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.

 Nature & Nurture

Happy to be part of an upcoming exhibition at Arc Yinnar with Jenny Peterson, Cheryl Cook and Marita Anderson entitled Nature & Nurture. We are printmakers and textile artists so there is sure to be something for everyone. The opening is this Saturday 10 August from 2-4 for drinks and nibbles and you are most welcome to come and join us.

We will  be having a hands on Artist talk and demo on Sunday August 18 from 1-3. If you decide to try the hands on there is a small fee of $5 for materials .

I am actually showing old work in the exhibition, mainly because I have rarely shown it, and yet it tells part of my story as an immigrant to Australia but also the story of immigration within my family history as far as I can ascertain. Some more materials have come on-line but essentially the story is unchanged from what I knew when I made this work back in 2003/2004. I had intended to make a new piece but didn't in the end as I have a lot of other deadlines and I simply ran out of time. I did make a booklet telling the story to some extent  as memories of a dutch childhood and an Australian childhood. My 10 th year earth side was neatly divided in half when my parents immigrated- old enough to be conscious of self and yet still a child.

I hand printed the cover of the booklet and printed it with riso screens I had when I originally created this work- a letter from my grandmother to my mother and poppies. Things are hanging a little differently than I had imagined but that is fine- things change. These works are created by trapping riso printed silk between layers of tulle which is then machine stitched, so there is transparency.

Otherwise I have been doing a lot of hand stitching in preparation for a course I will be teaching for the Stitch Club for Textile.Artist.Org- it will go live in January of 2025 but all the prep has to be done before September.

Don't forget I do still have printed fabric for sale as well as some of my artwork. It would be lovely to sell some things!

 Creative Thinking

I have been doing a bit of writing and making and thinking especially around an exhibition I had recently at ARC Yinnar Gallery with Marita Anderson and Cheryl Cook entitled "Riding the Brush" ( Marita) and Bush Palette Scribbling. I should have posted about it here but the month seemed to race by and the exhibition finished last Sunday. I did manage to self publish a booklet entitled Bush Scribbling which can be purchased for $20 inclusive of postage in Australia only. It really was some thought meanders around daily walking and how that inspires some of my creations for the exhibition, but it is also  about noticing and really looking and wonderment I guess. I really have missed walking the last 10 days or so as the nerve in my leg has decided to spasm after sitting in city traffic for too long - the pain takes a little while to subside and though I can walk easily it does flare up the pain if I walk too much. I also managed to finish the big Bush Scribbling book, which was all manner of natural vegetation printed onto mulberry paper and then hand coloured.

I am now in full making mode for the project I will teach for  the Stitch Club for Textile Arts Org  and I will be intensely concentrating on that for the next month at least. It will air in January 2025, but workbook, inspiration book and videos have to be made  as well as the work itself. I decided to combine linocutting with stitch as that is what I do a lot of and have made a small project that can be done in the two week time span. However for myself I am creating another traveller's blanket inspired by the travel in Perugia last year.  The large blankets take me over a year to stitch but I wanted to start one as an example of where you can take linocut and stitch if you were inclined for a longer project.

I Usually attach  each square as I work but decided to place each linocut square on the hand dyed linen to see how it would look and then decided to attach them into place ready for stitching. I made nine little square linocuts inspired by Perugia and surrounds, things like  woven textiles, the dozens of madonnas encountered , creatures, olive trees and pomegranates.

It was all inspired by the photos I took and drawings I made at the time- and  looking at them altogether it has  quite an late medieval/early renaissance feel. The stitching I will be doing will be quite simple but quite dense, nothing like going overboard with the stitching. Background stitching still needs to be added to  this little pigeon, which is I think my favourite of the linocuts I made.

Anyway the next month is going to be all about stitching and more stitching and making videos and writing notes. In August I am involved in another exhibition at ARC Yinnar- I will try and share information about that before the exhibition and then from Mid September Gathered Threads will once again be shown until mid October showcasing some of Australia's top textile artists.

Back from European Travels

 I have been back in Australia for about a week. It is always such a long journey home. Though there was not much time to recover as I had to visit Mum in Melbourne, and a quick dash into AQC to pick up some quilts from Reece Scannell, then wedding dress shopping on the Saturday for daughter eldest. What has happened to simple and elegant is all we want to know?? Over the tope froth and bead and balloon with plunging necklines seem to be all the go and as my daughter wryly remarked - for a white dress that is sometimes said to represent one's purity the necklines seem to say something completely different. We are still  looking....

Had a busy trip to Europe and the five weeks flew by. Taught in Milan for Roberta de Marchi in her shop, free motion stitching of both the quilting and applique kind. It was a busy two days with students from all over Italy, and my Italian very rusty indeed- but the language of stitching somehow makes up for that! I shall be teaching for Roberta in May 2025 and am looking forward to it!

