art and the heart

at the beginning of january i spent 3 days in melbourne at a photography workshop called ‘art and the heart’.  it was run by the lovely samm blake (for whom i second shoot) and an awesome guy called dan o day and was held at the dear patti smith gallery in fitzroy.

it was a wonderful three days.  i met a whole lot of awesome and super talented people and we shared stories over coffee and yummy lunches and drinks on the patti smith balcony. 

i learnt so, so much, and samm and dan were awfully generous in sharing what they know and have learnt. 

art and the heart was a stepping stone towards becoming the photographer i’d like to be.  i’m not a full time photographer, but i hope one day i will be, and i’m excited about what that might mean.

here are some of the things i learnt at art and the heart:

* spend time doing personal projects. shooting personal work will help you find your creative voice in your actual work.

* you can’t be creative if you don’t exercise your creativity

* set a goal and keep it

* look at alternative inspiration like childhood books, films and galleries

* malcolm gladwell “it takes 10 000 hours to become what you want to be”

i think one of the biggest things i learnt from the workshop is that it takes hard work to get where you want to be.  everyone i met, and samm and dan in particular, have worked extremely hard, always persist in achieving their goals and continue to set new challenges for themselves.

thanks so much for an awesome three days, everyone, i’ll never forget it.

 

miss adorable frock

just another one of my sewing adventures :)

miss sew and sew

i made a dress!  after weeks of deliberation, i finally bought myself a japanese dress book.  the dress turned out better than i expected, what with my limited sewing ability.  that, and the fact that all the instructions are written in japanese :)  with a little lots of help from my mum (she has extraordinary japanese diagram translating skills) i actually managed to turn a piece of material into something wearable.   i’m looking forward to making my next dress..or top..or jacket…..

 

 

at the market

a BIG thank you to everyone who popped by my photography stall at the southern river markets! it was a wonderful day, with so much produce and crafts from some very talented people! i appreciated all your friendly hello's and purchases - each sale went towards raising money for amos aid! i encourage you to check out the wonderful work that they do.

dylan is one

hello! i'm so busy, i have not posted for a little while. i also have not been on any adventures lately, so picture taking has not happened. however, painting has! i made this for my cute lil nephew dylan - he turned one yesterday :)

to do

this past week i have been a busy little squirrel! i found this gorgeous little site that showed me how to make a little to-do note folder. it was lots of fun to make and i love how it fits neatly into the back of my 'everything-and-anything' notebook. best thing of all, when you cut out the template you can decorate it any way you wish. i've covered it in brown paper and stamped a torn piece of white cardstock with this stamp. real cute :)

buttons!

after two weeks of studying and exams its nice to sit back and do something creative! on saturday afternoon i set up a table outside in the sunshine and made a few cards. (someone might be getting one of these in a few days time hehe).



the first card i made i used some material that i found at an op shop a little while ago - if you like using material for cards, second hand shops are gold mines for cheap fabric that is "vintage" or has cool patterns. i think this particular piece was an old sheet or a pillow case. it was probably about 50 cents! i also dug out my tube of buttons that i got for $1, also from the op shop - i found three buttons that matched the material perfectly! i stamped up a piece of card and wrapped some twine around it, putting little knots every now and then. usually i would sew the buttons onto the fabric but i couldn't be bothered this time so i just stuck them with double sided tape - hopefully they stay on!



for the second card i needed a little more inspiration. i had to look no further than the scarf that i was wearing around my neck! i tipped out all of my buttons on the table (half of them fell through the cracks and on the pavement..silly me) and tried to match the buttons to the colours on the scarf. i wrapped some twine around the card, in a similar way to the first card, and attached the buttons randomly along the twine. i love the way this card complements the colours on the scarf!



hope you have enjoyed my creative efforts! amazing what a little bit of twine, a few stamps and some material and buttons can achieve!