Freshly Found at artSPACE Pop Up

We are really looking forward to being part of the I Love Pop Up Shop again.  Gen Motley is hosting the event in the Millar Road artSPACE -the cool gallery housed in a warehouse in a light industrial area in Durban.  

The special opening is on Monday night at 6.30pm.  A host of Durban creatives will be there.  The shop will be open until the 15th June.
See you there! RSVP here

Tickled...

I have grown quite passsionate about paper - in particular book paper.  I have learnt that each page has a grain, some pages are firm and flexible, while others are fragile and brittle and I am fascinated by the way books age from white to deep cream.

We have started to dye book paper with red ink.  These variations in colour have made such beautiful results.  Same ink bath - different book pages- many delightful shades :-) 

Heart Leaf Heart

Every year, when the trees are finished using their leaves, they throw piles of them onto the grass in our garden, I like to pick some of them up and use them again!

This year I made some goodies for friends.

I cut heart shapes out of the leaves, before pressing them under a pile of books.

In this momento, I layered 3 pressed leaves, with a heart shape cut out of the top one only, and the rich rust-red leaf in the middle showing through.  I used a little wood glue to keep everything together and tied it with a ribbon.  

I attached a handwritten tag and gave it to a friend for her birthday.  She invited us to breakfast, and specifically asked for no gifts, just a message from each of us.

I made this wedding card for other friends.  The background was a watercolour print I found in a book waiting to be recycled. 

Gentle Gentian

Today we are going to be making up a large batch of paper boutonnieres or buttonholes.  It reminded me of some we made a while ago.  We had 2 weddings with a similar colour theme, and used gentian violet to dye the paper.  

Gentian violet has a few medical and scientific applications, but did you know that it can be used in solving crimes too? More about that later...  

It's always fun and a privilege to be part of the excitement of a wedding. We made up the musical origami lilies for the men at delightful Barbara's wedding.  And then we had a batch of proteas for Jan's wedding too. We're looking forward to the pics from both.  [We so appreciate the brides who send us pics.] 

It was so rewarding to work with a solution of lovely gentian to dye the different papers.  In my search to see how others have used this liquid lavender, I was intrigued to find that it can be used to pick up latent finger prints.  So if you are a forensic investigator at heart, have a look here to see how it can be done!

Vintage Composer Tapestries

This gorgeous duo are for sale in the Freshly Found online store.  Lovely vintage finds, they are mounted, but not framed, so will mail easily! 

Ok - so I am going to own up to being a real phillistine.  I know that the guy on the left is Schubert. But any ideas on the name of the muso on the right?  
[By the way Durbanites, don't you love the vintage view of Durban from the Berea on the postcard in the middle!]