Materialistic -sustainable art exhibition

Dare I Brooch It?
I've been developing my sustainable brooch line, Dare I Brooch it?,  for the upcoming art exhibition "materialistic" at Reverse Garbage.

I will have about 20 brooches on display.

Each one is unique, each one is handmade, each one is created by up-cycling domestic and industrial materials.

Here is a sneak preview....

... and here are the details.
If you live in Brisbane I hope you can make it along.

Linking up at these sites:
Craft-O-Maniac: Monday Link Party
C.R.A.F.T- Making Monday Marvelous
Debbie Doos Blogging and Babbling - Newbie Party
Homemaker on a Dime
Homework
Sugar Bee Crafts
Keeping It Simple
Tatertots and Jello: Weekend Wrap-up Party
Day & Age Design
Serenity Now

X-Ray Art for Children inspired by Aboriginal Art

This is a great activity I developed and published previously.

It received much interest, so here it is for the first time on my new blog,  Elle and Lou.

 If you enjoy it please follow along for more

 children's art ideas-especially ones that incorporate recycling!

Check out these crazy flip flop fish.

They are made from recycled thongs bases.

This images are inspired by Australian Aboriginal X-ray Art.

This style of art has been documented to have been around for at least 4000 years.

The X-ray style features organs, bones and wonderful patterns as you can see in the examples below.

From Wiki Commons Fir0002/Flagstaffotos

Our goal was not to copy the Aboriginal art style but to appreciate the imagery and history of the indigenous works.

Long neck Turtle

The thong is almost as Aussie as a Vegemite. It is a contemporary icon that exemplifies our laid back lifestyle and as such it seemed a  perfect choice of 'canvas'.

These flip flop fish were completed with pencil and texta in colours that are reminiscent of the ochres used on the x-ray bark paintings. We discussed what the students might consider including and they decided that pattern, a spine, ribs etc and maybe an organ or two could be useful but was not a prerequisite. 

If you were integrating with science or simply wanted to link more closely with biology the students could research animal organs etc or conduct a dissection first (my husband is a science teacher so he gets really excited about this part).

They look great displayed together and the primary students were intrigued to go a find out more about  Aboriginal art. 


If you want to replicate this you could use any old shoe base- so you are recycling too-what can be better?

Like this? Follow along:
http://www.facebook.com/ElleandLou
https://twitter.com/#!/ElleandLou

I'm pleased to be sharing this post:

Furniture Reno - Chest of Drawers

When it comes to covering books with adhesive contact paper I am the bees cankles...dismal!

Maybe contact paper was never really meant for books anyway.

It is great on furniture though as I recently discovered.

The Bargain: I picked up this brand new chest of draws, which was reduced to $30 (from $100) due to the damage on the front of the drawers.

 The Process:  A quick trip to Reverse Garbage for some contact adhesive for $4.
I took off the handles. Traced around the draws on the contact and then added some extra  to fold over the edges. I started on one end of the draw and used a squeegee to push out the bubbles as I pulled away the the backing. After trimming of the excess with a kraft knife, I folded over the edges. Reattached the handles and  finally I put the drawers back in. 


The Verdict: The contact is so glossy it looks like a 2 pack finish.
Now I have some storage space in my studio - all for $34.   I'm wrapt! (literally)

Linking up this Elle and Lou post with:

Release Me Create

Filthy to fabulous - Bathroom renovation

There are a lot of things I take for granted.

 But my bathroom isn't one of them...

and this is the reason why.

A Sad Beginning.

When we bought this 100 year old cottage back in 1999 it had been a rental. 

The poor neglected thing had been let to uni students (like myself) for the better part of 20 years.  Our house was known as "the party house".

That is 20 years of uni parties...drunken, naughty, nasty uni parties.

I'm pretty sure it didn't get cleaned..EVER!

Tiny filthy steps.

In any case, we made BIG improvements and  so the bathroom looked like this...

Hours and hours were invested in this room to make it look this good-honest!


Despite our best efforts it still leaked in all directions. Visitors thought that the ceiling was grey paint,  but that was actually the bleach resistant mould silently pervading the room.


We lived with with this fungal freak-land of a  bathroom for 10 years...10 long years! 
The low light was spending hours and hours in this room with my toilet training toddler. Uhggg! As a tribute to this special time, in this special room, I made a feature of the Cushy Tooshie as you can see in the photo above.

Fabulous at last.

Two years ago we counted our saved pennies, took a deep breath and dove into an extension and renovation project.

We moved our bathroom to the west side of the house and positioned it facing the backyard. It is now a room with a view.

It is so relaxing to lie in the bath, almost nestled in the tree tops, and gaze out at the view.

As for the loo?

I was proud to hang the Cushy Tooshie on this wall when toilet training our 2nd child.

Incidentally, the ceiling is white... like a ceiling SHOULD be.

I never get tired of noticing the small things...

 like the light hitting the wall through the shower curtain creating patterns,

 or the still life outside the window...

I know it took over a decade to get it

 (and it actually isn't quite finished there is still some tweaking to do)

 but it certainly was worth it the wait!

Linking up this Elle and Lou post with:
Whipperberry
Chicks on a Shoestring