#141 Customer Support Question

Hello to Jean Abideen, thank you for alerting us to the fault in the customer support; there was a technical hitch which we have now sorted out. We were feeling very positive about the lack of questions we were getting!!!!!! But we are onto the backlog and will be up to speed very soon.

Make sure that if anyone does have a problem connecting, just like Jean, give us a post and we can be alerted, especially if it looks fine at our end!

And a quick answer to Cecilia, unfortunately Anne can not take any outside photographs, she is working hard on finishing up the new book Beginnings and has another exciting project that she will start this month. This leaves her with no time, we are sorry to say.

New video soon from Anne!

#140 Extra images in the iGoogle theme

For those who have not added Anne’s theme page on iGoogle, now is a good time.

We have added some extra images, so the refresh time is excellent.

Click here to create your own page with elements that you enjoy.

More on Beginnings soon; we are just adding some subtitles on a new video in a variety of languages.

It should be ok for later this week.

#139 More on Beginnings

Anne has mentioned in her last video that the inspiration for her new book came from certain elements of nature. The Australian Museum have very generously loaned Anne two of their very precious collections. We cannot tell you yet exactly what is in those collections, but we will give a few snippets of information as we go on.

Each day, when Anne was shooting, a new batch of boxes arrive in the studio, some large some small. They are all catalogued and inside the boxes there are notes, some hand written by the people who found the specimens, detailing where they were found and when.

Sometimes there is quite a story attached and it is fascinating to read them and imagine the scenario. A couple of the specimens were found in the 1800’s, so they are extremely precious and when we have them out of the boxes and Anne is photographing them we need to be very careful about the way we handle them so as not to damage them in any way.

The other tenants in our building must wonder at the constant stream of boxes arriving stamped AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. We are sure they would love to know what goes on in the studio…sometimes there is a stream of new mums arriving with strollers, sometimes pregnant women and other times there are all sorts of weird and wonderful packages being delivered.

We’ll just keep them guessing….

But we must appear very learned!!!!!!

A new video by Anne about the book Beginnings very soon.

#138 You do what you can!

Everyone would be aware of the terrible earthquake that affected Haiti and the continuing effects that the population at large are suffering.

We are also well aware of the large scale aid programme that various countries around the world are continuing to give, and also the help given by various agencies and by individuals in so many countries.

We know that many children are homeless, many still without food, and many without parents.

In keeping with the ideals of the Geddes Philanthropic Trust to help children suffering neglect, Anne along with her husband Kel, have organized to send through Feed the Children of America (feedthechildren.org) baby clothing from Anne’s clothing range to help where possible.

The retail value is US$50,000.00 and may go to help in some small way to provide a benefit.

Feed the Children of America were also a wonderful partner in helping in the distribution of much needed clothing, also donated on behalf of the Geddes Philanthropic Trust, when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005.

Any donation that can be given, no matter how small though the various agencies, would be appreciated naturally.

#137 Thank you

Nice to see two of the latest postings in Anne’s Facebook.

Congratulations to Wu Shi Xin and your wife on the birth of your son Shaun.

Also, a lovely photo of Pama holding one of Anne’s plush.

It would be interesting to see some more images from Anne’s Facebook Fans taken with Anne’s plush, if you have one.

(It has to be genuine!)

More soon on Anne’s new book Beginnings.

#136 Something to think about

Hi, there are examples on the web of sites pretending to be the real sites of companies and people.

It’s important, to not only yourself, but also to sites such as Anne’s to ensure that the information being shown is actually from that person or company. Twitter has a solution that they are testing that will allow you to see if a site is the real thing.

What is a verified account?

To prevent identity confusion, Twitter is experimenting (beta testing) with a 'Verified Account' feature. It is to establish authenticity with people who deal with impersonation or identity confusion on a regular basis. Accounts with a tick are the real thing!

The best way, is to go to this site, and read for yourself, then check back on Anne’s Twitter page to see the result.


More soon on Anne’s new book Beginnings.

#135 Information on Anne's latest Limited Edition Print

You all know by now about Anne's Limited Edition Print series that are available for sale, but many of you may not know the background to the particular print. So below, we have included some information that went into creating the Angel photograph.

Anne photographed Jonti (also published as Jonti as an Angel) as part of her Angels series.

This series was photographed in San Francisco and Auckland, in late 1995 and early 1996 and appeared in calendars in 1997 and 1998. Anne also has talked about this image in her autobiography 'A Labour of Love'.

Anne says about this image:-"The stone angel prop itself was impressive. It was light and had been especially carved our of one huge block of foam with a reinforced steel dish incorporated into the hands to make the structure strong. I had photographed my assistant’s hands beforehand in exactly this position, as a model for the sculpture, and Dawn, who has made all of my props for many years, did a wonderful job of bringing the sculpture to life.

It is always difficult to find ready-made props to accommodate the special needs of babies, and therefore we take a great deal of time and trouble to make suitable, safe and comfortable props for the individual shoots. My dilemma is always what to do with them afterwards.

Jonti is such a lovely name, that one of my staff members who became pregnant in 2002 also named her baby Jonti."

More from Dawn about the making of the stone angel prop.

"Hi, I’m Dawn McGowan, Anne’s prop designer and fabricator. I am working on her current new book project Beginnings in Sydney, and have been with Anne since the days of 'Down in the Garden' in 1995.

I carved the stone angel out of a solid block of polyurethane foam, which is creamy yellow colour, and has a fine, slightly grainy texture. The first rough shape was made with a handsaw, then the fine details were shaped with smaller knives (the serrated kitchen variety) of various sizes. The piece was finally smoothed with sandpaper. The block of polyurethane was about 50cm deep, and I carved it to a depth of about 25cm. Only the front was carved – I didn’t have to make an entire freestanding angel. Nor did I have to make the angels’ head or feet. The idea was always that the angel would be shown from the knees to the shoulders. That way, Jonti would be in the middle, and large enough to be seen clearly.

The finished sculpture was sealed with cream acrylic paint, then touched up with greys and browns to give the feel of weathered stone. The carving was actually quite shallow, so the impression of depth was given by exaggerating the shadows with dark paint." - Dawn McGowan.

If you are finding this information interesting, we will be bring you more details regarding the "all new" images in Anne's book Beginnings, as we countdown to the release date on 10.10.10

More soon!