Misty camping

                                          fresh snow gum leaves

                                           me sketching leaves by our camp fire, its a bit cold!

                                          Tarpology!

                                                   hot Jaffles for lunch

Here are some shots from our last trip up into the Blue Mountains. It was a little cool in the mornings with the mist lifting over the valley. There is a lovely ridge here called Mt Cloudmaker - very romantic name!

Sale 20% off ALL mobiles in my Etsy shop until December 10%!
PUKA PUKA ETSY SHOP

trees

I have been doing some printmaking lately - theae are some of my recent etchings inspired by trees and reefs.  Some greens and blues somehow make the etchings glow.
I love printmaking, the smell of the inks, rolling the prints through the press, and the surprise at the end.

new stuff

heres a new mobile, soft plywood shapes with a dash of orange. I have had the plywood sanded and ready to go for a while but just got inspired today to make one.
I might make a pinkish one next to match my new hair:

new polka dot mobile- circus colours

Fresh mobile - bright circus inspired colours of pink, orange, green, deep yellow, citrus yellow, blues set against white and pale grey.

Now available in my Puka Puka Shop

jewellery : Robert Smit

Robert Smit is one of my favourite jewellers, I love how he uses gold sheet, lots of it. Sometimes his work is really graphic, with pigment painted onto the gold sheet.

 

images from the Jewels of Mind and Mentality Exhibition catalogue , 2000

If you live in melbourne you can see some of his work in the Unexpected Pleasures exhibition at NGV International until the end of August - a huge exhibition of international jewellers. Its pretty dark and moody in the exhibition and easy to miss some work.

Robert SMIT

Delft, The Netherlands born 1941



Bello's presence V 2003

• neckpiece

Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands
Decorative Arts and Design, Jewellery, gold, silver, zinc, paint
14.8 h x 14.5 w x 0.7 d cm
Purchased 2005
Accession No: NGA 2005.353
Photographer: Robert Smit

MORE DETAIL

---

Robert Smit’s jewellery acknowledges gold’s tradition as a medium of exchange and its historical role in Dutch prosperity, but he subverts these references with an approach to design and surface that links his work to the country’s more recent history of experimental design and art. The organisation of colour fields and the constructivist flavour of Smit’s work has references to the japonisme of Van Gogh, the rationalist abstractions of Mondrian, and the artists and designers of De Stijl. The influence of the COBRA art movement of the 1950s is also evident in his gestural use of saturated colour. By painting over the meticulously crafted gold structure of Bello’s presence V, then scoring through the surface to reveal patches of the precious material beneath, Smit practices a form of reverse alchemy, negating the expressive qualities of gold and the symbolic power of its display. Importantly, Smit leaves the reverse of the piece unpainted, to cast its richness and lustre privately back on to the wearer rather than towards the viewer.

Text © National Gallery of Australia, Canberra 2010 

Sleeping Beauty by Robert Smit, ca.1990, gold pendant and chain.

 

textures

We have lots of walls in our garden , some of which are covered in wonderful flowering vines. I love watching the shadows and the colours change over the seasons. I am toying with the idea of making some vertical planted walls now spring is coming. This cactus wall is like a mini world, reminds me of being underwater and floating over coral.

I love this idea of the cactus wall from flora grub who has  DIY kit for making one. I would like to build an outdoor shower, how awesome to have a green wall surrounding it, not a panel in a frame but a solid wall. At least if you make one with cactuses they don't need a hydroponic system to water and fertilize them.

This is a lovely idea too, from flora grub - air plants that can be attached minimally to your wall.

spirit garden

This is the work of architect Masayo Ave, an installation called Spirit Garden in Tokyo. It looks magical, a little mysterious and full of life.

and this is another of her designs, a curled plywood screen wall- beautiful::

Ply-cell-wall

material: experimented plywood

designed with Lorena Brovida, Nicolas Verbrugghe

MasayoAve creation

2009

fingers crossed

My finger is getting better  helped along by my neon brace. Maybe I should add some fluro felt balls to it!

I had a nice feature on we wish :
http://www.wewish.com.au/homewares/6158/puka-puka-mobiles/