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EJ

@emmajeans.bsky.social

Good morning! The sky was interesting last night. This is the first time I’ve tried photographing aurora and I am so mad I didn’t think to take a tripod with me - but also these were just taken on my iPhone.

Longer-exposure photo of trees silhouetted against a night sky with pale pink and vivid magenta aurora and a scattering of stars.

Longer-exposure photo of trees silhouetted against a night sky with pink and purple aurora and a scattering of stars.

November 12, 2025 at 10:06 PM

EJ

@emmajeans.bsky.social

Thing 16: sometimes the timber fights every bloody step of the way.
I started trying to make this bowl in February, but it took until mid-April to finish it.
It started out with a million catches and cracks and wouldn’t get or stay on the chuck.
Now it’s smooth and heavy and lovely.
#catchingup

This bowl I made, sitting on a brick wall near a bottlebrush tree.
The brick is pale and rough and has some moss on it.
The bowl is caramel and blonde, and very smooth.

This bowl I made, sitting on a brick wall.
The bricks are textured and have some moss on them.
In this photo, you can see the patterning on the inside of the bowl. It is caramel and blonde coloured, and very smooth.

June 1, 2025 at 10:12 AM

EJ

@emmajeans.bsky.social

#Thing 11: I made a bowl from silky oak.
It just… worked. Straight away. The whole thing complete in under an hour.
(In my hubris I figured this meant it would now always be this easy…
Alas, this is not the case.)

#thingaweek

The silky oak bowl I made for my aunt’s birthday. It’s a classic bowl shape.
The grain pattern has both concentric circles and horizontal lines, making it look a bit like an optical illusion. The wood colour is blondey-pink.

The inside of the little wooden bowl I made.
The photo was taken with a black background to show off the depth and contrast against the lighter color wood.

May 4, 2025 at 5:00 AM

EJ

@emmajeans.bsky.social

Thing 10: I made a pencil pot! It is sturdy and small, but will hold pencils.

The pencil pot I made, sitting on the roof of my car, under a gum tree.
(My car was recently washed so the reflections are clear and show a glimpse of the sky.)

A view of the other side of the pencil pot I made. The wood is lighter and less knotted on this side!

May 4, 2025 at 3:40 AM

EJ

@emmajeans.bsky.social

Once again having brekky at sweetbones vegan cafe before walking across the road to vote at the local school.
Lots of Greens, Labor and Pocock volunteers handing out pamphlets.
Not seeing much blue round these parts.
(Or yellow or orange.)

PS: check out www.donkeyvotie.org before you vote

A sunlit table with a mug of matcha. Behind the mug is a table marker in the shape of a skull - the nose socket of which is an upside-down love heart. The table number is 13, which I hope is an auspicious omen for the outcome of today’s federal election.

May 2, 2025 at 11:56 PM

EJ

@emmajeans.bsky.social

Thing 9: I baked (too many) little bikkies.

Some are choc chip-coconut-almond, some are milo. Both are delicious.

I misread the recipe and creamed double the (vegan) butter with the sugar, so there was nothing for it but to double the rest of the ingredients…

#thingaweek #veganbaking

A close-up photo of little round biscuits stacked up in three lines.

March 5, 2025 at 7:39 PM

EJ

@emmajeans.bsky.social

Thing 8: a bowl with a natural edge.

I was almost finished turning when suddenly! The bark started splitting off the edge in tiny shards.
Sadly, I gave up trying to put it back together and removed the rest.

Still, I’m pretty happy with the optical illusion that makes this round bowl seem oval.

A shallow round bowl I turned. The photo is taken from an angle that makes it look longer than it is wide, because the top and bottom of the blank were not parallel when I started, and you can see where the bark had grown when it was a tree.

A top down view of the bowl, demonstrating that it is in fave round. (I had to take this photo to show mum because she didn’t quite believe me.)

February 23, 2025 at 10:06 AM

EJ

@emmajeans.bsky.social

Thing 7: a little bowl (~12cm height) turned from Dutch elm.

I’m so pleased with the way the lighting and finish on the bowl highlights the figures in the wood.
There’s more I want to do to this bowl eventually; I’ll abandon it for now and call it done;.

A small brown wooden bowl sits on the dusty roof of my black car. It’s a sunny day and the blue sky and soft white clouds and the gum tree in the middle distance are clearly reflected, as is the bowl itself.

‘Art is never finished, only abandoned’ - Da Vinci (allegedly)

February 12, 2025 at 11:44 AM

EJ

@emmajeans.bsky.social

Thing 5 and Thing 6: I’ve been making more little vases.

One is from camphor laurel, the other is (I think?) some type of fruit tree.

(I’ve saved the camphor wood shavings for deterring moths.)

A vase I turned from camphor laurel. I staged it with some orange flowers from the garden and photographed it with dramatic lighting on a black background made from old ikea shelves.

A little vase I turned from maybe some kind of fruit tree?
I staged it with some foliage from the garden and photographed it with dramatic lighting on a black background made from old ikea shelves.

A close up of the little fruit-wood vase, showing the porous texture and wood grain pattern.

A close-up of the vase I turned from camphor laurel showing the. Smooth and shiny surface and angular lines of the vase and the grain.

February 8, 2025 at 2:31 PM

EJ

@emmajeans.bsky.social

Thing 4: I made a dozen tiny cupcakes and piped teensy purple flowers with little leaves on each of them.

The vanilla cake recipe came from the HeartfulTable website.

heartfultable.com/vegan-vanill...

