got vintage paper?

 Vintage paper packs + goodies here

O bla di

O bla da

Life goes on, LA!

Disguised as long haired Beatles lyrics, 

Don and I have created a place to pass on the mountain of art, 

assemblage, steampunk and crafting supplies 

massed over the past ten years.

 

Say hello to Desmond and Molly Jones, coming to tempt you via Etsy.

 Specialties include

Personal Documents from the war

vintage letters and photos

and documents from my own family.

I loved collecting letters and things with handwriting, 

and had a special penchant for medical and pharmaceutical texts. 

Oh the good old days when one could purchase cocaine, 

laudanum and amyl nitrate at the local chemist,

When this copy of the Crimes Act came into my hot little hands

I was glued for days, catching up on how many whippings

you get for stealing a sheep,

and how a chauvinist slip of the tongue enabled a woman 

called Tilly Devine to be Sydney's most notorious brothel owner.

You see, the law stated that it was a crime for a man to run girls,

which left it wide  open for someone like Tilly.

In real life she was was pug ugly and rough as guts, 

and here she is at 25 on her 66th arrest for assault.

read more about her here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An old photo album owned by William King in 1924.

He lived in Goonoo Goonoo,

and took photos of his horse and buggy and

experimented with pinhole camera.

And the old ledger, 

with just enough pen and ink handwriting 

to make it charming, but so useable for journaling.

Oops, this one sold,

but I have another very old leather embossed photo album. 

One has the date on it: 1880.

Is your inner hoarder tempted yet -

or do we have to get out the seven veils?

The Victorian playing cards were discovered in an old box - 

the used patina on them is gorgeous.

Two get popped into every vintage paper pack. I've made three types.

It feels good to be moving them,

sending them off to happy homes to be loved anew.

Eight large boxes of vintage books,

paper and letters get piled into piles, packed into packs.

The back wall of the spare room has reappeared.

You know you want these.

They have a distinctly Australian flavour. See the nude?

It's from a pack of cards designed from the famous 

PinkPussyCat Club in Kings Cross, Sydney.

Paris has it's Moulon Rouge, and we had the Pink Pussycat.

 La la how life goes on.....

Happy ever after in the market place

 

 Desmond and Molly Jones

Maurizio Anzeri

Maurizio Anzeri makes his portraits
by sewing directly into found vintage photographs.

They remind me of the old spirographs we had as kids,
that drew elaborate geometircal circular designs
with a ball point pen - remember those?

Maurizio's technique began as a classic, "what if?"
Out of curiosity he began stitching onto a found vintage photo.
His work centres around stitching and threads in general
and it was a natural progression
to use his collection of vintage photos.

Someone, somewhere had these photos
and they were important - then they end up
in a box at a flea market.
"Photographs from the 40s and 50s
have a totally different quality from photos
we’re used to today. We don’t recognise them
as photographs now,
they really look like watercolours or drawings.

He begins to stitch,
and build up a three dimensional texture,
and Maurizio calls them Photo sculptures.
"I put tracing paper over the photo and draw on the face until it develops.




Sometimes the image comes straight away,
suggested by a detail on a dress or in the background,
but with the majority of them
I spend a lot of time drawing. "

Once the drawing is done,
he pierces the photo with a set of needle-like tools
and takes the paper away.

He seems to be meticulous
about the spacing and that is what gives it the eerie look.

Part of the face peeks out,

like a mask and he only has one rule -

to leave one or both eyes open.

He gets his ideas from many different sources:

theatre, a person on the train, a tribe in Papua New Guinea,

or Versace. It’s never one specific thing.

This is my favourite quote from him:

"It’s all been done before but it’s never been done by you: if
you don’t look into the past there is no chance to go into the future."

His website seems to be under construction,

but he is represented by some cool galleries.

Read his interview here

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The circle of life

Does your life have a soundtrack? 

Right now it's the Lion King's greatest hits.

Standing on a dining room chair brandishing a stack of old journals, I

I belt "The circle of life.."

 After a long romance with vintage fabric, 

 eight large boxes of paper got sad.

Out they came for a new year review.
it was fun to look back.

Clearly I am a fan of the grid, and a landscape format.

These pages were done almost five years ago.

How it would be now?

What would I say?

Back then I had a voice - a journal voice.

Lets get a new journal and find out.

An inch of crust lay over my paints and inks.

Many had dried out and died completely. 

Some stank. 

The collection of art materials was enough
to restore the economy of a small African nation.

I leap into a fresh new journal like an eager lover. 

Full of joyous expectation and beckoning potential.

Except I stank.

Like stale paint, I was crusty.

My journal voice croaked like a toad.

They say it takes 1000 paintings

before you get any good.

Maybe that's a rule of thumb for most things; 

1000 collages, 1000 softies, 1000 cupcakes.

Coming back to journaling
after such a long time feels awkward,
clumsy and uptight.

How did I get this tightly wound?

Where is the sweet journal voice that brings tiny birds
from their trees, and fauns to gambol curiously closer?

