adelle

In keeping with my beautiful, messy painting theme from yesterday, I thought I would add number 5 of my ‘Top 10 Favourite Chairs‘. These chairs are in a word.. cool! Anna ter Harr is the artist and her bleeding paint chairs are so fun to look at and what’s even more fun is to see how they are made! You can watch a making of Anna ter Haa’s chairs video on her website.

I originally stumbled across Anna’s artwork on a blog called Double Takes. It’s such a fun site that is full of images, ads, artworks and odds and ends, that literally, make us look twice. Have a look at the art page and the guy diving into the water! Very clever..

This picture really doesn’t do this masterpiece justice but… We are now nearing the end of our school year and well, if you’re a teacher you’ve probably finished all your marking and reports, so HOW do we occupy the kiddies for the next few lessons?! Here is what I did today (mind you, it miraculously only took one class, so I have to think of something else for next week!).

I joined up all the tables and rolled a huge sheet of brown paper across the table. It ended up being about 6 metres long! Everyone then sat around the table and claimed a section of the paper. With a grey lead pencil they drew interconnected shapes across the whole page and once every part of the paper had a shape, they could then start filling in their shapes with paint! The result was fantastic and beats my abstract artwork any day!

The kids loved it and I can now take down all the crappy Picasso photocopies in the art room and replace them with an original masterpiece!

Just a reminder to everyone that the lollipop competition that began about a week ago is still open! Be sure to enter before December 12th for a chance to win!

Don’t forget to check out Bianca’s other yummy creations at Girl Meets Craft.

This afternoon I am working on getting my little odds n’ ends store up! Check back later tonight and I should have some items up! In the meantime this flower brooch will be one of the items featured. I found this beauty last year and despite it’s missing a petal, it’s still very special.

Now, I’m not normally a fan of rings, but my sister found this one on Etsy yesterday and well, it’s a strawberry iced donut, so I couldn’t resist! I particularly like the little jewels as the sprinkles! Baby Loves Pink is the Etsy store that sells them ( this ring is only $US6) and she has all sorts of little pieces of jewlery that are so cute and colourful. Is it just me, or have you noticed that I’ve been posting a lot of food related items lately? I have no idea why!

Here is the fake fruit all finished and waiting for that fruit salad that will never come. I’m particularly fond of my blue banana. Those who are fans of Pretty Woman will know that reference

I must introduce you all to a new friend of mine. His name is Blue Duck. He was created by one of my students in about 5 seconds! He was almost going to be remodeled into something else before I snatched him out of my student’s hands and saved him. He now lives with me in my office and when I’m feeling a little blue, I look at him and he makes me feel so much better because I could never feel as blue as he looks…

As promised yesterday, today’s post is a rather special one because I am launching my first competition! Here’s how it goes. Every month I am going to feature a very special artist who’s work I love and who will kindly volunteer to donate one of their creations as a prize to one of you guys! The competiton and that month’s prize will run for the entire month with the winner announced at the end!

This month’s prize has been graciously donated by Designer and Crafter, Bianca from Girl Meets Craft. Her swirls of sugary sweet color instantly appealed to me! Not only does she craft lollipops she also creates a whole heap of other delicious confectionary and sweets which you can drool over at her store.

Handmade with felt and polyester fiber fill stuffing, they are individually wrapped in celophane with tied satin ribbon on a paper stick. Perfect for the serious candy lover with a life time guarantee of not making you sick! They’re just plain fun!

All you have to do for a chance at winning two of these sweet lollipops, is answer this month’s question by leaving a comment.

If you could invent your own lollipop flavour, what would it be?

Good luck!

Within the next week, I’m going to have 2 exciting new features starting up, right here on adelle.com.au! One is going to be something of an online store where you’re going to have the opportnity to buy some of my goodies! The goodies will be things like jewlery, fashion and fantastic little finds that I come across in my day. The second exciting feature is very special, so how about I tell you all about it tomorrow..? It involves the word… free!

I received an email today from JenniferHarwellArt.com which featured this beautiful creation by Jewlery artist Rebecca Buckner, who primarily works with wire and stones to create her unique pieces.  How stunning is that blue flower in the middle? I think I really love this piece because it reminds me of a whole lot of Op shop gems, all living together! This piece is titled ‘Blessed’ and is $US178. It has a matching cuff as well which I think is equally as beautiful..

Ok here it is Number 4 of my ‘Top 10 Favourite chairs of the moment’. Not sure about the functionality of this but I selected this chair created by Jean Claude Biraben because it really depicts how I am feeling today. Enough said.

Today I was mind boggled by all the trash and treasure I walked into when I visited Lost & Found Market in Smith Street. This place is HUGE! Levels upon levels of Op shop goodies with the, as expected, higher price tag. But that’s ok. It’s basically an indoor market full of vintage furniture, lighting, art, fashion, books, records and stuff that you probably had, your parents had, or your grandparents had, 15 - 30 years ago.

I suggest that you go there with a clear idea of what you want to find, that way you won’t be faced with the ‘ooh what do I buy??’ dilemma. Rest assured you will find what you’re looking for, even if it’s not what you were looking for..

In the midst of looking for a lollie jar on ebay, I stumbled upon the most delicious soaps I have EVER seen! Dolphinemaxe is the ebay seller and they have a whole range of yummy soaps. Prices range from about $4 to $10. From fruitcakes to strawbery cheesecakes, to pavlova. My personal favourites are the icey pole and of course, my favourite sweet, the donut.

So here is the fake fruit that I am currently making. The first part was actually sculpting the fruit shapes out of newspaper and holding them all together with some foil and masking tape. The second part is the messy fun part! Mix up some flour and water to make a smooth glue mix and cover each fruit with about 3 layers of newspaper bits using the glue. You can mix in some PVA glue to help with adhesion if you want but I don’t think it’s necessary.

Once the paper mache has dried, I covered each fruit with a coat of Gesso. After uhmming and ahhing about painting them in unusual colours, I decided to use tissue paper instead. So I will have a green, pink and black apple, a red pear, yellow grapes and a blue banana! Stay tuned for my final fruit bowl!

At the moment I am in the process of creating some fake fruit for the fruit bowl that I made a while ago. I had every intention of filling the bowl with beautiful fruit, however, the new configuration my kitchen table is in, features direct sunlight. Sunlight and real, rippening fruit, just don’t work very well. I could either move the bowl (which I don’t really want to do) or create some fruit of my own. Which brings me to number 3 of my ‘Top 10 favourite chairs of the moment’.

According to M Sation, there isn’t very much info about this apple chair at all. It was supposedly designed in 1960 by a company named Adelta, but not manufactured until 1996. I think it fits in quite nicely with my fruity frame of mind at the moment. In tomorrow’s post I’ll show you what I have done so far with my fake fruit… It’s fruit with a twist.