Sample

It was lovely and warm yesterday, although it gets a little too hot in my shed especially as my sewing machine is directly under one of the skylights. I am still waiting on the concrete slab so I have had some interesting visitors.... a pair of scurrying blue tongue lizards, and yes it is mating season for reptiles at the moment- everyone asked me if I got a photos- but I wasn't going to get that close!

I made this 13"x13" sample yesterday, dh says it looks too much like aboriginal art, although that was really a long way from what I was thinking when I made it.I was thinking of another x stitch variation. Perhaps the colours add to the sense- but they are my favourites! I was thinking about mark making- crosses, strokes with a brush and then the cross for marking the place and of crossing pathways between different peoples, hence the two different lines of symbols. I suppose I can play around with it some more, but first I need to get some more white fabric from the suppliers, I have none left.

We have been having fresh lettuce out of the garden- it's just so much nicer that way! And it is artichoke season again. Vegetables are so expensive that I have been trying to be more inventive with the artichokes and use them as a vegetable rather than as a tasty appetiser. So last night I made Baked Artichokes with cherry tomatoes. They were yummy! You prepare the artichokes by pulling off the hard outer leaves and cut across the tip of the remaining leaves, quarter them and then pull out the chokes, and leave to sit in water with lemon juice. Meanwhile you heat up some olive oil and fry the artichokes with the lid on the pan for about five minutes and then add some sliced garlic and fresh herbs ( I used thyme and parsley from the garden, it's still a bit early for basil), fry only for a little bit longer. Then you place this mixture into a smallish baking dish with fresh cherry tomatoes and some more sliced garlic and I really put in a handful of herbs and some lemon juice ( or a wee bit of water) bake in a slow oven for about 40 minutes and presto! I think it would taste good tossed with pasta as well!

Lorenzetti Madonna Variations

They have all come into blogger out of order. The bottom image is the line drawing I did- the tilt of the head isn't as demure.The darker image on the left is of a mono-print I did of the line drawing. The two images in the centre are a positive lino-cut and a negative lino-cut. I was amazed at how Egyptian the negative cut looked. The top two images are drypoint etching on perspex- one on rice paper( the darker one) where I had not removed enough ink off the plate and the other on arches water colour paper. I think I like the drypoint best- though I need to experiment more with getting the ink off the plate. I also enjoy lino-cutting. Now I can't wait to buy some more perspex. I did try drypoint etching on copperplate, but found it much harder to actually create the lines , i think my tool was not sufficiently sharp. I liked working with the one image because it really allowed me to see the variations and the nuances of the different techniques.

Printing Course I have been doing

I have been doing an on-line printing course with Kristi Schueler. My main reason for doing it was to have a real try at printing on paper rather than fabric. I decided to play with this image of the Madonna of the Milk by Ambrogio Lorenzetti from the old guidebook of Siena which I purchased in Annecy. I am interested by how "mother" is depicted in painting and I do especially like byzantine and early renaissance icon depictions. Obviously Lorenzetti was very much influenced by Giotto.

Anyway I made my own drawing of the painting to work with, reducing it to line drawing.Blogger is not letting me load anything for more than 12 hours now so I will try in another post.








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Booklets

I have been away for two days helping a friend with some legal things, and so have not got much done. I have been working on the Rug for Persephone but not as much as I would like, as my shoulders have been really sore. I couldn't work out why until it dawned on me my normal sewing tabel is lowered by at least 15 cms , and the table I am working on in the shed is normal height. And thanks Susan for thinking of my work and remembering Persephone.

The stitching is really changing the appearance of the quilt top , hoepfully I will get it finished tomorrow. I have also been working on making small books- they are 7 "x7" ( about 20 cm square) I have still to bind them but I want to print on some of the pages beofre I bind the books.

My friend Robina Summers has finally got her Wild Scarves website up- there are still some pages to come but some of her woven and digitally printed scarves with embroidery are up.

