Sunday, June 23, 2019

At Last- A house

After almost six years of house sitting, couch surfing and shed living, it seems that all things going well I have purchased a house in Morwell in the Latrobe valley. There were a number of criteria that influenced my choice amongst which was ready access to a rail line- for after last years scare of not being able to walk and drive for a period of three months, you can't be stuck on a bush block without any services, being closer to my mother rather than the 4.5 hour trek I had to do when I went to visit her from Gellibrand, and good access to Melbourne and medical care. It became readily apparent that most places with good access to rail services were beyond my means,  but there was a glimmer of hope for Morwell- so I have been searching since January in this locality (viewing houses was made a bit difficult by being away so much) and surprisingly when the housing market in most of Australia is experiencing a downturn- this does not appear to be the case in Morwell- and this is probably caused by the fact that houses are fairly cheap compared to elsewhere. So this week I took the plunge- I visited some awful awful places, I don't think my mother would keep her chooks in there, some pretty dreadful places and some not too bad ( most of these were outside my means) I eventually narrowed it down to three places, made offers, was accepted on one, but then the power of attorney overrode the owner and wanted more money, at which point I wasn't in the mood for dealing with legal shenanigans, so it came down to two. The house for which my offer was accepted had been in the one family since it was built in the sixties, and it pretty much in original condition including the axminster carpet, so pretty retro , but it looks like it was well cared for, it even has a pretty nice garden with a few fruit trees and lots of possibility- it has a garage hereafter to be called the print room, and three bedrooms, so I can have a spare room and work room- so all in all I am happy with this place and feel even happier that finally all my things will be in one space and that I will have a dedicated space to work, plus I have a pretty nice garden- greenery is a necessary part of my life  given I can't look at the bush anymore since leaving Gellibrand.

So I am trying to gather together some money to help cover the cost of stamp duty and conveyancing, so I am putting some of my work up for sale. Last year and the latter half of 2017, were devoted to creating the Traveller's Blanket exhibition- which took an enormous amount of work, but as they were committed to exhibition I was unable to sell any of them and I had no real time to make other work for sale. The Traveller's blanket series is entirely stitched by hand on hand dyed and printed fabric- and I can tell you they took a whole year and some months of my life to make- so this is reflected in the price they are- what would you want to earn for a whole years work?? Some of the Traveller's Blankets are still on tour in Canada and not sure what their next stop is- it's part of the Crossing Oceans Exhibit. I am discounting pieces but they also  need to seel at fair compensation for my time and effort and the originality of the pieces.

The work created by machine is cheaper as the time it takes to free motion stitch is a lot less than stitching by hand! However all farbics are hand dyed and or hand printed- using various techniques. Descriptions of the pieces and prices are underneath the photos of each piece.




The Blue Traveller's Blanket - measures 92 cm x 140 cms ( approx)- and is densely stitched. This blanket was inspired by a journey through my surface design techniques since I commenced hand dyeing fabric early in 1992. It contains pieces of fabrics that have been dyed, printed with linocuts and print gocco, breakdown printing- anything I have tried over the years really! For Sale $2,750AUS





The Waste Not Want Not Traveller's blanket- has been stitched on two layers of dhoti fabric and scraps  from the Stitching Project in India. All fabrics have been indigo dyed or resist printed and have been heavily hand stitched in a warm colour pallette. This piece measures 120 cm x 120 cm ( approx) It is for sale for $3000 AUS




Discovering Australia. At university I studied Australian history and was shocked how little attention was paid to the indigenous history of Australia- and indeed when you  look at the journeys of discovery it was apparent that the explorers were intent on claiming Australia as a Terra nullius- very rarely was local knowledge sought and some of the only times that  indigenous people were of help was to rescue these reckless explorers who thought they could conquer a continent. Each of the circles represents indigenous knowledge and cultural practices- using very simple stitches and the tracks around the circles represent the white explorers who skirted around that knowledge. it measures 47 cm x 90 cm  and is for sale for  $850 AUS

Machine Stitched Pieces





This piece is inspired by olive trees and has been stitched by machine and hand. It measures 57 cm x 28 cm and is for sale for $150.00 AUS  SOLD

                             


Homage to Raoul Dufy and Paris. Raoul Dufy was commissioned at one point to create a cityscape of Paris for a tapestry. I thought it was an amazing project to have undertaken, and of course I love Paris. So I drew the cityscape back to front on papers and transferred it onto Lutradur, and then embellished the whole scene with stitch. I included this quilt in Musing in textile- as maps can take on all sorts of shapes. It measures  79 cm x 86 cm and is for sale for $550 AUS  SOLD



I love tree shapes and am also enamoured of the way foliage was represented in late medieval and early rennaissance times- often trees are given very stylised shapes. This piece is both applique and reverse applique and has been heavily machine stitched. it measures  62 cm x 100 cm and is for sale for $450 AUS


