This was a design that I did for my daughter's school fete but I was never happy enough with it to put it in my folio. In fact, I still find it hard to look at and I have been thinking about why.
Read MoreFred the Croc – Fred goes for a visit
Last week, I had the pleasure of taking Fred out an outing to my little one’s kindergarten.
(I have talked to many school groups about Fred, starting with the lovely story of how he began when my high-school-friend-become-kids-book-writer, Matthew Zurbo, happened across a picture in my folio of a reclining crocodile. Matthew left my studio, quiet and thoughtful and unbeknownst to me, rushed home and wrote the story that night.)
I was surprisingly nervous, wondering if Isobel would like me being there, and it had been a while. Would I remember everything? Were they too young? Would they be bored? Would the kids like the book?
I need not have worried. It was a lovely morning as the kids, already familiar with Fred, “CHOMPED” on cue, asked funny and sometimes disarming questions, and then threw themselves into making lovely little snapping cardboard crocs and painting portraits of Fred. And Isobel gave me such a super-grip hug at the end that I knew she was pleased.
Thank you Amy for devising such super activities for the children: I want to make a snapping crocodile too!
Motherville: The Butterfly House
Motherville: The Butterfly House finished.
Photographing white on white was quite an adventure leading to the construction of a light box and eventually some much needed lessons from a photographer!
I didn't end up submitting the house to the show, the construction was too delicate. (Something to be further considered next time!) But as a post script we were all proud to see my daughter's house exhibited as part of the short listed selection at the gallery!
Motherville: Making the Butterfly House
This was a beautiful project to be a part of. Called Home, the project was initiated by artist and designer Daryl Cordell and run by the Arts Centre Melbourne. Home involved communities across Melbourne and Victoria using the bare house-shaped wooden block as a starting point for their interpretation of "home". I was kindly given the opportunity to participate through my daughter's school.
As a mother of small kids who need me at home and not in my studio, "home" presents me with something of a quandary, this conflict for me has been slowly turning into a theme that I call Motherville. The Butterfly House, titled "Motherville", explores this feeling I have of being caught between my role as a mother and my need to create.
The butterflys are modeled on Pieris Rapae, or the Cabbage Butterfly, a lovely thing but a serious agricultural pest in Australia. I have omitted the distinctive black dots from its wings.
The process pics show my paper mock up, a polymer clay prototype (shown is one of many) then production.
For further details about the event see Home - Arts Centre Melbourne and try #homemelb
Work in Progress, The Juggler
This isn't a real time WIP as I completed this illustration some time ago for one of my favourite clients, The Big Issue. But since I have to get this blog under way and I found some progress shots I think it is a good start!
The juggler was made from polymer clay, a medium I recently discovered and am really enjoying. I have mostly been using Sculpey but there are lost of other great brands out there. Getting hold of them in Australia can involve going online or through one of the great little private importers in Melbourne. Sculpey is relatively easy to come by.
The wire support is a piece of heavy gauge armature wire inserted into a drilled hole in the plinth - a piece of wood heavy enough to hold the weight of the model.
Working on the top half - not her most flattering angle. The hole is where the wire from her lower half inserts to keep the two parts together.
The polymer clay has now been baked and although you can't see it here, I managed to burn the top of her skirt as it was sitting too close to the oven element. So, studio evacuation whilst I cleared out the air as burnt polymer clay releases toxic fumes. Happily I was able to paint over the burnt area with acrylic paint and you can't tell at all in the final image!
The final image! A little bit of work in Photoshop to create the floating letters, and hide the last of the burn marks. (Oh yes, and her mouth. I think I should hand paint that next time because sharp eyes spotted it!)