They have Arrived!

Finally the books have arrived and we are working hard preparing all the parcels, we have to load the dvd's ourselves and then we have to wrap and make sure we include the right gifts/prints with everything that  has been pledged for- so it takes time to be on top of all that !So bear with us, things should be going in the post very soon! We will also bulk airship to Europe in the next week or so and be posting from within Europe as the costs of postage  from Australia is simply ridiculously expensive.

But you can imagine my consternation when this arrived at the bottom of a sloping drive earlier this week...

 One tonne and 100 something kilos with one delivery man  with an old hydraulic jack- it was not going to  get up the drive that way and I would not have wanted him to hurt himself. I do like  that he put it in the middle of the drive, so my daughter could not get in or out, and so it had to be moved. She was at work, but it meant I had to  unpack the whole pallet and store books in a safe place. My youngest daughter did come and help, but it took a lot of carrying and toing and froing.

SENTINELLES UPDATE
I also installed the Sentinelle exhibition last week at Copacc in Colac, and already I am getting a lot of positive feedback ( follow the link for more information). It has been hard to get to Colac regularly ( as it is a 2 hour drive there and 2 hours back) because we are so flat out busy but I will be there next Friday. They looked terrific and whilst I was installing  many people came and asked what the exhibition was about as they had never seen anything like it - it constantly amazes people to see the diversity and creativity of all the women  who have made each sentinelle. So again thank you for entrusting me with this journey and another exciting development has happened- they have been invited to be exhibited in Perth in August of this year as I hope you will allow your pieces to stay, but if you desperately would like your piece back please  let me know. One of the reasons for agreeing to Perth is that the organiser said it is so hard for them to get the wonderful exhibitions that we see in the east of Australia.
Here are some of the girls in Colac:

I have also been conducting some of the workshops which were part of the pledges from our Pozible campaign. We did a tifaifai workshop at  the Convent in Abbotsford last week and was reunited with one of my Tifaifai pieces I made many moons ago and which was raffled off for  a fundraiser none of us could remember the reason for.

It was lovely to see this piece again.It was one of the tifaifai variations I had forgotten about.


 I have now printed up a myriad of colours for the dragon print which is part of the Medieval project- which launches in April in Nantes, France at Pour l'Amour du  Fil. I still have Kings and Queens and of course rabbits as well. The dragon panel measures about 20 cm x 25 cm and  is an original linocut which has been hand printed. The price is $15 plus $3 postage. If you would like to purchase a panel please email me.

And last but not least there is still time to join the Form & Variation on-line class starting on 4 February this year. If you want to stretch your imagination a little and really get stuck into  developing your work and taking it further and learn some elements of design along the way this may be for you. I already have a group of people who I think will have a lot of fun with  the ideas and are also serious about pushing a little further. I have a rough guide available with more details just email me. Each of you will be working on your won forms and variations so that what you take away from it is your won work. The course will last all year and hopefully result in at leats one large piece of work if not more!

Books

We are waiting with bated breath for the arrival of the books. I have to say one matter of disconcern has been trying to find out how much customs will actually charge us once the books are actually in the country, and the letter I wrote to customs got an exceptionally long reply with no clear cut answer- even the customs agent cannot exactly tell us what it will be.....until they arrive. It has certainly been a learning curve, self publishing, that is for sure!

However it is still possible to pre-order the book if you are in Australia ,prior to the 19th of January the expected arrival time for the books. If you pre-order and pay prior to 19 January, a small gift will also be yours. The cost of the book is $49.95 and shipping in Australia is $15 ( express post satchel), making a total of $64.95. It is impossible to send pre-orders overseas because of the ridiculously high postage costs for posting things overseas from Australia. Email me if you would like to pre-order.

So some more pages from the book....

The shine on the pages is from the flash of my camera, sorry about that- the pages are actually sating finish.

The page on the left  also shows one of the hand made pages I have been making for the hand made books that were part of the Pozible fundraiser- stitching on khadi paper inspired by the photograph- looking out toward the see from Mont St Michel.I see it differently each one I make, the nuance of mood and light.

I have also been dyeing some fabric in preparation for printing more dragons and other things...

The reds in particular enjoyed the humid hot air whilst I was dyeing- the red literally jumped onto the cloth!

