Mt Eden Store Start Up

Just reminiscing over the start up days of our Mt Eden store, this has now been rebranded Altered Art Alchemist.

Here is an old article in the newspaper for Scrapbookers' Delight in Mt Eden, Auckland.

Start up North Shore Shop

More memories of start up days, 2005 in our first store in Milford, North Shore, before moving into much larger premises and a brand new store in Albany, North Shore.

Woman's Day 2003

The start up days in Mt Eden.



My first pr stint in NZ Woman's Day.

Victoriana ephemera collecting

It was my first real day of being back at work. My vocation is as a careers counsellor, but my scrapbooking and altered art, well they are my hobbies in between running the stores.

So I'm almost back at work, but because Tatjana was scheduled to be on today, I decided I would do a spot of retail therapy and check out some of the antique and second hand stores. I came across a delightful shop called Victoria Gilt in Auckland. This shop specialises in vintage lace, beads, curtains, sewing tools, costume jewellery, collectable and wearable clothing. I had a good ole fossick around collecting bits of ephemera, beautiful old fashioned Valentine cards, miniature envelopes from a museum, bits of lace and silk, antique brooches, flower motifs, postcards .... All this collection of stuff, I don't know what I am going to do with it all. I intend to add some of the work to my altered art, but feel I cannot destroy or even alter antique (and expensive) pieces of ephemera, so the best idea is to save it in a box, look at it, and wonder .... I'll do something with it one day. Maybe I'll do an altered art piece used as a prop especially created for the antique.

I also went into another antique store nearby and saw this quirky but quaint folk art diorama. They wanted $1,870.00 for it! Ouch I can't afford that. It was a little too shabby, maybe I'll make my own diorama, among the hundred of projects I've got going or are at least in my head.

Angels in our Midst

This is a beautiful collage canvas decorated with sequins and glitter. Three angel images have been used, with one being 3D'd.

It is great for a child's bedroom. Little children can be reassured that God's angels are watching over them at night.

Love in a Garden

The poem is by an Afghan poet.

"We her petall'd lips are parting,
Whitest pearls so lose their lustre;
When her glance to me is darting,
fades the fairest flower cluster;
Roses shamed, forget to blossom,
Brighter radiance to discover
in the budding of a bosom
Haunting as to bee the clover;
On the thorn, that waits her pleasure;
I the fountain, faintly flowing,
Mirror of a garden's treasure,
Lover, loved, together knowing
Rapture passing dream or measure."

Khashad Ahan Ahatak

Hmm, this was written in Farsi or Pushto (language of Afghans) first before being translated into English. Yet with amazing clarity and rhyming the message is still very appealing.

It's Valentines shortly so here I have used a 12 x 12 canvas board (305 cm x 305 cm) to create a romantic Victoriana scene. A combination of techniques have been used from image transfer (of the poem) with an ink jet printer and dye wash; the tissues were decoupaged, and then the entire piece was crackled. Once this process was all dry the embellishments were added. Victoriana images were used from Memories of a Lifetime Romantic Illustrations by Sterling Publishing.

Ballerina Canvas

This collage paper tole has been created by Tatjana Stefanovic, an Elam School of Fine Arts graduate with Masters.

Tatjana works at Altered Art Alchemist shop in Mt Eden, Auckland, New Zealand
Tatjana Stefanovic.

The Lady of Shalott

This collage canvas has been worked with wax on vellum, little vignettes of Shakespearean tales, with a quirky add of other stories.

I have used Finmark Decoupage papers here, with a mixture of laser prints. Fibre has been added, to add to the storyline, with spools of wool being used to weave.

A poem has been added as an image transfer using an ink jet printer with a dye ink wash, before layering the image with acrylic gel.

Here is part of the story used as the image transfer:


"There she weaves by night and day
A magic web with colours gay.
She has heard a whisper say,
A curse is on her if she stay
To look down to Camelot.
She knows not what the curse may be,
And so she weaveth steadily,
And little other care hath she,
The Lady of Shalott."

The World Needs People ...

Who cannot be bought;
whose word is their bond;
who put character above wealth;
who possess opinions and a will;
who are larger than their vocations;
who do not hesitate to take chances;
who will not lose their individuality in a crowd;
who will be as honest in small things as in great things;
who will make no compromise with wrong;
whose ambitions are not confined to their own selfish desires;
who will not say they do it "because everybody else does it";
who are true to their friends through good report and evil report, in adversity as well as in prosperity;
who do not believe that shrewdness, cunning, and hard-headedness are the best qualities for winning success;
who are not ashamed or afraid to stand for the truth when it is unpopular;
who can say "no" with emphasis, although all the rest of the world says "yes".