Traveller's Blanket On-line Class

The piece above is  the first traveller's blanket I ever made dating from 2001/02 and was made for an exhibition in New Zealand. It was inspired by travels in Africa back in 1990 and the yelow/black and red fabric had been purcahsed at a market in Bangui in the Central African Republic. I hand dyed the background fabric ( and if you join the class there is instructions for this type of dyeing in the notes). There is no batting in this piece- it is simply stitched through three layers of hand dyed musling fabric

Above . Pieces I have made over the years. The photo above were all pieces made for an invitational exhibition at the Quilt & Craft Fair in Sydney and Melbourne. I spent 18 months making this pieces- it was a stitching marathon. Some of these pieces ( except the blue on the left) are for sale if you are interested.

All of the pieces in the photo above have been handstitched. When I moved back to Gellibrand in 2015, I lived in a shed on my land I had there and it had no power. I idid eventually get a solar panel for lighting but it was not enough to power a sewing machine so I did a lot of hand stitching until I sold it early in 2019. I also hand stitch when I travel as it is easy to take with me. I use almost solely perle 8 weight threads though in reality you could use any embvroidery threads- whatever you have to hand really. The piece on the left and the one beside  were made into a book PLaids Nomades by Editions de Saxe and I have seen some wonderful interpretations.

             

                      

The pomegranate piece was started whilst I was house sitting for a friend in the shadow of Pic St Loup. Pomegranates have inspired a lot of my work over the years  and it is the tale of Demeter and her search for her daughter that inspires this work. I love the greek classical tales- they are bold, big and soemtimes outrageous and yet they often touch on human emotions and the excesses thereof. I stitched this piece on a piece of hand dyed khadi which was dyed whilst I was visiting a friend in Rajasthan. It was a failed piece of indigo dyed khadi but somehow acquired a life of its own as I stitched this piece.

The piece above was purchased by a friend in Tassie- i think it is amongst my favourites , but to be honest I spend so much time stitching these pieces that they all rank as favourites. This piece was a journey through the surface design  techniques I have used over the years that I have been stitching seriously as a textile artist.

This piece was commenced when I did an artists residency with the women of Boneca de Atauro ( whose works I have for sale on another page of my blog- 100% of proceeds go to these women who do amazing things on a tiny island of the East Timor coast) Every morning I would walk along the beach before it got to hot and the first time I was there I encountered many sea urchins. There is a ridiculous number of french knots on this piece- and I took soem months to finih this piece ( it measurs 45 cm x 90 cm)

The piece above was commenced whilst I was exhibiting at ChARTres some years ago . I was invited to exhibit this year but unfortunately due to travel restrictions I was not able to partiicpate. I love this event and have come to know the organisers and other artists as  friends and have coem to view Chartres as my second city. At the time I only had undyed khadi on hand and soem indigo dyed thread which has soemhow found its way into my suitcase. So I decided I would sytitch this piece monotone . The hand dyed thread was slightly variegated and soem of it was a little darker than the rest- it became an exercise in making each circle different by stitchig alone and using weight of stitching to create contrast.

This piece is called One World and I started it not long after I moved to Morwell and my ex commission house which I bought when I sold my land in the Otways. We have only one world and each of us sees it so differently - yet together we must all take care of it and ensure its continuation. sometimes  the task seems too daunting particularly in the face of  big business ( which are corprorations enriching the pockets of a few by exploiting the resources that should belong to us all) and yet we must continue advocating fighting for what a lot of us know is right in the knowledge that there is only one earth. This piece has been stitched on madder dyed khadi sourced from the Stitching Project and you can even buy packs of patches from the stitching project if you have none of your own.. This piece is doubled khadi without any batting or flannel middle layer.

The piece above and the details were inspired by walks in the shadow of Pic St Loup near Montpellier. I sometimes  house sit for a friend there ( i also visit her of course) but again that has not happened for soem years. I walk her dog through the vineyards and there is always some new weed, flower or herb to encounter.

 If you wish to learn any of this work I will be starting another on-lie course on 14 february- yes I know Valentine's day, but these pieces are not stitched in a day. I set up a private facebook group for discussion and sharing and organise fortnightly zoom sessions for question and answer. There are also a few short videos and extensive notes whish are delivered every two weeks  over an 8 week period. I keep the stitching relatively simple and encourage you to tell your own stories with your stitching. Would love to see you join me. Cost is $75 AUS- just click on the Paypal button.

Years End

 I am not sure what I have been doing this last month- there has been quite a lot going on in sellling my mothers house and though my brother did a lot of that, there was still quite some work in packing mum's things for her new place and then settling her into her new apartment- moving is definitely not my favourite thing but in sorting out mum's house ( which had so much stuff- a lot of it less than useful) I realised i need to rationalise some of my stuff. It's not too bad as I have moved quite a lot since 2009 and shed life wasn't conducive to collecting many things- but I need to reappraise things and just streamline things.

