Friday, May 20, 2016

Busy

I am feeling a bit gefrumpelled- I thought I had sold my block of land in Gellibrand (price agreed etc etc) for the buyer to pull out at the last moment. Now I have to find the upside of this journey. I suppose the first thing is I don't have to pack everything up yet again and find somewhere else to live. Thankfully I have a wood heater in the shed....But there is also a few things I need to work out as well , like getting a car, work out a way to access the internet and get some power for my sewing machine.Anyway onward as they say.

A couple of weeks ago I created a new page of  work for sale- work that I have made since last year ( 2015). I am actually surprised at how much work I have produced in that time as there has been quite a  lot of moving,travelling and spending the summer in the shed without access to power.If you see anything you would like to purchase please email me ( I can be paid by Paypal or internet banking in Australia). Of course some of my older work is for sale and I am prepared to consider reasonable offers.

Of course last weekend was the wedding of my friends daughter Rebecca- it was a lovely wedding catered for  by a traiteur in their garden. of course there were many visitors before and after and I can't tell you how many new I rolled or how much cooking we did- but a lot!

My program for June is quite bsuy and I return to Oz on 2 July- Election day- what fun!
So here is my program for june

11 June at Cuci- Service in Oderzo- creating your own linocut for stamping/printing fabric and embellishing it with stitch
12 June at Cuci-Service in Oderzo- a lecture about my work with many demonstrations of how I work and some fun embroidering/stitching your own little piece of printed fabric as a memento

18 June at Festival du Forcafil in the Luberon Working with Transfer dye/printing and stitching
19 June at Festival Forcafil- Form and Variation-

I have an information sheet I can send of  the Festival du Forcafil which I am happy to send to you - just email me. The Festival itself runs from 24-26 June with many exhibitions to visit in different villages.

Then I head home for awhile for winter cold .

Had  a wonderful day yesterday visiting Michel Garcia in Lauris- he is an amazing fountain of knowledge about natural dyeing  but in a measured scientific way as he consults on many projects that need accuracy and consistency to reproduce  natural colours around the world . My friend Liwanag also came along as she is involved in a biodiversity project in the Phillipines and his approach also seeded many ideas about sustainability . I came away with a lot of food for thought and to come up with an idea of what I would like him to teach me before I go back to Oz- and maybe it was the universe's way of telling me that my block of land could be a source for natural dye stuffs- who knows? And whilst it is not easy to extract colour from Banksias it is not impossible.




The photos above are some of his samples and dyer's hands! And I leave you with another banksia on the way!





Monday, May 09, 2016

The Quatrocento in Siena and Some Tree Linocuts

Have been travelling with my daughter until early last week and have then returned to Le Triadou to get stuck into some serious work ( 2 articles to write for a magazine in Australia and one in France) and work to prepare for  exhibition at Festival des Arts du Fil  ( Forca Fil) in Provence  for 24,25,and 26 June. I am also teaching there on 18 and 19 June Transfer printing and Stitching and Form and Variation. Plus my friends daughter is getting married next week and the wedding will be hosted from their home. I am also teaching at Cuci-Service in Oderzo on 11-12 June 2016.

My daughter and I ended up back in Italy as I wanted her to check out a course on printmaking at Il Bisonte in Florence. Unfortunately it is not within her means to do both the course and afford living there whilst doing the course- it was a nice dream- or maybe I might get lucky and  sell some of my bigger works. However we enjoyed Florence and all it has to offer and we also spent a day in Siena , the city she was named after. The marble floor in the Duomo is always a marvel and the Quatrocento of Siennese painting in the Pinacoteca so worth a visit ( and with surprisingly few tourists for this magnificent period of Siennese art) The Met have an on-line catalogue available with some interesting essays noting the difference between the renaissance in Florence and Siena in case you are interested. I must admit it reignited my idea to do  a book Musing in Textile:Italy on  inspirations from Italy.

A shop window in Florence and a selfie of sorts.


  Inside the Duomo in Siena with my daughter Siena. And then the glory of the Quatrocento.




I have been working on another Babbling Banksia quilt,

 and I think this will be the last for awhile whilst I muse about Italy and the inspirations it offers, do some research and see how I can translate that into cloth and stitch- lace might make a reappearance in my work somehow and I  am feeling very inspired by the ethereal faces of Sano di Pietro- and also the beautiful detail of the cloth in  his paintings.






I also started a quilt with meytree linocut- and drove the sewing machine to distraction so I did not finish it prior to Quilts en Beaujolais unfortunately, but I will finish it now. I also have for sale the tree linocut which measures  50 cm and 40 cm and is double the size of the next nearest linocut I have made. It is printed on hand dyed cloth and costs 20€ plus 3€ postage ( a total of 23€). Email me if you are interested in purchasing the fabric print. The colours in the image are a guide only and as I will be dyeing more cloth next week I can print on any coloured cloth you might like. ( also have available prints of kings and queens of Chartres and the folkloric girl and the rabbit inspired by the Lady and the Unicorn tapestry)



And it is still possible to purchase my book Musing in Textile: France in Australia or here in Europe ( and anyone who might be interested in the US- shipping form Europe is much cheaper than shipping from Australia) Some sample chapters can be read here. The book also includes a dvd with explanations of how I use the techniques of dyeing cloth, making linocut prints, printing fabric, transfer printing and stitching ( lutradur), breakdown printing my way, freemotion stitching, hand stitching and a video demonstrating the techniques. The price of the book is $49.95 in Australia plus postage ( but postage to anywhere overseas is almost as expensive as the book- thank you Australia Post)  and 45€ plus postage from France ( the price difference is due to the different taxes that have to be paid) but the postage is 8€ Anyway if you are interested in purchasing the book please email me.