I’ve put up some freebies on my webpage, some photos specifically for my Facebook fans. I’ve created a range of cover photos for use on facebook timelines. Feel free to download (instructions are on the link) and share around. Cheers.
http://wawabyjohnah.com/freebies
Hi everyone
Just letting you know that I will no longer be putting posts up on this page as I have now got my own website. The website houses my blog, and also showcases my photography. You can also purchase prints and framed prints direct from me there as well. The website can be found here- WaWa by Johnah.
Thank you for all your support. Head on over and have a look around, let me know what you think. Please follow my new pages to continue to get updates about my photography.
Have a great day
Johnah
I haven’t been updating this blog of late as I’ve been working on some new projects to sell at a fete I’m off to next weekend.
I saw a tutorial for Japanese origami kusudama balls on a website and decided I’d make one. I used newspaper and folded the individual petals for the first flower and then glued them together. It looked good, so I continued and made another eleven, the amount required to create a complete kusudama ball. It wasn’t until the last one that I realised I had put an extra petal in every one of my flowers, so they wouldn’t fit together properly to make the ball I had intented to create.
No worries, I actually liked them as single flower anyway. But I wasn’t a big fan of the newspaper look. Nothing a bit of silver spray paint wouldn’t fix. I tested it with one, and liked the result so sprayed the rest. I then used some wire and black raffia to make a stem for each flower, put it in place and was happy with the end product. Well that was until I saw some black and chrome coloured rhinestones in the craft section at a local shop. Bought one packet, took them home and tried them out as the flower centre. Perfect!
I am very happy about how they turned out. I’ve got some to sell at the markets and have also put them up for sale on my etsy store as well- Kusudama Flowers. I think they’d also look good in gold, and I’m open to custom colours, if you have a different preference. Just send me an email to wawabyjohnah@gmail.com and I’ll see what I can do. I hope you like these flowers as much as I do.
Have an awesome weekend. Catch you later
I love unique art works, mixed media, textures and all that but the cost of some art supplies is way out of my budget to use on a regular basis. Even decent paint is sometimes means scrimping for weeks. But I have found a cheap and fantastic alternative to modelling paste that anyone can use.
My prize winning and most popular painting Sunset After Storm has a textured bottom half. I watched a tv show where the artist used modelling paste to created a textured canvas to paint on. I was only working casually at the time I saw this, money was scarce so I did some thinking and came up with an idea. (I happened to also come across the same technique at an art shop I visited around the time too- Must have been a sign!).
So here’s what I used. I mixed PVA glue and plaster of paris powder to a consistancy similar to modelling paste and off I went. I spread it over the bottom half of my canvas in a rough, lumpy pattern and let it dry. Then I painted over it. And wollah, you have the finished product
Beware- the mix dries really quickly in contact with air, so make it in small batches. Make sure you create your texture or pattern in the plaster/glue mix quickly also, otherwise it will harden wherever and however you put it on the canvas. Also be aware of what container you use as the mix can stick to it and become a pain to remove. I use old yoghurt containers or such that I can just throw them away afterwards.
If you use this technique, I’d love to see your end results so feel free to link a pic of you work to this post. Happy creating.
Have the best day ever
Johnah
I went for a leisurely drive out to Byng over the Long Weekend. I had been there many years ago and taken photos, but I must have lost the film, because I don’t ever remember seeing the processed prints.
The drive to Byng was interesting in itself. About a third of the trip was dirt, and a couple of kilometres of this were through a large property/farm. I don’t often drive on roads where cattle are free to wander onto the road- I was driving through their paddock!
I love old churches and cemeteries. The character and architecture of them is stunning and they hold much of the history of long forgotten villages and towns. I am amazed at how many still stand, even though they are over a hundred years old and rarely used any more. The current Byng Uniting church was built in 1872, to replace the Wesleyan Chapel that was a few hundred metres away. I’m not sure what happened to the Chapel, either it became too small for a bustling village or fell down.
The church stone is an acid volcanic rock known as tuff, produced by the consolidation of volcanic ash and other volcanic fragments found around volcanic openings. It is porous and is not subject to salt attack like sandstone. Tuff is a reasonably common local stone and, from a distance, resembles yellowblock sandstone in appearance (More Byng History).
The church has some interesting features, including some intricate sculptural aspects above the windows. It also includes an outdoor toilet, aka a ‘long drop’, out the back.
Across the road from the church is the cemetery. The cemetery contains the graves of many early settlers and their descendants. One of the people burried there is William Tom, the first discoverer of gold in Australia.
Some further information on Byng–
Byng, near Orange NSW, was originally named ‘Cornish Village’ after the original Cornish settlers who brought the first fruit trees from Cornwall and gave birth to the Orange district’s fruit industry on the ‘Pendarvis’ property. Apples were produced in Byng for over 100 years but now there are mainly cattle, sheep and a little cropping. At its peak, Byng village had around 600 residents.
The Church and the cemetery are all that remain of the original village.
Websites of interest:
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© WaWa by Johnah (Sarah Donoghue)
WaWa by Johnah 