And a corner of my studio at Appleton Street Studios in Richmond. I am still getting used to having a space separate in which to work and create. I have always worked from home. And things are still finding their space as well, but it is coming together and I am finding that spending time there has its own rhythm, something I have to get used to. You are welcome to come and visit. There is now also a dedicated Gallery space with an exhibition on at present- it is open most days.

And there is still time to join the Form and Variation on-line class. It's a years worth of exploration and finding ways to explore a form or shape and come up with a small body of work relating to that  form or shape. It could be anything, leaves. tea cups or teapots, flowers, windows, doorways, trees, fruit, whatever you like and would like to explore further. I will be providing lots of ideas for exploration, and hopefully at the end you will create on large piece inspired by your explorations as well as a number of studies. And even though I work in textile this is not strictly limited to those in textile. The cost is $100 and the course will start on 4 February and will run until 2016. I will provide monthly idea generators during that time, and of course we will have a discussion group. Email me if you would like to join or see the rough guide.

Things Medieval

The heat here is stifling and the state is on extreme fire alert. I hope and pray everyone stays safe. The wind is quite ferocious and that does not bode well especially for fast moving grass fires. Fortunately that does not affect me greatly as I am in the city ( though the heat does) but still these kind of days play on everyone's minds given what has happened in the past.

I did finish the dragon linocut. This is the last linocus in the series I have created for the Medieval project.I will update the medieval page soon with delivery dates etc- but you have until April if you send to France. See what you think.

This is the dragon  printed on paper. He looks fiercer than I thought he would be he does have the right sort of bestiary feel about him. Initially I had left the white space around him dark, but that does not work very well when you print on fabric- leaving space around him blank so to speak allows for all sorts of embroidery and stitching.

Here is printed on some green fabrics I found:

I can certainly see lots of possibilities for stitching. Anyway he measures about 18 cm x 23 cm ( I don't have him here to give you the exact measurement) and he is for sale for $15 plus package &  postage ( $3). I will be dying more fabric when it is not so hot so if you are interested colour choice is up to you- just email me if you would like to purchase one. And for the first five purchases I will also include this little hare linocut which I made whilst i was staying with Jane Rollason in the Charentes. He measures about 8 cm x 15 cm- and whilst not strictly medieval could be!

Sentinelles and a Happy and Creative 2015!

I hope all of my readers have a wonderful and creative 2015, and that it will be a year of fullfillment of dreams. I am certainly ready for it!

I promised another look at the Sentinelles and so I have made a Youtube video for you to enjoy. I apologise to Lee Mills for I have somehow left off your name on the list of participants at the front- I will amend that in due course ( but it involves remaking the film, reloading the film and as I am on one of those wifi usb's at the moment data is a bit of an issue- or the amounts of it). Also I have listed the participants at the beginning of the film rather than label each image and I hope this will be ok, as to label each image was going to take a long time, as it was it took about 6 hours to make the film. So enjoy! Just click on the words Sentinelle Panorama

There is still time to  join the Medieval Project and I shall have the dragon linocut finished later today. The Medieval Project will first be shown  at Nantes at L'Amour du Fil (QuiltMania) from the 22nd of April. So the deadline is before that time. It would be great if you could send the finished pieces to France ( and I have a friends private address there that things can be sent too, and as they are not very big they will not be so expensive to send)) but I can also take some, though I also need to return Sentinelles to France and take some of my books so my actual luggage capacity is small. I  will put deadline dates up on the dedicated blog page entitled Medieval Project in the next few days ( I only got my 2015 diary at Christmas). There is also a participation fee to help cover some of the costs. After Nantes the pieces will come back to Australia for the Berry Retreat at the end of August and will then go on to tour other Australian venues. As there is a choice of panels ( 5 in all) the appearance of the exhibition will be different, though I am hoping it will have the same charm and  outburst of creativity  with stitch and thread and embellishment!

You can still purchase panels form me and I shall put up some more panels I have printed ( including the dragon- I also have to dye some fabric first). Just email me!

And don't forget if you are in Melbourne you are welcome to drop by my studio at Appleton Street Studios in Richmond not far from Ikea.

And it looks like the Form and Variation class is a goer, so message me if you would like to join- it will hopefully be interesting and inspiring for all of us!