January Girls

Here are the girls that I have created in January 2015.

Top row:  Miss Amethyst, Miss Beryl, Miss Charlotte.
Bottom row:  Miss Diamond, Miss Emerald, Miss Frida.

The faces and hair are created on watercolour paper in a variety of mediums such as watercolour crayons/pencils/oil pastels, charcoal and gesso, and acrylic paint too.

The clothes are made from gelli prints.

The backgrounds are mixed media paper except for Miss Diamond where I used black textured paper.  And I have printed directly onto the paper or I have glued gelli prints onto it with gel medium.

The frames/borders are my home made washi tape!

Meet Miss Frida

Miss Frida is my mixed media girly version of Frida Kahlo and my favourite girl so far - but don't tell the others.

Miss Frida

Mixed Media on Mixed Media Paper

42cm x 30cm = 16 1/2" x 12"

Miss Frida was created with watercolour pastels and pencils, acrylic paints on watercolour paper with gelli print clothes and flower/band.  The background was created using scrunched up paper and acrylic paint onto the mixed media paper.

Miss Frida is available to purchase through my Etsy store.

Have you met my other girls  - Miss Amethyst, Miss Beryl, Miss Charlotte, Miss Diamond and Miss Emerald???

Meet Miss Emerald

Miss Emerald's favourite colour is green and her favourite gemstones are emeralds and her family come from Ireland.

Miss Emerald

Mixed Media on Mixed Media Paper

42cm x 30cm = 16 1/2" x 12"

Miss Em's face was created with Portfolio watersoluble oil pastels - something different for me. I blended them with white acrylic paint. I also used acrylic paints for her hair and gelli printed her background and used gelli prints for the clothes and hat.

Have you met my other girls  - Miss Amethyst, Miss Beryl, Miss Charlotte and Miss Diamond???  Check back on Friday and you'll meet Miss Frida - my favourite one so far!

Meet Miss Diamond

Miss Diamond is Miss Charlotte older sister. She's into Steampunk and loves to dress up and go out with her friends. Her favourite gemstones are diamonds.

Miss Diamond

Mixed Media on Texured Card

35cm x 42cm = 14" x 16"

Miss Diamond was created with watercolour crayons and pencils, acrylic paints, gelli prints and textured card.  Since the typical diamond is clear I had to choose some colours for her as I couldn't have her nekkid now!!!  I would love a pink diamond so I chose pink iridescent paint on white paper and on black paper. 

She is available to purchase in my Etsy store.

Have you met my other girls  - Miss Amethyst, Miss Beryl and Miss Charlotte???  Check back on Wednesday to meet Miss Emerald and on Friday you'll meet Miss Frida - my favourite one so far!

Meet Miss Charlotte

Miss Charlotte is a brave, caring honest girl.

Miss Charlotte

Mixed Media on Mixed Media Paper

42cm x 30cm = 16 1/2" x 12"

 She was named after Charlotte Dawson the New Zealand/Australia media personality who committed suicide in Feb 2014 after social media cyberbulling.  Miss Charlotte's face is based on my own as I have been cyberbullied.  Miss Charlotte is a brave, caring honest girl because the words the CB used to describe me were cowardly narcississtic liar and I try to be the opposite - brave, caring/empathetic and honest.  Charlotte Dawson was attacked by anonymous people on Twitter and I was bullied by a 'friend'.

Have you been cyberbullied?  It happens to kids, to teens and to middle aged women too. The CB can be an anonymous person or someone you know...someone you've met. It can happen on FaceBook, on Twitter or on a forum, in private messages or in an email that leaves you feeling like a zombie, like you have been punched in the stomach or slapped in the face, like a victm of domestic abuse but hey this is the internet, there must be a name for it - oh no.... cyberbullying...... 

What should you do about it?  Do some research first, each situation will be different, I did the wrong thing and I don't want you to do the wrong thing but I can't tell you what the right thing is for you.

If you have been cyberbullied or know someone who has and need to talk to someone then you can talk to me.

" If we're going to find our way back to each other, we have to understand and know empathy, because empathy's the antidote to shame. If you put shame in a Petri dish, it needs three things to grow exponentially: secrecy, silence and judgment. If you put the same amount of shame in a Petri dish and douse it with empathy, it can't survive. The two most powerful words when we're in struggle: me too." - Brene Brown, Shame TED talk.

This is the hardest blogpost I've ever written due to the shame and the silence surrounding the cyberbullying.  I've only spoken to one person in real life about it and to a couple of online/real friends.  I didn't write it for sympathy but to let those who have been cyberbullied - me too. You are not alone.  Unfortunately.

Many thanks to Ms X who reached out and said yes you are being bullied.  I thought I was 'imagining' it, being a drama queen. And to those who did nothing, I totally understand that too as I couldn't do what needed to be done either. 

