Ahrr, me Hearties, where's me treasures...!

Chocolate-box full of auction treasure.

So I couldn't felt last year. Not that I felt all the time, mind, but when you get told you can't do something, the itch gets worse. 

While tidying (yes really..) I opened the bottom drawer, which was empty many years ago and thus had become a perfect place to put interesting necklaces and beads into, which had come home because they looked useful. I decided to tip the drawer upside down on the empty table, just to see what had gathered there. And gave myself a fright.

Quite a bit of jewellery. 

O.k. 

So I started cleaning, dismantling and sorting everything. Colours by colours, metals by metals, glass, pearls, semi-precious stones, brooches, I even kept the findings and closures.

Some odd-ball bits as well.

A  course at the local Arts Centre presented itself, how to repair and remake old jewellery.

 Very timely the Universe provided, yet again.

I had a great time and learned a lot.

I won a couple of Auctions from down the hill, just to add really odd and old stuff to the mix.

I can't wait to somehow use those fountain-pen nibs, or that sweet little spoon.

Another auction lot...

And no-one else put a bid on that box with tatty looking rags, bits of fur and an old tin of baking powder, but I had already spotted in that jumble black silk dress pieces; never put together, water taffeta, handmade tatting and very old lace pieces, an old leather wallet with silver corners, sequins and gold lace, braiding and ribbons, and an old foxy stole. Most from the first half of the 1900's judging by the shape of the dress pieces and lace.

A veritable feast for a textile lover.

Now, how to incorporate fur....

It looked like a jumble of scraps, however...

Then I started playing. And combining, and trying stuff out.

Taking away and adding.

Playing.

Treasure for myself.

This one is for myself.  

Sterling silver, real pearls, moonstone, rose quartz, antique lace, a belt buckle, a tiny key, sparkly bracelet links, vintage porcelain forget-me-nots and a Madonna medallion to represent the Goddess in all her forms.

I love wearing it.

Peony Roses in an old coffeepot.

Oh I wish it were Spring already. But we have only just gone past the shortest day.... 

Luckily photos cheer me up too.

Summer Sounds.

The Simple Pleasure of toast and honey,
straight from a  hive.

It is the 3d of March and some of the trees are already showing the ending of this long hot summer, which started in November, or was it before that already...?

Some liquidambers show russet colours, and the plane trees next door have started dropping some of their leaves.

It is late in the afternoon and I've found some shade on the deck at home, with a book. Another hot day, with a slight breeze coming from the eastern sea. The Pacific Ocean beyond our shimmering Bay is a strong blue line against the pale coloured sky, just visible through our big oaks' branches.

The cicadas, high in the communal trees of all our neighbours, trill their summer song.

Summer reading.    New ideas!

Table Vignette.

From two doors up the hill the opera singer is practising her slow and exuberant voice, accompanied on the piano by an invisible player. Her sometimes powerful, sometimes soft song floats through the backyards and into our living-room, the words indistinguishable. 

So now and then there are exceptionally melodic bursts of bird song coming from a new-to-the-neighbourhood tui, and the old bellbird chimes in as well.

Are they persuaded to compete with her voice?

Some piano tinkling next door, and a child's voice mimicking the opera singer tells me that Shirley's grandchild certainly feels inspired.

 And all around the continuous clicking and chirping of the summer cicadas, while my fat black cat lies on his back, purring loudly.

Weekend bike ride along Hawkes' Bays' seaside. Napier in the distance.

Can't stop smiling, what a lovely day!

Napier marina.

Ahuriri beach.

Summer blooming pohutukawa tree.

Delicious gelato at the end of the trip.

 The sound of a trucks' engine and beeping of a gear in reverse tells me my man is home from work. A thumping sound of boots being pulled off on the porch. 

"Yoohoo" he calls out, walking through the house. I greet him with a smile, we kiss and he invites me to come with him to the auction house at the bottom of the hill, for a look-see.

I pull the doors shut and chatting about our respective day we rumble down in the truck.

Napiers' Art Deco style gardens.

 We enter the shady hall and amble through the aisles of old furniture, dusty boxes of curious items and tired porcelain. 

He strums a guitar while I inspect two retro drawer units, which have caught my fancy. 