Banksias- my ongoing love of banksias emerges from time to time in a textile piece. This was made for Quilter's Companion Great Australian Quilts 2017  from memory. It is hand printed and appliqued and measures 72 cm x 126 cms and is for sale  $650 AUS

If any of these pieces interests you please email me on dcevaal@gmail.com


I am also teaching some in the flesh workshops at Open Drawer in Camberwell . On the 5th of July I am teaching form and variation. This is a workshop  in which we do hand stitching and look at all sorts of ways for working with circles ( or squares or triangles- whatever your penchant is )



 On the 6th of July it is Transfer Printing which is a lot of fun. You paint papers with shapes/motifs or even resists and once the papers are dry the  colours are heat transferred onto lutradur , and then we will stitch. You will be able to paint  quite a lot of papers that you can take home and work with later. The Homage to Dufy and Paris quilt above was made in this way.


I will also be teaching the Traveller's Blanket class over a number of sessions so that you can create  your own textile tales and Linocutting and printing in September.

Monday, June 03, 2019

Things Aquatic

Those who follow me on Instagram and/or Facebook May have noticed some photos with things aqautic especially after my visit to the Aquarium in La Rochelle. But to be perfectly honest I did quite a few aquatic things in the late nineties and early 2000's as we often went rockpooling with my daughters  near Apollo Bay or the back beach near Blairgowrie when they were children. One of the aquatic quilts I made I combined machine stitch and hand stitch. The image is entirely created by machine and hand work and it measures 1.50 metres  by 1.2 metres. I don't think I ever  exhibited it as it was purchased by a visitor to my home. In hindsight ( and isn't that a valuable thing- not) I should have exhibited it- never mind. I had been searching for images of it and finally found some in a flickr account I no longer use.




From the dyeing I would say this piece dates from around 2001/2002- the little dots in the background is hand stitching, and looking at it now and given the boat trip I took yesterday to Cadaques- my mind is abuzz with ideas.

I decided to spend a week in Roses on the Costa Brava because suddenly I wanted to be by the sea to breathe it and  to just take in the colours it was also on the way to some teaching I am doing with Rosario Casanovas at her shop in Pals next weekend. I am teaching linocutting  ( Saturday), making a good design for linocuts and then the following day  (Sunday) embellishing the linocut by hand or machine. I believe there are still a few places available if you are interested- you can contact Rosario through her facebook page or simply message me and I will pass it on to Rosario.

So I have been working on a new linocut- around a sea theme and intend to make a series of them which may yet  build into something bigger.

 This linocut was inspired by the visit to the Aquarium at la Rochelle and once I get back to Australia and dye some fabric to suit it , it will be available for sale. I always do a trial print on newspaper- not sure why I started it- might have been what I have available at the time. But I find doing the trail print on newspaper gives me a good feel for whether the graphic qualities of the uis working as it has to compete with the text and/or images in the newspaper. I have been keeping my paper prints with the intention of making a book with them- one day!

Of course I had to include a sea urchin! The shapes of the coral and  life are just weird and wonderful.

Traveller's Blanket On-Line Class

There is still time to join the on-line class to create your own Traveller's Blanket- there is information on my previous post on my blog.  The idea is that you create your own visual narrative using stitch and fabric remnants. I have been teaching this class for a number of years now and am always amazed at how these blankets grow and how  many  get finished and how many wonderful stories  get told in the process. It's a way of showcasing precious remnants ( from your mother's sewing box, or travels ) and give them centre stage so they never have to be hidden away again!




 Some of the travellers' Blankets I have made in recent times when I have been without machine and preparing for an exhibition ( and this work is available for exhibition if any organisers are interested) If you would like to join the class it starts on 17 June 2019- after my return to Australia I can send further information if you message me. Cost for the course is $75AUS and can be paid via the Paypal button below or if in Australia by internet banking.


Last week I stayed with my friend Margo Bimler in Moux in Occatanie and finally  got some machine work done on a quilt i started two years ago when I was demonstrating for Bernina France at Pour l'Amour du Fil in Nantes in 2017. I store a sewing machine at Margo's house as I seem to be overseas almost as much as I am in Australia. It kind of languished after the event but recently Auriful sent me some more of their wonderful Mako 30 weight cotton thread and I felt inspired to finish the piece ! Thank you Aurifil for your wonderful thread colours!




The quilt measures 76 cm x 94 cm and has  been  entirely free motion quilted- I have embellished linocut panels- the central panel is composed of three prints repeated. The side panels were printed with a shaped pomegranate linocut which I made to  complement the pomegranates in the centre panels. The quilt is for sale for $900 AUS.  I have been looking for  a house to buy once I return to Australia- think - i will need to sell some quilts that is for sure! I really need somewhere where I can work consistently and have a proper workroom set up.