Dad's album

My sister, Beth, and I have been working on an album for my Dad. He keeps joking that if we don't hurry up, he'll be dead before we finish it. He has no idea how true that is. It's one of those things: just as soon as you think you've finished it, you come up with just one more page to do.

This is our sister, Susan doing her page. She's actually more of a scrapbooker than she thinks she is. She made a scrapbook of one of the trips the orchestra she's in did and I think it is wonderful. This is her doing her page for Dad's album. You can just see me on the other side of the table. We have this set up in the living room at Mum & Dad's place so that we can work on the album and spend time with them. It has actually worked out very well. Everyone who comes to visit gets a chance to see the process and many of them put in their 2 cents worth.

Dad is hale and hearty at the moment. As you can see from this picture, he is looking pretty good. His little brother came over from Canberra and told him "you're a fraud. You're not sick, you're just seeking attention!" (in the kindest possible way).

This is a picture I asked him to pose for last week. The card he is holding in his hand is one of thousands that we have in the garage. From about 1974 to 1994, Dad was the Chief Examiner for the Biology exam for getting into University. In the pre-computer age, he needed an efficient and cheap way to keep track of exam questions. These cards are about 20cm x 10cm and have punched holes around the edge - just large enough for a size 10 knitting needle.

The idea is that each card has the question printed on the front. Then along the top of the card, the first choice option is for which section of the accompanying text the question relates to. There is a choice option for whether the question is Multiple Choice, Short Answer or Essay, then there is a sub-section choice and a section for how the student must answer the question (display Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis or Evaluation), as you want a balance of these.

The idea was, he made his first choice (which section), insert the knitting needle into the first slot, then shake the stack of cards. The ones which fell out where all the questions relating to that section. Then he inserted the knitting needle into the question type (for example, Multiple Choice), shake the stack out and the ones left were the multiple choice. Then insert the knitting needle into the sub-section and shake (you get the idea now) and that gave you possible questions. He'd then insert the knitting needle into, say, the Knowledge slot, shake them out and that would give him all the questions in that Section, that were Multiple Choice, in a particular sub-section that would require the student to demonstrate Knowledge. It was actually quiet an ingenious system. He never translated it to computer, because the time that it would have taken to write such a database and then enter in all the data would have simply taken too long.

But by going through this process year, he could turn up to a paper-setting meeting with possible questions already determined. He could also keep track of which years the questions went into to make sure that they weren't repeated too often (as current students get past papers to practice on) and later on, he also recorded other data about how well the question had performed which would allow him to modify or replace bad questions.

Really quite clever when you think about it.

Another bunch of lovely people

My sister-in-law, Meredith, has been an avid stamper since before I left Australia in 1991. Last week, she asked me to do a demonstration/mini-workshop for some of her friends which I was happy to oblige.

I showed them a bunch of techniques they can do with Distress Inks and other products from Ranger. I got them to do three of the tag techniques and then we did a mini project where they took an ATC-sized canvas which comes with it's own mini-easel and they decorated using Adirondack Dimensional Pearls.

This week, Meredith invited me to join her little stamping group where Lucy was showing them this fabulous card. It uses one sheet of A4 or 8.5x11. Her card has only two pockets, but with a little modification on my part I got three pockets and I could've put in a fourth if I'd wanted it. This photo doesn't do it justice. We used Distress Inks and a little Perfect Pearls to give the labels a little bit of shimmer.

All craft products seem a little expensive over here (I guess if you have to ship it halfway around the world...), so I understand why they haven't been able to invest in some of the stuff I have.

These lovely people are two of the staff at a fantastic store here in Perth called Scraptivate - this is Mel (on the left) and Megan (on the right). This store has got some of the most amazing stuff and talented people working there, presenting Scrapbooking in an artistic way.

They have two Australian-made products that are great: The Collections range is pre-cut chipboard shapes and there's just been some new releases hit the store after the Australian equivalent of CHA. They also have some amazing German Scrap - black angel wings! - all exclusive

to Scraptivate.

My sister, Beth took me down there the Sunday after I arrived. That it took 6 days to get into this store is a dissapointment I'm not sure I'm ever going to live down. UK Stores would kill for this much space to spread out in. One whole length of the store is full of paper racks and she's got everything from the popular US manufacturers, plus some stuff I've never seen from Australian manufacturers. I'm working on her to get Scrapperdashery, but if you'd like her to get the Poetry range, please go in and tell her. I can't put up photos of all the amazing artwork that was dotted around the shop as there simply isn't space, but check out the amazing houses and things on this table.

I'm learning to let go

Spending all my waking hours with Dad is suffocating him - he says he doesn't want people to sit around and watch him die, which we're not - so I've been finding things to do and music has always been a great escape for me.

