Crafting A Patterned Home - Book by Kristin Nicholas

I have been following Kristin Nicholas on her blog Getting Stitched on The Farm for a while now, and what I love about her is that she seems genuinely motivated out of the pure love of creating, to decorate her home and make things. She doesn't follow trends, she just has a love for pattern and colour that transcends the latest fashions. It's a true love affair, not just a fling!

photo by Rikki Snyder

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So when I found out she had a new book out, Crafting A Patterned Home, published by Roost Books, I didn't hesitate, I didn't even read about it, I just jumped online and bought it!

I am, like Kristin, intoxicated by pattern and colour and love home decorating. Sometimes I walk into a minimalist space and find some peace and a breath of fresh air, but after a while, I grow bored. Pattern and colour excite me. So clearly I feel like I have lots in common with Kristin.

She has covered the walls in her home with hand-painted patterns, and objects such as lampshades and furniture are not safe... there's even a bath! In this book, she shares how she has done it.

Kristin talks about her previous book Crafting A Colorful Home in this video below, but you can get a sneak peek into her colourful life.

So even though I can appreciate a nice calm neutral home, when I saw Kristin's via this Houzz video I sat there absolutely enthralled. I just would love to sit in her loungeroom with a cuppa and cake and absorb all that pattern into my soul.

Kristin also includes some words of encouragement for the novice or the unsure (scared?) on how to get started.

She gives in-depth advice on how she creates her rooms. One of my favourite snippets of advice she gives is don't make your rooms too "matchy-matchy". I've always agreed with that line of thought; less matchy-matchy makes for a more personalised, interesting home. If all of your furniture is the same design, your rooms might end up looking too much like a furniture display store.

There's a lot of advice on colour, how to think about and design a room, and techniques and tools. There are projects for each space of the house, kitchen & dining, living room & library, bathroom and bedroom, and then outdoor spaces: pottery studio and garden shed, and in the orchard and under the pergola. And of course, if you don't have a pottery studio or pergola, you could make projects for your potting shed or outdoor deck for example.

Such as the one in the image below. I really want to do this with the chook pen window!

The book is bursting with colour, and as a creative person myself, I find it very motivating and I'm eager to try some of the projects in the book.

Thank you Kristin for a lovely book! It's going to slide out of my bookshelf and appear on my coffee table frequently!

Kristin's new book can be found here: Crafting A Patterned Home

Jules :)



*Affiliate Information: Affiliate links help me earn small commissions on products (at no extra cost to you), which helps support my love of blogging and sharing creative things. I only ever recommend or link to products that I'm genuinely into or would use.

Out & About: Too Many Words Local Art Sculpture

A small group of local artists working under the name Too Many Words created a sculpture out of old books in a local park recently. We didn't see the artists creating it, which they did during our busy local farmers market as a performance art piece in strange anonymous green suits, though we were happy the sculpture was left in the park for a week or so so we had a chance to explore it.

Approaching the sculpture

All of the books used were deemed unsaleable or unwanted and collected from the local library and an op shop. It's interesting, as I'm sure one persons opinion of unsaleable might differ from the next persons. 

The sculpture was intended to make us think about consumerism, and what happens to our stuff when it's no longer wanted.

I couldn't help thinking that each and every book used here was written by someone and at one stage that project (writing a book) would have consumed a lot of their time and creative energy and been something of great importance to them. So really, so much time and history within each building block (book) of the sculpture.

The page corners gently flapped in the breeze as we wondered around it. 

The inside floor of the sculpture was covered in maps.

The girls thought it was a wonderful cubby house and place to play! They were very interested in it and explored the space looking thoroughly at all the details, and reading some of the words.

So many words by Too Many Words...

I love the fact that their are local artists out there creating thought provoking art to enrich our experience and local town. It satisfies me to show this type of thing to my kids and then listen to the thoughts that evolve from that and discuss what we think it means.

You can read more about the idea behind the sculpture & the art performance here and see the artists in their strange green suits.

You can catch the art collective Too Many Words on Facebook too.

Jules :)

Some Ceramics Inspiration

Hello!

Yesterday saw me going into one of my daughter's art class in school, not to show or help or anything, but to be one of the students. How lucky am I!?

They are working with clay at the moment, and they're making clay birds. I don't have any photos to show you yet, unfortunately, but they will come I'm sure! I'm going to sit in the class and refresh myself on some joining and constructing techniques. With the kids! I really love sculpting with clay and in my earlier years I nearly started a diploma in ceramics, right after I'd finished my diploma in illustration. But, fate did not dictate that I attend, but never say never. Maybe one day. Maybe I can become a ceramic artist! Haha. I have a very short attention span :)

For now I want to show you some images of some ceramic work that inspires me.

Jenny Orchard's work is amazing. I was stopped in my tracks when I came across this photo on her instagram. I just cannot tell you how much I love her work.

These crazy, colour loaded works, with a 'bits n pieces' look really appeal to me. Fantastical creatures, that look like they've been born straight from her imagination with perfect translation on the journey from mind to reality. 

Wonderful, crazy fantastical ceramic creatures

I am also a fan of Cathy Kiffney's beautiful colourful ceramic work. They have such a naive folk art quality to them which appeals to me. I love her work! How nice would a cluster of these ceramic birds look on a wall?

You can find Cathy's Etsy shop here

And Nathalie Lete turns anything into the art equivalent of gold that she touches. Just like Kaffe Fassett, this lady is multi talented and I just don't know how she creates so much work. She's amazing.

So can you see a common theme here for my ceramic inspiration? There's that handmade quality, that shows some roughness and naivety; bold colours, quirkiness and maximalist decoration. Yes! I wonder what sort of clay work I will produce. I'm so excited.

