weekday weave


:: working on the WEAVE+WONDER logo...


:: supervising busy hands make a 'long-nosed-rock-bird' for a school assignment...


:: A bit more felt storage basket goodness...


:: cleaning + drying in the sunshine ready for a good work-out on Saturday...


:: surrounded by shells + packaging



:: aquatic shapes ready for mobile making!...


:: fluroescent 'flotsum+jetsom'...


:: painting inspiration


:: exploring pages of underwater wonder...

wouldn't you like to join us on Saturday mornings...I can't think of a better way to start a creative weekend!

inspiration


In the depths of underwater magic preparing for our first Inspiration Series for the year, I thought I would share some of the enchanting current of colour+wonder sweeping us along as we prepare our first class for this Saturday...

:: Isn't the art of Jennifer Maestre (above) and Tobias Tovera (below) just stunning - thinking 'spikey' coral and dreamy water!



:: Artwork from Ida Ekblad inspiring our diorama backgrounds!


:: Dreamy vintage underwater images found at Geninne's Art Blog.


:: This website is fantastic for free vintage printables!


:: And some wonderful ceramics + fluro colour found via Kimmel Kids.

We're so looking forward to this creative adventure and all that the children will dream up! - see you this Saturday morning, 9.30-11.00am at Riverbend Books + Teahouse!

weekend wanderings


A whirlwind weekend of trawling fabric+supplies stores for all the making+class prep going on around here! Throw in some wonderful company and the gift of sharing in a night away, great food, designers markets and vintage clothing fun and you have a jam-packed-buzzing-creative weekend!
Thank you Mel for your encouragement + steadfast support of weave+wonder as well as the fun+inspiration of your company xx

weekday weave

The mix of creativity this week has had a distinct 'flavour of love' yet without much intensionality...we just tumbled in to some heart-magic...

:: my 2.5yr old's favourate colour is red...her activity-of-the-moment is wax crayon drawing+watercolour (red of course!)...when she asked me to draw her family to paint, we quickly scribbled up some 'love', mounted them on red card and displayed for a welcome home surprise from their 'baby' sister!


:: A little more felt-creating to add to the range - I so love working with industrial felt! This stitching is a half-finished banksia branch on a small felt storage box - great for small projects, buttons, cotton reels, bathroom goods, etc...I can always find a use for a good-looking storage box!

:: my project-of-the-moment...mastering the art of making and felting small bowls. I am really enjoying the slow, drawn-out process and am trying to weave it into my everyday. The felting bowl sits ready in the kitchen sink to mix a bit of warm-felt-action amid the working + cleaning + cooking that goes on in continuous cycle around here!



:: Just had to add in a bit of creativity that happens A LOT around here - lego building! This little house and stable kept the youngest busy for three whole hours straight this week!! Ahh the beauty of lego...

:: A treasured place to visit in the country provided a wonderful opportunity for 'rain-dancing!' These are the memories childhood is made of...

:: Full of maternal pride as I watch my daughter so tenderly care for a dear friend's baby...

:: Can never get enough of the inspiration + colour in nature - thank you dear friends for moving to a corner of the country that always puts on a spectacular display!

:: My girls have picked up the felt + wool countless times this week to make these little creations for friends...sending some valentine's love your way this week xx

weekend wanderings

[Gallery of Modern Art Brisbane]

Are you like me and feel that this time of year can go a little crazy in task-mode - steering children back into school routines, figuring out the new work-week schedule for each member of the family - I need as much 'reminding' as I can get around me in these days and so lists and schedules are on my brain!
For all these reasons and more, our family needed to change gears a little this past weekend! I took the older girlies and a friend to GOMA's Matisse Drawing Life exhibition and spent a staggering 3 hours engrossed - so much so, I had to drag them away!

[S sketching + Matisse 'self portrait, ink on paper 1900']

"I have always considered drawing not as an exercise of particular dexterity… but as a means deliberately simplified so as to give simplicity and spontaneity to the expression, which should speak without clumsiness, directly to the mind of the spectator." Henri Matisse

[E sketches - Matisse 'nude seated with crossed legs 11 1941-42']

[girls sketching in middle of gallery floor + Matisse 'the swan etching 1931-32']

[S was enamoured with a french story book so she copied out a whole page, illustration and all!]

