Making Lace

Making Lace
Yesterday I pinned together this piece of lace- it is just over a metre wide and about 3 metres long, now I am sewing in the lines of stitches to keep the motifs in place. The motifs are the drochel inspired prints done on silk in gold printing ink. Now I just have to keep sewing to secure it all and then it will be finished and I can think about the next piece. I am reading a book by James Trilling , called Ornament- A Modern Perspective.Of course much of textile design up to the twentieth century could be classified as ornament, and I must admit to being drawn to things that are ornamented- not especially the over the top roccoco stuff, but for example some of the detail in the Lady and The Unicorn tapestries, or the rich, rich textile designs of the renaissance.

Kangaroos!

Kangaroos
My kids went out this evening into the bush with our friends Audrey and Daniel ,and this is what they saw. I think it beats a shopping centre maybe? Now I have to admit when I have had visitors come from overseas we have gone to the same place to show them kangaroos, and of course they have not been there. These are grey kangaroos which are not as big as red kangaroos which can be as big as a grown man when upright. Still grey kangaroos can be as tall as shoulder height of an average person, and the grass is huge this year after all the rain we have had, so these kangaroos are a pretty decent size.

Creative Fire

Last night's Fire

I live in a region that experience extreme fire conditions in summer. Fortunately that has not happened so far this summer, and because it has been so wet we have been able to have a small fire outside to sit around at night. Last night we played music and enjoyed Christmas drinks sitting around the fire. For me fire is also a metaphor for creativity. Sometimes I wake in the middle of the night just burning with ideas. Sometimes a "fire" quilt falls out of the sky and demands to be made. I have made about 17 hellfire quilts so far. They are also often a metaphor for the tenacity of humans to survive in conditions that are far from ideal.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone I know has a happy and safe new year, that somehow humans will find a way to be peaceful, and grant every child born the right to a dignified and peaceful life!

More Gaudi

Arches at Parc Guell
Gaudi built the Parc Guell for his benefactor Guell and gaudi actually lived in the parc in his later life. There are many whimsical things and constructions in the parc, and the mosaics are brilliant- however the thing I liked best was the kind of arched grottoes he created out of stone. I also visited the Textile Museum in Barcelona ( a wonderful 15th century building in the Gothic Quarter), which has a pretty good collection reflecting some of the textile hsitory of this region. The piece I liked best was the inner cope of Sant Valeri. The cope is basically in pieces - but the pieces that remain have been pinned to a background and restored as much as possible- so not only is there the woven material but the human hand is present by tiny stitches of the restorer. Next to the cope is a map of where all the missing pieces are held- in musuems in Madrid , New York, Chicago,Lyon, Paris,Boston,Berlin and more- a map of appropriation.

Barcelona and Gaudi

One of Gaudi's Drawings
If one city is defined by the artist who lived there then surely that city must be Barcelona. I went there for a few days earlier this year- a couple of perfect, sunny, but cool days in Catalonia. Barcelona is basically a big whirring city where the Olympics were held not so long ago with a gothic inner city and some magic buildings by Antoni Gaudi. I fell in love with his buildings the most famous of which, Sagrada Familia , is the icon for Barcelona- and yet this is somehow the least of Gaudi's buildings, though the scale is grand. La Pedrera, and apartment building near the centre is a most amazing construction with flowing lines that create spaces such as rooms, and the most amazing structures on the roof line. I took this photo and through the arch you can see Sagrada Famila in the distance. The drawing , which was in the Sagrada Famila Museum must surely have been the basis for the ghostly creatures that adorn the roof of La Pedrera.

La Pedrera and Sagrada Familia 

Close-up African Journey

Close-up of African Journey
Yesterday was a day I would rather forget- everything I tried somehow went wrong- and then the temeprature outside was making the printing ink too runny- so I gave it all away as just a bad bad day! I have posted a photo that is a close-up of one of my quilts.It incorporates tie dyeing, gocco/riso printing fo guinea fowl feathers and a lino-cut print of an elephant from a photo we took on our African travels. If you click on the picture you will get a bigger image and you can see the stitching.

