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Screen printed art

I’m excited to share the news that art prints are now available in my husband’s Etsy shop.

So you can fully appreciate these prints, let me tell you how they are produced 🙂

Firstly, he draws the design by hand. No computers, just pencil, pen and paper (his protractor comes in handy too!) Next, the design is screen printed onto paper and dried. Lastly, he colours the design by hand with his beautiful set of Prisma pencils.

Now, that’s what I call authentic art!

I hope you like them too. There are only a couple in his shop at the moment, but he will add more as he gets the time 🙂

Handmade in Australia Marketplace

by Kelly 2 Comments

I’ve started a new Facebook group – Handmade in Australia Marketplace in order to further my support for Australian Artisans.

Having been a member of many Facebook groups I’ve found that they can be “stuffy” when it comes to artisans sharing items that they happen to be selling. Some groups consider this to be spam. What a pity.

Here is my artisan selling philosophy: Lets all help each other. Pretty simple, right? One of the hardest aspects of having a handmade business is getting the exposure you need, and if we all helped each other freely, then we all benefit.

So…. if you’re a handmade artisan or artist and you are Australian, you are welcome to join the group. You can post photos of your products, links to your shop or website, recommend other artisans you like, invite your friends to join, or if you are a supporter of handmade you can browse and follow the links to shop 🙂

Silk, beautiful silk!

by Kelly Leave a Comment

I love silk, don’t you? Not just for the way it feels when you wear it or the way it takes dye so beautifully, but also for the way it’s made – so cool!

So, I thought I’d share with you some of the work I’ve been doing with silk of late. I’ve been implementing a lot of Japanese dyeing techniques with excellent results.

Arashi – meaning “storm” creates these wondrous waves.

I cheated – this is bamboo, not silk, but I love the results so much I couldn’t not share it!

Crepe de chine, different to silk habotai but equally wonderful in it’s qualities.

Some of these scarves have already sold but others have only just been uploaded to my Etsy shop, so pop over for a gander if you see something you like – they make wonderful gifts too 🙂

Giveaway at Twisted Ink!

by Kelly 1 Comment

To celebrate the opening of his Etsy shop, my lovely husband is having a giveaway on his Facebook page. Take a look, you could win a shirt and even get to choose the design you like best!

Good luck!

Watercolour workshop

by Kelly 1 Comment

I’ve been stumbling along by myself with watercolour for some time, waiting for the right time to do a class. Last week, I was very blessed to attend a one day workshop with local Melbourne artist Stefan Gevers.

Although my results weren’t brilliant, I did learn a great deal and solidified a lot of the knowledge I’d gained from books. I feel like a few gaps have been filled in and I’m better equipped to move forward with my painting.

And mostly, I really enjoyed the intimate class in Stefan’s home studio. I would really love to take some of his regular classes, particularly the botanical ones, he is very talented and a great teacher too.

You can view Stefan’s work here and find out more about his classes and workshops here.

Twisted Ink on Etsy!

by Kelly 3 Comments

Dreams, we all have them right? My wonderful husband has worked diligently in his day job to support us at home. Without him we would not be able to live our lifestyle. But he has dreams. His dream is to make a living as an artist. And now, the dream has started to come to fruition.

He has been creating his drawn designs by hand for some time now. Recently, some of those designs were screen printed onto t-shirts.

The t-shirts are either organic or fair trade. The inks are water based.

They look so great, he can’t wait to get out there and start selling them. He plans to have several market stalls (the difficult part is fitting this in around his regular work).

He has opened an Etsy shop, and slowly but surely we are uploading his shirts. I’m so proud of my husband to have been able to take the initiative to use his talents in this way. I would love for you to take a look at his new Etsy shop!

He can also be found on his very popular Facebook page.

Gossamer Dreams tonight!

by Kelly Leave a Comment

A reminder that the final stocking for the year is happening tonight at Gossamer Dreams . Here are some revised opening times depending on where you live:
8pm for Brisbane / Qld shoppers
9pm for those with Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart as their Capital city this is you.
8:30 for Adelaide and through the centre of the country
6pm for Perth and those in the west.

I have 4 items up for grabs, so head on over early so you don’t miss out! Happy shopping!

A typical homeschool morning…

by Kelly Leave a Comment

People who are interested in homeschooling often wonder what to expect and wonder “what is a typical homeschool day?” Yesterday as we were going about our morning activities it struck me that is was a very typical morning for us.

The younger girls are playing card and board games. This can go on for a long time. If the weather is fine, they are usually in the garden playing with their animals and other games. Later, if it suits everyone, they will spend some time at the table doing some book work (phonics, maths, religious education etc).

The older two are at the table, working fairly independently on work I have planned for the previous night. Sometimes they need my active participation, other times they just work at it themselves with me as “consultant”.

And you will often find me in the kitchen preparing for later. I’ll be making bread, planning for lunch or dinner, baking, cleaning. It’s a good place for me to be because of the open plan of our home I am readily accessible to all the children.

We only ever do book work until lunch time and often enough we don’t do any at all. Sometimes we would rather go out, sometimes games are just too much fun to be interrupted and sometimes the weather is just too nice to sit at a table and study.

Our afternoons are spent however we want to spend them. There is always plenty of art making and crafts. Gardening, reading, games, story writing, bike riding, baking – there are so many ways to spend an afternoon!

I know homeschoolers who put in a regular school day with regular school books and regular school rules. They have tests and formality. It’s not for me. It’s not for us. We have such a unique and wonderful opportunity to pursue interests and passions and really live life and I wouldn’t have it any other way!