Amicable Takeover of dh’s unused office Proceeds Apace!

Last year, while he was overseas, I shifted dh’s office at university from a cramped unfriendly space on the fourth to a big warm office on the fifth floor, decluttering madly and making room for him to finish his book.

His “home” office, mostly unvisited during the past year, has been beckoning, suggesting expanded workspace for my ever-widening art interests. At long last dh has capitulated, and even assisted in my amicable takeover of his defunct home office.

Urging me on [f*ck! #)$$%*&^ f*ck!, etc], he helped shift furniture and a heavy, moth-infested carpet, so that now he has computer access at the front of the room, and I have a BIG worktable under the window at the back, with heaps of shelving. Go me!

I have shifted my jewelry-making operations into this new space, leaving the sitting room free for, well, sitting!

I also shifted heaps of stuff out of my current art room so that I actually have elbow room now.

Looking forward to arting in my new space!

New Stencils!

Yesterday the gales died down a bit, and I grabbed the opportunity to test my new stencils :-D

I only got one sheet sprayed before my fingers iced up, but here it is:

This includes three of Gary Reef’s birds, my newspaper dancer, my chrysanthemum, and my plum blossom. I also tested several new doilies.

Before testing my handcut stencils I cast a set of plastic letters and numbers across the sheet and sprayed over them. I shot the resulting white letterforms with my New Colours: orange, turquoise, and purple!

Haven’t decided what to do with this just yet.

Hand Cut Stencils!

Woo-hoo!! I’ve spent two fun afternoons cutting stencils, both with an exacto knife and with a stencil burner. Great Fun!

Here are some of my products:

The birds (thanks to Gary Reef!) and human figures were cut with an Xacto knife:


As was this, cut from a picture in a newspaper article:


This is my most “complex” stencil to date; I used a stencil burner to cut this one:


The Chrysanthemum is one of the emblems of the Japanese royal family; I plan to use this in my “Japan” Altered Book.

Makin’ More Art!

I got tired of making Resolutions and Intentions to Make More Art — so I just started Makin’ More Art!

I’m taking 2 online courses: Stencilry with Mary Ann Moss, [closed]





and AB101 with Elizabeth, [closed]




so have been Playing and Experimenting and Messing About! And I’m having more fun than a pile of kittens with a ball of yarn!

I’m Pushing my Envelope in Myriad Ways — I try not to Think about it so I don’t seize up ;-)

Check out my flickr for more pix.

Crossed Structure Binding by Carmencho Arregui

Recently I attended a Hutt Calligraphers’ workshop on the Crossed Structure Binding by Carmencho Arregui, taught by Teresa Francis. This unusual book is sewn to the back cover; self-straps on each cover cross the spine and are slotted into slits in the other cover. You can choose to expose, or to hide, the straps.



The cool thing about this book is that you can add signatures later!
More pictures can be seen here.

Haven’t posted lately...

but I have been making art! With a little push from Cathy Johnson, I have begun sketching again. These two were done with Rotring pen and WN watercolours in the Hotel Bristol, Cuba Mall, Wellington.

S92A has been scrapped!!

“Prime Minister John Key has announced that the government will throw out the controversial Section 92A of the Copyright Amendment Act and start again. Section 92A has been scrapped.”

This is fantastic news, and it’s great that Prime Minister John Key has taken a stand on this important issue.

Now we need to help make some sensible copyright law that will protect artists as well as all New Zealanders.