As we began our wandering, the girls remarked 'oh, is it just sketches...'. I became a bit nervous that it would be a very 'quick' wander! 'Lets pick our favourate sketch in each room and draw it, I suggested' and they began a little reluctantly. But with a LOT of encouragement, banning the use of the eraser and noticing Mattise own quote that he drew one scene over 3000 times before completing the work - 3000!! they got right into it! I encouraged that each of their sketches was part of a process of training the eye to 'see' and even when their sketch didn't quite resemble the origional I would remind them that Matisse probably thought that about many of these sketches - thats why he drew and drew again!!
The gallery was crowded and visitors had to step over or around my busy and engaged girls - most with encouraging whispers or broad smiles! Our 'experiencing' of the art drew much interest and yet the children were lost in a world of their own creating.

[E sketching in the drawing room + Matisse 'face of a woman 1935']

"If I trust my drawing hand it is because in training it to serve me, I forced myself never to let it take precedence over my feelings." Henri Matisse

[E's version of Matisse 'dancers']


We ended in the Drawing Room and it was here that even the offer of hot chocolate+biscuits failed to entice! They drew on, by easel, stool and electronic tablet..a teacher visiting Brisbane just for the exhibit took photographs of the girls work + at work - 'the richest way to spend an afternoon, well done' she encouraged yet actually, it was really no effort, for I was simply living what I love and sharing it with my children. Something I think we must remember to live out often as parents...a key to growing passionate, creative and inquisitive children...
If you enjoy a slow wander through the art gallery, I'd encourage you to take your children, a few pencils and paper and a lot of encouragement and enjoy this wonderful exhibit - its only on until 4th March 2012! And if art is not really your thing, then how about sharing a little of your passions with your children this weekend...

[the extraordinary view from the Drawing room cafe]

[S's sketching]

"Drawing is like making an expressive gesture with the advantage of permanence." Henri Matisse

first classes for 2012!

WEAVE+WONDER
art+craft+books classes presents in 2012!


When siblings are running off to sport or dance on a Saturday morning, WEAVE+WONDER would like to offer a creativity class with a difference! Partnering with Riverbend Books + Teahouse:

Four week inspiration series exploring sculpture, jewelery+mobile making, painting + diorama. We have taken our inspiration for this series from summer at the beach + the barrier reef – we will be creating an underwater wonderland!

Commencing Saturday morning 9.00am-10.30am 3rd March 2012
For ages 6-12 [$100 for four week series]
Hurry and book this creative experience now, places fill VERY quickly!

Coming up for WEAVE+WONDER
Our ever-popular school holiday workshops!
Easter theme exploring mixed media, including painting+sculpture+3d modeling+weaving!
Two wonderful venues! Dates and bookings to be released soon!

weekday weave

Here are a few out-takes from our recent creative bustle! Thought you might like a sneek-peek into the creative goodness we are putting together for your children! As well as class prep, I am carving out time this year to focus on a little making of my own and have some exciting projects in the works to share with you in time...









a few things: paris

I apologise for the long pauses in this space - we are extreemely busy gathering materials + inspiration for our upcoming series - I hope to release a newsletter in the next week detailing the exciting classes coming up! In the mean time, I have been wandering through my photos from my recent trip and realised that I missed posting about one of the highlights, read on...

Oh how I love the ease with which everything is 'close' in Europe! Culture-hopping is the norm on any given weekend for adventure-lovers and though my back-packing days are behind me, we did have reason to visit Paris on my recent trip - meeting new family for the first time! We fumbled our way through language barriers and I was thoroughly spoiled by their hospitality. Here are a little of my wanderings, it often takes the unfamiliar beauty of new/old surroundings to inspire creativity...


:: castles...even in suburbia


:: The Louvre...art+architecture+age=perfection!


:: In somewhat gaudy contrast, the christmas carnival of the Champs-Élysées


:: love the retro metro!


:: we were lucky enough to enjoy local family hospitality while in Paris - the food was some of the most extraordinary I have ever eaten! There is a unique attention to and enjoyment of good food+wine here - a reminder to make every meal a celebration - there is such creativity in food!




:: charmed by the cafe-culture - our wanderings punctuated by which cafe to have our next aperitif at!



:: Art is romanticised in the streets and given serious attention in boutique galleries (this is a piece my brother is considering purchasing by french artist Francoise Nielly)



:: and then there is the decidedly romantic and uniquely parisian architecture - I just couldn't get enough of it - I attempted to capture it with a dream-like over-exposure on this wandering, just how I was feeling this day..




:: Yes, the quintiesential Eiffel tower photograph... my second daughter is quite enamoured with the steel masterpiece and required a close up - of course you don't need me in focus, just the stunning night-lights! As irony would have it though, on the night we visited friends living nearby, the tip of the imposing structure was engulfed in cloud! I love this photo it makes me smile!