Category Archives: Misc

I knocked off work at 3pm yesterday so I could get my entry form in for the Traralgon Agricultural Show. I’m entering the Homespun section, my Kiri shawl and a skein of wool (yet to be spun).

Then I took myself to the library to look for books on printmaking. They have three books in the lending collection but I had to put an order on them since they are held at the Moe library. And there were two books in the Ex Yallourn section.

Yallourn was a town which was demolished to allow for the expansion of the Yallourn open cut coal mine. A work mate of mine grew up in Yallourn and it sounds like it was a great town with a cinema and a wonderful golf course… I also found out yesterday that I cannot borrow books designated ‘Ex Yallourn’.

But the librarian went out back to get me the two printmaking books from the collection. They were old but extremely absorbing, they have put the books aside for me and I’m going back for another read next week.

So, one of the techniques described was monoprinting…. I’ve done a bit of it with dye on fabric and with acrylic paints on paper, but never to my satisfaction, as it tends to look a lot like finger painting.

We’ll now I’m set, because I read about the technique where you roll out a thin film of ink onto a glass surface, lay the paper on top of the plate. The paper picks up the ink when you press or draw (I used a knitting needle) on the back. You can reuse the same plate to get a negative of previous images then press again to get interesting layered imagery.

The two photos above look slightly different in colour but in real life they are the same. Continue reading →

Yes people, I reckon Nick Cave (and the bad seeds)albums are perfect in every way . If you see it, snap up his double album Abattoir Blues / The Lyre Of Orpheus.

When I was at Uni, Nick Cave seemed to be more loved by persons of gothic persuasion, probably because he had written an album about murder (and did a duet with Kylie Minogue of all people), but that didn’t stop me from being intrigued by his music. Over the years I have come to really love and appreciate his work. I’m not one of those obsessive fans who knows every detail about an artist, but holy crap I love listening to his albums 🙂

I’ve come down with a little sickness, not enough to have time off work, but enought to shit me to tears. Here’s to Friday. Continue reading →

I’m loving this challenge I have set for myself. I couldn’t spend as much time on it as I would have liked tonight. We had our first game of touch footy for the season… first game, first win!!

If you wish to see larger versions of the pictures I’m posting here just click on the pic and another page will open up, with a bigger picture 🙂

I’m starting to get excited about going to Tassie for Chelsea’s wedding, I think it’s gonna be like a slumber party as Kate and I will be bunking at Marge’s place in Kingston.

Chels, Kate, Marge and I were flatmates for a year at university, we lived in a place in Quayle Street on the boundary between Battery Point and Sandy Bay. It was a pretty amazing year looking back on it. It was the year Riscy left Tasmania (I cried a lot), Kate was in love with Tim, but he was American and lived in UTAH (of all places!), Marge and Pax shared a single bed for most of the year LOL, he used to traipse through the lounge room to the bathroom wearing her dressing gown (oh the memories of seeing that whilst eating breakfast!). Chels and her Pizza Hut buddies (groan), Monica dropping in for a goss (she met Matt that year). Wednesday Nights at Club Surreal were brilliant, the discovery of wine… from a bottle (Hanwood Estate Cab Sav), how posh, riding my bike to uni… they were good days (but I’m glad they are over, uni sucked!)

Continue reading →

ClaArProMo No 2 😛

A few years ago Riscy bought me a subscription to National Geographic. It had been my total favourite magazine when I was a teenager, our school had hundreds of old copies and I devoured them all. I wanted to be a photojournalist real bad (for about 6 months), but I couldn’t work out how you become one…. so I decided to become an engineer instead.

We only had the sub for a year, we let it lapse as it was just before the Iraq invasion and I couldn’t stomach even a hint of propaganda. It is a great mag though, and I might resubscribe again at some stage.

I tore one of them up to make the above collage, and a road engineering magazine. Just for good measure LOL

You will note that I have put my a link in my sidebar. If you want to see all my creations this month in one glorious hit; Click on the ClaArProMo over there. Continue reading →