We chat with one of his gardeners, also keen on bargains, and giggle over a vintage reel to reel player with large recording rolls, still in their boxes.

My fingers stroke over the spines and highly decorative covers of heavy books at least 70 years old.

I open two tin boxes of watercolours, still with the remnants of tiny rectangles of colour inside them, so sweet. One of them is a Reeves set, the other has vintage Mickey Mouse characters printed on the still bright red enamel.

A box of rusty things from the auction house.

 We put in our absent bids for tomorrows' auction and rumble back up the hill.

Time for coffee and biscuits. My teaspoon clinks against the cup.

The cicadas sing on.

Can you hear it?

Summer Bliss...

And vintage jewellery, much glittering amongst the dust.

Collaging Merrily Down the Stream.

Hedgehog pixie collage.

Another art experiment was had in my lovely room. First I made a small collage on canvas over hard board, and although I wanted to have a quick image, of course it took on a life of its own and became a story. 

Hedgehog pixie dreaming merrily down the stream, with her fish companion. 

I added lots of different media; handwritten pages underneath, gesso, magazine papers, water-colour tree, black ink stamps, acrylic paint, white gel pen and permanent markers.

Collage finished with 2 layers of wallpaper sizing.

 When it was done, I wanted to try out an encaustic layer, or beeswax melted over the top.

Problem no.1 my beloved people kept saying, but you might ruin it, and it is really nice!
Problem no.2 acrylics, including gesso, don't mix with wax, it won't keep sticking. So I can't use an acrylic sealer over the top. And if the magazine papers don't get sealed the wax will penetrate and show what is on the other side of the paper.

Solution no.1 make photo of unwaxed pixie. Ignore all other comments.
Solution no.2 make up jar of wall paper sizing, which is made from some kind of flour, and dries clear, but is not plastic. Brush on 2 good layers.

2 layers of encaustic beeswax .

When it was good and dry, I started playing with the hot wax. I mixed beeswax (from a candle) with 10% paraffin "drops" to make it a little tougher. That's my own experimental idea.

I melted it in a chocolate-fondue set ($5 opshop) with a little tea-candle underneath. It smelled lovely!

After warming up the artwork with the heat gun, I brushed on a layer of wax with a wide brush, then used the heatgun to warm it up again, so it glistened, but didn't run off.

And again with another layer, more on the sides then in the middle.

I used the heatgun to smooth out the irregular areas, it was fun!

As you can see, there is some darkening in patches on her dress and neck, so I think next time another couple of layers of wallpaper sizing to seal it a bit more.

I like the way the wax has created deeper layering and made the picture look more "dreamy".

I will definitely play more with this medium!

Bellbird at the nectar bowl.

Managed to take a sharp photo of one of our neighbourhoods' bellbirds, I think it is a female, the male has a darker throat. Such a gorgeous colour green, and yes, they have ruby coloured eyes. Bellbirds are quite shy and move very quickly, always on the look out for that rascal tui, that thinks it owns this nectar bowl.

Treasure Hunt Showcase ;

Pip-studio cups found in opshop.

Could not believe my luck! Staring at me from a shelf of ugly mugs and stained teacups, were these 2 gorgeous red and pink Pip-studio cups... I snatched them up! I already had the blue one at home, an expensive purchase a few years ago from Wellington.
Not a chip off them, ooh pretty, pretty! Just $4 together....
Can I bring myself to drink tea out of them, or will I only admire them in a spot where I walk past every day....

$5 worth of vintage linen and napkins.

So how does that work, when you have a colour co-ordinated thrifting spree?

All these sweet lollie colours go together, they will all be dunked into a bucket of nappisan and ironed, and remade into cute things.

These are the kind of opshop finds that make my day, my week even, and have me going back for more treasure thrills.

Some people get their thrills bungee-jumping, or binge-drinking.

Well , I go treasure hunting for sweet bargains, never knowing what I might find!

Aah! It's the little things...

Ready, Set...Crochet!

Ready, Set...Crochet!

It's very summery here indeed. Yesterday it was 33'C. (91.4 F for you Americans)

With a warm sea-breeze. 

In the morning I often sit out on our deck at canopy level with the old Oak and Pohutakawa tree.