Two of my sisters sing with the University of Western Australia Choral Society (UWACS) and they are currently rehearsing the Mass in B Minor by Bach (lots of notes), so I trailed along to rehearsal with them last Wednesday night. Last night, we went to see the Perth equivalent of The Sixteen perform it. The group is only 18 members strong, but they are all professional singers. The choir was fantastic. The Alto and Soprano were okay (enunciation is a good thing, people!). The orchestra was reasonable but they were mostly students from what we could gather (there is no listing in the programme) and they were using early music instruments and to quote my sister Susan "Bach is the reason more modern instruments were invented"

It was performed at St George's Cathedral which is gothic-style but made out of brick, not stone as the only local stone is Limestone and I'm not sure it would be strong enough to hold up that style of structure.

But it was warm. I'm determined to not be like a Wingeing Pom and complain about the heat, but even some of the locals were leaving because it was too hot. Yesterday's daytime temperature was 37 Celcius (98.6 Farenheit) and the Fremantle Doctor was late arriving (about 3am) so the evening was warm. I had taken a light jumper with me just in case the clear skies heralded a cooler night. I needn't have bothered.

It's great to be home

I'm at home in Perth now and it is great to be here seeing the family. Zandy is with me and will stay for three of the four weeks that I'm here. My brothers are both flying in from their homes in Tasmania and Northern Territory in another week and we're having a celebration for Dad on Easter Saturday.

We've spent a lot of time just sitting chatting so far. Dad is being prompted by many people to talk about his life and things that he has done, so I'm learning new things about what he did. It's giving me an opportunity to clarify some of the stories I've heard over the years and get the story straight. We all thought that there would be plenty of time for this - even he did - so we're now cramming it all in.

Yesterday, an old work colleague dropped around and we got the whole chronological timeline of his working career. It was great because Frank would say "Graham, do you remember such-and-such and the time they did that?" and Dad would respond and we'd get the whole story with clarity of detail that was surprising since some of these things happened 35 years ago. He says it's because he forgets these things until someone prompts the memory and then it just pops into his head as though it were yesterday.

The tubes you can see in his neck are connections that allow the hospital to take blood when they need to without having to puncture more holes in his arm. He says that the arm connections were stinging, so by going straight into the neck, it is much easier. His blood count is down so they'll give him more reds next week, but his platelets are up to 101 (apparently something around 150 is normal and they don't give platelets until they are down to 10) but we're keeping an eye on him. If he starts to feel woozy then that is an indication that his reds are down and we need to get him to Emergency so they can give him a transfusion.

Now that I've seen him in person and spent time with him a lot over the last four days, I'm prepared to let go and see other people. So, I'm spending time with my sisters singing today and going to a performance of Bach's B Minor Mass tonight.

Life is okay.

A break in service for a little while

Just to let you all know, things are going to be a little interrupted for a while. I'm going home to Australia to see Dad. I'll be gone for about a month. I'll only update this blog if there is news to share - one way or the other.

Retailers: If you're planning to place an order with Scrapperdashery, I can still fulfill orders from elsewhere in the world. The only two things I can't fulfil are non-stick craft sheet sold by the metre because I have to be here to fulfil a special order like this, and solid-coloured cardstock as my distribution agent doesn't have any in stock at the moment. But all the patterned paper is still there and there are discounts applying until the end of March.

I know you'll be thinking of me and supporting me through this, so thanks in advance for that support.

Judi

For those of you who don't know him. This is my Dad. Mum took this photo of us together at Stonehenge last year when they came over from Australia to visit me. We had nearly 5 wonderful weeks where I took some time off work and we spent some great time together. We drove up to Scotland to visit Mum's Aunt and then down to Darlington to see where Dad's family left England from. The best bit for me was finding all the Hodgkins who are buried in Darlington Quaker Meeting House Burial Ground.

While they were here, Dad helped out on my studio, working on some of the plastering with me. He told me yesterday that my sister-in-law had shown him how to get to my blog so that he could see the studio and he was so chuffed to see that I was nearly completely moved in (I'm not sure that I'll ever be completely moved in).

Unfortunately, I am welcoming my own mortality this week with the news that my father has terminal cancer - leukaemia in fact. I'm 10,000 miles away and feeling rather helpless. We all disagree with our parents at some stages in our lives, and I'm no different. But they are the only ones I've got and knowing that at 40 I'm about to lose one of them is heartbreaking.

So, I'm going home to see him, let them both know how much I love them and share time with my immediate family. So, if I don't respond to queries, questions and anything else as quickly as you would expect, I am sorry and I'll be in touch with you as soon as I can.

Classes coming up at Stamparty

I will be teaching series of classes at Stamparty in Aldershot over the next couple of months.

This Thursday, 12th March:
3.30 - 5.30pm Brayered cards. This is a fantastic technique that I have to give credit to Michelle Zindorf for. Learn how you can stamp images for a completely different effect. Your cards will pop and people will wonder how you managed to get this card looking like it does.