There is an interesting discussion going on on Sharon Bogon's In a Mintute Ago blog, just scroll down the page a little- be sure to check out all her hyperlinks especially to Elisabet's blog. Some of the books referred to I read for my masters in order to contextualise the work i was creating , and found the area intriguing but difficult, because gender does play a major role, and not only that I had problems with art history's canonisation of white male western art. For me there is something so profoundly wonderful about all textiles, something profoundly wonderful about all forms of art- the aesthetic of each is governed by its own process and cultural placement that the possibilities are endless. And when I was in Syria and Palestine, the men seemed as interested in textiles( the quilts that I took there) as women, yet in Israel , geographically in the same region, but much more westernised and being the home of many immigrants from the west, textiles and quilts obviously did not have the same appeal to men.There was a noticeable difference in the way the work was received.

I was fascinated that the history of lace had more business women than most other commercial pursuits until industrialision took over lace making.Martine Bruggeman a Belgian authority on the history of lace in her book "Kant ( not the philospoher but the dutch/flemish word for lace) in Europe", makes this point .Lace at one time was only the second biggest commercial pursuit of Europe making cities rich and famous and lace was coveted by kings and queens and other people of high rank. What is the placement of lace now?

I am working on another Rug

Stitching really does make a difference! The pomegranates with the stitching around them are just so much nicer than the non-stitched ones- and that is why I like quilting/stitching- it really adds another dimension to what painting can't do!

I am working on this rug, not for the underworld this time, but for the upper world. I am still undecided about the green strip on the left hand side, but I will wait and see how it looks once a lot more stitching has gone in.

I will be updating the Sense of Place blog with workshop information at the winery in January in the next day.

And someone please enlighten me- last night literally more than a 100 German visitors visited the site- why did that happen? Anyone out there?

Sense of Place

I have been getting my act together for the publicity materials for Sense of Place, the exhibition that I am curating which will open at Samson Hill Winery, Syria and France ( so far- I hope to add some more venues!) The banner above is the banner Robina Summers designed from details of images of the work of the 11 participating artists who are, Jenny Bowker, Sue Dennis, Dianne Firth, Helen Gray,Gloria Loughman,Beth Miller, Beth and Trevor Reid, Robina Summers, Olga Walters, Fiona Wirght and myself.The banner will also be printed on banner materials as part of the signage of the exhibition

As part of that publicity I have set up a Sense of Place Blog. I will update it regularly with all sorts of news including the exhibtions' travels. I will also providing profiles of the artists, and information regarding the fundraising workshops we will be conducting at Samson Hill.The workshops will be as follows:

10 January 2007 ( Wednesday) Brooches- create your own zany art brooches to liven up even the dullest t-shirt!

17January ( Wednesday)2007 Bags of Fun- to wear for fun

24 January (Wedensday)2007 Bandanas- fabric fun to make your hair curl

31 January ( Wednesday) 2007 Belts-hot colours, crazy ideas

There will be three tutors: Olga Walters, Robina Summers and myself taking groups of 10 participants to create fun things- one for you and one as a gift to people on the other side of the world- in the spirit of goodwill. It will be possible to swap around during the day. The cost will be $70 inclusive of morning tea, lunch, and materials- all you need do is bring yourself, a sense of goodwill and fun. A non-refundable payment of $20 is payable ( to cover material costs). Please contatc me for details.

Have to Climb Out of the Hole

I seem to have fallen into a great big hole and am having trouble climbing out. It is not that I have been idle- I have done some lino-cutting and printing on paper- but couldn't bring myself to work with fabric at all. I made the lino-cut of an unfurling fern frond as a metaphor- I am not entirely happy with the lino-cut and am not happy with the inking I am doing- it's a bit too heavy.

I have aso been playing with making books- but have been questioning my motivation- are they for me or for sale, and if they are for sale, who would be interested in hand made books? If anyone has some favourite book arts sites or book making sites I would love to find some.

