Mentoring and Working

 I have joined Mastrius as a Mentor. It is a Canadian organisation that saw that mentorship was an important element of developing your artistic practice and voice ( in all arts practice) and yet there is very few opportunities to find a mentor- I certainly craved one in the earlier days of my practice, but having someone willing to guide and provide active support was very illusive. So when Mastrius approached me to become a mentor I was intrigued and after meetings with the organisers I decided that I did have something to offer and that  it offered an opportunity for interested textile enthusiasts in particular to have some help to develop their practice as well as foster a community.

You can find my profile at the link below

https://mentors.mastrius.com/product/918/DijanneCevaalMentorshipMG1067/profile

Mentoring happens in small groups , once a month  with a 2 hour interactive session.

✨ If you’re new to Mastrius Mentorship, enjoy 50% off your first two months — plenty of time to meet your mentor (me!), settle into your group, and start feeling real momentum.
Use coupon code 2for50 at checkout.

My group starts on 22 June 2026 and I am really looking forward to seeing how this develops.

One element I intend to focus on is developing a body of work embedded in a narrative process- ie telling a story with your work and that is exactly what I have been doing with  the new sentinelles I have created  for the  group exhibition of Gathered Threads exhibition at the Latrobe Regional Gallery which opens on 20 June.




Somehow this sentinelle project has grown to include elements of the Australian bush, the grasses, the trees (eucalyptus) and the fungi that connects everything under the ground. Initially I was only going to make 10 or so kangaroo grass sentinelles but then the idea grew to include other elements of the bush I encounter on my regular walks in a bushland reserve close to me home- and then the idea grew bigger still to become 31 sentinelles, all hand printed, hand coloured and three that would be embroidered and would be the leaders for the troupe. The embroidery is  quite a task as each sentinelle measure 75-78 cms in height ( half human size). In a way the space where they will be shown influenced this decision as the ceilings soar to 6 metres allowing a vertical installation without taking up commensurate wall or floor space- but I did always imagine a troupe of them to embed the sense of being in the presence of the bush. I am also working on a large hand made book to capture the feel of the bush and its voice as I walk, as sometimes when I walk I lose all sense of self and somehow feel surrounded and in wonder. The book won't be part of this exhibition but I do hope to have it done in the next few months and to have it for my exhibition at The Sydney Street Gallery in Marrickville ( Sydney) in September of this year



I have also been reading a lot around the subject of "nature" in how to engage in something that might offer another way of looking and engaging  the imagination and have stumbled across the work of ecologist and philosopher Matthijs Schouten  ( former lecturer at Wagening University and the university has structured a course inspired by his teachings) and in particular his book "Anders Kijken" which is only available in Dutch ( and then I had to get a friend from the Netherlnads to buy it for me and send it to Australia). It is the first time in a long time where I am underlining things as I read and commenting in the margins- there is hope in what he writes and that is of itself entirely to do with immersion in nature in a myriad of ways and taking time to be still. There is so much food for thought.

The 31 Sentinelles are all but finished and a life size one will also be made for an outdoor installation at the courtyard at the Latrobe Regional Gallery. It will be made from fabric and the back  will be ecoprinted  wool. How it will fare in the outside weather will remain to be seen, but textile is remarkably durable so we will see.

Walking and Working

 I try to walk regularly in the Crinigan Bushland Reserve which is close to where I live. I did get very lax with walking late last year and until this month as I have struggled a little with mental health issues and suddenly I was not interested in doing anything much despite the fact that I have a plate full of things that must get done one way or another.

I have been working on a series of sentinelles that will be exhibited  as part of  Gathered Threads, which will this year be shown at the Latrobe Regional Gallery for their winter season and the Opening is 20 June 2026. I am revisiting the sentinelles as in a sense they are my voice in the wilderness- and the world does seem like an alien inhospitable place at present and  the only thing that seems to calm the restless disorientation I feel is to walk , and yet knowing this, I can't make myself walk every day- it's that loopy circle that jus goes round and round. That said I have been out more this month and every time I do walk I feel a little calmer for a short while.

 I have envisaged these sentinelles as being a troupe of wanderers singing and telling stories of the bush I have encountered on my morning walks- things noticed and somehow intrinsic to the Australian bush. I have yet to add botanical inks to add colour but I feel a little less anxious now that I have carved the linocut for the third Sentinelle and printed it. I always envisaged there would be three figures alerting to three different levels of the bush- the eucalypts/canopy, the kangaroo grass/ the understory and fungi at the earth level. I could make many more but I don't have the time. They are 75 cm high and will be suspended  with twine so hopefully creating the feeling of them floating and some at eye level. 

I think my favourite one is the fungi sentinelle- and the " flower" shapes are not actually flowers but earth stars who are quite flower shaped when you really look at them. I have been intrigued by fungi since childhood and to me it seems such a magical largely unknown world that somehow connects us all in the great circle of  all life, not just human life. I encounter lots of different fungi in the  Bushland reserve and it varies from year to year. Anyway see what you think. They are still a work in progress and there will be an embroidered sentinelle for each design.

