The inaugural Scenic World Shopping Night occurred on November 10th in Katoomba. I was so excited to see the new Mountains Made display of my puppets and illustrations. I even made the Blue Mountains Gazette, pictured with the lovely Kelly Heylen, the Creative Industries Cluster Manager for Blue Mountains Economic Enterprise (BMEE).
Photo courtesy of: https://www.bluemountainsgazette.com.au/story/4298062/photo-gallery-scenic-world-shopping-night/?cs=2062
In August I had a wonderful time working on a puppet show with the residents from Morven Gardens. I held several puppet workshops and we made the puppets together and performed the show to students from Blackheath Public School!
Read the article at https://baptistcare.org.au/about-baptistcare/news/puppets-delight-students-at-baptistcare-morven-gardens/
A big thank you to BANC (Blackheath Area Neighbourhood Centre) for funding the project.
Ahoy me mateys!
In September I was Captain for our CBCA Blue Mountains Sub-branch Talk like a Pirate Day at Katoomba Library!
I held a pirate finger puppet workshop with our budding little pirates!
And I also became a Pirate Bikey…well temporarily when Biblio Turismo arrived for their library visit! See more of them at http://biblio-turismo.blogspot.com.au
In October I had the most beautiful and inspirational day at Kinross Wollaroi School in Orange talking to kids from Kindergarten to Year 6 about design and illustration. We had enormous fun designing characters and I was greatly impressed with the talent I saw.
Definitely some future illustrators in the making!
Receiving my first copies from the lovely Amanda at the new Eternity Ink head office.
My illustrations for “The Ultimate Frontier” are finally in print! The cover reads “Key ideas are brought to life by the entertaining and quirky illustrations by Narelda Joy”.
The book is by Ken O’Donnell. It sold over 100 000 copies in Spanish and has been translated into English. Ken has written more than 15 books on themes of meditation, leadership, and emotional intelligence. Ken is actually an industrial chemist by trade!
Thank you to the amazing team at Eternity Ink for a wonderful working collaboration.
You can buy the book which includes a meditation CD at: http://www.eternityink.com.au/books-all/the-ultimate-frontier-initiating-the-journey-that-has-just-one-destination-self-empowerment-includes-cd/
Our fabulous Blue Mountains Sub-branch of the NSW branch of the Children’s Book Council of Australia launched our first four Little Free Libraries yesterday at the Gingerbread House!
Little Free Libraries started in 2009 and there are now 36,00 worldwide. We want to encourage kids to read so we have filled ours with children’s books. We received a grant from author James Patterson in conjunction wth Megalong Books at Leura which has enabled us to set up four initial libraries. We hope to establish many more, up and down the mountains.
I designed the graphics for our Little Free Libraries which include our sub-branch logo, “Blue” the Blue Mountains Dragon, for easy recognition.
Head to https://littlefreelibrary.org/ for more information about this initiative .
Our gorgeous little boxes with 100 books each have been installed at
The Gingerbread House – Katoomba
Rust n Timber – Lawson
Wayzgoose Cafe -Leura
Gifts n Things – Leura
We are officially registered on the LFL world map!
Our first customer pictured here
The lovely Scarlett (daughter of Jo) from Gifts n Things was our model
Local MP Trish Doyle came to officially launch our initiative.
My logo design for the Blue Mountains sub-branch
I got to hug a Gingerbread Man! A dream come true!
I’ve had a wonderful experience working with the children from Blackheath Public School.
Sheryl Cootes, the Assistant Principal, and Jo Davies from the Blackheath Community Centre, and I worked together on a play version of Wilfred Gorgon Patrick Mcdonald. In the book version the little boy helps an old lady find her memory.
Thirteen kids performed it on the 27th May to the residents at Morven Gardens – an aged care facility in the Blue Mountains of Australia.
Both young and old had a wonderful time and many memories were shared. Later in the year I’ll work with the residents and we will perform a reciprocal play for the children!
Here are some photos of rehearsals in the school hall.
The children learnt how to walk and act like old people!
Rehearsals
Practising their dance for after the play!
Performing the play at Morven Gardens
Talking to the residents
Sharing the joy and fun
The residents all received a play program
