October Review

Time to share my completed October monthly journal and I've decided to include a review of all I've been doing during the month. I began October by completing this gorgeous book which has it's own blog post and more photos here. 

It was our school holidays for the first 2 weeks of October. I had a wonderful time getting started with Gelli printing lessons with Rebecca Sower in Fodder School 2. Although I adore colour, I'm especially happy with my neutrals since I often forget to print these.

See my other printed papers from this session on Instagram here or my FB Artist page. I haven't managed to do Rebecca's project which is making framed collages (I love the ones Lucie Duclos made, and check out Megan Quinlan's results) but I know our next teacher, Drew Stenbrecher, is also a gelli print artist and will have more ideas. Plus I have papers and projects from Fodder School 1 which I can have fun combining when I get the urge.

I managed to finish some more cards created from this master sheet with inspiration from Laly Mille using metallic watercolours. I really enjoy what happens when you cut a master sheet into smaller pieces and can appreciate beautiful details.

My base file folder colour for October was Green. I used a piece of the master sheet above on the cover

and a few techniques from fodder school 1 for the base pages. 

Stencil layers on a sticker sheet begins 2 spreads 

I was really lucky this month to have some trips away to our national quilt symposium and the annual WOW - World of Wearable Art - show - incredible. Lots of artistic creative goodness to fill me up.

My art in my monthly journal is created in response to Effy Wild's Journal 52 cards for 2022. My rules : each piece will include stitch, a found word, and be inspired by the project I've been working on that week or what's lying leftover on my work table. You can get access to the prompts by joining Effy's Wilderhood group on FB or subscribe to her newsletter. 

Week 39 : Harvest. Spring in New Zealand - harvesting lemons and eating delicious asparagus

 

Week 40 : Tender. I adore Klimt and was thrilled to purchase some lovely papers during my holidays. This image is a favourite of mine, perfectly representing the word "Tender". I also used some of my gelli prints (mentioned in the session above)

Week 41 : Dissent. With a nod to the collars of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. 

Week 42 : Believe. Struggling these last couple of weeks to be motivated to make art and that must be why my face looks a bit sad. Face Stencil by Dina Wakley.  This prompt was a reminder to believe this is just a temporary state for me and the feather is a reminder to be gentle with myself. 

My back cover included a piece of one of my book pages from the beginning of the month. It will be an instant reminder of that project when I see this.

In general, I've been struggling to be as excited about my monthly journal - it's a big commitment to do the same format for a whole year. I decided to take a photo of them all together so far, and that has motivated me to not give up on completing this project for the last 2 months of the year so you will see one for November (Yellow) and December (Red).

However, when Megan Quinlan announced her new class Journal into Your Art I decided to take the leap and join with the early bird price and my subscriber's discount (Get the subscriber discount code if you sign up to her newsletter - this extra discount available until 31 October - and early bird discount until 6 November). 

See her video on Youtube about this class here. So far I have watched all the videos and got re-enthused about my stencil collection and how I can use this class to reignite my art journal practice. Watch this space....

Writing this post was good for me as I realised that I've actually had a really creative month, even though I don't have many finished projects to share. It's been a month for absorbing lots of new ideas and filling my creative cup. And writing that reminded me that another thing that happened this month was a free livestream weekend to promote the new Wanderlust 2023 class (only $99 USD until 31 October). 

I watched some really cool sessions with Claudette Hasenjager, Francisca Nunes, Rachel Greig, and I really related to the conversation that Kasia had with Consie Sindet - it is still up on youtube HERE as I publish this post (and there's a link to join Wanderlust there). My takeaway reminder from this : A Daily Art Practice doesn't have to be just doing. It includes being inspired by watching a class, listening to an interview, reading a book or magazine, checking up on insta/FB posts, touching supplies and thinking about what's next. On that basis I definitely have an almost daily art practice. I saved this a while ago and it's so good : 

Only 9 weeks left of the year! Remember to make time for creativity and self-care 💜  See more regular postings from me on my FB artist page and Instagram.