Forest Fire?

Forest Fire I SOLD

Forest Fire II SOLD

Forest Fire III


The other day when I was dyeing, my reds weren't as successful as usual yet these forest pieces came out really well. I can really see this being worked with light and bright threads. They are of course for sale for $40US inclusive of postage.

I have had another shocking day with no work done and lots of anxiety. I was rung by the Child Protection Authority to tell me my middle troubled daughter had run away and she was last seen at the train station- this was after they had allowed her to stay at the home of a person I had specifically asked them not to place her due to a history that concerned me. She has been found- apparently she had not actually take the train but I have no further information. All of this is so upsetting for my other two children- and with everything else going on I feel like finding a little hobbit hole and just sleeping for a month and find I have made two or three large quilts which are in my head but which I can't get to and that my house is built. The last two weeks have been school holidays so that interferes with work and just when I thought I could see some space and I had some ideas this happens to rock the equilibrium. The other thing I wish is that these people would actually listen to the things I have been telling them!

Doors and Stamps

One of the delights wondering through old Damascus is to come across an old wooden door usually leading to a khan or rhiad. In all reality most of them are perhaps 2-300 years old, but I love the idea of all the people that would have entered through the doors- with what hopes and dreams and with what stories in their hearts?I would really like to take one of these doors- like a giant stamp and print it onto fabric- with all its nail crenellations, its worn grooves, its texture and its decoration.Most doors are decorated in one form or another and all bear the marks of their wear. I have been thinking about what it is I want to express with my exhibition- I do want to have the sense of the exotic, because wondering around Damascus exploring nooks and crannies and finding treasures and occupations long gone form western lands make you feel a bit like you have landed in a magic place- add to that the sociability of the people and you have an unforgettable experience. In fact old Damascus feels like a giant book in someways, one in which it is a privilege to wonder through its pages, to touch the cornerstones of history, to rub ones hand over the worn and shiny wood of an ancient door.

The bottom photo is also of wood- a wooden stamp which I bought at Ishka last week ( the stamps have doubled in price since I went there about 18 months ago, so it might be a while before I add to the collection- I think it may be the result of a magazine article in which the wood blocks were assembled as a coffeee table top- and resin had been poured in the gaps between the blocks and to even the surface).It too has that worn look of use , the tiny imperfections signifying the hand of the maker- with what dreams did he sit with his chisel and wood block to carve this pattern for printing?

More Forest Fabric

Forest 1

Forest 2
SOLD

Grotto

Forest4
SOLD

I spent the whole day dyeing as I have an order i have to deliver tomorrow. I should have been dyeing the last few days but the weather impeded that, and the storms on Wednesday were downright scarey. All the fabrics are for sale for $40US ( 26 Euros) inclusive of postage and I do accept Paypal.

I will be giving a talk about my work and Middle Eastern travels at Ballarat Quilt-in on April the 12th.

Pomegranate Cards

SOLD

I finally finished these pomegrante cards. I did start them ages ago. At least I finally turned on the sewing machine, but am still not overly enthused. The cards are for sale at a cost of $30US each inclusive of postage and they measure 6 3/4 inches by 5 inches ( made a mistake in the measuring). They are lino-cut printed onto 12mm weight habutai silk and machine stitched. Someone asked about the African painting technique- if you go to the Trapsuutjies website which I linked in my previous post, Laura has a downloadable booklet outlining different techniques for use with textile printing inks.

I got the quote for the house we are thinking about today- all I can say is something miraculous will need to happen. The quote is quite a lot more than I was hoping.There is nothing for rent around here either- so I am stuck inbetween the rock and the hard place or however that saying goes

I really have a lot of hand stitching to do- but I kind of feel guilty doing it- like I am stealing a little pleasure because it does not seem like work, to stitch. It's a reflective action that has to take its time, and that determines it's own placement. I need to stitch lots of Zenobia's and finshed another one today- I am thinking I will make 50 or so for my exhibition. How to install them still needs to be worked out- but perhaps they could have little wooden platforms

Finding Inspiration

The first image is a close-up of a salt bag I purchased in Syria. I really love the colours in this and would really like to make a quilt using these colours. However I am not terribly fond of piecing and I don't want it to look exactly like the carpet- I would rather work from the "inspiration" of the woven salt bag- that is finding my own way to express what it is I like about the salt bag.