Then onto Lyon for a few days. We crossed the Alps in a Flix bus, and as there had been fresh snow the Italian side of the Alps, they looked spectacular. Lyon is always such a lovely city- could have walked around a lot more, but sad to see so many little artisan shops had shut down since the last time I visited. The apartment we stayed in was in a building that had seen better days up three flights of stairs- a bit of a marathon with heavy luggage, but it was close to Perrache Station, so that it was easy to catch the Ouigo train to Marne la Vallee and then onward to Chartres where I exhibited for two weeks at Croisement des Arts.

The exhibition was varied and interesting , I love being part of this event as there are some wonderful artists who exhibit and I am chuffed to be a part of it. Plus it is always a delight to stay in Chartres. Caught up with old friends and even found another Australia resident who  I will catch up with next time around. I will be back next year to teach a Masterclass at Villa Fulbert prior to the exhibition the last two weeks of March 2025

 We did hire a car for a week to make a side trip to Chenonceau and then onto Bayeux to see the Bayeux Tapestry where we had the great good fortune to be only one of a few visitors early in the morning so the tapestry could be viewed at a leisurely pace and you could back track to examine interesting parts. Whomever drew the cartoons for the embroidery surely knew a horse back to front and back again- they are really marvellous. Loved that the threads used had been dyed with natural colours  of a limited palette and it is amazing that the colours from the 11th century have lasted as they have despite all the adventures the tapestry encountered.

The last week we spent in the United King  near Lancaster- a part of the UK I had not seen before. We did visit the Lakes District ( which was pretty busy because of the school holidays) and we made a trip to Farfield Mill in the Yorkshire Dales to visit the exhibition of work by Kay Leech and Gillian Cooper. The mill  buildings also house a number of artists studios as well as the Galleries which could be visited and was delighted to find the studio of Stuart Wilkie and his wonderful lino and wood engraving prints so evocative of the wildlife of the Yorkshire Dales and very reasonably priced , so a heron and hare made it back to Australia.

It has been hard to get back into work mode, but I have had to put the head down and develop a class for Textile Arts Org that will air in January of 2015. Can't reveal much yet but it is inspired by travels , especially my stay in Perugia last year. 

Little linocut print- there is a booboo in this one- can you spot it. Have done it again because once I noticed it really annoyed my that I had made such a simple error= been out of linocutting mode too long!

 Happy New Year 2024

It is hard to believe  but 2024 marks the 20th year I have been blogging.  Are any other bloggers out there having a 20th birthday? We could have a party! There have been many changes online since I started and when I started my blog all those years ago it was with some trepidation about putting myself out there and thinking I had anything to say that anyone could possibly want to read. Since I started several computers have died including a back up drive where I had much material stored from 2004-2011. I had thought of making a book from my blog posts but there are too many pages. I seem to be on instagram more these days like many others and of course we are still doing more work on the Inkpot Alchemists website and will blog there. To be honest I have thought of closing this blog because I get so many spam comments on it- it takes more work to delete them than it does to make a blog post (almost)- yet something keeps me staying here. It is almost like, now that I have been here this long I would be sad to see it go. I know my posting has been more intermittent these last years though I have not been less busy apart from the pandemic years.

So 2024 is shaping up to be busy. I shall be travelling to Europe in March and April. Cheryl my inkpot Alchemist friend is coming along with me, as we want to trail some European plants for the inks and see how the water interacts with our recipes and what tweaking we need to do. This is all research for the book we are writing and will self publish. We also have a newsletter available, if you would like a copy send an email. We will write a newsletter quarterly with all sorts of information.

The grasses have been phenomenal this year- I don't ever remember seeing them so tall and such variety. They print so beautifully.

We are heading to Italy first and landing in Venice. Cheryl has not been to Europe before and you can't go to Italy and not see Venice. Then it is on to Milan to teach at Roberta de Marchi's  shop on the weekend of 9-10 March. If you are interested in coming along contact the shop. We leave Milan for a few days in Lyon and hopefully some botanical encounters there- any suggestions will be most welcome.

Then from 16-31 March I will be exhibiting at Croisement des Arts in Chartres. It is such a thrill to be invited to exhibit at this event in 2024. The last time I exhibited was in 2019. I am the only Australian to have ever been invited to exhibit at this multi-arts event which includes artists from France and Europe and sees a program of not only art, but music and lectures as well . It is such a thrill to be involved and Chartres holds a special place in my heart for its welcome that it has given me . I will be exhibiting much new work that I have not shown previously as well as some work from my book Tifaifai. I am really looking forward to being in Chartres again and Cheryl and I will also be doing some experimenting whilst we are there and a little bit of castle visiting.

On the 2nd of April we depart for the United Kingdom and a village near Lancaster to visit a friend of Cheryl's and hopefully get in a bit of a walk in the Lake District which I have not visited before- and then its home again. Could not be away too long as my vegetable garden needs my attention and hopefully there will be some things that  can still be harvested. It is always such a  balancing act- garden/travel/ work at home- and then there is my  feline friend who needs to be looked after whilst I am away.

