, but the pieces themselves are still well made. I have rolls of magnetic tape stashed away and thought ‘fridge magnets’! 

I always have bits of my marbled paper floating about, and enjoy finding new uses for my quilled daisies. Put all that together, coat in polymer and get a little piece of art to brighten a fridge/magnetised wall. Or anything you use magnets for, I guess. I’ve made quite a few of them.

I've also got my hands on a currently unsatisfactory wooden puzzle, which is turning into some even cooler fridge magnets. They still need finishing, so no photos yet. They will all be viewable (and for sale) at the Eastbourne Market in Days Bay's Williams Park this Sunday. Come along, it should be a great day.