I also decided to put images up of two smallish quilts I made sometime ago ( 2006 and they measure 20 inches x 24 inches) as they are for sale. The bluish one which has a hand painted background using the African painting technique, layered with lutradur and machine stitched costs $250US inclusive of postage. The second quilt also has a hand painted background using the African technique, and has been layered with hand dyed scrim and has been quilted using entirely french knots and as such took a lot more work so it is priced at $350US inclusive of postage.However as I put the photos up on my monitor I realised the second quilt might be a way to think about the salt bag. A hand painted background using the colours of the salt bag and then layered with a deep hued plum coloured scrim( or maybe lutradur) and then stitched- hand or machine? Don't know yet, I want to have a little think about that one- I am tempted by the scrim idea- but as I want to make the piece longish I will have to find some way of stitching other than french knots ( which take ages, though the effect is rather lovely)- perhaps a coarser hand dyed cotton?

And someone asked about which textile inks I use. I use normal textile inks used for screen printing- they have the consistency of a thickish custard. I often use the base extender also know as uni-base and add my own pigments which I purchase from Kraftkolour. As I do a lot of printing this is the cheapest way to buy textile inks. I also use Laura Liebenberg's Trapsuutjies textile paints. Their consistency is excellent for the type of work I showed in the previous blog post- however I can only bring so much home in my suitcase unfortunately- and I seem to have an excess of lime green and bordeaux colours and no yellow/ orange or denim which I need.

The kids and I think we may have found the house we want to build . Most houses are beyond my means and those that I thought I may be able to aspire to don't have the right sort of ambience for the environment in which we live. The one we have found is very modest but I think will fit in well with the ambience of the block on which it will be built and I wanted something that did not have a big footprint and perhaps double story to take advantage of the views. I will have to save desperately hard in order to do it- but as there is some time before it can be built I know I can do the smell of an oily rag stuff. I can actually see it built- have marked out the place and am busy "visualising" its presence . And I won't have to chop down a very delicate Japanese liquid amber which would have been the case for another house with a bigger footprint- in autumn it goes the most glorious red.

Doodling

I really fell off the trolley creatively last week and it takes time to pick up the pieces, plus I am still trying to think what I will make my mother for her birthday as we go visit her for a few days tomorrow. Guess I will have to find something amongst my stuff that will fit the bill.
The doodle above I made when I was in Damascus last year- trying to capture the feel of the countryside and the little villages dotted all over the place with the minarets towering over them. However doodling on paper is quite a bit different then transferring the doodle to fabric. I didn't want to make a gocco screen ( the same as thermafax but a little cheaper) because the image would be too tiny- I wanted it to be large. There is still a lot more detail to go in, but i had to wait for this section to dry. I have been pondering how to get the textile printing ink onto the fabric and suddenly it dawned on me that i could put it into a squeeze bottle and draw it onto the fabric as you would with gutta. It had the added effect that the drawing was a little more spontaneous in order to keep the flow of the textile ink reasonably even. I may dye paint some of the areas- or simply do a soft dye over the top once the ink has been fixed and then perhaps overlay it with coloured lutradur to reveal areas. The thought of overlaying and revealing in the context of this image is very much inspired by the work of Syrian artist Abdullah Murad- whose work, whilst abstract has a lovely lyrical quality that appeals to me- there is layers being revealed- each a small story in its own right. He is also masterful at the use of yellow, almost as good as my beloved Bonnard. I was again reminded how much I liked his work after leafing through the book he so kindly gave to me of his work at the Ayyam Gallery opening I attended last year( and which I finally managed to bring home). And the little round discs on the roofs are the satellite discs every house seems to have for television.

And there are quite a few Hungarian quilters reading my blog.My friend Clare Smith is traveling to Budapest sometime soon- and has some days to spare- she wants to know what is "must see" in Budapest. She also teaches in case anyone is interested?

More Fabric

All Fabric is SOLD

I dyed these pieces a week or so ago. They are for sale at $40 US a metre inclusive of postage ( I have had to change prices because of the exchange rate, which is fluctuating though the Aus dollar remains at a high level). I'll be doing more dyeing next week when I pick up some more white fabric so if you have anything special you would like dyed let me know.

Didn't do any stitching today, trying to protect my thumb.I shall be returning to Europe in August/September this year so if you are interested in my teaching any workshops let me know and I can send you my workshop list. I will be teaching at Lugano and around Grenoble, possibly at Salleles d'Aude at Centre Europeen du Patchwork ,all prior to Carrefour Europeen du Patchwork ( where I hope I am teaching one workshop and Laura, Annette and I will also have a stall in the merchants mall) and then I will be heading to Northern Europe. I install my exhibition at Textil und Kunst in Munich for opening on 1 September. I have also been invited to exhibit work with a Belgian group in Turnhout in the first week of October at a lovely old house ( hofke) in Turnhout. I am teaching in the Hague and possibly in Leiden.

Traveller's Blanket

Thanks for your concern for my thumb- it is recovering rather quickly ( I usually heal quite quickly) and I don't think there is any permanent damage - just some inconvenience. I am trying to avoid getting it wet at all costs.

