A4 Art Exhibition and more Gelli Plate prints

 With some encouragement from a fellow member of Break O'Day Stitchers, with whom I had shared some of my collages, I sent off two pieces of A4 art to be part of the A4 Art Exhibition which is held at the Herring Island Art Gallery.

A4 Art Exhibition Invitation 2026

After the physical exhibition is over then the artwork is displayed online. Once the online section is finished then any unsold artwork is returned to the artist. Fingers crossed that someone might like a little piece of my art but if not then it will have been fun just having in hung amongst the other 628 artworks.

Both pieces were inspired by my gelli plate printing and collage work. I am still having a ball exploring what can be done with stencils, masks, natural objects and paint with my gelli plate. I have created quite a few art postcards and pages in my hand made ideas book.

Knotted birds with another collage fodder flower on this piece of printed paper

Knotted birds, ascemic writing and overlapping collage pieces

A bit if fun with a cutout folding section here. I used texture paste for the leaves.

With the fold out section open

Have you ever entered some creative work into an exhibition? How did it feel? Did you sell any of your work? Please leave a comment sharing your thoughts.

Creating with Paper

 A very long time between posts. Lots of creating has been happening but the chance to blog without it taking forever has only just been resolved.

The purchase of a Gelli plate late last year has lead to the creation of many pieces of paper for collage and card making. It is so much fun to add paint and layer up the paper. The end result is often unpredicatable and that just makes it more interesting.

One of my early card creations using gelli plate paper and texture paste.
Leaf card © 2025 by MrsSOnline is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

A designed by me stencil used with the gelli plate as a card background.
Feather card © 2025 by MrsSOnline is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

There are so many different techniques out there for using this art supply that it can quickly become overwhelming. I like to use mine with stencils I have designed and cut with my Cricut, found objects, masks and now have a very big stash of collage paper.

I have used the paper for making some collage books. the first book was called Come into My Garden. Along with collage papers I created flowers with cut outs and also composed a poem to go with the book. My poem is by no way fine writing but was fun to create. It is a diamante which does not stick completely to the format as it does not contrast opposites but goes from the specific to general - flower to garden. Creating each page was fun and learning about collage fodder was an added bonus.

Some artist trading cards have also been created using the papers along with more collage fodder ideas.

Artist trading card.
Trading card © 2025 by MrsSOnline is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Collage poster
Collage Poster © 2025 by MrsSOnline is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Another book has just been finished and this one has knotted paper birds throughout. The knotted paper birds led to me experimenting with doing gelli prints on the back on some Japanese paper scraps. I love how each idea leads to new experiments and different results.

Have you tried Gelli plate printing? What would you make with your papers? Please leave a comment sharing your thoughts.

Winter Sun = Fun with my Camera

 Every now and then we get stunning still sunny winter days and this week we found ourselves enjoying one while exploring the Lagoons Beach camping area. I loved wandering the beach with my camera.

Winter Beach Fun by  MrsSOnline is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

The tiny hooded plovers dart all over the beach and are very hard to get a photo that shows them anything other than tiny dots. I am lucky to own a reasonable zoom lens that helps 😊 Post photo cropping is then useful as well.

Hooded Plovers Uncropped by  MrsSOnline is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

So with some cropping the above photo becomes a little more focused on the birds rather than the sand bank behind them.

Hooded Plovers Cropped by  MrsSOnline is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

What do you enjoy doing on sunny winter days? Please leave a comment sharing your thoughts.

Temperature Stitching

Have you seen some of the fantastic temperature blankets being shared online? They record the daily temperatures of a place over time.

I was inspired by these to start a temperature stitching. My stitching will record the daily maximum and minimum temperatures for the year.

Temperature Stitching by MrsSOnline is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Each row is 7 days of data and each vesica piscis is a record of the maximum daily temperature and the lines surrounding the vesica piscis are a record of the minimum daily temperature.

I created a key with each colour representing a band of temperatures and have created spreadsheet to work from so that if I get a little behind with the stitching I can come back to it later.

Temperature Stitching Key by MrsSOnline is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

As I stitch, it is great to see the colour changes occurring as we move through the seasons. Hopefully I will keep up and by the end of the year will have a colourful record of our daily temperature changes over time.

Have you ever created a temperature blanket? What other data could be used to create a stitching record over time? Please leave a comment sharing your thoughts.

Larger Silk Fibre bowl

Large Silk Fibre Bowl by MrsSOnline is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

 I have done some more experimenting with wash away stabiliser and a larger mould to create a bigger bowl. I had a string of LED lights that curled up very nicely inside.

I learnt that I needed a larger piece of stabiliser to make the sides of the bowl taller. I also needed to start my leaf stitching further away from the base of the bowl as much of the stitching is hidden.

I loved using a rainbow of colours with my silk fibre and was very pleased with the end result.

Creating Leaves with Silk Fibres

 

Leaf by MrsSOnline is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

I have continued my experiments with fabric and thread. I created some leaves with wash away stabiliser, silk fibres and some ORT which were then couched onto a background. 

The background was an experiment with sharpie pens and Isopropyl alcohol where I drew on some calico with the sharpie pens and then applied the Isopropyl alcohol to spread the Sharpie colour across the fabric. I used a large embroidery hoop to stretch the fabric and hold it away from other surfaces while the pigment was being drawn across the fabric with the spreading of the Isopropyl alcohol. An interesting process! Very smelly and best done in a well ventilated area.

With this piece of stitching I also added some lettering which was stitched over with stem stitch and few more smaller stitched leaves to cover an area of the background that was not quite right.

Last of all I add some french knots and other stitches at the bottom of the work before declaring it finished. It was placed in an 8 inch hoop to be hung somewhere.

Have you tried dying fabric? What did you use and how did it work out? Please leave a comment sharing your thoughts.

Through the Lens - Beach times

We have now started to settle in to travelling with a caravan that was a 10 month wait before getting it as the time for new builds for caravans at present are long. So far only going on relatively short trips as we work out what is essential to have with us before embarking on the long term plan of seeing more of OZ. On one of our trips we did an overnight stopover at Chain of Lagoons camping area on the East Coast of Tassie. A fantastic self contained free camping area right near the beach. Loved taking photos of the beach and creek that runs out onto the beach.

Chain of Lagoons by MrsSOnline is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

The bright blue float sacs of the bluebottle jellyfish washed up in the waves as we were walking along the beach. They are a summer occurrence on East Coast beaches especially when the easterly winds move them towards the shore. We have had more easterly winds this summer than in previous summers but there will always be a period of time during the summer when people will see these bright blue jellyfish washed up on the beach. They can give a painful sting if you come in contact with them and treatment for the stings include washing off the stinging cells with salt water and then using hot water to reduce the effect of the sting. Do not use vinegar to treat the sting. 

The little birds are hooded plovers and they live on the sandy beaches making their nests as scrapes in the sand or the dunes that might be behind the beach.