For the background I wrote a letter in the style of the Brave Girls Club to Dear Hurting Girl - a letter from me to me and from me to you...  Then I covered it over in gesso - for a couple of reasons - I didn't want it to be the main focus of the artwork, I want to put this situation behind me, in the past and the scripture 'love covers a multitude of sins' comes to mind - this is agape love or principled love.... Then I grabbed the gelli plate and covered the white with colour.

This is what I wrote (sorry if it makes little sense it was just the thoughts that came to mind when I was writing):

Dear Hurting Girl,

Come here sister and let me give you a hug.  I want you to know:  me too.  You are a brave, caring, honest girl who has many friends and is much loved.  This is not your fault!! I know you feel it is but you are not able to control what other people write on the internet, you can only control what you do.

We are all only human.  We do good and now and again we fail and do bad. Sometimes when we try to do good it turns out bad.  We can just look at a person 'wrongly' or not the way they us to look at them.  Looks and situations can be misinterpreted and misconstrued just as words on the internet can be. I want you to read this blogpost from Melody Ross at the Brave Girls Club titled "I used to think that everyone was good....a story about the Grace Card and forgiveness."

I want you to do some research on cyberbullying, (check out my Pinterest board) as each situation is different.  If you are unable to resolve the issue then you might need the help of a forum moderator or admin.  This can be hard to do of the CB is a popular member or if they have been banned before and your red flagging them could cause them to be blocked forever.

Let's talk about the shame and the silence.  You may feel shame as the CB was your friend and has hurt you before and you have forgiven them and let them back into your life and they have hurt you again.  You may have hurt them - intentionally or unintentionally and this can bring out some negative feelings that you do not want to feel such as anger - hurt, fear, frustration and shame and guilt.  And then there's the grief and the sadness as this friend is now your enemy and you miss the good times in that friendship. I want you to listen to the TED talk by Brene Brown about Shame and how we should reach out and tell our story.

Then there's the silence - you may have been called a liar and so the CB is not going to believe you when you try to fix things so you say nothing - the inability to stand up for your self or say anything because of who the CB is .  Who would believe you anyhow you ask yourself. You would be surprised.  You may not be the first and only person the CB has hurt.  You may not want to get involved....

Sometimes the best thing we can do is NO CONTACT. Leave the forum or the site where the bullying is occurring  and block that person out of your life. You may feel this is unfair to leave all your friends but are they coming to your defence and standing up for you or are they afraid of the CB too, maybe they don't see it as their battle and since it's not happening to them they do nothing to support you.  

You need to let it go....let them go...let it go.  Don't ask the CB to let it go or let you go as they can be like a dog with a bone and if they feel hurt then they feel justified in their actions. You need to let it go for your own sake, so you can move on in your life, you need to let go of all the hurt, the anger and the sadness....

Conflicts are unresolved misunderstandings.  Sometimes they will never be resolved. Let it go...

With much love,

Shells

Have you met my other gelli print girls?  Miss Amethyst? Miss Beryl?  Next time you'll meet Miss Diamond.

Meet Miss Beryl

Miss Beryl is a 1920's Miss whose favourite colour is green and she loves her cloche hat with flower. Her favourite gemstone is beryl which has a hexagonal crystal system and comes in many colours including light green, yellow and red.

Miss Beryl

Mixed Media on Mixed Media Paper

42cm x 30cm = 16 1/2" x 12"

She was created on watercolour paper with charcoal, gesso, acrylic paints, gelli plate print clothes, hat, flower and necklace.  The background was created on mixed media paper with gelli plate print hexagonals and yes, that is home-made washi tape around the edges.

Miss Beryl is available for sale in my Etsy store.

Have you met Miss Amethyst?

Next week you will get to meet Miss Charlotte who is very close to my heart and has a special story to tell.

Meet Miss Amethyst

Meet Miss Amethyst - she is a mature woman with good taste who enjoys a Singapore Sling when she she goes out and her favourite gems are amethysts - of course.

 Miss Amethyst

Mixed Media on Mixed Media Paper

40cm x 30cm = 16" x 12"

Her face was created with watercolour pencils and crayons, her clothes, hat, feathers choker and the background are gelli prints. Here are some progress photos:

Miss Amethyst is available to purchase in my Etsy store.

Inspiration Hangers by Rachél Payne

Whilst waiting for glue to dry on my latest mixed media gelli print girl I decided to make one of these Cardboard Mixed Media Inspiration Hangers by Rachel Payne. Rachel is part of the Creativity Tribe and an instructor at Cre8ive Klatch.

This Inspiration Hanger project took me about 10-15 mins to complete and mine is different to Rachel's but that's the idea of the projects at Cre8ive Klatch - to inspire you to be creative and to teach you some new techniques and to use what you already have at home. So check out Rachel's video on the CK blog.

I brayered on my paint and glued on the gelli print house, stamp in top right corner and lace at the bottom and then used paint pens to highlight the house and words and a dragonfly stamp too.

It's now hanging on the door to my art room!!  Let me know if you make one and share it in the Cre8ive Klatch facebook group with me.  See you in there!