The fungi sentinelle is inspired by these fungi encounters:

Exhibition and Artist Residency; Matchbox Gallery, Yinnar

 Inkpot Alchemists are having an Exhibition and Artist residency at Matchbox Gallery   on Main Street Yinnar from 19 March 2026- 17 April 2026 with an Opening for the public on Sunday 22 March 2026 with light refreshments and discussion from noon- all welcome

We will be showing some of our Inkpot Alchemy work with the natural inks we make from botanical materials from the bush and our gardens. There will be an opportunity to come and sit and stitch if you are inclined ( I will make sure I have some stitching things available so you only need bring yourself and the inclination to stitch. 

There will be workshops;

For children on 4/5/6 April from 1-3 pm in the presence of a responsible adult please

Adult workshops 11 & 12 April from 1-4 pm  with a cost for materials of $10.

Please contact me if you are interested.

We had a lot of fun with the 3 day workshop we did at Cheryl's property at Tanjil South the previous two weekends and it gave us lots of insights into developing this kind of workshop further which includes immersing you in nature and hopefully recalibrating mind sets and opening new insights and discussion. I share some images from the workshop.

We were favoured by gorgeous weather which allowed us to do some consolidating of our thoughts under the shade of a wonderful blackwood- it was a little on the idyllic side. Julie Murray a friend of Cheryl's had led us through the lowland forested area to help raise our awareness of the type of plants occurring and the layers of discovery to be had.

I have been doing a lot of reading by writers of nature, but I think my favourite is by Annamaria Weldon and her book of essays, poetry and photographs entitled The Lake's Apprentice- her beautiful writing about Yalgorup National Park near Perth ( I see the book is on special for $10 which is a bargain!), I also love the Bruno Leti Workbook 15 from Readings which is also on special for $15 ( another absolute bargain). I think these two books ( though  Bruno's book is not exactly about nature all the time but it is some of the time, particularly in relation to River Redgums) really appeal to me as both  are migrants and have come to love certain places in Australia, much as I have. Bruno went to a very similar place in Australia as I did and at a similar age as a child as I did; I really feel an affinity with many things he tries to express even his recent work in relation to Italy- the place that was once home to him. I like these two books because they are both artistic responses to place and nature- very different but give lots of food for thought.

So please do come and join us at matchbox Gallery from Thursday next week.

Ink Making Workshop

 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.

Finding Time

 I has been a very busy year in terms of exhibitions and creating work. The sales however have been less than stellar and most of what I have sold is smaller work. It is lovely to sell but it is the bigger work that sustains. The smaller work does not create an exhibition of themselves, though they can be good fillers. That said I do seem to be making a lot of smaller works which is a bit determined by the space on my printing plate. My cold press laminator has decided it won't cooperate any more at present ( though it can be fixed with the right tools which I don't have)  and I have to say the design for the wheel turning the rollers is not very satisfactory especially if you apply quite a bit of pressure.

I've also been making quite a few different inks, though I have to watch myself as the inks need to be stored somewhere, and really I can make more next year if I run out- it just seems so lovely to have lots of colors ,although in all reality I have a few favorites.

The Inkpot Alchemists are presently exhibiting at the Orbost Arts Centre and we also conducted some workshops there in November. One of the participants, Kim Pauly, took me out to Cape Conran, which is just the most fantastic place and I hope to go back when we pick up our work.

In January of 2025 I will be doing a workshop for the Stitch Club in Textile.Atists.Org. I am looking forward to doing that for two weeks. It is inspired by travels in Perugia and the linocuts I made in order to create a small stitched piece (and a larger travelers blanket for myself)

There are a lot of ideas bubbling away below the surface at present- and I know from previous experience that that usually generates something new- so I am a little impatient in working out what it will be. I have worked to prepare for two exhibitions coming up in March, one at Meeniyan Art Gallery here in Gippsland and one for Croisements des Arts in Chartres, where is shall also be teaching a master class. 

I have also been playing around with printing on the mulberry paper as the inks behave in interesting ways on the mulberry paper I am using, I am toying with adding wording but have not quite worked out how, hopefully it will come to me sooner rather than later.

Some new works I made for the Inkpot Alchemist exhibition in Orbost. They are nature and linocut print combos, stitched by machine and hand.

The Bush Sentinelle printed onto a nature print on cotton rag paper. In the foreground is a ceramic echidna made by an old school friend, Julz Pottery, whom I met up with recently in Crookwell. I love echidnas and this little chap  just had to come and live at my house.

This print is nature and linocut combo printed on mulberry paper and I am in the process of hand colouring it with natural inks.

I have also been dabbling with a bit of writing, but at present it is just playing, but it is also something that has been bubbling away in the background, but in a way i really want to combine writing with the work I have been doing for stitching is like a kind of writing for me. I still have my Bush Scribbling booklet for sale if anyone is interested just email me and of course I do have some printed fabrics available.

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!