Friday 20 December 2013

Merry Christmas

Wishing everyone a wonderful Joyous holiday.  Happy New Year to you all for the coming year.   Thank you everyone for your wonderful comments this past year.     I will be taking a little break, as I do in January every year.   Online orders in my shop www.janemonkstudio.com will still be available for instant download of the PDF's, other orders will not be processed until after the 8 January 2014.  

Stay safe if you are traveling on the roads, enjoy some quiet time over the festive season and hug your loved ones :)    See you all next year.   Jane xx


Tuesday 17 December 2013

A Little Extra ... One Tangle

A Little Christmas Cheer ... from today until the 20th December. When you purchase Volume I, II or III of my One Tangle ebooks I will email you direct this PDF "One Tangle - A Little Extra" which contains pattern step outs for nine patterns. The last page also has a complete border using my Feather Nesting pattern from Volume III.

http://janemonkstudio.com/
Photo: A Little Christmas Cheer ... from today until the 20th December.  When you purchase Volume I, II or III of my One Tangle ebooks I will email you direct this PDF "One Tangle - A Little Extra"   which contains pattern step outs for nine patterns.   The last page also has a complete border using my Feather Nesting pattern from Volume III.  

http://janemonkstudio.com/

Tuesday 10 December 2013

One Tangle : One Tangle Volume III - Field of Flowers is ready ...

I am happy to announce that my One Tangle Volume III "Field of Flowers" is ready to purchase as a downloadable PDF from my web store.  I have included a lot of extra patterns in this volume .. all flowery and feathery to get your tangling going.  I have also included, exclusively for the purchasers of this volume, instructions on how to draw my variation on the Zentangle pattern Finery.  I call it "Feather Nesting".   I have kept the price at $15 for this volume.  I really hope you enjoy it as much as the last two Volumes.  Thankyou everyone :)

It can be purchsed here

One Tangle Volume III - Field of Flowers

Wednesday 13 November 2013

My New Tangle Pattern e-books released for sale today

One Tangle Volume I and Volume II Released for Sale today

 One Tangle Volume I
26 Jane Monk Studio tangle patterns designed exclusively for you to use in your tangle drawings.

You can purchase at www.janemonkstudio.com  or click on this link  One Tangle Volume I


 One Tangle Volume II Ocean Waves
25 Jane Monk Studio tangle patterns designed exclusively for you to use in your tangle drawings with an Ocean theme.

You can purchase at www.janemonkstudio.com  or click on this link  One Tangle Volume II

 If you are interested in tangle drawing and like my patterns, I hope you will purchase these pattern books to help support my continued artistic journey.  I thank you and hope you enjoy these books.

Happy tangling ... Jane xx

Thursday 17 October 2013

My Book "Zentangle Stitches" is available for pre-ordering at Book Depository

 My book is due out for publication towards the middle of next year.   It is available for pre-ordering at Book Depository, amongst other places.

That is a little exciting don't you think?

Jane xx

Monday 7 October 2013

Be back in a little bit

Hi everyone ... I have been a little busy over the past couple of months with work and family stuff.   I will be just taking a little break from blogging for a few weeks more.    Should be back to normal in November with lots to show you together with projects and things I have been doing.

In the meantime I am still posting every day over at One Tangle ... where I post a tangle drawing together with the string line.  Drop by and say hi :)

Cheers for now ... Jane xx

Monday 2 September 2013

Felted Sculptures . Bearded Mushrooms

Spring has arrived in Tasmania.  I have just finished off these lovely little sculptures.  I call them "Bearded Mushrooms"  They are lovely and soft and ephemeral looking - although they will last for years and years.   They are 100% Merino wool, felted over wire armatures and attached to lake driftwood and small burls found in the Central Tasmanian wilderness.

They are for sale.  Along the bottom of the picture ... number 1 and 2 are $105each plus postage and numbers 3 and 4 are $85 each plus postage.