A dozen tiny cupcakes with a swirl of white frosting and a purple buttercream flower and green leaves on each.

January 28, 2025 at 8:44 AM

EJ

@emmajeans.bsky.social

Without downloading any new pics, where are you mentally?

A screenshot from Duolingo Swedish. A cartoon character of an older person with a monobrow and wry smirk says in Swedish “Fråga inte mig!” (translation: Do not ask me!)

January 23, 2025 at 9:26 PM

EJ

@emmajeans.bsky.social

Thing 3: a little wooden vase, pictured here with some grevillea and correa from the garden.

I’m working it out - proportions, depths, finishes - learning to make new mistakes every time.

A photo of a wooden vase I turned. You can see the grain and figures in the wood, like the tree is quietly sharing secrets with you about how it grew, what it may have been if the world had been different and what it ended up being.
(I can of course see all the flaws in the craftsmanship, but I’m posting it anyway because the goal of this is not to post something perfect every week, just something I made.)

A wider shot of the vase and some grevillea flowers and some correa foliage. It’s all styled in front of some cream colour curtains, mostly to make the colours stand out better!

The grevillea banksii has alien-looking and vibrant red flowers without petals, and sharply contrast with the green leaves.
(The red and green of the shrub provide such good cover for the local families of crimson rosellas and eastern rosellas.)

January 18, 2025 at 12:30 PM

EJ

@emmajeans.bsky.social

Thing 2: a slimline twist pen

I learned to turn pens on the lathe last week, and made this one from Osage orange wood (maclura pomifera).

A wooden pen lying on a green fabric background. The wood is orangey brown and lightly patterned.
It’s fairly unremarkable as far as pens go, but I made it!

January 11, 2025 at 8:26 AM

EJ

@emmajeans.bsky.social

Thing 1: Cushy bar stool

I painted the bar stool I made in 2023 (using Two Birds chalk paint in Ginger Jar blue), and added padding and a cover (made with Jocelyn Proust ‘Blue-Faced Honeyeater’ print cotton canvas) to the seat.

Looking down at the wooden bar stool I made, you can see the dark grey-blue of the painted legs, and the sage green fabric patterned with silver banksia leaves and blue and grey birds.
The stool is positioned in front of a bookshelf with a bunch of book titles visible (including When Sorrows Come by Seanan Maguire, Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss, and Man Made Language by Dr Dale Spender).

Looking directly down at the cushioned top of the bar stool, there is a clearer view of the Jocelyn Proust fabric design - silver leaves, stylised blue banksia, and blue, grey and black honeyeater birds on a sage green background.
Fun fact: the birds on this fabric are roughly half the size of the birds in real life.

January 2, 2025 at 10:15 AM

EJ

@emmajeans.bsky.social

The angel at the top of the tree was a cocky.

Four sulfur crested cockatoos are perched decoratively on a medium sized tree (Chinese arborvitae) as they eat their fill of the tree’s small spiky cones. Appearing to hover just above the tree, a fifth cocky has just taken off, startled by the camera-wielding rando.
(More cockatoos are just visible on the other side of the tree if you look carefully.)

December 29, 2024 at 10:18 AM

EJ

@emmajeans.bsky.social

Watching #Dimension20 Fantasy High Junior Year.
Every time they talk about Kristen being in ‘bloke mode’, I just get a very different visual to what I think they’re going for.
(But maybe not?)

The cover image from the song ‘Bloke’ by Chris Franklin.
A greyscale image of an unkempt scrawny white guy lying in an alleyway surrounded by empty cheap lager cans. His eyes are closed and he has a half-smoked cigarette in his mouth. He wears light-washed jeans, a blue singlet and his faded plaid flannelette shirt is open and falling off one shoulder. His mullet is curly, and although currently fashionable, the hairstyle was pretty cringe when the song was released in 2000.

January 19, 2024 at 11:01 PM

EJ

@emmajeans.bsky.social

🎵 BECAUSE OF YOU
I NEVER STRAYED TOO FAR FROM THE SIDEWALK
BECAUSE OF YOU 🎵

George Santos, surrounded by reporters with cameras and phones, there's a microphone pointed towards him. He's in the center, wearing a black sweater and a red sports coat. He has glasses on and his mouth is open wide, as if yelling (or in song).

December 2, 2023 at 11:29 AM

EJ

@emmajeans.bsky.social

Don’t forget to look up.

A photo looking straight up at a patch of blue sky surrounded by clouds. To the left are clouds tinged with the orange/peach light of sunset. To the right and below are dark grey storm clouds.

September 10, 2023 at 8:46 PM

EJ

@emmajeans.bsky.social

The cockatoos are getting rowdier each day.

Looking almost directly up to the top branches of a gumtree at dusk, where a cockatoo is chewing something held in its foot. You’ll have to imagine the loud squawking that fills the air from other cockies (not pictured).

September 4, 2023 at 12:58 AM

EJ

@emmajeans.bsky.social

It was extremely sweet how people said they liked how pretty (and tasty) it was!

I made corresponding GF cupcakes for my gluten-avoidant colleagues, but I cheated and used a packet cake mix because I’m never happy with the ones I make from scratch.

Birds-eye picture of a gluten-free vegan cupcake with swirls and dollops of purple, lilac and white
buttercream icing.

August 29, 2023 at 12:27 PM

EJ

@emmajeans.bsky.social

Wear it Purple day was on Friday.

My workplace had morning teas, and people dressed up and professed inclusion and acceptance. Some of them even got my pronouns correct more than once.

I made cakes!