I enjoy the birds all around; sparrows fighting, 3 tuis competing with each other as who will get to the nectar-feeder first, bellbirds sneaking in, and waxeyes argueing in bunches. High up in the air are the swallows, and so now and then a seagull reminds me the sea is near.

 It is a bit like sitting in a huge bird park, except they are all free to come and go as they please.
My old cats don't bat an eyelid...

A cup of cinnamonny coffee, and a basket of colourful promise.

Thrifted bright yarns.

A-crocheting I will go.

All these yarns had just come in to an opshop the other day, and I immediately wanted them for some cheerful crochet bunting. After a bit of googling I found the right pattern for triangles, a granny-patch look it was going to be. These were very clear visual instructions, plus the whole free pattern again underneath all the photos. Thank you attic24 !

A coffee on a Summer morning. 

So I 've been making triangles, just for fun, with my coffee, or while watching some telly at night.

Cheerful Granny Triangles.

I've already made lots! How can you not smile when you see these in their happy colours.

Sorting wool .

In the meantime I've also sorted out bags of wool, all packed away since we moved here. I knew there was still a tea-chest full upstairs in the garage. 

Wrong, as it turned out: there were 2 tea-chests!

So I opened all the bags, examined the wool to see if no bugs had got to it, weighed everything, wrote the details of weight and sort of fibre onto the bags, and also wrote everything in a notebook.

 Then packed everything into large see-through plastic bins with lids for my storage room.

 I was pleasantly surprised, everything in good condition.

 And of course lots more ideas for both felting and spinning.

There was carded wool in sliver, mohair, alpacca. Raw wool in long staples, and some rare breed quantities as well. Quite a few kilograms of fibre.

Delicious! I can't wait to card some bats at my creative fibre club-rooms soon.

Capital and Crochet.

Crochet Fox Purse.

Before Christmas I had a small stack of magazines and 3 new books lying next to my comfy chair ; waiting for the festive days to be over and relaxing time. The anticipation is very nice!

One was a "Mollie Makes"magazine in a pack with a "Simply Crochet". Well the crochet magazine was lovely and I actually made several of the projects in it, while we were staying with our eldest in Wellington.

 I like to be able to do something with my hands while staying somewhere, and although I usually help her with chores at her student flat, she insisted this time I don't, and frankly I didn't feel like playing mother to a bunch of (young) adults.

 So I sat and crocheted from a pattern.

 Which is a challenge by itself.

The magazine has a section in the back how to do each stitch and differences between U.S.A. and U.K. names. Perfect!

Of course I had to change some things, it had sleeping eyes in the pattern. And I added fluffy yarn around the edges so the fox looked furry. 

Exactly big enough to hold my cellphone.

I also made a bracelet cuff with pink and little beads from the magazine, which I wore when going out on New Years' Eve. Our daughter took us to a bar with good live music, we played silly games while drinking gin and tonics. The bar had a retro lounge with sofas and booths to sit. It is a whole new feeling going out drinking with your daughter!

I left the bracelet for her flatmate, to say thanks for using her room, which was tidy and clean and comfy.

Treasure Hunt Showcase

Little thrifting finds from Wellington.

Not expecting to find any opshops open in Wellington around the festive days, since there is always a lack of volunteers, we were pleasantly surprised and had a good fossick around in half a dozen of them. 

We found some crochet yarns for me, a new suit for the Man(perfect fit) and a c.d.player, an illustrated Middle-Earth map and Tolkien illustrated postcards for my brother Jack ( he didn't have those yet in his collection, score!).

Above you will see a self healing cutting mat for stanley knives or rotary blades, which are not cheap when new ($1). To be used for paper cutting.

A box of mainly glass beads and retro buttons ($5). To be used for anything.

2 purple and red candle decorations ($1). To be pulled apart for miniature scenes.

2 Purple striped vintage linen napkins with embroidered black swans (50cts each). For zip pouches.

A bunch of satin and beaded flower appliques ($1). For anything.

A few metres of old red grossgrain ribbon ($0.50). For book binding or strengthening a hat edge.

As you can see opshopping turns into a really creative experience for me: I get new ideas, by looking for new uses for an item, instead of the intended purpose.

And fossicking is totally therapeutic, not to mention a family sport...

Waiting for our pies and coffee in Island Bay, Wellington.