If you are interested in puchasing please email me jane@janemonkstudio.com

Cheers ... Jane 

Thursday 29 August 2013

Little Blue Elf

This is one of my sculptured One of a kind dolls.  He is a little blue elf and stands about 16inches tall.  Still a work in progress at the moment.


Monday 19 August 2013

Erasure Poetry

I have wanted to try my hand at Erasure Poetry for some time now ... I love the idea of making something different from a page of written text.   I was fortunate to get some old books from a library that were going to be destroyed ... so it is nice to give them a new life also :)

Who else does Erasure Poetry?  Do you?    The only one I have really seen before is Jo from New Zealand http://nzjo.blogspot.com.au/  .. she does some lovely work.

Does this make you feel inspired to try it yourself?

Cheers for now ... Jane x

One Tangle : Day Forty One

One Tangle : Day Forty One:  Day Forty One is brought to you by the Letter "F".   Some Tadpegs and my pattern "Groovy".   The String Line I h...

Tuesday 23 July 2013

Two weeks of One Tangle

It has been two weeks of One Tangle today ... a little project I started to keep me inspired in my Zentangle practise ... Hop on over and have a look here   ONE TANGLE

We have String Lines, tangle patterns, some pattern step outs and One Tangle drawing each and every day ... tomorrow's will be a doozie, one I love :)

Happy Tangling  ... Jane x

Friday 12 July 2013

One Tangle ... Day Three

Go on over to my One Tangle blog ... we are up to Day Three :)

http://onetangle.blogspot.com.au/


I have been busy quilting this past week ... I should be able to show some photographs of the quilting soon ... just have to check with my customers that it is okay before I post them here :)

Jane xx

Wednesday 10 July 2013

One Tangle

One Tangle is my new little blog where I will be posting a new tangle drawing every day (well most days ... probably not the weekends)

Come on over and check it out ... you can join in because I will be showing you the string line I have used as well as naming the patterns I use in each section.

Cheers
Jane

Monday 8 July 2013

Thousands of Viewers ... No Comments :(

I have noticed that I get thousands of viewers every month. In fact, I have reached over 5000 people in the past two weeks.  It is a little sad that no one takes the time to comment or say thanks.  Unless of course it is the same person looking at my site, it would be lovely to get some feedback sometimes.

So tell me, what makes you come back to my site time and time again?   What do you love to look at here in my little creative world?

Leave a message and say hi :)

Jane
xx

Tuesday 25 June 2013

Felted Stones Tutorial

 
I love stones, beautiful smooth river or beach stones that have been worn and weathered with time and the elements.   I have been teaching myself how to make embroidery stitches and stumpwork. I also love felting so thought all these elements could be combined as a showcase for my progress.  

I am happy to share the process I use to felt stones.

  Start with some 100% wool top or roving.  This is wool that has already been cleaned and processed and is ready for felting.  I have used 100% Merino Wool that I purchased from Ewe Give Me The Knits ... Mandie has a riot of colours :)  I am using undyed wool in this example. 

 First of all you will need to pull out small amounts of wool from the "top" and lay down in a vertical direction.  If you want to add sparkle or shiny silk fibre now is the time to add it.  Just make your first layer of wool very fine then put the embellishment fibres down and they will be captured by the wool. 

 The next layer of wool should be laid down in a horizontal direction, again, just a nice thin layer.

 The third layer is laid down vertically.  Make sure there are no thin spots or holes in the stack of fibre.

 Place your stone about two thirds of the way down onto your wool.

 Bring up the wool closest to you and fold over the stone.

 Roll the stone forward (away from you) so it is sitting on the beginning of the first fold.

 Now tuck in the wool from the sides.  Make sure you pull nice and firm, but not stretch the wool or make a hole in it.

Roll forward (moving away from you) again.

It looks like a little spring roll :)   

Now you have rolled up the stone in the wool, it is useful to needle felt a little to make sure those ends are secure.  You can make a whole heap of them ready for the next step. 

