Twenty Years of Blogging

 It is hard to believe but this month, October, my blog is 20 years old. I have been blogging since 2004 and I must admit have blogged less since joining Instagram sometime in 2014 or 2015. I also thought I was going to give up blogging at various times but somehow never did. Just lately I have started reading other peoples blogs again. I had thought of moving over to Substack or Patreon, to try and eke a little money from my writing /blogging endeavours but somehow I worry about being consistent enough, after all when people pay there are expectations of delivering consistent value added content and extras. I have also thought of doing a newsletter as they seem to be popular at present and I subscribe to some myself but again I worry about consistency. However when all is said and done I have been on blogger for 20 years and I do feel proud of that, even though i have not blogged as regularly as I used to. Recently I looked at printing off my blog but was a bit shocked to find the cost of that through one of those blog to print apps would be in excess of $1500 because of the number of pages. In the 20 years I have made 1450 posts, 2 posts have been deleted by blogger, for community infringement and I have no idea why as the content of the said offending posts cannot be seen even by me.

In the 20 years of blogging many things have happened and much travel has been embarked upon. On a personal level I got divorced whilst my daughters were still teenagers , and now they are all grown up  and my eldest daughter got married recently (we made her dress as we could not find anything that suited her or that she liked). I have had cancer and a heart attack, both health issues were caught early  and though the treatment was quite invasive I have come out the other side with very few residual health issues . So listen to your body, if something is not quite right do go and see a health professional. I moved house a number of times, from my home in Gellibrand to another home in Gellibrand, then a year in France, then three years in Geelong and then much travel and couch surfing until I decided to live in my shed in Gellibrand (which was next door to my ex so not ideal, but on the other hand the divorce was not out and out acrimonious and we do have 3 children in common who have various life events to celebrate and I won't put them through what my parents put me through.) And then a big move to the other side of the state after my scare with cancer to Morwell in the Latrobe Valley. I was able to buy an ex commission home from the proceeds of the sale of my block and shed just before things went out of kilter with covid. And I have been here for 5 years now. I would really like to do some renovations but as a self employed  artist fro 30 years, superannuation was not something I could afford.On the other hand I do feel lucky to have a house that is big enough to accommodate my passion for textiles and some garden to practice some permaculture and grow vegies. I would love to do more permaculture things with my front garden but textile is still keeping me heavily engaged so that I do not have the time to give to such a large project.

At present I have curated an exhibition entitled Gathered Threads, which is now in its third year and is attracting quite some attention and so it should there are some fabulous textile artists involved. It is on at ARC Yinnar which is open Thursday to Sunday from 12-4.

Next weekend the other half of Inkpot Alchemy , Cheryl Cook and I will be doing taster workshops from 12-3 on 5/6 October at Arc Yinnar. Please message me if you are interested and I can send you the info sheet.

I will also have a few pieces on display at Gallery Cardamome in France, near Chartres from 4 October- 13 October. There are nine textile artists involved and sadly it is the last time the exhibition will take place. I had hoped to be there in person one of these years, but alas no. There are some wonderful textile artists involved in this exhibition.

 Then later in October (October 21-24) I will be travelling up to Ulladulla for the annual Quilters Gathering organised by Marilyn Stewart. This is such a wonderful gentle event and always a lot of fun and brilliantly catered for. I will be teaching things inky and stitchy- we will have fun boiling and troubling, creating inks and printing and stitching.

 

Then I drive back to Morwell to participate in Open Studios Latrobe which will be on the weekend of 25/26 October and I am looking forward to that. I will be up at Cheryl's studio at Tanjil South. she has a wonderful mudbrick studio. There will be artists all across the Latrobe Valley involved.

Later in the year Cheryl and I will be exhibiting at the Orbost Exhibition Centre from 8 November which we are looking forward to , its a beautiful centre and their collection of wood works is fabulous. We will also be teaching a workshop  of things inky,on the weekend of the Opening

I have been super busy these last moths since returning from overseas as I will be teaching a workshop for the TextileArtist.Org stitch club for 2 weeks from 14 January 2025. It necessitated creating a new workshop, writing it all up and creating the videos, which proved a bit of a challenge as we have had a lot of storms lately and well Cheryl's studio, where we did the filming, is backed by many tall trees and has a tin roof, so during the storms it sounded like thundering horses which was not conducive to making videos. But all materials have been delivered and I can now share a little of what I shall be teaching which combines linocut printing and stitching, my two favourite things! The linocuts were inspired by travels in Italy last year and Perugia and the very rich cultural experience that was. Below are some of the ideas I have explored for the Stitch club workshop. I will be showing you how to make a small linocut and then to embellish it. It is a great way to translate the inspiration you encounter on travels. These pieces are not the actual workshop piece but some other stitched pieces I made inspired by what I made for the workshop.

Next year is shaping up to be very busy as well. In March Cheryl and I will be exhibiting at Meeniyan Gallery for the month of March .

 I will be taking off for Europe   in March to exhibit in ChARTres Croisement des Arts from 8 March until 23 March. I will also be teaching a Master class at Villa Fulbert during that time. I will have more information about this next month. Also If anyone in France would like me to come and teach I have a small window between 23 March and early April, message me if you are.

Then I shall be in Spain for Crearte in Granada from 4-6April  and really looking forward to visiting Granada and meeting with Spanish textile artists and quilters. I will also be doing two half day workshops whilst there. So life is very busy and I am trying to make new pieces to exhibit in upcoming exhibitions and events. I hope to spend a little time in Spain and in particular in Granada which I visited many years ago and hoping to explore some things relating to Federico Garcia Lorca.

And that is me all caught up. I would love to hear from you if you have followed my blog for a long time. I know I have met many of you during the years and I am incredibly grateful for the support that you have given me over these last 20 years. I have made some incredible friends through my blog.