Welcome to the Spring Queen

I bought some wonderful digital images from Paper Whimsy and below is my first design using them – The Spring Queen. At the moment the Spring Queen is only available as a tee shirt for sale at Red Bubble. I’m considering developing some greeting cards using the same designs, but haven’t had time to think too closely about it yet. I like her…

The Spring Queen

The Cat Man of Montmartre

A story I wrote after my last trip to Paris in 2008:

I found myself spending a lot of time in cemetaries in Paris. For such a frenetic city, the cemetaries offer welcome respite from the crowds, the noise, and the smells of Paris – in particular the smell of thousands of chiens who have nowhere else to ‘do their business’ other than on the streets (no backyards in those beautiful 17th century apartments). For such an elegant and stylish city, I think Paris stinks – literally – especially in the heat of summer with rivers of dog wee being sprayed on every wall, wheel and light pole.

I’m not a lover of dogs, but I digress…that is my only gripe about Paris.

Pere Lachaise is the most visited cemetary in the world, apparently, and amongst its one million inhabitants are Jim Morrison and Chopin. There are a number of other notable cemetaries in Paris, and the one in Montmartre has its fair share of famous dead people, though not in the same concentration as Pere Lachaise. This is not to say it is not worth a visit. It is.

One living inhabitant of the Cimitiere de Montmartre proved more interesting than long dead painters, sculptors and other glitterati. I never found out his name, so I will call him ‘the cat man’.

The cat man is a slightly-built, tanned fellow with a swathe of fine hair combed carefully across his brow. He carries a large bag of cat food around the cemetery – tinned and dry – and a long plastic spoon.

I came across him while observing a group of cats eating behind one of the graves. There were a few neat little piles of cat meat and dried ‘croquettes’ (as they call them over there) placed between tombstones, and the cats were enjoying their meal in a leisurely fashion – not fighting, or guzzling their food, just eating away in the manner of those who have a routine and trust that they will see food again, and soon.

The cat man lept out from behind a headstone, and if it weren’t for his engaging smile and that he was half my size, I might have been concerned. Maybe Marcel is a better name for him – he looked like a Marcel…

We started talking in French; he asked me if I liked cats, I said oui I did, telling him about my girl Bamako who was at home. Then he asked where I was from and after revealing my heritage, we continued talking in English.

He told me how he had been to Australia to visit friends once, and he had taken the train from Melbourne to Sydney, and it took him two days. He wasn’t sure when he was there but I figured that he must have last visited in about 1953, since it now takes only about half a day to make the 1000 kilometre trip.

He pointed out the ‘married couple cat’ – two old and ragged-looking felines, male and female presumably, each aged 15 by Marcel’s reckoning. Mr. and Mrs. Cat ate together then rubbed, nuzzled and licked each other. Marcel said that they had many babies – there were 90 cats living in the cemetary and many were offspring of this old couple, plus a few interlopers.

Marcel said he was a widower – and that he preferred the company of animals to that of humans. He tried to explain why, in broken English, but could only agree with me when I said that animals are always happy to see you. He did not understand the term ‘appreciate without a price’ when spoken in English and I did not know the equivalent phrase in French. ‘Happy’ seemed good enough.

He was not touching or petting the animals – only feeding them. For me that was interesting because so often we have animals so that they can make us feel good – with attention and patting and so on – and sometimes to replace a lost loved one. I’d be guessing, but I think his need for affection and attention had long passed, but he still wanted to be useful; he still needed a purpose in his life.

He didn’t want to hang around too long, since the guardian of the cemetery would shoo him away for being a pest. He was not supposed to feed the cats. I gave him a few Euros, towards food for the cats. He thanked me and went on his way, leaving the cats behind to bask in the afternoon sun and enjoy the last morsels of their dinner.

My Tee Designs Are Finally For Sale

heh, my first official commercial job:

Sitting Bull

And:

We Are The World

A Burst of Creativity

Hmmm...Joan....

Roasries, reliquaires, medals, mourning, cameos, tourmalines

Shell Cameo Reliquary

New necklaces for sale at L’Atelier de Talaru.

Woo Hoo…BIG Antique Fair!