And then this afternoon the thought hit me I ought to make something cheerful- I always seem to come back to Demeter and Persephone- I have been focussing on the dark side , I need to focus on the light side- the re-entry into the world of people, of growth and corn and perhaps a little invention. So these were the fabrics I auditioned for a more cheerful outlook. Not quite sure about it yet- it needs a bit of tweaking, but it's a start.

A small amount of Sewing

I feel guilty- I have achieved very little sewing this week- just this piece which will be a belt of sorts- just wanted to try the vcolour combinations- I have sewn it on water soluble and more sewing is still to go in- unfortunately it shrank so it won't be a belt for me :-( never mind , my eldest daughter liked it too.

I have also enrolled for an on-line course for printing with Kristi Schueller. I was intrigued as to what an on-line course would be like and have so far enjoyed it.Participants have shared so many interseting sites of printers- a whole other world! In a funny twist of sorts most of the other participants are doing it to print on fabric but I am doing it to print on paper- I would like to make more hand printed books and this is one way of forcing me to sit and do it.

Then I joined up for Nanowrimo again- novel writing for the month of November- almost forgot about it and then registered at the last moment- did not do any writing the first day ( I have found if you can really give it a big burl in the first week it sort of carries you through the other weeks) but this evening I sat down and loosely plotted something, so after this I am off to the laptop to make a serious start- cloth will be woven throughout the story- where it will lead me I have no idea, but that is part of the fun. I also put a new blog counter on the blog- it shows all the little flags that belong to the countries of visitors. My aim is to have all 194 ( some atlasess say there are 189, 191,192 or 193 countries) countries visit- it's a pretty far fetched aim, but 62 is not a bad start!

Admin instration urghh

I spent most of the weekend with Robina and Tony ( whose website will be functioning soon so I will link when it is) sorting out the photos, banner and letterhead for Sense of Place. All those things had to be sent out in proposals today- always at the eleventh hour of course.And it always takes forever to do and then dash into the post office to post it all. I always start to feel frustrated doing this for whilst it is a very real part of the work I do, I always feel guilty if I haven't sewn or done something creative for the day.

The collage is of the bush around Bend Of Islands where Robina and Tony live- it is a part of the Yarra river just outside of Melbourne where the residents themselves have agreed to an environmental code for their surroundings- this means no dogs or cats and only a small area of European or non-native garden and leaving the bush intact. I am always surprised by how messy the Australian bush is- the forest floor is littered with all sorts of leaf and twig litter. The picture bottom right is of scribbly gum where insects get between the bark of the tree and the wood and carve the squiggles.

Thinking About the Binding

During the night the 75,000th visit happened and I think it must be Alison Schwabe from Uruguay- Alison is a friend- last time it was a friend too- how strange is that? At least I think it is Alison as I do sometimes have another visitor from Uruguay as well but have no idea who that is. Alison has just had a quilt accepted into Quilt National too! And her blog is worth checking out for life in Montevideo in Uruguay.

And I have finished the stitching on the Seriously Big Banksia ( in Australia we have "big" everythings as tourist attractions- from merinos to pineapples , crayfish, bananas etc)- only a couple of days late. The green thread looped the whole time , but as I am struggling with time I left the looping as the flower of itself is quite textured with loops. If you click on the image a larger version willl appear where you can see the stitching better. I need to think of a really good binding for this one- have been thinking about picking up the lime green of the threads or even orange ( I have some shiboried orange and black which might do the trick) but I want to think about it overnight. This quilt is made for the Sense of Place ( In the Spirit of Goodwill) exhibition I am curating. It will be shown at Samson Hill Winery just outside of Melbourne. It will be shown all of January and early February and there are some more exciting developments in the cooking pot fo which I will talk later. For a start we will be doing workshops every Wednesday for quilters and non-quilters alike during the whole month of January. The idea is that you just bring yourself - we provide everything else ( materials and lunch) for a fee - we teach you something new, that you might not ordinarily have done, that can be made into something small- but you will make two- one for you and one as a gift to people on the other side of the world- in the Spitirit of Goodwill and of course we will have fun!. Olga Walters, Robina Summers and myself will be doing the workshops. If you are interested let me know and I will put you on the list.