Of course we had plenty of coffees and lunches in cafes in our 3 days away, that is one of the delights in Wellington, and the weather was brilliant. I actually got sunburned!
It was really good to see my hard working husband just relax and go with the flow.

The old shop facades there.

The area of Island Bay was very quaint, I love the old buildings. Still with all their power lines above ground.

An old fake-marble building.

This one would have been from the early 1900's. A bit posh! With its' fake pillars. The back of the building is probably wood.

Awesome mural by BMD

And there is art everywhere. An awesome mural in a parking area. Very clever painting: the "quilted" inside of the "cat" looks like crumpled fabric and the shadow of the "worm" gives it depth.

 There are several around town by these street artists.
Always something new to see in Wellington!

A Dainty Drawing with a Slightly Significant Connection.

Greetings by E.K.Robison.

A wee while ago I went op(portunity)-shopping, as I do.

That day I found sweet, lolly coloured items, in pinks, light blues and bright yellows.  A 70's bedsheet in pink pop-art flowers, I am sure you'll remember the kind!

 A vintage souvenir tablecloth from Australia, and an old tea-towel with yellow roses and smothered in a white crocheted edge.

Sweet thrifting finds!

Tiny childrens' books with animal pictures, an old print of a church, a chinese good luck rabbit, crumpled embroidered linen with little flowers.

A vintage japanese eggcup and tiny glass buttons in blue and white. 

And amongst all the 20cent junk in the bin that gets emptied each night into the rubbish skip, a sweet little drawing done in waterpaints and pencil. I thought it charming and instinctively pulled it out from amongst the plastic bowls, broken vases and ripped books.

I took the little treasures home and had a good look at them with a cup of tea.

I used to put my little girls' hair up like this too.

The little face was painted so simply, but very effectively. 

I could see the brushstrokes in the waterpaint.

There was a bit of dried up plastic sticky tape attaching the circular drawing to the bottom page. It had left a yucky bright red mark on the paper unfortunately. On the paper attached was written "Get Well Soon", the signature on the drawing was E.K. Robison 59. And on the back it said in the same handwriting: "original of one of my cards worked for reproduction E " I was getting curious. Cards? She/He produced greeting cards?
So I googled it. "postcards E.K.Robison". Hmmm can't find the name on the page, but I'm in the national library archives of NZ. Was the artist a NZer?
Just the name in google search then: right, some auction houses, an Australian art auction house has sold 8 works , there is 1 photo, and the painting is a similar style of a maori boy, also circular.
Well it is looking promising.
Another work is dated 1918. So the artist has been doing this for a while .

E.K.Robison signature.

I search for the name again in the National library of New Zealand.
It comes up under a heading of various artists collection: Robison, Edith Kathleen 1879-1986.
Aha, a lady artist and goodness me, she lived to the ripe old age of 107 years !
The heading underneath says:  Bendall, Edith Kathleen  1879-1986.
That must be the same lady, but perhaps her maiden name?
Yes, a description of the drawing in the collection follows and is credited to Robison, E.K.
I click on the names record.
A list of references comes up, also 3 mentioning Katherine Mansfield, one of NZ's most loved short story writers. I click on 1 of those, and I find out Mansfield wrote Miss Bendall a letter. It's in a collection in the national library. Cool.
 However this doesn't tell me more about the lady artist.

Her scribble on the back making me curious.

I go back to google search and find a mention of 2 more artworks in an exhibition write-up from 1908.

But no more photos, so I search google images 

Hmmm, that's a lot of pictures of Katherine Mansfield. Weird.

But that picture on the 3d row is not Katherine, maybe Edith?

I click and get to the wikipedia page of Francess Hodgkins, a prestigious and influential landscape and still life painter.
On the third paragraph it says -"among her pupils was Edith Kathleen Bendall, lover of Katherine Mansfield".
What??!!

A sweet maori boy, sold at an auction.

 I don't know that much about Katherine Mansfield: wonderful NZ writer, had a tumultuous love life, lived overseas a lot, and died young from tuberculosis. I did know she was bi-sexual, it must have been difficult at the time when one was expected to marry and you couldn't even vote as a woman yet.

But now I am learning fast.

Photo from auction catalogue.

