Colour Inspiration

Spring is making it's self known here in the Southern hemisphere, a few teasing beautiful days have been showing their faces in Ballarat and I'm feeling the vibrant vibe popping up in stores this season. 
With neons making a comeback in the most amazing pastel-y kind of way I'm feeling inspired to paint! 
I'm never one to stick like glue to a material as I mentioned in the Pop-up shop interview with me, instead I like to flit from medium to medium, using whatever feels right at the time. It's been several years since I had an extended stint at painting but the mood is upon me now. 
Inspired by a glowing colour palette I'm softening it all down with some soft neural greys and loving it! Inspiring me lately is the colour palette of these beautiful driftwood sticks.

 Sticks by Jessica Turnbow

 From here

                                                             Available here

What's inspiring you this season?

Meet: Aislinnn McKinnis

Aislinn McKinnis is a local artist and neighbour of ours who works in the most incredible coloured embroideries, I First met Aislinn at a 'crafternoon' last year and was mesmerised watching her work.

Determined to give it a go myself, Aislinn gave me some fabric and swatches of yarn and I got cracking! Although it was heaps of fun free-forming the design I found myself struggling to break out of the grid-like structure of the embroidery fabric and turned to Aislinn for some lessons.

On the 8th of June Aislinn is exhibiting with us alongside Pauline O'Shanessy-Dowling in a show called 'Fandango'. Both of these artists work in vibrant colours and free-form designs, yesterday I watched her work on the below piece and had fun taking pics of her working.

To begin Aislinn ties a simple knot in a length of yarn and beginning from the back she works stitches into the grid, in this piece she works stitches just one little grid length long, in others she might work longer stitches.  I learnt that to reduce the visual spaces between stitches she places the needle in the little space between the larger grid hole. (see the pic below)

My fave bit to watch is tying off the ends, using a simple granny knot she slides it close to the work using her needle, and then weaves the end into the work before cutting off.

It might seem annoying at the time, but the below examples show how much more 'compact' the back becomes if you take care of this little detail. It makes it so much easier to mount or frame once you are complete. Another handy hint is to leave a boarder of a few inches to make hanging or framing simpler too.

It's interesting to meet an artist working in colour through textile, rather than a textile artist working in colour... does that make sense? I can't wait to hang 'Fandango' and see the collaboration currently in progress. Keep posted for photos of that process.

Yesterday was my 'weekend' and I had a great day, I will be posting what we got up to tomorrow. Till then,

X Steph

How to take cuttings from succulents

The succulents in my garden are making little 'babies' all over the place at the moment and I'm working on a number of ways to make the most of the offspring. I found these sweet mini buckets in my local dollar store and thought they would look awesome on my kitchen windowsill, a spot that gets the afternoon sun long into winter. They will be perfect as succulents don't need much watering so will save the buckets from rusting.

 I delved into my stash of sample paint pots and picked these three fresh colours, they remind me of my trip through the New Mexico desert and those pretty painted stucco houses. I painted a couple of coats onto the bottom half of the buckets and allowed to dry.

Succulents thrive in well drained soil, too much moisture will causes the roots to rot, so a combination of potting mix and sand will do nicely to plant them in. You could also use a specialist succulent potting mix but I had the sand in the garden from paving last month.

 

Taking cutting from succulents is as easy as pie, just cut a section of the main plant with secateurs and pop into the new pot. Simple as that! I have also heard that allowing the cutting to dry for a week or so before planting helps it root. I would imagine this process emulates the natural process of arid regions.
The plant in the center is Aloe Vera so will be handy in the kitchen, just in case of burns!
I shall pop these in their new home and let you see how they look.
Happy slump-day!
X Steph

Floral Friday 1

Welcome to Floral Friday!

Over the next few weeks I will be sharing with you some hints and tips in floral design and arrangement. I adore having fresh flowers around my home as well as in the gallery and shop. In this series of 3 tutorials I will show you how to use three bunches of store-bought blooms to create three different looks, demonstrating three different floral design trends. I will also be sharing some simple hints and tricks to make the whole task a little easier!

TREND 1 : Colour clusters.

For want of a better word I'm describing this trend as 'colour clustering'. In researching this project I had a lot of fun making a very inspiring pinboard on my Pinterest and I think these images I pinned demonstrates this trend beautifully.

(See Pinterest board for image sources)

Traditional arrangements often spread colours and blooms throughout an arrangement, interspersing them with other blooms and colours. This trend sees blooms of the same type and colour clustered together, often graduating in tones (purples spreading into pinks, morphing into whites, growing into greens).

This type of arrangement is high-impact and really allows the colour and texture of each bloom to shine.

Gather your supplies:

You will need....

Some cute vessels, mason jars are all the rage and make excellent vases, raid the china hutch and select vessels with pattern, colour and texture for an on-trend display.

You will also need some secateurs or sharp and strong scissors.

Jute twine or string is handy and adds texture, while stickytape is my top tip for larger displays.

Flowers - I chose chrysanthemums in magenta and vibrant green as well as some velvety sliver foliage (I think it's silverbeet!) to mix it up a little.

 Prepare your vessel.

I wrapped my huge jar in jute twine using a bit of stickytape to secure it. This adds interest to the vase as well as hiding any unsightly bits that might fall into the water through its lifespan. A variation on this might be to use ribbon or ricrac.

Next, using your sticky tape, create a grid over the top of the vessel. (Thin tape is better but I was all out.) Inserting your blooms into the grid will hold them exactly where you want them and stop them flopping all over the place.

Adding a bit of sugar, or bleach to the water will help your blooms last longer, as will keeping them in a cool spot. Strip off any leaves that might sit in the water as this will make it yucky and cut your blooms to length at an angle, this will help them soak up water and removes any stem with air bubbles inside it.

Add your stems in layers with flowers that will sit lower in the arrangement first adding each type of flower at a time.

 After tweaking, turning leaves and adjusting blooms I added some structural loops of an ornamental grass that grows in my garden and sat back with a cup of tea to enjoy my new floral display. It's now 3 days later and they still look as great as when I first made them!

X Steph