The Auckland Regional Botanical Gardens hosts a biennial Sculpture in the Gardens. This free event is a great opportunity to see large-scale artworks from New Zealand's best-known and up-and-coming sculptors on a 2km sculpture trail throughout the Gardens. It is really well planned so that you get to amble around the gardens and appreciate all the new developments that have happened since you last visited whilst you enjoy the sculpture exhibits (20 new ones and many permanent sculptures that … [Read more...]
Alcohol Ink and Alcohol Lift Ink Cards
I love the colour and vibrancy of Alcohol Inks but I have previously felt them to be somewhat limited for using in card making (although still fun). The first ones I made were using very intense colours and I ended up using them as the entire card background and stuck metal charms to them as the embellishments because a stamped image would not have shown up and it seemed a waste to stick something bigger over the top. I used offcuts as partial backgrounds for other images and also cut out … [Read more...]
Powertex Wall Art Tui
My brother had his 50th birthday this year and I decided that I wanted to make him a Powertex Wall Art Tui. I have previously made a Powertex Wall Art picture of a wood pigeon for my outdoor space using the Powertex image transfer medium and was looking for a chance to do another one. My brother has paintings with circular centres of native birds and plants and I thought it would be great to make something for his new barbeque area that would tie in with these. I found a wonderful photo … [Read more...]
Making Large Candles
I have posted previously on using The Candle Maker gadget and on my Candle Making Tips that I have learned in making my own candles. This time I wanted to apply those tips to making large candles. I had learned about calculating how much wax I will need for my candles, how much fragrance to use and how to choose the right wick based on the width of the container rather than the height. I learnt that whilst The Candle Maker can only handle enough wax to make a 300ml candle at a time and takes … [Read more...]
Making Mosquito Repellent Candles
I have been experimenting with making candles; you can see some of my tips in previous posts. This time I thought I would have a try at making mosquito repellent candles. Usually the candles you buy for this purpose are made with citronella, but I didn't have any citronella oil and frankly I don't really like the smell. I knew other essential oils have insect and mosquito repellent properties and wondered if I had any that I could put together that would be a nicer combination than … [Read more...]
Jojoba, Rosehip and Lavender Face Oil Recipe
Jojoba, Rosehip and Lavender Face Oil is my favourite evening moisturizer for face and decolletage (particularly for more mature skins) and it is so easy to make for yourself that I thought I'd share the 'recipe'. All of these oils can be put directly on the skin and have wonderfully healing properties: Jojoba is a fabulous oil that closely resembles human sebum, an oily skin moisturiser produced by the sebaceous glands, and penetrates the skin extremely well. Jojoba comes from the … [Read more...]
A Brief History of Chain Maille
If you have followed my previous posts you will have seen that I have been fascinated by making chainmaille or chain maille. There are so many different variations of designs that you can make simply by linking metal rings together. I was interested to find out about the history of chain maille and how it evolved from purely functional (battle armour) to the more decorative versions we see today. Chain maille is a type of armour consisting of small metal rings linked together in a pattern to … [Read more...]
Powertex Wall Art
I tend to like my art works to be more realistic and lifelike (with some artistic license) rather than abstract, so when I have seen people at workshops creating abstract canvases with Powertex I hadn't been inspired to create any myself. But then at one workshop some people were making underwater scenes and I thought that this would be the perfect Powertex wall art for me. I had been looking for something suitable to put on my bathroom wall and it needed to be something fairly large and fit … [Read more...]
Candle Making Tips
I started making candles using a kit and following basic instructions with the ingredients provided. Then I ventured out on my own to make candles from separately purchased ingredients and in the process discovered that there is a whole lot more art and science to making candles than melting wax and putting it into a container with a wick. In this post I share some of my learnings and candle making tips. For far more information than I will ever amass, you can refer to the Candle Making … [Read more...]
Powertex Abstract Figures
After I had been to a few Powertex workshops, I decided to buy some supplies so that I could make things at home as well. I also bought a few books for inspiration and decided to try out some of the designs so that I could practice different techniques. Although my preference is usually things that are nature inspired and tending more towards realism than abstract, there were a couple of funky abstract figures that caught my eye so I decided to give them a go. These figures used polystyrene … [Read more...]
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