The last weekend in January means a huge antique fair, touted as the biggest and most popular in Australia – known simply as ‘Fryerstown’. Fryerstown is a most curious place. Located about 1.5 hours from Melbourne you might be forgiven for thinking you were attending a fair on the moon – the area has a very lunar landscape, and was a busy gold mining area back in the 1800s. For most of the year Fryerstown is a fairly quiet place, but each Australia Day weekend the place fills with people coming for the largest antique fair in Australia.

I’ve been there a few times, and once it was so hot, you could hardly walk around – I think it was 42 degrees (celsius).

This time it was cooler. WE got up at 6am and left before 7 for the nearly 2 hour drive to get there. We expected huge crowds early on but luckily there weren’t too many people there that early.

I went with my dad and step mother (who collect Carnival Glass, antique biscuit barrels and Pratt Ware) and they had great success, picking up some glass bowls and three Pratt Ware pot lids (one which cost $180 was later valued by dad at 10 times that amount).

I went in search of jewelry, trinkets, medals, ephemera and things for my artworks. I had to forgo the ornate clay pipes, which I would have loved but you had to buy a box of 10. I found lots of great antique photos, some amazing vintage fur (Astracan lamb and ermine), rhinestones, tiny pudding dolls, a 100 year old ceramic cup and some precious little glass bottles. Pictured below, also, are some recent arrivals from France, for sale in my shop.

Fryerstown Stalls

Fryerstown Antique Fair

Little antique pudding dolls

Little Horse

Treasures

Treasures

Birdy

Faces from the Past

Frivilous Frilly Froth

Meet Belle, Fleur and Emily

Les Filles

These lovely mini artworks, designed by moi, have been printed and framed and are a little give-away gift for my lovely customers at La Comtesse de Talaru. They measure 1 inch wide x 3 inches high.

What better way to start the year than with a gift? And a unique, on-of-a-kind gift at that.

It’s pretty easy really: for each purchase over the value of $100, all in one transaction and excluding the value of shipping, I will give away one framed lovely lady. For each additional hundred dollars spent in the same transaction, I’ll give another lady … to a maximum of three per customer.

There are three ladies to collect, and I have only produced two of each to give away – it will be first in best ‘dressed’. Each will be signed on the back, the frames are in three different colours, the images set behind glass and with a little bail so you can hang it.

Voila! Tres facile….

Les Filles

Happy Birthday Mum

It’s my mother’s birthday today and I made her a charm necklace. I’ve been collecting the pieces for nearly a year, and it all started with the engraved Victorian-era seal. The initials on the seal are the same as my late step-father’s, mum’s late husband – ‘WJH’. From that the idea formed and I then found a little Victorian gold heart with the letter ‘H’ engraved into it – mum’s name is Heather. Then I found the little gold locket where she can put a photo or two, or some other memento. It all came together in a necklace which I gave her on the weekend.

The artwork is one I made a few years ago. It shows mum back when she was a girl, and I used some words from a David Bowie song called ‘Andy Warhol’.

Mum’s Necklace – Seal

Mum’s Necklace

H is for Heart

Mum in a funny hat

Season of Love Selection

Some ‘love’ themed designs to inspire loving and amorous thoughts for the Valentines season.

First up is the Love, Honour and Respect charm necklace for sale on my Etsy shop. It features an antique French mariage medal as its centrepiece, and various charms along a ‘love’ theme. A photo is below, or link directly to see more photos on my shop.

Love, Honour and Respect

Or An Intimate Soiree,  a nice colourful necklace to adorn your neck when you have a special dinner with your amour.

An Intimate Soiree

Then there’s a series of playing cards I designed – not for a game, just cards with emotions. LOVE is one of my favourites.

LOVE

Current Favourite Word

I often have favourite words. Not necessarily words I use in everyday speech but words which appeal for some obscure reason.

My fave word of the moment is:

ECUREUIL

It’s French for squirrel. I can’t tell you why I like it, I just do.

Artwork…for a Change

Artwork made by me, very diverse and eclectic, showing some of the many influences of my work. Inspiration is everywhere, and often when you see the world through the lens of a camera and interpret it through your imagination and not your mind, you can present the world in an entirely different way. Click the image to open it and read about how the image came about.

All artwork (c) Melanie Dooley 2010.

no strange delight

orange flowers

winter

the beach