My work Table in the Shed

Thank you for all your good wishes- it is going to be a long journey but we are hopeful that the outcome will be good, but it will take time to know.
On another note , the blog is 472 visits away from the 75,000th visit! It is phenomenal to me that so many people have visited since I started, the camaraderie that has grown, which is different to the dynamics of a yahoogroup. I visit others blogs daily, don't always leave comments but I enjoy getting to know people and seeing how their creativity is spurred and getting a sense of who the people are, the shape of their lives.People's blogs have spurred me to buy books which I might have overlooked, sent me to websites I would not have found and generally added to my daily life. I tried Ilva's recipe from Luculian Delights for Rosti with Sun-dried Tomatoes yesterday , except I didn't have tomatoes so I did it with marinated roasted capsicums instead and made a green mayonanise to dip them in - and they were delicious. Yesterday I found an incredible resource for the latest writing on art and related philosophies- a 138 page pdf download listing all recent writing- the tomey stuff but still some that looked very interesting.So thank you one and all, and I am trying to think of a present for the 75,000th visitor!

I have set up two tables in the shed studio- hopefully we will pour the slab in the not too distant future- having the money and time at the same moment in time is the problem. Meanwhile I have set up some tables in there to work and I am slowly moving out of my old workroom which I shared with my eldest daughter ( most of my things have been packed away- and it is amazing what an art resource my room was for everyone- the number of times I have been asked do you have this or that? And I do, but it has been packed away) This table is set up for drawing and other things- the other table is for sewing- some people like neat clean spaces in which to work but looking at the photo I seem to make shrines of materials and leave myself little space in which to actually work.I tend to need all these things around me to help clear my mind and focus.

The Week that Was

Ima y not be posting much over the next few weeks, as it has been impossible to do any work. I have just spent the worst week of my life- I cannot say what happened because that would invade the privacy of those around me, but I need your hugs and good thoughts. Meanwhile I send you a waratah- not as beautiful as other years or as large but pretty amazing nonetheless.Ok blogger is not letting me do this- but I am sending a waratah!

Blogger finally let me- thank you for all the hugs and prayers and good thoughts.

Just a bit of fun

I was intending to sew all weekend but for one reason or another that did not happen- and I can't really put my mind to it. So I sat and drew these little chaps in my journal. My daughter thinks they are really cool and I should make them into a screen print and make bags with them. Maybe I will- I can make screens on my Print Gocco machine.I think i will need to redraw them and clean up the art work a bit.

Seriously Big Banksia

I have been working on making a seriously big banksia based on the studies I did last week. First trick was to get the fabrics just right.. The deep maroon isn't quite as dark as I would have liked but as I tried a few times it will have to do. I have also run out of white fabric to dye and have to get some more. Then the yellow- I didn't quite want the variations you get in hand dyed cloth and I wanted texture on the surface as well. How I visualised the texture to work in the appliqued pieces did not quite come off- so then I procrastinated and decided to continue on with it. I imagine this banksia to be stand alone as is- and that a lot of texture and detail will come from stitching which is yet to go in. It measures 74 cm bu 145 cm long .Hopefully I will get it pinned today and start the stitching. I hope to have it finished by Monday sometime .

Photographs

This photo came out of a French Travellers Guide Book for Sienne ( Siena) by Pierre du Colombier and published by B Arthaud of Paris in 1955 ( This publishing house still seems to exist). The photograph was actually taken by M.A.Trincano of Lyon.

Doesn't it capture a delightful moment? Two men and a donkey and age old brick walls. And really it is not all that long ago- the year before my birth- life has certainly changed. I wonder if it the photograph was taken on a Monday because all the washing is out.I bought the book in an antiquarian bookshop when I was in Annecy and it contains a delightful loose leaf map of Siena and many other rather good black and white photographs, many of paintings. There was also a guidebook on the Languedoc in the same shop- but I was worried about the weight of my luggage on the way home so I refrained and now I am regretting it.

