It is sometime since I have blogged and I am really not sure why I stopped, maybe I just needed a break after 20 years of blogging. I did think about setting up a Substack account, but my archive is here so it makes sense to continue here. And I must admit my mojo went missing somewhere in the latter part of 2025 and it was difficult to find enthusiasm.
So today we had a magical day exploring some remnant low land forest at Tanjil South on my friend Cheryl Cook's property. Within this small forest area which has been relatively untouched for many years there are scented gums ( eucalypts) which have the most wonderful smell, manna gums, and box gums, as well as bursum, some blackwood ( and more varieties which I can't identify) grasses, mosses and lichens and most surprising of all reindeer lichen, something which usually only occurs in the Baw Baw Highlands ( snow line)
It has the most magical structure and is intricately entwined and holey, like lace. And that brings me to the workshop Cheryl, Julie and I will be teaching starting March1 and continuing 7-8 March. Julie is a field naturalist and will take participants through the fascinating piece of woodland and the surrounding grass lands, and we will collect some foliage and bark for the creating of inks. But we will look at the layers that make up the low land forest with a view to creating a creative response to the encounter and to give you tools to how you might do this yourself with your garden or other special place you may have. It is about interacting with this wonderful piece of nature, of examining its layers and surprises and sourcing some small amounts of materials to make your own inks and printing ink ( which will be 7-8 March when we take you through ink making techniques, printing and creating your own response to the environment). Details and enquiry is through our website Inkpot Alchemy just scroll down the page a little. The workshop is only with a small group and we have one place still available
These workshops are designed for you to look at nature with a different eye, and to create colour from a small amount of resource and to create art inspired by those interactions.
So much texture colours, even though we are at the height of summer, there is still plenty of things to encounter.
Some work I have been creating in response to the low land forest and surrounding grassland- a sentinelle decorated with kangaroo grass which was growing in abundance prior to Christmas and coloured with ink made from scented gum and manna gum. These sentinelles are about 75 cm tall and are enmeshed in the landscape and looking out for the landscape. The sentinelle story continues and keep re-emerging in a different size and subject.