6.30 - 8.30pm Clear Acrylic Albums. Using the new clear acrylic albums from Papermania, we'll do a number of techniques that will enhance the transparency of these albums, involving paper, alcohol inks and other mediums. You can either put photos into this, or not as your choice. Black & White photos will work the best.

Saturday, 21st March:
10.30am - 12.30pm Perfect Pearls. These mica pigment powders are unique in that they have a binder built into the powder, so require no additional input to make them a permanent shimmery addition to your cards and scrapbook pages. This is a technique class and you'll have the opportunity to learn a number of techniques that you can take away with and incorporate into everything you do.

1.30 - 3.3opm. Melting Pot. This is a great class to bundle with the Perfect Pearls class as we'll use them here too. Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel can be used to make all manner of beautiful embellishments and even jewellery pieces. There are so many things to do with the Melting Pot that I'm not sure we'll fit them all into one class - but we'll try!

Wednesday, 25th March:
3.30 - 5.30pm. Grungeboard. It's not chipboard, it's not fabric. What is it? It is one of the most versatile products to come out of the head of Tim Holtz in a long time. Learn a number of things that you can do with this marvellous product.

6.30 - 8.30pm. Decorate a cigar box. If you have been to any of my workshops before, you will know it’s a bit messy but the results are always fantastic. We’ll cover this cigar box in paper, remove the paper hinge and replace it with real hinges and box corners to make a box that will have people wowed.

Wednesday, 15th April:
CANCELLED. Sorry.

Saturday, 25th April:
10.30am - 12.30pm. Creating backgrounds with colour wash. This is a messy class, so don't wear precious clothing. We'll get really messy, making beautiful backgrounds with this industrial-quality fabric dye, change the colour of ribbon and paint with it.

1.30 - 3.30pm. Brayered cards. This is a fantastic technique that I have to give credit to Michelle Zindorf for. Learn how you can stamp images for a completely different effect. Your cards will pop and people will wonder how you managed to get this card looking like it does.

There will be more classes coming up, so come back to see where and when.

Experimentation Time

I've been doing some experiementation over the last two days - the studio is clean and orders from Stitches have been sent off to dispatch.

This first experiement was a result of a failure - and I coudn't let it go until I'd found out a solution. I ran a sheet of brass through a Cuttlebug embossing folder to produce a fantastic, highly detailed image. But I wanted to crackle it and Distress Crackle paints won't stick to metal. So, I coated the embossed metal with black Gesso, waited for it to dry, then sanded it down to expose the brass underneath. Next time, I know to paint a thinner coat. Then I glooped (that must be the technical term, right?) Black Soot Distress Crackle Paint over the metal and left that to dry. There is a very fine crackle as a result. I sanded it back again, but was unhappy that I couldn't see the crackle all that well because of the black Gesso underneath. So I painted over it with Gold Precious Metal (from Vario), working the paint into all the cracks, then wiping it off the surface before it had a chance to dry thoroughly. I love the effect and the photo just doesn't do it justice.

To finish it up, I wrapped two pieces of gold ribbon around the bottom, stamped a PaperArtsy image in Versamark and embossed it with Ranger Super Fine Detail Gold powder on black cardstock, vcut around the image and mounted it with Pop-Up Glue Dots (Glue Dots UK). I couldn't find my gold mirror card, so I mounted it on a Tomato Paste tube which has been flattened in my Wizard and used the Glue Dots to mount it on a Black Glossy (Ranger) card.

This next piece was more of an experimentation. I met a lovely company at Stitches called Vario (when I find a like to their website, I'll put it up here) and they very kindly gave me some stuff to take home and play with.

This is an A5 gessoed canvas that I picked up from Hobbycraft. I base coated it with Turquoise Precious Metal paint, then stencilled Tim's Time Masks with Gold Precious Metal Paint. I let the whole lot dry thoroughly, put Tim's Time Masks down again and smothered Vario's Transparent Croco (crackle medium) over the top and let it dry. I came back this morning and the cracking is very impressive. However, the transparent Croco had dulled down the Precious Metals, so I went back over with a paint brush and repainted the Gold and Turquoise in.

These mediums are fantastic. The Precious Metals will adhere to all manner of surfaces: glass, ceramic, wood, metal and can still be used in normal applications. They're water-based, so the brushes simply was out. The Croco is best applied with a spatula or foam brush and laid down really thickly. The label says at least 2mm, but I applied it a lot thinner than that in some places and got a beautiful crazed look to the crackle. The best bit, is that I can paint over the transparent to give it colour in particular places. The leaflet even shows it being used on glass. Wow!

Again, the photo just doesn't do this justice. I can't see a way of getting the glistening effect to show up in a photo. You'll just have to come to my studio to see it for yourself.