Fun In The Fowl Yard

When you feed the birds a mix of old yogurt

and linseed meal

And Cedric our Drake decides he loves it

But needs to shake his head vigorously, frequently

Some girls end up with um

yogurt on them

Funniest thing watching them eat this

x te

Total Lack of Tea

I thought it might be nice to show some of the

unrelated to tea things that I have been up to

I soaked 3 Tshirts in soy milk

and then naturally dyed them

with leaves and some natural dye powder

I had left over from the workshop I taught

at Beautiful Silks last year

I was not entirely happy with the results

But as I tell my students

that is just an opportunity to do something else

Here I printed with the rusty etching plates

seen in a previous post

This one you may want to open in another window

egg printed with a lino block

then dyed with leaves

see tutorial here

This is another Tshirt that has not been soyed

But I have been using it as a paint rag

It is now curing before I wash it

and either wear as is

or overdye

I am thining I may have my new range

of clothes to sell.

And here are some tiny books

All made from bits of old prints

from uni

This is the last of them now

so now I will have to do some new prints

to use in my books

Naturally of course

x te

Tealicious

Blackened

These are from yesterdays stewing

with bottle tops and vinegar

Bottoms only in a touch of black brew

washing

I like to remove the seams from the teabags

Black brew and puffball dyed

experiments

all have a little dande bags applied

top with wax bottom with glue

Paper dipped in puffball dye after rusting

brushed with concentrated puffball dye

rusted after

india ink brushed on

paper rusted only

recycled paint rag dyed with puffball

little waxed dande bag pockets

up close

and personal

a little book of tea bags

and thats what happens to the edges

just blowing in the breeze

pages

wind closed

waxed cover

stories

poems

x te

More Tea

Laying out to dry

Tea bags and psuedo coffe bags

Tea Tags

And bags that didnt make the grade soaking

for a retry

Some emptys

And behind some delicious rusty metal plates

The thing is I don't actually drink tea

Well not real tea

though ocasionally

there will be some form of green tea

and of course jasmine tea at Yum Cha

but at home it is Licorice Tea

or Coffee

But as I am trying to wean myself off coffee

for the moment

I am down to one a day

My alternative is Dande Roast

a blend of Roasted Dandelion and

Chicory Root

with a little Organic Cocoa added

It will do for now

But the upside awesome little coloured bags

x te

Tea Bags

Tea Bag Experiments

Collage to various fabrics

Rusting and waxing to paper

Waxing to prepainted paper

Just having fun

Gotta love it on a sheer

More

Rabbit skin glue with and without added indigo

small pieces

rusting after waxing

waxing and then indigo oil

Such a lot of fun.

Perhaps there is a little

book of tea

in my future

x te

Pigment For Sale

Just in case anyone missed it

I have a new tab up the top of the page

Where you will find the above Natural Pigments for sale

x te

Magazine Articles

It is really really awesome being asked to write a series of article for a magazine. The sense of pride that someone would actually approach you out of the blue and ask you to contribute your knowledge and offer you money to do so. Awesome.

What is not so awesome is to have to chase them for each and every payment.

By contract payment was on publication so you have to wait at least 3 months from eagerly sending your words and images off tot he publisher, fair enough you think. I can wait. And wait you do. About a month after you receive your complimentary copy you send an email, enquiring if perhaps you have been accidentally overlooked? And then a bit latter another email until eventually you get your mail one day to find an envelope with a cheque shoved in it. Thats it nothing else. But hey you have been paid. Of course by now the second article has been published. Surely this time things will be different just a one time aberration, right? Wrong. You proceed to repeat all the steps once more, though this time perhaps a little less tentatively.

Somewhere along the line an email is received letting you know that the magazine has changed hands and the last article will be delayed in it's publicaion. By 3 months. But maybe things are looking up. The magazine is now part of a larger corporation surely this will be a bit more professional and prompt in their payments. After all without articles there wouldn't be much of a magazine, would there?

Hah. Yes as you may have guessed there is no happy ending to this saga. Well not yet.
I am still waiting for payment for that lst artice published back at the end of January. Apparently the new companys policy is to pay 1 month after publication. And they informed me over two weeks ago that they are still trying to merge the accounts!!!! After acquiring the magazine back in November 2012, get a new administration manager I say. Oh and they are getting back to me asap?

So anyway I have sent off yet another email and await further developments.
I will let you know how it goes.

But I don't think I will be writing any more magazine articles any time soon, or at least not without a few discreet enquiries first.

UPDATE
OOps looks like they did pay but I had transposed two of the digits in the BSB code. My bad.
But still after my experiences I would never work for this company again.

Well last monday April 29th I received an email saying the money had been paid electronically into my account, but checking today May 6th still not there. Not happy.

Chillaxing

Denmark Easter Market

Well I have to admit I have been having

a rather nice relaxing time at home

Since the retreat finished

some weeks ago

Denmark Easter Market

There was a trip outto the Markets over Easter

Denmark Easter Market

Encaustics

where I sold 3 encasutic Paintings

Have enjoyed the odd fabulous sunset

Been enterrained by these cockatoos

they come down a few at a time

to drink from the duck pond

But there were many more in the trees

awaiting their turn

there were at least 50 of them

if not more and at one point I was surrounded

by them

and they are not quiet birds

Trips to the beach

This is Dan emerging

after his first testing of his new

semi dry suit and new BC

Playing with rust in the studio

Packaging up earth pigment and Indigo

to sell

macking up little paint charts

The top one is milk paint

 the bottom is egg

Bought myself a collection of

Carla Sonheim's books

and I am having a lot of fun

making silly drawings

and another one

Luscious texture

all natural of course

This is Myrtle

I made her many years ago when I was at Uni

She is a piece of leather which I stretched over a stone

Obviously pre natural days!!!

She has recently moved to the deck

because

things are happening

a new wall going in

Here you can see what used to be out front door

But now it will be the new bedroom door

Yay more room

Well thats what has been happening around here

I will try to update a bit more frequently

in future

x te