If you don't have a needle felt tool, you will need to move onto the next step of wet felting straight away or place your stone so it doesn't come unrolled. 






I use my ordinary liquid dish washing soap, just a little.

Over a container of warm soapy water place the wool covered stone in your left hand.  With your right hand scoop up some of the soapy water and just let it flow over the stone.

 





Turn the stone and repeat until the stone is nice and wet. The stone will feel very very loose inside the wool cocoon.

Now with both hands pass the stone from palm to palm ... gentle, no pressure, just moving from one hand to the other.  I actually use my fingers more than my palms.

 Keep bathing with the warm soapy water and continue to gently pass from one hand to the other.  You will see that the wool will start to shrink.  This is felting. 



You can start to add a little pressure and rub the stone between your two hands.  Add  little more soap and water, or just a little soap so it is slightly slippery.  You still want to maintain a certain amount of friction for the felting process.

You can see the difference in this photo, the wool has shrunk to enclose the stone, but not quite enough.




If you can pinch the wool away from the stone, it is not felted enough yet.   Adding some firm pressure, but not enough to hurt your hands, keep rolling the stone between your two hands.

The motion is just like you rub your hands when they are cold.

 Can you see the difference in the stone now?   Now it is felted enough.  The felt is quite firm around the stone and I can't pinch it away from the stone surface.
 I rinse the felted stone under quite warm water and then roll it between my hands some more.  This will wash away the soap and also gets rid of the excess water in the felt.

Felting one small stone like this will take around five or so minutes.

Make a bunch of them and set them somewhere warm and clean to dry.

You can use coloured wool and add silk, angelina fibre, thread or all sorts of things to enhance your stones, just make sure you have a thin layer of wool over the top some of the inclusions to capture them securely.

Have fun making your felted stones. Enjoy ... Jane x


Monday 24 June 2013

Painted Stones Tutorial


 Painted Stones ... What you need:

Gesso - any brand will do.
Liquid Acrylic Paint (I use Daler Rowney Acrylic Artists Ink - comes in lots of colours)
Three brushes I like to use are: for painting thin lines and making dots I use  a 10/0 and a 5/0  Robert A Wade NEEF 970 Taklon Round. I also use a general flat 6 or 8 for painting the gesso on with.
A dish to put your ink into (Note: you only need a very little amount of ink/paint)
Some paper towels.
A water dish
Smooth clean River stones (I wash mine in warm soapy water and scrub them with a green scourer, any slightly abrasive wash cloth will do. This allows the gesso to get a better grip and some purchased river stones have a wax coating on them)


How to start.  I use the Gesso straight from the lid - it is thick and you don't need very much.   Using your flat brush pain a layer of gesso onto the top half of the stone.  Let it dry. 
Paint a second layer of gesso, ensuring you paint to the edge line nice and smoothly.

When this is dry you are ready to start painting lines and making dots and other marks. 

You can use Zentangle patterns, crochet patterns, even quilt blocks, embroidery patterns or anything you can think of to be inspired by.  Less is often more when it comes to painting stones, but let your imagination take over :)

Once you have painted them, let them dry and give them a spray with either a gloss or matt craft spray sealer.

Happy Stone Painting ... Jane

Monday 17 June 2013

Painted stones

For something a little different ... I love painting stones and thought you might like to see some of them I have just done.

Saturday 1 June 2013

Winter Sun

Winter arrived today ... a pea soup fog and then some rain ... this afternoon the sun came out and was shining through the windows .. Merlin taking a snooze all curled up ... he is still there now :)


Wednesday 10 April 2013

20% discount off E2E Quilting Service

**** NEWS FLASH  ......  SALE EXTENDED TO END MAY****

I am having a 20% OFF SALE on the cost of quilting for all Quilts received here in my studio between 10th April to the 10th  31st May 2013

NOTE: Sale is applicable to Edge to Edge (all over) quilting only and does not include batting or backing.

