The Carvery

Well I am back for a brief scratch to let you all know what I have been up to.

Contrary to popular opinion I am NEVER at a loss for things to do!


Consider these two lovelies .. they were a commission for a place up in Mareeba - one of the places I grew up! *Waves* Pluggity plug ... so if you are up on the Tablelands or in Mareeba and feelin' inclined you may wish to drop in on the place and sign the guestbook!!

As their website says:
(http://www.jaquescoffee.com/)

"The Jaques Coffee Plantation, located 8km east Mareeba, Queensland, Australia, 4.5km off the Kennedy Highway and at the end of Leotta Road. It is a pleasant 45 minute drive west of Cairns on the Cairns Highlands (formerly, and also known by the locals as the Atherton Tablelands)."

Of course there was "Kitten's" very dark stain plain book which she is going to airbrush, (when I get a shot of the final product I will post a plug for her work in here too!)the usual sort of books for to be snapped up like the Triquetra or the Swirl books.


Now don't get me wrong .. I love these little beauties but I must say that they do pale beside commission pieces that are that bit different. It is infinately worthwhile to my mind to say "Oh hell yeah I can do that ... you wnat it when ... sure no problems at all..." then sneak off thinking "Ok now that I have said I will do it I should probably work out HOW THE HELL TO DO IT!"

I really enjoyed doing this A3 beauty for a private commission for this reason. Several redesigns were required before it all came together in such a way that didn't make the whole piece look totally crowded. It was also nice to be doing something than a plain pentagram.



On this note I will also include the lovely student traveller boxes. One of these has been finished and sent up to the Tablelands and the other is all but finished and ready to join it's sibling. They are awesomely wonderful and I am very proud of them even if they do work out a bit expensive for my tastes.

As you can see there is ample room for papers and whatnot on the inside and the bases holds one of the books I make (in this case the celt swirl). Now the only way that I think I personally would have this done differently is that I would have it mounted with a shoulder strap rather than a handle because it really can get heavy if you have to cart it about by the handle alone. Still none the less a handle was asked for and a handle I dutifully found!

Due to it being quite a bit of fiddling around (I reckon I will just have to come up with a template and make these all of one shot as opposed to altering an existing box) and they have a book included as well as all the rest these came out at an exorbitant $80. That is a fact that I would hope tp rectify by altering the practice. (I know you wouldn't get anything like it anywhere else and hand made and all the other arguments that I had before I relented to the price but sheesh ... we'll just have to see if we can't make it more accessible!)

Well all that being said I should really get back to the pieces I have out there in the garage ... hell they don't make themselves and it certainly doesn't ALL happen by magic ... just a bit of it. I am looking forward to doing some more different stuff soon so keep your eyes peeled and I will try to get in here more often to tell you about the latest!!