Em's Feijoa Jam

We have been very busy making feijoa jam for everyone for Christmas! During the year we harvested kilos of feijoas from the in-laws tree and froze the pulp after scooping it into containers. A few weekends ago we thawed them to make the jam. We had a little trouble with getting it to set. Now, after much research we know feijoas don't have much pectin, which is needed to get it to set nicely. Some of our batches worked out ok but the big batch we did needed some jam setter (which is pectin) added. Next time we want to try adding apple, a fruit high in pectin. I also experimented with using gelatine, which worked but it needs to be kept in the fridge.

Things we learnt:
-Use the right amount of sugar (usually same ration as fruit)
-Add lemon juice (jam needs acidic acid to help set)
-Use jam setter to help set fruit jams low in pectin or add other high-pectin fruits like apple
-Do not over cook jam (it will caramelise and become very sweet tasting, taking the freah fruit taste away)

Feijoa Jam

 1kg Feijoa, peeled
1/3 cup water
800g -1kg sugar
1tsp ginger powder
3Tbs lemon juice

Bring water and feijoa to the boil in a pan, and cook until the fruit is tender. Add sugar, lemon juice and ginger and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Boil until the jam will set. Test by spreading a spoonful of jam on a cold plate (start testing after about 10 minutes of cooking time). Bottle in hot sterilised jars while the mixture is hot.

To sterilise jars
Preheat oven to 120C. Clean jars well with hot soapy water and rinse well. Let drain then place upright on oven tray. Place in oven and heat for 20mins. Fill while hot with hot jam. Boil lids in saucepan for 10mins then let drain.

Em's Redback Spider

I made this red-back spider to go in the shed toilet. I painted some rocks black with red stripes and then twisted copper wire into shape around the rock. Twisting the thick copper wasn't easy. I had to use pliers, which were at times too big to get into the small areas but I persisted and am very happy, albeit a little scared of the outcome. When it was sitting on the bench before it was hung I often gave it a double look. It freaked out our poor nephew who screamed, ran away and cried (oops!). What's an outdoor toilet without a red-back spider!

Eugenia Loli Collages

Eugenia Loli is a collage artist and film maker who creates interesting and sometimes controversial or at least conversational pieces. Some are a bit gross or scary.

"...for the vast majority of my work there's a meaning behind them. I usually do this via presenting a "narrative" scene in my collages, like there's something bigger going on than what's merely depicted. Sometimes the scene is witty or sarcastic, some times it's horrific with a sense of danger or urgency, some times it's chill. I leave it to the viewer's imagination to fill-in the blanks of the story plot. "

For example, read this detailed explanation of her Three Minutes to Nivana artwork. I love the way the new meaning or social comment can be made by combining images. Loli does this cleverly, blending images creatively to create new meaning. She achieves the "look twice" trick, which I love. I like the geometric cuts in some of the work making it look simple but still so effective in creating something new with a different meaning. It is also interesting how the titles of the works can change your perception of the concept, usually deepening the message. I think I also am attracted to her use of vintage looking images! I like so many of her works, so check out her page for more. Some are just so clever.

Very clever and eye-catching works in her Farscapes series. I love how these works can have you staring at them working out all the different parts and the new landscape they create. I love the mix of scale too!

The Wreck

Objective-Obscurity series:

Extremities

Cut-outs

Mind-atleration Series:

Nomalisation

Zimbardo

Modern Citizen (Pothead)

Cature I and II (diptych)

Oh-L-amour series: I obviously love the negative space and depth tricks the galaxy/star pics play on the images as these were my favourites (always love a play with negative space!):

Dependable Relationship

Kundalini

Add caption

"Erinyes" triptych from New-Mythology series

Worshiped-Women series. So many more clever images in this series! Great meanings and comments on women in society!

Speech on past days

Rising Mountain

Gladiolus

All-Fun-Games seriers: Again so many clever comments, only a few here:

Bloomed Joyride Too

Girl with Balloons- so simple but effective use of contrasting bright with B&W

Maker

Fabulous-Gentlemen series:

Faboosh, Part II 

I AM is Pondering the Self

Disappearing-Acts series:

The Droplet that Returned to the Ocean

Reportaz Series:

Dry cleaning

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Rock pictures

Medha Rode's Etsy shop sells these clever and cute artworks made from pebbles, shells and other material along with drawings. Fitting for weddings, engagements, births etc.. They would make good cards too..

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Donovan- mixed media fashion collages

Now York based artist and fashion illustrator Bil Donovan, uses brush and ink and collage in a number of his works for high end fashion, advertising and editorials. His collages are magnificently detailed and awe-inspiring!

Couture Girls- I love the shapes and resist squiggles!!

Collage LnT- Absolutely love these colourful collages  with the clever use of text

Collage Salon Mag

ChaCha

NYTalk 80's

Two Blue Guys- Loving this collage concept

Elle Germany

Paris M.A.G.

T and CAD

Saks-Tst- Love the silhouette look..

Em's recent works

I have been experimenting with different techniques and medium as part of some extra practical art study I have been undertaking. Here are a few recent experiments and workshop outcomes..

Charcoal and eraser- my new favourite technique

First go at watercolour

Pages from my book made from transparent paper, drawing and mark making-  This was lots of fun to experiment with all types of mark making things (rubbings, stamps, stencils etc)

Summer Workshop

 

Summer: This is a number of my final outcomes for a summer workshop. 

I wanted to portray the heat of summer along with the Aussie bush and kids playing

Monotypes, prints and stamps with things such as wallpaper, bubble wrap and leaves.

Monumental Workshop

We drew an object many different ways and get to know it and then divide one of our images into 9 and draw each square in different media. I chose a stapler.

Coloured pencil, collage, ink, graphite pencil, chalk on black paper, charcoal, pastels, paint on newspaper and ink wash over wax candle (each segment is A3 size).

We had to choose three images, one architectural, one 2D pattern and another image, and then combine them into a new composition. It was the most challenging workshop as it was hard to get all three images working together well. But I got to experiment with lots of watercolour techniques.

Source images I used

Watercolour, salt, coloured pencil and charcoal

Charcoal and eraser

Image I love: Watercolour, salt and freezer paper used as stencil.