Early Morning Sun

Early Morning Sun
The birds wake me up very early in the summer palace, and so I usually go and check my email, and catch up.The light in the morning is special and today was no exception. This photo is looking towards the back of our property, with the vegetable beds in between and gum trees up the back. Another day of visitors and very little work, but then things quieten down and I shall be able to get into some work again. A cache of books arrived from Charles Sturt University- some last minute reading before I plunge into my exegesis for my masters- and then lace and more lace. Most of the ideas are there, just have to do it now.

African Dyed Fabrics

African dyed fabrics
When I travelled through Africa in 1990 I fell in love with the indigo dyed textiles of western Africa. The fabrics are a visual feast despite using something as simple as tie dye. The two pieces on the left I purchesd in Africa the other two pieces I bought off Maggie Relph, whose website I cannot locate at the moment, but who sells wonderful African fabrics. One of the pieces has a stitched resist. I think what I love about the African resist dyed fabrics is their spontaneity, and a kind of "roughness" of the technique, and yet the cloth is fun and exhuberant. Yesterday was market day at Apollo Bay- it could have been better but it could also have been worse. Fortunately we were in the shade as it got very hot. And then there was family and friends over for a barbecue. I love the long days at this time of year, and the fact that you can sit outside and enjoy the night sky.

Drochel to Print

Print
The drawings I posted the other day of the drochel lace, have now been made into a Riso screenhttp://nehoc.com.au and I have printed a trial run on some hand dyed fabric with gold textile ink.So now to the silk! Will go and do the market at Apollo Bay on Saturday and hope to sell some things. The fabric is all dyed and fish and seahorses made, and even some of my bags have come back from a little Gallery in Melbourne which has unfortunately shut down- so one less outlet!Hope to get my Australian lace piece made today as well, so that will be the two central pieces of my exhibition done- the other pieces will have to fit around these pieces and tell their own story.

KIng Protea

King Protea
I know I should be writing about my textile inspirations, but the King Protea is flowering at the moment- they are such amazing sculptural flowers.We have quite a lot of proteas in the garden but this one sets the largest flowers. Think medium cake mixing bowl and you can imagine the size of the flower.I need to do some dyeing but some bees have decided to use the space under my dyeing table as a most excellent place for forming a hive, and as we are waiting for the wax forms to come ,to put in the real hives and hopefully entice them into producing us some honey, we dare not move them or agrravate them- so no dyeing.

King Protea 

Drochel Inspired

Designs from Drochel lace
Thank you to all those who replied to my previous post. It is nice to know it is reaching around the place. The design I have posted today is a drawing I made from a scan some friends of mine made of the drochel lace I have previously posted a picture of in October. The friends have a super duper scanner and allows you to really hone in on the fine detail. What amazes me more an more about this piece of drochel lace is that the linen with which it has been knotted is incredibly fine and so the making of this lace must have taken a long time- the knots are barely discernible with the naked eye. I will make a Riso screen of this drawing- and I have altered the scale by photocopying and I will print fabric with it to use in my lace making.Where you see the little dots in the design was actually closely knotted threads, but it's too difficult to get that detail into a Riso drawing so I opted for the dots.

Chassy-Keys

Keys to the Cupboard
Our room at Chateau de Chassy was large and had the most enormous oak beams. Our clothes cupboard was an antique wardrobe and it had elborate metal decorations around the key hole and these lovely huge keys. I took rubbings of the key hole in my journal and traced the shape of the key. I transferred the rubbing onto fabric via the computer , set it with matte finish and then stitched around the outline of the shapes.
And on another note who is reading the blog???

More Things in the Garden

Rose
When I woke this morning in the summer palace, a mist hung over the valley and condensation covered every sprig ,leaf and blossom. Everything looked refreshed after yesterday's heat. We spent last night sitting beside an open fire and looking at the starry starry sky. I am going to make a concerted effort to finish the nanowrimo novel in the next few days. My first piece of "Dutch"lace is done, just have to work out how to finish the edges. Now I have to make the "Australian" lace- and then it is into the other lace pieces for which I have already drawn a number of designs.

