Incredible use of teacups, etc.

I first saw this artists work quite a while back. I fell in love with it and found it purely awe inspiring. I'm sure some of you have seen images of the work already.

The name of the artist is Li Xiaofeng. I've pasted images below of his work along with a statement about his work. I have also included the link to a website that has a really great interview with the artist.

Who knew what could be achieve with broken teacups and plates...

http://www.yatzer.com/feed_2254_porcelain_polo_shirt_by_li_xiaofeng

Li Xiaofeng trained as a muralist but  turned to sculpture to explore a new concept and expression of Chinese landscapes. His choice of material is unexpected; instead of marble, wood or even glass, he  prefers buying shards of broken porcelain recovered from ancient archeological digs, some dating from the Ming Dynasty, and then shaping and polishing them, drilling holes into each corner and linking them together with silver wire to create ’rearranged landscapes’. It is fitting that these poetic pieces, which have been perhaps best described as ‘post-orientalism’, usually take the form of clothing, including traditional Chinese dresses and jackets as well as neckties and military uniforms. They are ultimately ‘wearable’ although certainly promise to be as heavy as any armour and would require a strong retinue of dressers to don and doff.

Alice in Wonderland themed student work

I decided all my art students would work to a set theme this semester. It allows students to become fully immersed in the topic, as they see what other classes are doing and feel a connection to the work.

The theme is Alice in Wonderland. The students absolutely love it.

My year 7's are making paper mache hats and then teapot/teacup clay mobiles.
My year 8's are  making patterned teacups/teapots in watercolour and pen and ink. They are then making clay mushrooms.
My other year 8's are making 'Alice' clay characters plants that have their own facial characteristics.
My year 9s are making teacup/teapot collages and then 3D teacups/teapots.
My year 10's are painting an Alice in Wonderland theme mural and then making giant concrete painted teacups.

During the course writing I have done lots and lots of reserach. I have found some really great images along the way and want to share some with you. I'm also hoping to get permission from my school to be able to post photos of students artwork on here as well.

Below are some images of the fantastic teacups I've discovered in my searching.

Photos of myself with my sewing machines

I needed to get some photos taken of myself and my sewing machines for some work that I have been doing. I got my husband to take these for me today.

The machine on the right is called 'Barry the Bernina' then there is 'Bettina the Bernina' in the middle and the overlocked is called 'Brian the Bernina'.

Barry used to be a high school sewing machine who had a very hard life. He then got a second chance when my mum bought him and had him for about 10 years. Barry then got passed down through the family to me. Barry and I have had a good relationship over the years, he can sew through anything and I don't think I could break him if I tried. He caught on fire once and had smoke pouring out the top of him. We simply pulled out the burnt bits, put him back together and he hasn't missed a beat since. He just goes a little bit slower, he is fairly old so this is understandable.

Bettina was purchased around the time of the 'great Barry fire'. No offence to Barry but I decided it was time to have a second machine and one that was a bit more modern. I generally swap between the two machines I"m working.

Brian is the latest addition to the family and is more of a 'get down to the hard work' kind of machine. He's a no mess kind of machine. Hard worker, but not much personality.

I love my machines, I can honestly say that Bernina are the best machines I have ever used. Being a teacher, schools often have different brands of machines. I come back to the Bernina every time as the most reliable, tough, hard wearing and easy to use machines. My school has 25 Bernina sewing machines and 3 Bernina overlockers. It suits me perfectly.

All five of my aunties have Bernina's and my Dad even has his own. He uses his for making truck tarps and silo covers.

I think you get the point by now as to what type of machines I like.

This is one of the better photos. I hate smiling for photos.

I thought I'd include this one to show how the whole family 

was trying to help out.

My work in an exhibition at Pepper Street Gallery

Below is a digital version of the invite for an exhibition called 'In your backyard'. I have a piece of work in this exhibition, the gallery details are on the invite.

How I work through an idea- Part 6

After pages and pages of planning I eventually make the final piece. Please note as I said earlier, I only show a portion of the pages here as the others still contain ideas I wish to explore further. I have only shown approximately 1/3 of the pages I actually completed.

Below is the finished work. I'm rather fond of this piece, you will notice it is the header on my blog and it also features on items such as my business card.

Please let me know if you have any questions regarding the process I have documented in these past few posts.

Paper collection

I was cleaning in my studio last week and found some of my paper collection. Over the years I have bought pieces of paper always intending to use them for something. As with lots of my collections, I never actually use the items and they just get stored away. The images below are of just a few of the papers I have waiting to be used.