A wall hanging for Claudia

I have been very busy lately working on a myriad of fabric prints. I've made cushions, wall hangings, table linens, bags. I've screen printed my doona cover! I will be posting about all my wonderful projects ovr the next week or so. For today here is a wall hanging that I designed and made for Claudia whom I met recently. She is a designer herself and was very keen on my work and requested that I do a wall hanging for her home, on the raw hemp in white. So here it is below as well as the process I use for most of my printing. You may find it useful if you're planning on doing some printing at home.

paper cut-outs for screen printing

Here are some lovely paper cut-outs I've just done. I am planning on using these as stencils through the silk screen and printing some more hemp with them. This time I'll be using different colours instead of the trusty red :) I'll post about the results soon.

Decorate your own crockery

I have been using Pebeo Porcelain Paint Markers for years mainly to decorate goose, hen and ostrich eggs for Easter. You can see some of my Easter Eggs from previous years on this blog. Last week I decided to give the Porcelain Markers a go on actual crockery. I love the result of these two jugs. Pebeo Porcelain Paint markers are available from just about any decent art supply shop such as Oxford Art Supplies or Eckersleys. They are so easy to use, you just paint your designs on then bake the crockery in the oven for 35 minutes at 150 degeres celcius.

The jugs you see below were plain and I added the red designs onto both of them. The taller one with the yellow stripe on the edge is a cheapy from Ikea and the other one is an antique clay jug which I picked up years ago from one of those antique shops in the country.

Exhibition tonight!

I am excited and nervous for tonight's opening at the GAFFA in Sydney. Yesterday I spent part of the day setting up with my friend Nathalie. Thank you Nat!! I saw the work of some other artists who are also exhibiting tonight. The standard is superb and all the work I saw was gorgeous. If you have an opportunity please drop in any time over the next two weeks. You can still make a booking for tonight and come along to the opening. Just go to www.trybooking.com/3664

Here are a couple of pics of me setting up. I will take more photos and post them tomorrow and tell all about tonight! Thank you to everyone who has been emailing me with support and encouragement especially while I was in bed with tonsilitis this week. A most inappropriate time to get sick!

Until tomorrow friends :)

Sneak peek at the exhibition paintings

I have been 'busy' painting and getting ready for the exhibition on thursday. It has been extremely fullfilling to paint every day. I LOVE the results of the work I have done over the last few weeks and cannot wait to hang it in gallery on wednesday. If you would like to join me on the opening night please go to www.trybooking.com/3664 and book yourself and friends to come on the evening. There will be 10 other artists all exhibiting work on fabric as well as some beautiful jewellery design.

Here are some details of the paintings. I will upload them all on thursday 17th. Comments welcome!

Inside Out feature!

What an exciting day. I have just got my copy of the Inside Out July/August issue which features one of my wall-hangings. The styling by Vanessa Colyer Tay is gorgeous and I love how the wall-hanging presents itself. The magazine is out now so grab a copy, there's a lot of beautiful stuff in this issue :)

Inside Out Magazine

Inside Out Magazine

Free Girl

Hello.

I was up till late last night drawing. I am very happy with this picture of a girl that I created. I called her "Free Girl" because that is how I am feeling at the moment. Full of inner freedom. It feels great. I added the background colour in Photoshop.


When I went to bed, very late, and I closed my eyes I had a myriad of images flashing through my mind, as though projected onto the insides of my eyelids. I was seeing all the patterns that I drew that night but they were all mixing together. It was like looking through a kaleidoscope. It was a wonderful thing to fall asleep to. When I got up this morning I decided to make some more images using the designs from the "Free Girl" drawing. Photoshop is a wonderful thing :)

Easter Table Setting

In Poland we decorate baskets at Easter and take them to church for blessing on Easter Saturday morning before breakfast. The church looks very colourful with dozens of baskets filling the steps up to the altar. The priest blesses them, we take the baskets home and eat a morning feast. The breakfast is always started by the family sharing a cut up hard boiled egg and wishing each other a Happy Easter, following that we sit and eat. The table always has the Easter basket in the middle which is decorated with ribbons and greenery (often bilberry leaves) and contains usually the following: plain hard boiled eggs, salt, bread, meat, yeast cake, horseradish, pepper, painted eggs (pisanki), a lamb figurine usually made of sugar, ham, cheese, a candle. Not everyone has all of these items in their baskets. The staples are the eggs, meat, bread, salt and a lamb figurine. Traditionally we put into the baskets what we will be eating on Easter Saturday. We will eat the food that has been blessed and I have found that the contents of baskets will vary according to regional traditions.

So below is my own basket for this year. I bought the basket at Vinnies for $2! To fill it I'm using: a square of hessian, some leafy twigs from the downstairs garden, A hard boiled egg, my own hand painted goose Easter Eggs, salt, bread, cheese on a muslin cloth, baby capsicum (this is a replacement for meat since I'm a vegetarian), a sugar lamb and some ribbon.

I weave the twigs and the ribbon around the edges...

And here it is. A beautiful Easter basket ready to decorate the table.

I have also learned that this tradition actually stems from a pagan ritual, not surprising, which celebrated the spring equinox and the sprouting of the summer crop. Many different descriptions exist about the type of ritual celebrated and one describes the offering of lamb and bread during a full moon to ensure a good crop yield.

If you decide to set your Easter table with and Easter basket as the centre piece, what you put in it is ultimately up to you. I know that some of the items in the basket symbolise different things such as; salt for longevity, bread for fertility etc. I will ask my children what is important to them and what they would like to put in their baskets themselves. I have a feeling we may end up with some Star Wars figures and nail polish in the basket!

I hope you enjoy your Easter this year. May it be a safe and happy one or all.

Egg baskets now on sale

The discounted baskets of eggs are now available for sale in the Laikonik online shop.

Easter Baskets

I have a bowl full of miscalenous eggs which I have painted over time. They are very colourful but have been rejected from the sales department due to imperfections, smudges etc. Some only have one coat of colour which makes them a bit flat looking, and some are just experiments which are too nice to throw away and still look lovely.




I have grouped them into sets of three and will be selling them through my online shop at a discounted price of $39 - $69 per basket. I will do my best to upload them by this afternoon. If they're not there please check tomorrow, (thursday 25th March)



They will look delightful as a table decoration during Easter. And within the next few days I will show you my ideas for an Easter table decoration and talk about the Polish traditions at Easter. Stay tuned!

Ostrich eggs

So, painting this ostrich egg was very satisfying. The large surafce gave me loads of room for tons of colour and thick black lines. It was like a big canvass. I'd like to more of these for next year. The actual shell of the ostrich egg is very hard and almost ceramic like. The first time I received one in the post from Angie's Eggs (which is where I get all my eggs from) I thought she sent me a ceramic egg! And by the way this is a good time to mention that Angie from Angie's Eggs has a wonderful supply and array of not only different kinds of eggs to pourchase for painting and decorating but also tons of egg decorating tools, books, stands, paints etc. Check out her site. I have never been dissapointed by her service.