Lynn Whipple has the answer.

Her art teacher said  you have to keep going,

and the first few attempts will be crap,

that is part of the process.

In fact she is bravely showing her crap paintings at the moment. 

 As I am a complete coward,

all I'm showing you are old ones. 

I'm vain.

My grandmother was so vain 

she showered and dressed with her back 

to the mirror till the wig was on.
Only then did she turn around.

I need to loosen up.

Shake free of restriction and listen again

to the small voice of intuition to let it run onto the page.

I want to drip paint,
splash ink and cut and tear

my way through all eight boxes
of precious paper waiting to be reborn.

So here's the solution.

Flora Bowleys' e course.

Brave Intuitive You

 Journal just for me.

With no perceived audience and
strangle that little narrator bedfore it strangles me

Flora Bowley's work is colorful, free and gorgeous.

Then maybe the toad may turn into the prince again.

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Hotel for Dogs

 

Not sure how long my fifteen minutes of fame

was on the front page of Etsy -

but it's enough keep the puff my balloon for some time.

With the new year, summer has truly arrived in Sydney. 

That means less time in the stifling hot computer room

and more time in the studio room actually making.

Something about the ending of a year sends you into review.

I dug through the wall of never ending art supplies,

hauled them out, sang happy 10 year old birthday

to some lucky ones, 

stroked a few more fondly

and passed a bucketload on.

The house has become intolerably clean. 

No wading ankle deep in dog hair tumblebunnies,

or discoveries of semi digested dinner in the hallway.

The comforting jingle jingle jingle of dog tags

as the morning scratch and lick begins.

It was all too much.

We are now a hotel for dogs.

 We have become minders for Don't Fret Pet . 
It's a company offering home accommodation 
to dogs whose parents go on holiday. 

It beats a cage in a boarding kennel 
and the prices are competitive.

 Our Inner West kennel has 

• a private door leading to the shady and grassy back play area. No holding it in waiting for the humans to wake up
• Water bubbler for fresh water to attack, (doubles as a water feature for humans.)
• Upstairs bed with toys
• Downstairs bed with other toys
• Front yard bed with view
• Backyard bed that humans call their day bed, but is really a higher up bed.

• Couch privileges even if you are a great Dane and take up half of it.
• Designer grass patch to poop on
• Peep holes in the fence to watch other dogs walk past and bark at them.
• Doggy Day spa around the corner
• Doggy companionship with optional romance package.

So far only three guests,

but the joy is great. 

One guest took up the romance package,

falling in love with studly dog next door. 

They rumbled and played the whole time and 

poor old studly dog howled when she went home.

It's win win here for two lonely dog parents, 

whose house is too big and clean 

but who cant  bear to think of a permanent replacement. 

(As if there could ever be one.)

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Tiny Guardian Winner

Oh Bugger - I cant seem to find a way to post the result

from the totally random, and not pseudo random number finder.

In any case it was number 12.

Random.org say they produce true randomness

using something called "atmospheric noise"

Well there is

plenty of atmospheric noise
in my head without resorting to a generator.

However this seems to be the way it is done.

. 

I enjoyed reading about all the soft and cuddly

and papery friends you had as children, 

and spent the week making making making.
Would you like a tutorial so you can make
all the angels you ever need?
Think I'll do one.

 

Congratulations to Robyn from Fragments Treasures Memory. 

She is an amazing painter, and has her own angel here:

I have to dredge up some Christmas spit from somewhere - 

goodness I really don't feel like it. 

Totally grinching out this year, 

but there is plenty of champagne to be drunk

and prawns to peel.

Wishing you much HO HO HO

for the holi/holy days, and I'll see you on the flip.

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Tiny Guardian giveaway

 

 We all know art heals. We know that first hand. 

But what do art therapists do?

Would you believe one of my little softies

is now assisting Karen Wallace the famous art therapist?

Tiny Blessed may be tiny, but her heart is big.

Her job is helping children sent to foster care

transition into their new surroundings. 

And you know how tough that is. 

You need lots of trusted allies.

That's where Tiny comes in. 

She sits patiently in one of her many offices,

observing a time to be of service.

She watches each child's body language 

for clues as to their state of being. 

She never pushes,

but is glad to offer cuddles when invited.

Sometimes she may even be told secrets

which she never ever tells. She is reliable,

and does not break her word.

This is her "office".

 This is her other office, 

and she even got to see snow!

Karen's beautiful story about her new assistant

is here.

I was touched deeply, as you will be when you read it.

As a child whose innocence was lost early,

I know the value of a safe place.

Had there been people like Karen Wallace when  I was small,

who knows?

My life may have been different.

 Our guardian angels come in all shapes and sizes.

Which leads me to 

the giveaway

    

Time to give back

the bounty.

No need to do anything,

just leave a comment,

I will draw it next week.

 

I am making more

as the world needs

many guradian angels right now.

Did you have a special toy

who was your "therapist" when you were small?

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