the close of a year .....

The year has almost passed - it certainly snuck up on me.  I haven't posted for about two weeks now since Fiona and I finished our envelope project and I headed off to Noosa for a holiday with Steve and various arrangements of our children, arriving home a couple of days before Christmas.   Normal craziness ensued and now it is settling down a little.

Taking my lead from Fiona  and her post 2012 favourites ..... I decided to post on some of the work I have done this year.  I guess it would be true to say though, that my favourite work of all this year has been my blog.  It has been such fun and through it I have made some very dear and fine creative friends.  I count that as blessing enough for years to come.  Thank you to all of you who have encouraged me in my efforts, who have extended the hand of friendship even beyond the bounds of tracemarks.  A special thanks to Fiona who set up my blog and got me started.

This was the first thing I made this year - a book out of Conkerberry Wood with embossed pages.

I am thinking I will take this book with me as a journal and book to work into when we have our Simpson Desert trip this year.  I have covered much of this ground before going down along the Ghan to the south end of Lake Ayer and then up the Birdsville track.  We had a look at Big Red, just outside Birdsville - the first of hundreds of sand dunes which we will need to traverse to get across the desert.  We will be travelling with a group of experienced four wheel drivers in August 2013. Hopefully I come back with this book filled as an artist's book.  One to hang onto, which speaks of recorded memories.  Good to hang onto those ....

This was the first of the collaborative pieces Fiona and I worked on this year.  The start of something wonderful.

      Between the Mountains

This little piece is not quite finished - a tea bag book on 'A Sense of Place'.
Markings and images I would like to emulate in a series of etchings during 2013.

This is the first of two alphabetical books that I completed this year.  This project was initiated by Fiona and is coordinated by her too.  I am so envious of those who have now completed six alphabets by being in the project for three years.  Hope we continue in 2013.

This book is the second of Fiona's and my collaboration.  This was really hard to make, full of emotion.  It is actually one of my favourite pieces for the year. 

He Loved the Ocean Best

This is a small snippet of my Moeraki Boulders book.  I was thrilled when Helen Cole from the State Library decided to add this book to their collection.

These prints became the starting point for my

                       Standing Stories

                     




                         Standing Stones

 This ex libris project was coordinated by Gael Philips and Wim de Vos - all 31 artists received a boxed set of prints and a couple of boxes have been sold into Collections already.

This is the second of my Alphabets.

And the third of my works with Fiona.

                         e x 13

This is the last of the works I have tackled for 2012 ..... a little personal book about searching for my place.  Not quite there yet .......... 90% finished.  Waiting for words - if they come.


So, tomorrow is the beginning of a new year and I hope for us all it is a year of satisfying and surprising creativity, of family and friendships, maybe even New Beginnings.  Jennifer in one of her recent posts has asked us 'What would you like to do in 2013?'  I will have to give that some thought tonight as we bring in the New Year.