The Aussie Bush Project

I have been working on magazine articles these last weeks but have also been thinking about what new project I would embark on when the Medieval Project finishes its travels later this year. There is no doubt the format offers room for lots of creativity- I make the prints and then people embroider/embellish/bead/ do all sorts of stuff to improve my prints. It's been a pleasure to see what people have come up with, and the Medieval project and the Sentinelle Project before it attracted lots of attention and positive comment, and I am amazed at how varied the exhibition looks even though the same prints have been used.The medieval project will be shown at Canberra next week and Newcastle  the following week and then in Hamilton and Wellington in New Zealand in September. The events are organised by Expertise Events and there is further information on their website- just follow the link.

So earlier this year I was playing around and making Babbling Banksia quilts and prints and also did quite a lot of reading of French Botanical books as some of the first images of Australian flora appear in in the book of a French botanist. It made me wonder about  what they thought of the Australian bush with plants so strange and so different to what they would have encountered in Europe, and then I wondered how do Australians themselves view the Aussie bush? What is the first thing that springs to mind when you mention the words The Aussie Bush and how do they envision those things?

So I decided that my next project would be The Aussie Bush. In my minds eye I can see a wall of wonderful stitched panels depicting the Aussie Bush. So I started creating prints with the Aussie Bush in mind. The first two  prints are 30 cm x 30 cm and have been inspired by gumnuts and banksias. I can see lots of opportunity for embellishment of these panels. Panels are for sale for $20 each plus postage- and I have dyed a load of Aussie bush colours ( and some others as well) .I am also making enquiries if there is any interest in exhibiting the Aussie Bush Project - if I can get people to join into the project. Email me if you are interested, and I would love some feedback  on what you think about the project!

I usually do my first trial print on newspaper- not sure how that habit started, probably because I used newspapers as printing mats.I think I will be making these trial prints into some kind of hand made book. These two prints are  hot off the press ( well in my wishing world there might one day be a proper press !) and I will be working on another one over the next few days. As you can see from the last photo I am using an empty wine bottle to roll the backs of the lino when printing as I left my barens that I normally use in France and haven't had a chance to get to a shop to buy some new ones . I love those Japanese bamboo covered barens.