Camping at D'Entrecasteaux National Park

We spent a couple of days camping at the D'Entrecasteaux National Park which is approximately 500kms/310miles or 5 hours drive away.  The park is named after the French Admiral Bruni D'Entrecasteaux who was the first European to sight the area and name Point D'Entrecasteaux in 1792.

Photo Credit goes to my hubby for this great pic!

We stayed at Black Point which is named after the basalt columns from a lava flow that occurred 135 million years ago. In August 2013 we went to the Giant's Causeway in Ireland which also has hexagonal basalt columns. The Black Point ones are eroded by the crashing waves each day where as the Irish ones are higher up and have suffered less erosion. 
It is four wheel drive to get there, and there are no facilities apart from long drop bush toilets - so no internet connection or no phone service either, no showers - just nature and us and about a dozen other hardy souls!!!

The following day we drove to Jasper Beach.....

And to Lake Jasper - which is a freshwater lake....

Then we went to Moore's Hut near Coodamurrup Beach - Moore's Hut was constructed in 1911 using native bush timbers and slavaged oak from the coast. We were all alone there apart from a couple of people camping closer to the beach.  The weather was great, much cooler than Perth which was experiencing 42C/105F+ weather.

Here are some animal tracks...

In the afternoon we set off for Point D'Entrecasteaux at Windy Harbour to see the views from there.

We had to drive through the beautiful Karri Forest.....

Now we are home and I've done 5 loads of washing and cleaned the house so I deserve some art time...

Focus OLW 2015

I have chosen the word FOCUS to be my One Little Word/theme/mantra for 2015.

My word came to me when I was talking to someone new about my art and what I did this year and said that I really had to focus more on doing one thing instead of being a 'jack of all trades and master of none'.  I didn't really know where I was going in 2014 and tried to do too many things and know now that I have to concentrate on one thing and not spread myself so thin.

I am Artist of the Month for an art journaling group I'm in and have decided to guide the group through One Little Word 2015.

One Little Word started with Ali Edwards and here's a quote from her blog:

About One Little Word^®

A single word can be a powerful thing. It can be the ripple in the pond that changes everything. It can be sharp and biting or rich and soft and slow.

In 2006 I began a tradition of choosing one word for myself each January – a word to focus on, mediate on, and reflect upon as I go about my daily life. My words have included play, peace, vitality, nurture, story, light, up, open and thrive. These words have each become a part of my life in one way or another. They've been imbedded into who I am and into who I'm becoming. They've been what I've needed most (and didn't know I needed). They've helped me to breathe deeper, to see clearer, to navigate challenges, and to grow.

I hope you'll consider joining me for the next One Little Word^® workshop in January 2015 here at aliedwards.com.
Check out all my blog posts regarding One Little Word^® here.
Click here to read a FAQ and more details about this project.

 1. Decide on your word.

You need to choose a word that resonates with you, instead of having a New Year's Resolution you choose a word for the year.  For a list of words check out Ali's blogpost here.

My word for 2014 was Grow.  My word for 2013 was Believe. My word for 2012 was Courage.

Activity 1 -  I used one of my little books for the activities but an art journal is ideal too. Write/doodle/decorate your word - see first photo.

2. Define your word.
Find a definition of your word that suits your purpose.

FOCUS:
1. The centre of interest or activity.
2. The state or quality of having or producing clear visual definition.
3. Pay particular attention to.

Activity 2 - write these words in your journal. 

3. How will you apply your word?

Activity 3 - write how you will apply your word over the year as this will help you to make it happen.

Focus:
1. Create one girl each week and put it in my Etsy shop or for sale in exhibitions.
2. Use gelli prints in my art - my girls and collages.
3. Create tutorials for Cre8ive Klatch.
4. Do less swaps and art journaling.

4. Create a bookmark.

Activity 4 - create a bookmark with your word on it and keep it in your planner journal so you see it throughout the year. I started with a rectangle of manilla folder, you could use cardstock or an index card, then I covered it in a gelli print and collaged lace and a border and washi tape on it and then stamped on it and used my gel pen. I kept on going until I was happy.

Extra fun activities...

5. Pinterest Board.

Activity 5 - Each year I create a Pinterest board for my word and pin related pins.  It's fun and inspirational especially for the following activities.

Here are my boards:  Focus, Grow, Believe.

6. Create a reverse acronym for your word.

Activity 6 - Pinterest helped with this one.... Focus = Follow One Course Until Successful.

7. Quotes with your word in it.

Activity 7 - this is where Pinterest is helpful and the google.  Find a quote with your word in it that speaks to you and write/doodle/decorate it in your journal.

"It's important to FOCUS on what we do best and master one craft at a time." - Russell Simmons

Ladies, I hope you have fun with these activities, I recommend the first four to get the most out of your OLW, but the more you do the fun it will be.

Please leave a comment with your chosen word below as I'd love to make a list of the words chosen.  Thank you!!! Or add your blog to the linky below!

Have  a great 2015!!!