During my later detective work I have since found out, that they were involved during 1906-1908, when EKB (as Mansfield called her in her diaries) would have been 26 or 27 years old. Mrs. Edith Robison has never admitted there was a lesbian relationship between them, but they did have plans to produce childrens' books together, Edith doing the artwork and Katherine the storywriting. However this never came to pass.

Auction catalogue photo, by E.K.Robison

And I am sorry about that. Because looking at these gorgeous artworks (that I have found on the international art centre auction site) I am sure their books would have been a huge success.

I feel very lucky to have found this raggedy piece of paper with that sweet dainty drawing on it.
I will find a frame for it, for it is my little connection to New Zealand Art History.
And I just managed to save it from the rubbish bin, for the price of 20 cents!

Auction catalogue photo, by E.K. Robison.

Making Felt Handpuppets.

50 cent soft toys, ready for making into fingerpuppets.

Lately I have been buying little soft toys, cutting open the bottoms, and sewing in a finger of a winter glove, to create finger puppets for the kids at school. I have made the class a little theatre out of a large cardboard box, and gave them my first 20 minute performance of "the 3 little pigs and the wolf". I actually wrote a script for it. 

Most of the children had never seen a puppet performance, and were speechless when the puppets asked them questions. The children (7 yr olds) looked at each other, and then a few answered the puppets' question. ( yes, thats' a lovely house build of straw...) But by the end of the story they were happily helping the wolf blow down the the piglets house, and shouting at the pigs that the wolf was coming down the chimney! (you can't do that with t.v.!)
Now they can use the puppets on rainy lunch days, and make up their own stories. It is excellent for the shy kids and those with language problems, because they have to follow sentence and story structure, and their speech has to make sense. It also takes planning and cooperation with the other kids. And of course if you are introverted, well, it isn't you who is speaking, it is another character altogether, so you can make it say whatever you want.

The teacher was very pleased with me!

When I was a child in The Netherlands, I remember many happy rainy afternoons at friends' places, playing with puppets and a little wooden theatre with curtains, and sometimes we used a small lamp covered with a scarf for special effects. We'd spent hours to get our story together, and then we would perform it for our friends in our group, while someones' nice mum would get us lemonade and biscuits.
Those puppets were the plastic head variety.
I remember that after a while, your fingers would hurt from the rough opening, and the cloth bodies were always too big for little childrens' hands, the fabric would have to be folded in your palm so that your opposite fingers could reach the puppets' hands.
And I never understood why there was a priest or pastor character. What could you do with him in a story with princesses and bad wizards and treasures and suchlike?

The kind of hand-puppets I used to play with.

Primary school children in The Netherlands didn't go to school on Wednesday afternoons. I don't know if they still do now. You got to play with your friends in your neighbourhood all afternoon, and on rainy days you were allowed to watch a little t.v. , when they would show childrens' shows. One of the shows in the very early 70's was a puppet show called "Rikki en Slingertje". It was about the magical adventures of a boy and his very cheeky monkey. The theatre itself was in the city of Haarlem, very close to where my great-aunt and great-uncle lived. They were childless and my brothers and I stayed with them very often in the school holidays to be spoiled. One day my younger brother and I were allowed to be at 1 of the performances in theatre "Merlijn".
 Very exciting when you are 6! It seemed fantastical and colourful in my memory, since our t.v. was black and white. No doubt it was all simple puppets and cardboard props.

Stage 1 basic shape

So of course this post leads up to something, and that is my own felted puppets. Above the wet-felted basic shapes, they are slightly smaller than my own hands, which are petit, but I can get in them . Two fingers fit in the "neck".

Stage 2 profile

The rest of the puppet is build up with uncarded coloured wool, needle-felted around the neck. The facial features are added on and needled into shape.

Stage 2 face on

Stage 3 profile

I added more colour, wrinkles, got the nose down to size, then the eyes, very important for a puppet. Eyes connect the audience to the character. Eyelids were added, then facial hair with angora curls, including eyebrows, moustache and (real) goatie beard.
 I tried to keep the face in neutral emotion.

A large turban was twisted and needle-felted into place. I added lichens that had fallen out of the tree outside, by covering them with very thin wisps of wool, and needle-felting them into place.

stage 3 face on.

My Wily Wizard from the Woods, still needs some hands. But I love him already!