Needless to say I have not made many things recently- fell into a bit of a hole after my exhibition finished and  whilst I have stitched a bit here and there- have not achieved a great deal. Did make a new linocut but need to dye more fabric in order to print and until recently I had run out of fabric to dye and could not go to Melbourne to get some more fabric due to lockdowns. So I thought I would do a review  in photos of the year that was, starting with January  2021. January I was busy  preparing for my on-line linocut course which started early February. These were examples of simple linocuts printed on newsprin and fabric. If anyone is interested I will run the linocut course again sometime in  2022- just depends a little if in the flesh workshops go ahead as planned or not.

February 2021- still prepping for the linocut course . It takes ages to write and collate the notes and exercises as everything has to be photographed through its stages. The notes ended up being substantial - almost a book really.

The image below is some drawings I purchased at Ste Marie aux Mines- which  were made for one of the printing companies in the Rhine valley- they were selling off their designs quite cheaply and I could not resist.

March 2021

I started making pods- woke up one morning and thought it seemd like a good idea. It went through a few prototypes before I found a shape I liked and also tried different linings- some of the vliesoline was too stiff and did not lend itself to a nice rounded shape.

April 2021

I decided that I needed to make pomegranate pod shapes as well and made a little linocut to make the seeds.

May2021

Went to the Rone exhibition at the Geelong Art Gallery- and  kept stitching on my traveller's blanket with blue circles and stitched more pods.

June 2021

Went to the Mary Quant Exhibition in Bendigo and continued stitching hoping against the odds that my workshop for Fibres West in WA in July would go ahead- things were looking very dodgy with covid spreading again.

And I finally finished the One World Traveller's Blanket- with blue circles all 87 of them!

July 2021

Got the dreaded news - Fibres West was definitely cancelled for Victorians ( and a bit later that month WA closed its borders to all states and territories) The financial implications were not good for everyone involved including the organisers- for example Qantas does not reimburse its airfares- simply gives the option of using the ticket up in the next 12 months which is not very useful when the next planned event is actually 2 years hence- 2023.

Got carried away making  pockets to wear.

August 2021

Started off rather badly- landed in hospital after suffering a heart attack and spent a couple of days in the Alfred in Melbourne whilst they inserted some stints in a dodgy artery. Once I was home again life sort of returned to normal or as best as I could but my garden did get a bit out of control as no heavy work for at least 6 weeks which included pushing a lawn mower- and well weeds grow no matter what as does the rotten grass- I am still trying to deal with the aftermath of that! Walking is now an imperative and one of my daughters came to help despite the lockdown although she got here before the lockdown actually was imposed. Started using my cold press laminator which had been sitting and staring at my in its box in the loungeroom and found it very useful to do mono printing with found leaves and weeds from my walks.

September 2021

I had a small exhibition booked at Arc Yinnar and was very tempted to cancel it after my heart attack  but instead decided I would do it and see what I could get done. My middle daughter, Siena Galtry designed a booklet for me which contained photos and a poem of sorts devoted to the inspiration offered by morning walks- I don't know why i had to write a poem but I did and my readers were very supportive of the effort. I have a few left but I did cover the cost of this vanity project.

October 2021

Exhibition at the Sparc Gallery- this is  not a big space but surprisingly roomy when you are not feeling on top of the world- I did manage to fill it but only just and to my great delight I sold quite a few works. Most of the works were smaller as that is what I could cope with at the time but they were all inspired by my morning walks in the little bushland reserve where I walk.

November 2021

I had enrolled in a printing course run at Arc- which ran for a nine week period and it was great fun. We did all sorts of different kinds of printing including screen printing and linocut printing. This little cat was my linocut effort.

December 2021

I had a contract earlier in the year to write a Tifaifai book for Editions de Saxe but because of my heart attack it has been pushed back a little. But this month I have been working on the last project for the book and also remade two little quilts ( as I had sold one of the ones I had made last year) as they needed to be photographed in high res for the book- it is my finishing job for January 2022.

I wanted to show how much fun a simple squiggly pattern can be. I made these into wall hangings but they could also make fun cushions.

So looking forward:

I will be running a Traveller's Blanket on-line class starting mid February. I will also be running the Tifaifai Class starting mid february. I will put details in my next post.

Meanwhile:

It is possible to enroll for the Pods, Pods, Pods class. These days I send out the notes and Video when payment is made so you can get started straight away and I will be  doing a zoom question and answer mid January  to share out efforts and to asnwer your questions . if you would like to enroll simply follow the Paypal button. The pods below are urchin shape , the pattern and instructions for which are also part of the course ( as are the pomegranates)

I also want to wish all my readers, friends and family a happy and safe 2022 and thank you for your support throughout 2021.