I have mentioned Lucullian before in regards to food but have also found that Ilva has a photograph site- there are some wonderful photographs there, capturing small moments and there are also some links to other interesting sites with photographs. With spring well and truly on the way and a hot summer to come by the looks of it, I will be trwaling Ilva's Lucallian blog for recipes and inspiration for fresh produce.

Whimsical

The image is the invitation to the opening of an exhibition of the drawings of Hassan Harouni. Hassan had been working on a book called Hassan Everywhere but he unfortunately drowned before he finished. Hassan was a Palestinian artist and this card fell out of one of my diaries yesterday ,as I had attended the exhibition opening. It came at a moment when in a sense I was being overwhelmed by the world and it suddenly caught my breath as I remembered the feeling that the exhibition had engendered in my head and heart. You might think that the unfinished drawings for an unfinished book do not warrant an exhibition, but there was magic in that room the day I was there- it was palpable and it was special. The thought of magic and whimsy cheered me up immeasurably- it seems to appear so little in our busy lives.It also started me thinking about art- which has to be serious, weighty, intellectual and thought provoking and whatever else- but where is whimsy in all of this? Those little stolen moments of magic which I felt in the exhibition of Hassan's drawings.

We read stories to children full of whimsy and magic. My children built many fairy gardens in the hope of attracting a fairy ( and I still find the remains of some around my garden)- they were wonderful little collages of moss, twigs,mushrooms and flowers often placed in hollowed logs- every bit as whimsical as the delightful installations of Andy Goldsworthy - not "art" but on the other hand designed to transport into the world of the imagination and magic.

Just like piles of wood are installations of an almost bygone era- the image that it conjures of woodfire, leaping flames,crackling and skipping,glowing and glinting;imagine camping without a glowing fire to talk into the night.

Sometimes living is an art;I watch my children , nearly all teenagers pulled and tugged by peer pressure,tv and media and the internet; there are few moments of whimsy in a teenagers life. I know this is part of growing up but I do hope somewhere sometime they will seek to find a refuge from the madding crowd and indulge in moments of whimsy- of immersion in the world of magic. The power of imagination is strong- we need to indulge it now and then and fly on whisps of whimsy.

Pomegranate Cards for Sale

A number of people have asked me which pomegranate cards are for sale, so I have photographed those I have left. They are numbered 1-24 from left to right. They are 5" x 7" , so a large postcard size not a standard postcard size.The price is $30 US inclusive of postage for each card ( there are 24 and #2,#8,#11 are sold) and you can pay me via Paypal- but please email me first so I can give you the details. Yes and one isn't a pomegranate- I had to make up the numbers!

Also I received yesterday a translation into French of my booklet Seventy Two Ways Not to Stipple or Meander- Ideas For Free Machine Quilting. Marie Goddard of ">Centre Europeen du Patchwork translated it for me( well the text part- the pictures speak for themselves). The cost is as follows ( as a few people have asked me as well)
The booklet is( all prices inclusive of postage)
$23 US Dollars, $25 Australian Dollars, 18 Euro or 12 Pounds Sterling for the UK
The Cd is ( all prices inclusive of postage)
$15 US Dollars, $20 Australian Dollars, 12 Euro , or *.50 Sterling

I have had quite a lot of feedback about the booklet and thankfully it's all been very positive with people saying it was exactly what they need to help generate ideas. In French it is called 72 Facons... Idees de Matelassage en Pique-libre ( sorry the accents aren't there I forget how to do that in word). I had to have more booklets printed but forgot to take the cd with me to Geelong for the print job last Tuesday - so it is going in today. Marie also has some of my work at her gallery and I shall be having an exhibtion there in 2010- that sounds like such a long way off- but it is a big space and needs quite a lot of work.

Also my friend Agnes De Lange-Macdaniel has put some new work up on her website for 2006. There are some delightful pieces there.


