Ghost Net Art and..a New Fly Swat!

 Hi All. During a recent trip to Brisbane we visited GOMA (Gallery of Modern Art). There we chanced upon an exhibition by some Torres Strait (Northern Queensland) residents using ghost nets - those that have washed up after drifting around in the ocean.

Ghost Net Basket by Mahnah Angela Torenbeek

Ghost Net Basket with Shells by Mahnah Angela Torenbeek

Ghost Net Gear Bag, Blue Flowers by Reggie Sabatino

I just loved these  - zero waste art, plus usable too. These have been exhibited worldwide with ghost net artworks now fetching big $$$.


And for a laugh...My man was complaining that the plastic fly swats always break, so I told him I didn't want any more coming into the house thanks. Instead, I made him one from an ice cream container lid, the handle was a kitchen scraper that had started to break, and it's sewn together with fishing nylon from a reel that someone was about to throw out.

 I have to say that it works a treat.  

A Home Made Advent

We are off to Australia again soon to visit Derek's family, and I decided to make an advent for his 5 year old grandson, to take with us.
Advent's beginnings were religious, and I hope not to offend anyone, but this is not for a religious family, but one that does love Christmas all the same.  
Warning  - it looks a bit over the top- but actually only a little of it has been shop bought. Much of it we already had, including all of the boxes and paper, which are being reused. Some items had been little gifts bought and never given that have been sitting here for years - a good time to use them up.

The part that has been bought is Lego - the grandson's most favourite activity - and it ties in with a Lego book that we've bought him for Christmas. I bought a set that could be divided into many parts and packaged each component up separately.

So I thought that I would list what has gone into it, maybe you'll see that I'm having a little clear out hehe, but things that we thought a small boy might find interesting.

Apart from Lego pieces I have packaged up....

An alphabet letter magnet (regifted) that just happens to be his first initial

A small dinosaur notepad

Knucklebones

A knob of Kauri Gum, with a little printed out explanation for his parents to read to him. You can read about Kauri Gum in an earlier post of mine.

A minute timer - the sort that the sand runs through when you invert it (I think it came from a Christmas cracker)

Some All Blacks cards out of the cereal.

A snowman Christmas decoration and a snowman joke, plus several others along this line.

Skin Tattoo type stickers (two from a set that had been divided up already).

A joke and a paper hat (ex Christmas cracker)

A slide viewer and slides of aquarium fish. (These had been around since my youth), and the viewer was a spare.

Ooh, an antique

A Winnie the Pooh pen that lights up.

Some foreign coins from his Grandad's coin collection.

A little wooden cat and a fish in a matchbox.

The numbers came from a lotto game that I have been using in mixed media pieces.

It definitely will be a one off, one that I'm pretty sure he will love - more than one from the shop with chocolate for every day (which he doesn't like). 

I almost decided not to post this - aware of how indulgent it looks - it turned out to be a lot bigger than I had planned. We are all different in our approaches to giving gifts - and the biggest thing that went into this was a lot of my time.

The Grandson will be opening it all after we have returned home - hopefully it will remind him of his Nanny and Gdad who he doesn't see much of these days since he moved back to Australia.