Musing in Textile: France

After all the racing around of the last month I have a new expected delivery date for the books to me on 19 January 2015- all things going well. This means books ordered through the Pozible campaign will be posted after this date, and those in Europe will be a bit later still as we have to ship books to Europe as one big lot with international air shipping as the Australia Post costs are simply prohibitive. In fact posting with Australia post is more expensive than the book itself and  Australia Post does not offer a book shipping rate. We have decided to ship them by air to Europe and post from Europe to meet our Pozible campaign commitments . After our commitments have been met we will be using sea shipping( in bulk to one destination and posting from that destination in Europe)

In Australia you can pre-order the book and if you do so prior to 19 January 2015- a small gift will also be yours. The price of the book is $49.95 plus $15.00 p&p  so a total of $64.95AUS (the books will be posted in an Express Post satchel) Likewise the book can be ordered for Europe prior to  19 January 2015 and a small gift will be yours, however postage will be in the order of $35 if you want to be part of the air shipping - I have to work out the cost exactly- making a total of $84.95 ( 57 euros). It will be cheaper if you wait 2-3 months for the sea shipping. There were only a few pledges from the US and those books will be sent by airmail despite the prohibitive cost of postage so that we do meet our  commitments.

I want to thank you all for your patience, next time we will make our time line a little longer and yes we are talking of doing another book... maybe Italy. Which means I had better get working like a whirlwind and planning and thinking and well just doing!

I have been housesitting and am doing some more for the next fortnight within walking distance of my studio at the Appleton Street Studios in Richmond- so  will be there regularly and you are most welcome to  drop by- just email me if you would like to !

I have been doing a little stitching- by hand, on a series of work for Through Our Hands called Banksia variations.I thought it was time to get back to something Australian despite Italy  sifting through the brain. I love banksia pods- love the flowers too, but the pods have my attention at the moment. I did make a lovely gocco screen of a banksia pod at one stage but I cannot find it so I have been stitching it by hand. The pods and their knobs remind me so much of chattering people, and indeed May Gibbs immortalised banksias as bad banksia men in  Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, a much loved Australian children's book.

 The real banksia is on the left- don't they just look like so many mouths having a conversation?

And I have had a number of expressions of interest for the Form and Variation class I  mentioned in my previous post. This is a new course and I plan to run it over a year- each of you would choose a form or forms with which to  make variations with . For example it could be a grouping of bottles, or doorways or interesting  bowls or jugs or a combination of flowers and jugs ( these are just a few ideas)- and we would translate them in various ways looking at the shapes/forms, positive negative space considerations, decorative possibilities, line and colour, abstraction and focussing even some research if you were so inclined. I will  write to all those who contacted me  but  if you think this might be for you the cost of the course is $100 and we will start in February and  keep going all year  with a view to coming up with some final pieces. I will deliver some ideas on a monthly basis as a basis for exploration, and we would also discuss in a closed FB group and of course I would look at all your work so that we can explore different pathways and tangents. Email me if you would be interested in joining.