Spider Web 

Summer Palaces

Front of the property
When we first bought the block of land in Gellibrand there were few trees on the property,although the nature strip was full of trees. So we have been able to plant trees that suited our needs and also that of the wildlife. We used to come down on weekends and pitch our tent and dig and plant trees. Then we recycled a house from the suburbs of Melbourne which arrived in 3 pieces and was put back together and slowly you stop sleeping under the stars because you are inside the house with electricity. A couple of years ago I got sick of sleeping insidethe house , and in the summer we pitch tents aka Summer Palaces. They aren't much but the night sky is the richest jewel, and the air is fresh and pristine and you sleep as you should sleep. The birds wake you in the morning and the hoot of an owl sent me to sleep the night before last. Last night was too scarey to sleep out- too much thunder and lightening, but it's going to be fair weather for awhile. The tables next to the palaces are my summer work tables.

Summer Palaces 

Chassy Grafitti Before Spray Cans

Grafitti at Chassy
I got my journal quilts 2003 back from Houston last week. This was one of the pieces I created based on a photograph detailing a small section of "grafitti" on the attic stair wall at Chateau de Chassy. As you can see some of the scribblings go back to 1671, and several names were inscribed on the wall. I loved the idea that this writing/grafitti was so old and off course quite awkward as it had been carved directly into the stone of the wall. My kids would often sit on the stairwell and run their hands over the writing, because not only could you see it but you could feel it as well. I transferred the photo onto tissue paper which I sprayed with matte finish and then adhered to fabric. This enabled me to sew the lines around the writing without ripping the paper. I also altered the original colours. I want to do more of this work- it has a very Paul Klee like quality to me, but also shows the inclination of human nature to inscribe and even when writing is not possible, marks still being made by way of scratches and strokes.

Rainbow Box

Rainbow box
I hand dye all the fabric that I use in my work and I also sell hand dyed fabrics. I usually keep this box loaded up and when it is full it holds more than 300 fat quarters. The box had gotten low with being away so much so I have spent the last couple of days dyeing to fill it up again- and then it all had to be ironed. I also dyed some larger pieces- but they are still to be ironed. So today I am going to Melbourne past one of the shops I supply, Patchworks Unlimited , and do some shopping for italian food at the Mediterranean Wharehouse ( Italian supermarket), get some more dye, and come back tomorrow.

Dyeing

more shibori
When I visited Gallerie Smendhttp://www.smend.de in Koln earlier this year I purchased some Japanese cartons to create resists with dyeing. I have finally gotten around to experimenting with these on silk as I want to include pieces of it in my lace work. With the blue pieces I wanted it to have a watery feel, but to not have the lines one directional as I wanted more movement than that. Finally some warm weather has arrived , and I have metres and metres of fabric to dye before tonight, and then it all needs to be ironed.The heat dries that fabric quickly on the washing line fortunately.

shibori 

Tapa Cloth

Fijian tapa
I love tapa cloth and always make sure I visit the Auckland Museum in New Zealand which has a wonderful collection of Tapa Cloth as well as other Pacific islands artefacts and art. The above piece comes from Fiji, and my mother brought it back for me in 1980.It is only a section of a much larger piece. Tapa is actually the beaten bark of the mulberry tree and the designs are painted on. Once upon a time they were beaten onto the tapa with special beaters.
The piece below is Tongan tapa and I got it at the Tongan Women's Friendly Society in Auckland, which was housed in a disused church hall that looked the worse for wear on the outside. But inside was treasure- women teaching others to paint the tapa a whole room of cloths for sale some metres long and wide. None of them were signed so I cannot tell you the name of the artists, but the patterning and order of patterning was often distinctive to family groups.I bought my children a piece each which I will show another time- for like so many Pacific hand crafts this is a dying art.

Tongan tapa