Exhibition at Arc Yinnar; Morning Walks in the Pandemic

 I meant to post on my blog much earlier than this but October got fiendishly busy with all sorts of things and also with  things taking up time that were rescheduled because of the Covid restrictions and lockdowns in Victoria. So this is a catch up on all the work I made for my small exhibition  in the SpArc gallery at Arc Yinnar. The work has been inspired by my morning walks in the Crinigan Bushland Reserve which is close to my home, and which saved my sanity these last two years and is now a big factor in recovering my health after my heart attack.  The exhibition finishes this Sunday the 31st of October- and I am very grateful to the visitors that have visited despite the difficulties of travel at the moment.The gallery has a window as one wall so I created some new gum leaves to hang across the  window space. This piece is constructed from hand dyed fabric and hand painted vilene with each leaf individually stitched and cut out by hand and then sewn together to create a cascade of gumleaves, like you would encounter walking through the bush from low hanging eucalypt brances. The piece is for sale for $800AUD.

I also created another forrest piece which has already been sold ( in fact it was sold before the exhibition was hung). I have made these pieces in the past , but this one has been printed with found things from things I found in the Bushland reserve which included bracken and gum leaves.

                                                                          

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The other pieces were all monoprinted with the cold press laminator I purchased last year ( but which I only unpacked out of its box about 3 months ago- it just seemed like one more daunting thing to deal with at the time- but since I have unpacked it I have had a lot of fun with it- and it is still a learning curve for some things). The next two pieces have a central panel which was monoprinted and was then surrounded with hand dyed fabric and free motion stitching with Aurifil Mako threads ( which I love- I use the 30 weight so the thread is slightly thicker because you can get such a good line)

                                                                  

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Both of these pieces have sold to someone who is collecting some of my work and told me that she  shows some of my work to her students at school to inspire them- which is a huge compliment!

The next three pieces measure approx 25 cm x 60 cm and are also  monoprinted with found things from the bushland reserve. They are for sale for $200AUD. I found that when I picked some fo the gumleaves they needed a longer piece of fabric to express their elegance and  despite the fact that gumleaves usually hang down, i liked the effect when I pointed them upwards ( you can defy gravity when monoprinting). I also like the shadow print that happens when you make a second print with this type of monoprinting. And I am in love with Kangaroo grass- it makes such a smashing whispy print.

I also made a series of smaller pieces, some hand stitched and some machine stitched. The intention was to make eight but I got five done and am still working on the sixth- I guess it won't get done in time after all. These measure 22 cm x 32 cm

For sale $180AUD- this piece is monoprinted and hand stitched-  faced  binding

 

               For sale $180AUD- this piece is monoprinted and hand stitched-  faced  binding

The next three have all been mono-printed and machine stitched and are $100AUD each.

                                                                         

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                                                                          For Sale

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The last piece was monoprinted onto a previously hand printed ( with a linocut) hand dyed khadi fabric and then machine stitched.

Sold

I am thrilled with the sales thus far. It has felt like a huge affirmation for working in this way , which is sort of new for me. I have used prinintg in the past in my work but have not really used monoprinting before. Working with the cold press laminator has made those prints come out in a much more interesting way than by simply hand pressing. I also accompanied the exhibition with a booklet which I mentioned in my previous post which also contains a poem of sorts. I still have a few of those for sale if interested ( see my previous post). Some other random photos of my exhibition. I included pods and pockets I had made over the past months. You can sign up for the Pods, Pods, Pods Class ( also in my previous blog post)- i send otu the notes and vidoe immediately and will be organising a zoom question and answer in mid November.

And of course I had to include one of the Sentinelles to watch over all this bush inspired work. If you are interested in any of the pieces that are still for sale please email me. I am also available to make commission pieces. Some of the smaller pieces would make great Christmas gift. I am also selling the little printed panels (  they are unstitched  and they are a little bit bigger than A4) which have been monoprinted . They are monoprinted on hand dyed fabric with found foliage from the bushland reserve. They are $20 inclusive of postage. In the image below are four separate prints.

And let me encourage you to buy the work of artists and artisans in this difficult time but to also buy local and things that are made with love and passion, weather it be art , crafted objects or home grown foods. I can't tell you how grateful I am that so many pieces in this exhibition have sold. Like many artists I survive off the sales from what I make- there is no siginificant other or other support, so it means the world to me that you have supported my work, it enables me to live and to continue making. A number of pieces I have sold in this exhibition have sold to people I have known over the years and that means a lot to me. It is an affirmation that my work is enjoyed, that I am not creating in a vacuum and that what I am trying to say strikes a chord. So thank you!