Lupins and Murphy

I finally managed to get away for a day trip down to Tekapo this week, to snap some photos while the lupins were still out in force. The weather in the area was typically unpredictable, and changed its mind on several occasions throughout the course of the day, and although Murphy was having a field day (Murphy's Law) I did manage to outsmart him on one occasion, snapping a rainbow mere seconds before it dissipated. Although the overall score for the day was well in his favour, I was still quite happy with these 4 new panos to add to my collection.


Seconds after finding this little tin shed it started to absolutely pour down, reminding me of rule #2 in caring for your digital camera – "do not get wet"


Murphy 0 – Mel 1
(truth be known, Murphy actually had a few on me by this stage..)


One of my favourite spots, atop Mt John in Tekapo

Cherry Blossom

Katherine and Emily have done a great job of promoting my new brooches at Cherry Blossom, which included a feature in their newsletter, my very own section on their website and an absolutely gorgeous display instore!



Any excuse to take a pano..

Paua-rific!

I've been looking forward to popping in to the Paua Shell House for quite some time now, and finally rewarded my patience this week with a little photographic expedition, which was well worth the wait!
The Museum has done a great job reconstructing Fred and Myrtle's house, in particular the lounge, with carpet identical to that which my grandparents had, and little kitschy relics nestled in amongst the hundreds of paua shells. I wasn't entirely sure where to point the camera first, and found myself momentarily stunned with a child like sense of wonder. Love that Kiwiana!







Fred and Myrtle's Paua Shell House is in the Canterbury Museum on Rolleston Ave, and open 9am – 5pm everyday!

My 2cents worth

Each year I like to treat myself to a little something special for Christmas, as you can guarantee that whilst shopping for pressies you'll see something that you fall in love with. For me this year it was this 2cent coin bracelet, made by Christchurch jeweller Andrew Peach. Locally handmade classy kiwiana, it doesn't get any better!

Lake Coleridge

With dropping petrol prices and the increasingly likely chance of fine weather, I'm easily talked into a road trip these days, and Lake Coleridge was the destination this weekend. An enjoyable day out, even though I did end up a tad on the wet side after orienteering in thigh deep water around the shoreline of the lake for a good few kms (high hydro lake levels were to blame for the non-existent beach access), but the planned shots were successfully snapped, and I can now enjoy the scenery once again whilst wearing dry pants!

More new pretty things

These new Japanese photo brooches are off to Cherry Blossom this week. The images are scans of old photographs, which I print onto photographic paper, and sandwich into a little laser cut frame made from recycled wood. I'm hoping for a spare next batch so I can keep one for myself!

Lupins out west

What better thing to do on a balmy Christchurch Sunday afternoon than to head off on a Sunday drive, and after following my nose in a general westerly direction I came across this colourful field full of lupins. I think perhaps another weekend roadie down Lake Tekapo way is in order..

Making pretty things..

It's been a few weeks now since my last post, but I do have an excellent excuse in that I've been busy making pretty things to hopefully bring pleasure to many this festive season. In other words, I've been spending hours sitting on the floor assembling little bits of wood and acrylic, and gluing brooch backs.
I've just filled my first order with new stockist The Vault Design Store, in Chch, Welly and Auckland, and have finished my new range of brooches for Cherry Blossom, which were very well received by the owner Katherine, who isn't putting them out in the shop until she's decided upon and picked out her favourite!



My new Japanese inspired brooch designs (6 in total) available now at Cherry Blossom.. kawaii!



My recommendation to all is to get that Christmas shopping done soon, while the shops are still relatively quiet. Or even better do your shopping online (stopping in first at felt of course) and avoid the chaos all together!
I used to work as a visual merchandiser and have seen first hand what the 'festive' spirit can do to people's demeanor. I think anyone who has spent a Christmas in retail will understand where I'm coming from, and will also be shopping early like me!

Show closes Sunday 19th October

A few pics from my exhibition Unnatural Selection, which closes this Sunday 19th, out in Sumner at the L'Estrange Gallery. A selection of works will remain in the Gallery's permanent L'Estrange collection, alongside works from Tony Cribb, Bryan L'Estrange himself, and a whole heap of other talented local artists.

Craft 2.0 Wellington – Photo Montage!

