Christmas is coming!

If only there was a way of slowing down the days in these next few weeks before Christmas! We have been busy filling orders for Christmas cards, tags and gift pegs over the last couple of weeks and although we can see a light at the end of the tunnel, we still have quite a way to go yet!

I do love this time of year - warmer temperatures, longer sunlight hours, holidays on the horizon and the wonderful moments of a shared family Christmas to look forward to. 

 

These are some of the pegs we have recently made for an order which I think are going to be used for an advent string. Now, it is back to the making table and soon we will have the fun of working out this years wrapping for our presents and decorating the Christmas tree.

Forgotten Tales - New Stories

 Finally, after months of contemplating, we have taken our vintage book works out into the market place to see how they go! In Hobart the book sculptures are in Store and Co (must pop in and take a picture of them) and now they have a new home in Launceston at Ecoco. The following photographs are from the Ecoco face book page. It is wonderful to have them in such beautiful stores. We are hoping the feedback from customers will be positive.

 

  This is a photo of a very old book that has hand cut pages with a slightly torn or deckle edge and an original inscription in beautiful handwriting in the front of the book - quite charming.  We will only have the books in one store in each place as we want them to retain their special quality.

We are soon to fill a new order for our handmade nests to 'Nest' in Penguin so now it is twigs and vines on every flat surface in the house rather than vintage books for a while!

Bunjil Nest

 

 On a recent visit to the Ian Potter Gallery - NGV in Melbourne we saw this amazingly beautiful Bunjil Nest. It is about two metres wide, and mirrors the size of a real eagle's nest, but this nest holds 600 messages from students who took part in an innovative project inspired by environmentalist David Suzuki. Each nest has been carefully made with hundreds of sticks, all inscribed with messages of hope, love and peace.

The students were asked to convey something they had learnt, or to express their hopes, wishes or concerns for the future and so their messages were often very moving and profound.

The nest celebrates Bunjil, the wedge-tail eagle who is regarded as the spirit creator of the Kulin nation, which includes the Wurundjeri people. They believe Bunjil keeps a watchful eye over people and offers guidance to those who choose to listen. 

Being a lover of nests, it was wonderful to see such a large scale, beautifully constructed nest that celebrated a community vision of the children's hope for the future.

 

It was lovely to see some of our work on the 'Nest' facebook page a few weeks ago.

Our first market stall!

 Last Sunday "two in a teacup" set off up the highway to the New Exeter Market for our first ever stall at a market. Driving along the Tamar River early in the morning with fog and mist over the river was stunning and a beautiful start to the day. We set up our stall inside the hall with many other wonderful stalls and were lucky to be next to my niece's beautiful stall -'love nina'. We had lots of positive comments about our work and made some good sales too. More importantly it is our first real public showing of our work and so it was fantastic to meet people and get their feedback.
We learnt so much about pricing, display and what items sell and why and what changes we should make if we have another stall. The day was perfect with blue skies and sunshine and so many people came out to enjoy the market.

We sold one of our little nests to a beautiful little girl and her mother - so exciting to actually meet its new owner.

We are both keen to have another stall at a market some time soon so now it is back to the drawing board to refine some of our works and create new pieces.

Progress!

Life seems to have slowed up a bit lately - perhaps it is the winter chill. Still, we have made a little progress with some of our projects and have a batch of Mia's cards ready to sell and two nests have been sent to Sydney and arrived safely! Now I am finalising the finishing touches to a couple of altered book designs which I hope will find a special place in someones home.  I have also started working on my collage series about collecting/finding/gathering and will post about this later on.

I am writing a small blurb to go with the books because I want people to know how each one has been carefully chosen and re-fashioned without cutting or damaging the book, so that it could be re-read. It is about giving the books new life so I am calling this series of work "Forgotten Tales : New Stories"

Nature as Art

I think Autumn is my favourite season. I am constantly amazed at the incredible colours and gentle still days we are having. Recently, I was driving up the highway to Launceston and I was struck by the sheer beauty of the countryside - the colours of the large trees as they turn from green to golden yellow and orange are exquisite. Even in our own small garden the Paper Bark tree has put on its coat of many colours this Autumn and reminded me how beautiful and inspiring this season is. It is one of the many joys of living in this Island State that we are blessed with such distinct seasons.

Ever since my daughter was little we have always collected leaves. We have pressed them, collaged them, made books of our leaf collections, sealed them between waxed paper, painted and drawn leaves and decorated our house with them.  I have to admit we are still doing this and probably always will. Every walk we take is concluded with sharing the contents of our pockets and our latest finds and this almost always includes beautiful leaves.

Altered Books

Our tiny house is almost filled with books but this weekend we had great fun making sculptures from some old books that were destined for the second hand store. The text of each individual book creates its own pattern. I am now working on ways to hang some of them and have an idea for adding cut out forms of paper to one or two. I have long been fascinated by artists working with books so this is one of those things I have wanted to try for some time now.  I am not sure where this project will take us yet, but we are having such fun in the meantime!

Nest - Penguin: two in a tea cup......

Nest - Penguin: two in a tea cup......

Beginnings

Starting something new is always exciting and daunting in the same breath - so we are tentatively beginning our 'two in a teacup' venture together and have decided to use this blog almost as a diary/record of our progress. It will help us document the process and of making and creating some of our work and we will be able to record our thoughts and inspirations along the way. We are new to the world of blogs so I dare say that we will probably be the only ones to read it! Never mind  - we will have fun recording our ideas together and it will help us keep tabs on our progress. Sharing ideas is such an important part of the creative process.

EXCITEMENT!!

'two in a teacup' has been featured on the 'nest' blog today!  We could hardly believe our eyes when we saw the post. Thank you to Natalie from 'nest' for all the lovely comments about our work.

With Easter on the horizon I have been making nests using birch twigs, messmate, found feathers, beads and gilded small stones. Each one develops it's own character and because they are quite small and delicate they remind me of the fragility of birds eggs.

This one is a little more robust and fits nicely in cupped hands. Although I am not using blue I do feel somewhat like a bowerbird as I collect sticks from the garden, fossick for tiny feathers and weave, twist and shape materials to form the nests.

My daughter and I have always been makers and so we finally decided that we should find a special place to sell some of our works. We are so lucky that 'Nest' in Penguin is taking our work. We are very excited to be at the beginning of our new journey together - we hope you enjoy our work too.