I have not done much stitching of late, been too busy trialing printing inks and printing- there is so much fun wild foliage to work with including roadside weeds ( I did a whole series of work about roadside weeds from my morning walks in the shadow of Pic St Loup in France)

I would love to hear what you have enjoyed most from my 20 years of blogging. It has been such an incredibly supportive community for all this time and I am truly grateful to those who have followed this journey through its ups and downs and have purchased books and prints and quilts over the years. I doubt I could have achieved what I have without my blog and you its readers- so from the bottom of my heart thank you! And  I will send a special small gift to my favourite comment!

New Adventure

 It has been awhile since I blogged and there has been a reason. Apart from being very busy with teaching associated with the Gathered Threads Exhibition, Geelong Fibre Forum and Slow Stitch in Ulladulla, my friend Cheryl Cook and I have been experimenting, playing and creating some exciting  art and textile art using natural inks created by using recipes developed by Cheryl and pushing them further to encompass a range of textile techniques. They behave and work differently to eco dyeing and eco printing and allow all sorts of ancillary explorations on both cotton and paper. We are excited and have been working hard and we have now launched a website entitled Inkpot Alchemists. There are still more materials to add but we  are offering workshops and some eye candy as well as sharing our ethos in working in this way and as we are both passionate about extending our creative muscles as well as yours. I case you are interested this coming Sunday  we will be exploring printing with natural inks and  including linocutting. Just email me if you would like to come and I can send details. The cost is $80 for a day workshop up at Cheryl's studio at Tanjil South

For me this has been a very exciting development in a slightly different direction and opens the door to lots of exploration in both textile and book form ( something I had been dabbling in). Cheryl and I also intend to write a book exploring the work we have been doing  both creatively and the processes we have used, though the book will also delve into the creative process and how the natural inks have fuelled exploration and contemplation. We have both inspired each other and get a great deal of joy out of working together and meet up weekly in order to explore further. Anyway have a look at our website and see some of the things we have been working on and what we have been thinking about.

Meanwhile here are some of the things I have been working on. Some of the things I have shown will be discussed in the future on our blog attached to the new website. I have not done very much stitching as I have been too busy exploring. I have printed with some of the inks on mulberry paper purchased at Geelong Fibre Forum in September and I am stitching the pages I printed and loving what happens with the stitching in combination with the natural ink printed linocuts. The linocuts were inspired by my  two week sojourn in Perugia earlier this year and I love how the inks really have a medieval feel about them which seem to marry well with the linocuts I have made. I have found some naturally dyed linen threads in France from Fonty which stitch beautifully. I must admit this palette I am working with is quite different to the one I  use with the procion dyeing I did, but this new way of working is al about nuance and embracing nature as both inspiration and work friend

Gathered Threads

It is 1 September and I find myself curating another exhibition of fellow textile artists which will be on at ArcYinnar , Gippsland and opens tomorrow at 2pm. Everyone is welcome to attend if they are so inclined and  we would love to see you there. The artists involved are listed in the flyer below.

We spent yesterday and today installing and I am happy with the diversity of the work and how it looks in the space. Each artist is exhibiting a small body of work so you can get a real feel for their work and vision.

Work by Cheryl Cook using her natural inks and inspirations.

Work By Robina Summers and Beth and Trevor Reid.

                                                 Work by Lisa Anderson and Judith Oke

                                                           Work by Nicole Kemp

                                                                 Work By Lynette Weeks

                                                       Work by Sarah Louis Ricketts

                                               

                                        Work by Carolyn Sullivan and Lynette Weeks and gallery view.

I also put in some of my own work. Lately I have been embroidering some of the wonderful madonnas I encountered on recent travels and when I looked over my work I realised they have in one way or another been an ongoing theme for quite some time- whether as actual madonnas or icons or sentinelles or as faces from the past. So I decide I would make an installation of them and include some of the work i have done in paper/books  about them as well.

As part of the exhibition Cheryl Cook and I will be running a series of taster workshops in the Sparc Gallery as well as showing some of our work with natural inks and nature printing. The flyer below  shows the taster workshops we are running throughout September ( except for when I am at Geelong Fibre Forum when Cheryl will hold the fort). The cost for the taster workshops is $10 and all you need do is bring yourself.

It has been a busy few months, having been to Perth for Fibres West which was great fun and being involved with Exuberance that was on in Canberra as well as the book that was produced by Carol Cooke and Sharon Peoples with small essays about their work by each of the 20 artists involved in the exhibition. The book is available from their websites which I have linked. There was some fabulous work in the exhibition and it is wonderful to read of some of the thinking behind the pieces in the book.

I am really looking forward to teaching at Geelong Fibre Forum later this month- we will be creating some small linocuts to use in creating traveller's blankets.

 I have also  made a new linocut inspired by morning walks ( I seriously have to get back into the habit- I do go but  not every single morning like I used to and I don't know why as I love going).

It is quite large and took me quite some time to carve. I will be printing more soo and they will be for sale. I have to dye the fabric first though and that always takes time.