Despite the early morning on Saturday, I had a great time up in Welly at Craft 2.0, promoting felt. Myself, Lucy, Millie (pink paper pinafore) and Jan (wrycan) headed up from Christchurch to represent. There were some gorgeous creations, and I'm looking forward to heading up for the next one now in March 09 (and wondering how on earth I'm going to fit all my goodies into one suitcase?!..)

Craft 2.0 Wellington – Sat 11th Oct

Early tomorrow morning, in true jet-setting fashion, I'll be heading up to Craft 2.0 in Wellington with Lucy, to help out on the felt stall.. I think several coffees for breakfast should do the trick!

Jan from Wyrcan has kindly let me have a little space on her stall, so the last few days I've been making a display box for my brooches. I bought a gift box from Whittcouls for $8, and after a few hours with a scalpel and some card scraps, had myself a nice compact little display, that should sit well with Jan's gorgeous hand bound Japanese style books.

Check out www.craft2.org for more details

Cherry Blossom collaboration

I'm working on some new Japanese inspired jewellery designs over the weekend, and am looking forward to hunting through the collection of resource books that I've borrowed from the lovely owners of Cherry Blossom in Christchurch, Katherine and Emily, for inspiration. There's some gorgeous old photographs to work with too, and I have a stack of recycled wood off-cuts all ready to go under the laser! Keep an eye out for these in Cherry Blossom and Vault at Christmas.

Unnatural Selections

A few works from Unnatural Selection, on display now out at L'Estrange Gallery in Sumner until October 19th. So for all those who haven't been out yet, there's still time!


Iced Tea, Lindis Pass, Otago


Meat John, Mt John Observatory, Lake Tekapo


Left – Piecology, Tunnel Hill Track, Catlins
Right – Local Customs, Old Customs Building, Kaikoura Peninsula

"..inventive and creative and quirky and beautiful all smished into a seamless photo" – Tony Cribb (one of my favourite local artists)

Press

An art editorial appeared in todays Press for Unnatural Selection.. I quite like this name in print business!

Legerdemain (my new favourite word) noun

1 stage magicians practicing legerdemain sleight of hand, conjuring, magic, wizardry; formal prestidigitation; rare thaumaturgy.

2 a piece of management legerdemain trickery, cunning, artfulness, craftiness, chicanery, skulduggery, deceit, deception, artifice.

On Some Other Country

I've been patiently waiting for this to arrive in the post for a few months now, and the day of Exhibition opening it finally turned up.. hooray! I'm now looking forward to some time to sit down and read it..

Unnatural Selection

The countdown is on.. Unnatural Selection opens Tuesday 16th September at the L'Estrange Gallery, Sumner, Christchurch and runs through until Sunday 12th October. Guess I'd better get those last couple of works done!..

Planet Jim

Men are traditionally hard to buy for, and as another Fathers Day rolled around I racked my brain on what to get Dad.. the good old bottle o' rum is never an unwelcomed gift, but I can't help but try to out do myself each year with something original that will appeal to his sense of humour. I had the fortune to be shown yet another neat little Photoshop trick but days before, and as I was finally enjoying some weekend procrasinatory computing, a smaller metaphorical version of the big bang theory occured in my head, and I transformed a sunset at Haast into Dad's very own little planet.

felt like.. an exhibition

The felt exhibition like something different is on at the mo featuring five creative Cantabrians, one of whom is me, along with fellow crafters Pink Paper Pinafore, Walter Lodgeman, Papillion and Naomi Smith. Our posters even made it on to bus shelters around Christchurch thanks to Our City, along with the little pink guy from Craft 2.0.

Crafty goodness..

The inaugral Christchurch Craft 2.0 on Sat 23rd August went down a treat, with people queing out the door and down Worcester Blvd at 11am for their free goody bags! It was an impressive turn out with around 3000 visitors passing through over the 4 hours, and there were some gorgeous crafts on display.. my only regret was not having enough time to spend some of my hard earned cash!

Home Aside

Works from Home Aside Exhibition, held at the Quentin Frost Gallery November 07.







My favourite from the show, Matrimonial Dispute, made an appearance in the Art Beat section of the Press. The show also coincided with Art Trek.

Wild Things

Images from Where The Wild Things Are exhibition at Photo Access 2007. A series of photographic collages I created based on the childrens book by Maurice Sendak.