Anyway I have been handsewing- picking up the traveller's blanket I was working on and which I put aside because I wasn't sure I found it interesting enough. I picked it up a again after I found the little green stitched piece I started when travelling in Egypt and Syria at the beginning of 2006 ( was it that long ago??). Anyway I thought there is place for a traveller's blanket in what I am planning for my exhibition, the theme and inspiration for which has come out of my travels. I am also imagining a traveller who would have travelled across the desert inn the great silk route caravans, finding precious scraps,and making a kind of memory blanket to record his journeys. It is important that it is textural as well, hence the french knots- to run your hands over to recall the stories and starry nights of faraway lands. The spaces between the motifs will also be filled by stitching , which will hopefully come to me as I work- I am thinking subdued at the moment. It actually reminds me a little of a Dear Jane quilts- and perhaps it is my version of it- pattern and repetition built from the scraps of my reds and darks.Anyway the stitching is soothing somehow.

BY the light of the Lantern

Well almost- there were thunderstorms and lightening and the power did go out for half an hour or so last night and then it rained heavily . Hoorah for the rain, it's so dry. I think we have had at least an inch maybe two inches- the garden is lapping it up.

Thank you all for your good wishes and positive thoughts yesterday- my emotions are very much a part of my creative process and I think this is exacerbated by working from home as well- I am always right in the middle of it and there is really nowhere to find a space away from it.It also means I work in relative isolation, rarely interacting with like minded people except when I go away to teach ( and I have to say blogging has been a bit of a godsend in meeting like minded people) It also means that everyone always thinks you are accessible because many people don't think of you as having a job when your work number is the same as your home number. I have looked but there is nothing available locally as a work space. Today yurts reappeared on my radar for thinking material.

Anyway last night I found a page on Wietse Kluck's blog.It cheered me up a lot to know that my work does inspire people sufficiently for them to want to do a C&G page on my work.Check out Wietske's work -it's wonderful.

I sliced my thumb rather badly yesterday whilst cutting vegies from the garden to make a minestrone. It bled profusely- and I really should have gone to emergency as it did need a stitch or two- but an acquaintance had a seven hour wait there last week- and the thought of having to drive 22 kms to town and then wait made me think again- do you know how hard it is to elevate your thumb above your head so that the wound has time to clot ??It took more than an hour.It's right at the base of the pad of my thumb just above the joint- we could see the bone- eewww- so that will curtail whatever I was planning for awhile- I can't hand sew because you use your thumb a lot for this even your left thumb.

Felting

A rant of sorts- the last paragraph is about the felting if you don't want to read the rant.My creating came to a screaming halt on Tuesday night when we experienced another issue with my middle daughter who does not live at home anymore. This time it was the foster parents who experienced the full brunt off some of the problems we had been experiencing prior to her leaving home. There are many many issues surrounding my daughter, and the last eighteen months have been filled with despair, grief and hope, as she was starting to come home again once in awhile. My belief is that my daughter suffers from dissociative identity disorder. All of us dissociate in normal life- for example day dreaming, driving but not remembering a section of the road, getting lost in a book- for some people these experiences are much more poignant and actually dissociate into different states.It is also known in situations where mothers of a troubled child lost a pregnancy or child immediately prior to the birth of the troubled child that mother often sends very mixed messages to the next born baby- particularly if they suffer from post-natal depression as well and that these children are more prone to dissociation. Convincing the "experts" has been a totally demoralising experience- from how can I know, I am not experienced, I am not an "expert " ( a lot of my legal experience in my lawyer days was actually researching post traumatic stress disorder- which also has dissociation as part of its cluster of symptons) to the bald statement "that she is too young". However the overwhelming preponderance of literature seems to point to the fact that it emerges in teen/adolescent years. I have had people roll their eyes in meetings at me and even asserting that my insistence that there is something "wrong" other than recalcitrant teenage behaviour is tantamount to abuse. The Authority we are dealing with has seen the coming and going of 5 case workers since my daughter has been in their care- each time we are dealing with someone totally new, often inexperienced and often not even a person who has experienced parenthood let alone teenagers. To say it has been a nightmare is an understatement. To say it has been a nightmare for my other two children is also an understatement- but somehow the authority we are dealing with seems to be unable to answer my questions as to what are the rights of my other two children when all they insist on is the rights of the one child? My daughter actually disappeared on Tuesday night- I went to the authority to meet yet another "new" case worker on Wednesday morning, was told that the liaison arrangements I had with the foster parents were inapporpriate from a case worker who had not even read the file ( excuse me we have not had a case worker for the last 6 weeks- so we have had to make it up as we go) and that they would ring me and tell me what had happened. No phone calls before Friday and of course now it is easter. Due to the fact that I do have a relationship with the foster parents I know she was found and she is safe- however the authority has not thought to tell me, the mother of this child, this information. Had I not had a relationship with the foster parents I would have been stressed out all easter with the consequential effect on my other children, worrying and sleeplessness.