For now I'll keep collecting inspiration over on Pinterest. I just created a clay board to keep all my inspiration in one place.

See you soon,

Jules :)

Out & About: West Gippsland Open Studios Visit

Recently we went on an art studio hop!

Open studios West Gippsland runs some weekends where some local artists' studios are open to the public to come and see creative people in their spaces. We chose three to visit, although there were 18 open studios over that weekend.

First up we visited Helen Timbury's bright and inspiring studio. Helen is a printmaker who is in love with colour, just like me. I loved all the beautiful old furniture in her studio and left with total antique-look paper drawer and studio lighting envy! And oh so inspired, of course!

It's always fascinating to me to peer into artists creative spaces. To see how they organise and store items, and how they choose to decorate them.

You can see those paper drawers up the back there that I am envious of! And those studio lights made the whole place look like naturally bright daytime light, for a studio that apparently was quite dark before.

We watched as Helen inked up a wombat lino cut, and the kids got to turn the big wheel on the press.

Turn, turn, turn...

The finished print

I'm a big fan of Helen's vibrant work. Miss 6 said that Helen's studio made her feel like doing paper mache :)

Next up, we went onto Wendy Hitchin's (aka Beady Wendy's) studio space, where she makes glass beads and jewellery.

Some of her gorgeous handmade beads

Interesting explosion of colour with the necessary supplies

Wendy wears special goggles to make the beads, as the flame is quite bright. She heats up the glass and rolls it around a metal rod, turning and turning as she goes, to make the beads. The kids were quite happy to wear the glasses and see a bead being made.

I love seeing the processes of all crafty things being made, it's so interesting to watch. Her beads are so colourful, and the kids got inspired watching one being made. (I didn't get a shot of the bead, it went into a kiln after she made it; if you leave them out to cool down in the open air they will crack.)

Our last studio visit for that day was Russell Lilford. His studio was situated at the side of his house in a converted garage. 

Studios that have a couch as part of the set up get a big tick in my book; I think to sit and contemplate in a comfortable seat is a luxury in a creative space; and I say if you have the room, totally do it!

This was one of my favourites of Russell's artworks. I like the contrast between the small brushstrokes and the bigger blocks of colour

Candles, feathers, shells and vessels adorned some of the shelves

Russell is a printmaker too, and has a press in his space

There is something special about jars of paintbrushes and gatherings of art supplies

It's really great to get out and about to see some art in real life. You tend to give pieces more of your time and contemplation than if you saw them on a computer screen. Creativity is contagious too, and getting out to see some art gets the motivation and inspiration flowing. 

Jules :)

Art Book Review & Road Test: The Painting Workbook by Alena Hennessy.

Art book review time! Today I'm reviewing The Painting Workbook by Alena Hennessy.

*This post contains affiliate links (see bottom of post for explanation).

First of all, I can't believe I'd never heard of this artist before. I thought I was fully immersed and up to date with all this arty stuff online. But when I saw some images of a fellow artist friend's work on her instagram that she had completed whilst taking one of Alena Hennessy's online art courses, I immediately googled Alena and I was so happy with what I discovered. (Surely I have seen her work around, and just not known who she was? Surely!)

When I first got my hands on this book I couldn't stop to read any of the information as the pictures were so beautiful it teased me to just look through the whole book first! The first thing that jumps out at me is her colours. They are bright and bold, which is what I like to use too.

Once you've got that out of your system, you can focus on the information and 52 prompts given in the book. I love that they are prompts so that you can take some inspiration or guidance from them but create your own individual & original artwork. 

Some of Alena's breathtaking art...

Just so amazing and beautiful.

As the title suggests this book is about creating art/ paintings. It goes through materials and tools and the uses and applications of different paints, mediums, surfaces and extra things you might like to use whilst creating art. Then, some basic techniques, colour theory and other thoughts regarding creating art are discussed before moving onto the prompts. Some of the prompts are followed by mini workshops, where she goes through a certain technique in more detail. 

This is not a how-to-draw book, but a book full of prompts that Alena has outlined with an explanation for each on how you might get started. You can use the prompts to push your own boundaries, try something you've never tried before (like paint a picture with a minimal colour palette for example) or use it to help get out of a creative slump. Or just for plain fun!

I think regardless of if you were wanting to get some prompts to start painting, the simple act of just flicking through this book is inspiring enough for me and just makes me want to paint anyway!

I decided to try a bit of 'finger painting' and 'paint with prints'. You know, I never finger paint. Maybe I have with my kids but not on my own personal artwork. 

So I took out a half finished painting, one that has been sitting around in my studio for a while and I added some components from some of my old unusable prints.

 ...And then dipped my finger in some paint.

Very fun and liberating! I added some splodgy marks here and there.

Other prompts I focussed on during this painting from Alena's book were 'repetition' (which I added in the form of repeating patterns), 'add some script', 'layering' (always!), 'draw on top', and 'found objects'. I used some bits and pieces from my mosaic stash :). 

My finished "prompted" artwork 

I really love this book and was so happy to discover the gold that is Alena Hennessy's work and teachings. It's the kind of book that will happily live on my coffee table just for the pleasure of reading through it to kickstart some inspiration, or just as valuable accompanying me in the studio.

I do think this book could be used as a fantastic tool for kicking some creative block. Just start with a prompt and hopefully the flow will return. And with 52 prompts there is one that's sure to spark some inspiration.

If you'd like to know more check out Alena's The Painting Workbook here or visit her website here.

Jules :)

*Affiliate Information: Affliliate links help me earn small commissions on products (at no extra cost to you), which helps support my love of blogging and sharing creative things. I only ever recommend or link to products that I'm genuinely into.