Concertina Child - Covered

A little while ago, 

when I was doing a lot of 

altered book covers, I played around a bit with

metal, nails and text in metal. 

Now, I know metal and paper aren't really good

partners for a long term relationship

as far as archival qualities go,

but sometimes

short term friendships can be

extremely interesting.

I had a hankering to put a metal cover

with a bit of text onto my

concertina child and

this is the initial outcome.

Still thinking.........................

Concertina Child

         

Concentrating on 

repeated images,

slight variations in colour

and 

concertina folds.

Shaping Up

The deck is coming along

with the roof going on in sweltering 45 deg heat through the week.

Just a good paint and a few trims and she should

look like she's always been part of the house.

Now we just need a reliable concreter to move on with the next stage

of building underneath the house.

We thought we had that all sorted, but the world of tradespeople is a fickle place.

Astro Boy

Super cool Astro Boy vinyl figurine

recently received as a gift

from my two lovely daughters.

Makes me happy :)

Stands about 30cm tall.

First Post for 2013 (after a brief blogging hiatus)

Hello dear blogger friends and a Happy New Year to you for 2013.

I am afraid I have been in a bit of a blogging funk of late 

and have not been posting due to frustration with being unable to alter

some very annoying elements of the look of my blog.

Anyone who has visited recently may have been faced with

being unable to read information on my site due to some

awful default colours which I just could not remove/change, no matter how hard I have tried.

I seem to have got MOST of these horrid colours off my blog for now

and hopefully things are a little easier on the eye.

Apologies for the state of things lately.

The installation of our deck is coming along fairly smoothly.

There was a delay with the roof going on, so alas no roof for Xmas.

The old verandah roof is still being held up by temporary posts,

but this old roof will be coming off soon and things will be moving along now that 

the Xmas/New Year holiday period is, alas, over.

Lots of work to be done yet, but we have managed to make

some cosy corners in which to enjoy a good book through the holiday lull

and the house is already much more livable .

Recent Wanderings

Recently visited some beautiful kauri rainforests

in the north of New Zealand's North Island.

Renovation/Extension - Progress

Work is progressing.

 As you can see we still have a long way to go

(including a lot of painting! - 

half old colours/half new at the moment

and the shed needs painting).

The biggest bonus of putting on the deck is

that we get as much space again underneath

to play with.

Slotted Accordian Fold Book

Haven't had much time for bookmaking of late.

Very Sad.

However, 

found a few spare moments to play

around with some items at hand.

Canson card & surplus printed cards from 

my BAO project combined to create 

this slotted, back to back, accordian fold structure.

The impetus for something bigger when

more time is available.

Home Extensions

The backyard is currently in a state of dishevel

due to the beginning of our first stage of extensions/renovations 

- after 8 years of thinking about it!

The first part of our grand plan is

 extending the deck which runs along the back of the house

and repositioning the stairs. 

Being mindful of tragedies that have occurred due to deck

collapses, it's all extremely well engineered and certified.

The middle photo shows where phase 2 of the plan begins -

my studio under the house.  How excited am I!?!??!?!?! 

Pablo (the dog) meanwhile is becoming very practiced in the art of photo-bombing!

Cover to Cover - Bribie Seaside Museum

Herewith my photosynth stitched photo of the

Cover to Cover 

exhibition now on at 

Bribie Island Seaside Museum

Bongaree  Qld 

Along with artists I am yet to meet

I have a few humble works in this group exhibition

alongside some very impressive works from 

bookmaking friends

Helen Malone 

and 

Amanda Watson-Will 

The museum are also running a workshop programme
in conjunction with the exhibition.

There was a great old black and white film
from the 50's running in their little
cinemarette showing the
bookmaking processes of the day.