You can make a time to drop your quilt off or post it to me. Contact details are:
jane@janemonkstudio.com
or 0438 302 515

If you are posting a quilt to me, please let me know first … postal address is Jane Monk Studio, PO Box 5, Legana Tasmania 7277

You want those quilt tops finished into beautiful quilts don’t you!

Friday 22 February 2013

A Zentangle Story



Zentangle … do you think you can?

Zentangle© was created / discovered by two wonderful souls by the names of Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts of Massachusetts, USA.  They have developed it so others can teach and spread the idea further afield.   Zentangle is a very simple concept of deliberately drawing in a repetitive manner, creating patterns.  It is while creating these patterns that the mind is allowed to rest much like as you do when meditating.  The benefits of Zentangle are reported to be wide ranging in respect of physical and mental health.  So pick up a pen today and make a start.

I have always drawn with ink and pencil, abstract meanderings on paper.  Life, however, gets in the way and we drop some things that we enjoy.   However, I was starting to draw again by 2007 and in late 2009 I came across the term Zentangle which led me to the Zentangle web site.  I was enthralled by these creations.  I started to use the Zentangle idea in my quilting and, with the blessing of Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts, I taught what is believed to be the first class in the world that was Zentangle for Quilters in Adelaide, Australia.  Three weeks later, much to my delight I attended a teacher training workshop in the USA in October 2010, gaining my accreditation as a Certified Zentangle Teacher.  I was the first in Tasmania and one of three in Australia who attended this workshop.  It was wonderful.

Since then I have taught numerous classes to non-drawers, drawers and quilters, people from all walks of life.    In 2011 I had the opportunity to make a short DVD on my style of quilting utilising the Zentangle concept of repetition of simple markings.  This was with Australian Quilters Companion magazine and was released in January 2012.   I still have a few copies available for sale in my online shop www.janemonkstudio.com .  

To start Zentangle, you need a piece of paper, a pencil and an ink pen, preferably black ink.  That is it!  Cheap, portable and doable.   Zentangle make a range of products which are good quality and relatively easy to obtain through their website.  I also stock some products, but not all.  

Taking a class from a Certified Zentangle Teacher will allow you to gain a good understanding of the basic premise of what Zentangle is.  You will learn how to draw a string line and how to draw the patterns from basic through to the more challenging patterns.  

I personally have an arsenal of over 60 personal patterns I have developed along with over 100 created by Zentangle.   There are of course, hundreds and hundreds of other patterns and you will more than likely develop some of your own if you pursue this lovely past-time.  

So now it is time for a picture fest of my work, starting with some more basic drawings up to the more complex Zentangle Inspired Fine Art that I so love to do. 

Some of this art is in my own personal journals.  I have three, an A5 sized, A4 sized and a huge A3 sized journal.  The A3 journal has my family names and is a work in progress which I will leave to my son to be passed on in generations I hope.  Each drawing in this particular journal has taken many many hours of drawing time.  Time in the middle of the night when I cannot sleep and moments of time stolen in the day, time I relish and love.

I wish for you all to be able to create something with Zentangle; something you can look at and say, “I did this”; something to be proud of because you can draw.  Something you can show others how to do.

So … photos … enjoy. 

 My Certification
 My A5 sized Journal ... with fabric cover I made.
 Inside my small journal.






 This is from my larger A4 sized Journal.  Simple patterns

 The following are from my extremely large A3 journal.  Each drawing takes hours, some over 100 hours of drawing time.






 This is a Zentangle Inspired Fine Art drawing with my own original concept.
 Again, a large Zentangle Inspired Fine Art drawing of my own design.
 A grouping of my small Zentangle tiles in a frame.  A very stunning look. 



I hope you have all enjoyed this little trip with me and I hope that I will be able to meet some of you as I continue down this road on my journey with Zentangle. 

Cheers for now ... and happy tangling .... Jane x