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.