I did do some washing machine felting to simply do at least something- for all of you who felt this is probably not very exciting- but it was a bit of a revelation to me- of course it is a learn from your mistakes technique without doubt. The first image is of felt I felted too much- thought the texture is rather nice, the knobbles of the underlying wool coming through nicely. The second attempt was what about trying muslin??? It's good for creating sausages- I should have realised the weave was too loose. The third is more as it should be but I think it's a bit too "holy". Anyway my measly attemtps were inspired by Irene van der Wolf's book "Vilten in de Wasmachine" which I purchased last trip to Holland. The ISBN is 978-90-90224-28-2. Just as well I had felting wool on hand!

Lamp

The original inspiration for the lantern/lamp drawing I posted the other day was this niche in one of the bathing rooms in the Azem Palace in Damascus . The Azem Palce was built in the eighteenth century and now houses a museum which is representative of Damascene houses of the period. You are normally not allowed to photograph inside the museum, and unfortunately there is not a good book available on it that I have found, however a little tip goes a long way!

So I made a lino-cut of the lantern and printed it on a couple of different background including paper to check for balance. I then transferred it onto lutradur with transfer dyes ( or sublimation dyes) and came up with this little prototype.

Joan tagged me for facts about myself meme- I am at a loss to point to anything about myself at the moment. I can't even get an interview for a real time job for which I was well suited on paper for which I applied the week before last. Never mind- I must be destined to continue on with my textile stuff .

I am teaching in Braidwood,NSW, on May 24/25 and May26/27. We are doing tifaifai in both sessions. If you are interested in attending please contact me and I will put you int touch with the organiser Fioan Hammond. Tifaifai is a really fun raw edge applique technique that result sin very mandala like quilts.

I am also teaching in Adelaide in South Australia from 5-8 June. We are doing two sessions of dyeing and two sessions of printing fabric. Again there are a few places available and if you are interested let me know and I shall put you in touch with the organiser the South Australian Quilters Guild.

Finished apart from some Binding

I have finished the cross stitching on this piece- I won't do much quilting on the picture- just some stitching to stop the photo piece from bulging.I haven't quite decided on the binding- probably black.

I am getting very little done in this heat. I have to finish a commission piece inspired by the sea- I still haven't quite worked out all the elements. And I have to dye more fabric- and already have but it is too hot to iron or go outside and photograph the fabric.

The vegie gardens is starting to kick in big time at the moment- the tomatoes have just started ( I put them in late so am rather pleased to have any at all), then there are zucchini submarines and some more normal sized zucchinis, basil( pesto season is here Yay!), celery and peppers, I don't think the eggplants will eventuate, cucumbers and rocket and lettuce and the corn is still some way off. I did make some caponata ( eggplant salad)- it's always a nice side dish at this time of year, or it is seriously good on some toasted Italian bread ( which I can't get in Colac and it's too hot to make bread)

Hot hot hot

It is so hot that walking outside is like hitting a dense stifling wall of heat. Plus we are on amber drop watchout- there was a fire about 20 kms from here- but fortunately it has been contained- so here's hoping the wind doesn't change.Everything is tinder dry .

It is too hot to work with fabric- my hands get instantly clammy holding fabric so I haven't achieved much these last days. I have done the preliminary drawing for a lamp lino-cut- but looking at it on my screen I am not so sure I like it all that much. I think it needs some adjusting. And I got nominated by Barbara Cheeseman for inspirational blog- but it's been so hot I haven't responded to the challenge of naming another 10 inspirational blogs- there are so many inspirational blogs!

Printing Block

I tried to post the original picture od Khan Assad al Pasha yesterday but they would not load. This photo shows the large dome. Apparently the khan was built in the late 18th century or early 19th century. This Khan is very large with many rooms coming off the the central courtyard- it would have been a buzz of activity in days gone by- it is situated in the spice and apothecary souq in Damascus. These days it is used to host exhibitions or performances. The whirling dervishes we saw last year. It is only recently that the dervishes have bee allowed to whirl again in Damascus- it being outlawed for some time. It is quite mesmerising watching a dervish whirl and the music too, has a kind of pleasant frenzy to it. The dervishes were whirling on the occasion of the opening of an exhibition of photos of the dervishes and this particular man featured in quite a number of photos. Their faces acquire and almost angelic look, and their dresses are quite amazing.

The printing block is one I bought atthe small Textile Museum on the Boden Zee in Austria last year- I though it would make a great background for something. I have yet to try it as I only recently brought it back