Also check out Sandy's blog- she has been to Egypt! It reminds me so of the wonderful time I had there earlier in the year. I still look at all the photos I took regularly and my daughter made a really lovely album of her experience.

Also next year I will be taking Australian work : "Sense of Place"( work by Jenny Bowker, Gloria Loughnan, Beth and Trevor Reid, Helen Gray, Beth Miller, Dianne Firth, Sue Dennis, Fiona Wright, Robina Summers, Olga Walters and myself ) to Patchwork-Art Textile at le Palaiseau 2007 from 24 March until 9 April at the Le Maison des Jeunes et de la Culture-I have linked the contact for anyone interested. I am delighted that the Australia/France Foundation, administered through the Australian Embassy in Paris has lent some support to this event ( they also helped with Australian Bounty in 2000)- it is wonderful to have support for art quilts at this level on cultural co-operation .I shall also be teaching some workshops during that time. So my love affair with France continues.

The Banksia

Banksia studies . Yesterday I got a bit of a fright as I thought I had to have another quilt done within the week. I want it to be "Australian" as well as pertinent to my place ( it's for an exhibition which is travelling to Syria and France next year with the title Sense of Place which I am curating). I have done the first piece- Forest, as we are surrounded by Forest- The Otways National Park. There are also banksias which are native to the region, and I also have many in my garden- they flower all through the winter and are evergreen. Apparently Josephine and Napoleon were so taken by the banksia that they had a special garden built.

I have in the past made banksia quilts, but decided I wanted to revisit the flowers, to see if I could see anything new. I started out with a coloured scan on the scanner and was surprised at how well the flower actually scanned ( the flowers are round and this one would have had a circumference of 15 cm or so). I then reduced it into greyscale ( I do this often to see areas of light and dark-values- positive and negative space) and then played around in photoshop filters a bit. I Then printed it and drew back into the picture and rescanned and then drew freehand the line drawing. The last drawing( at least that is what I am hoping will show up- blogger is not co-operating) was done with my left hand ( I am right handed).It was a little trick I leraned from reading about Raoul Dufy who did this from time to time. I actually find my left hand drawings more characterful then my right hand drawings, but they are a bit of a struggle- I never know quite how to hold my fountain pen. Anyway the pictures/drawings have given me some food for thought how I might go about tackling my next "banksia" quilt.

Pomegranate Contemplations

I really like soft covered books- not paperbacks as such but ones that have an almost leathery cover. I have made some over the years and have used Japanese momogami paper as the inner stabiliser/leathery outside cover- it is soft and pliable and strong, apparently the poor Japanese workmen used to make clothing from momogami as it was strong and even warm. I made another one on the weekend for the contemplation of pomegranates and the photo is of the cover ( it is A4 size) which is hand stitched and ended up taking way longer than planned( it was all that hand stitching- the threads are crocheting yarn which I buy in the Netherlands at the market- it's called glossy crocheting yarn and is actually mercerised cotton and dyes beautifully) . I bind Khadi papers as the inner pages - they are kind of rough and textured though do take watercolour paints. They do not like my fountain pen ( another pet kind of obsession- you can buy cheap fountain pens in the supermarches in France- and some of them write beautifully and they are so much nicer to write with than biros- on the up end of the fountain pen market I have two Lamy fountain pens, and I converted a lot of my fellow solicitor coleagues in days gone by to their use, but seem to have lost one- it will turn up, but my current favourite is one of the cheapest ones I bought a couple of years ago at Intermarche- french school children still write with fountain pens at school) The Kadi pages can be stitched and again the fibre is strong so a lot of stuff can be done to it.

Several people have asked me about the cost of the pomegranate cards- they are all 5"x7" which is larger than normal sized postcards ( think the next size up). Tomorrow I will post a picture of the ones I have left. They are priced at $30 US including postage.

Variations on a theme

Over the years there has been quite a lot of discussion about working in a series, and particularly if you want to consider yourself a "serious" artist then the advice from many quarters in the upper echelons of the "quilt" art world is to work in a series and work it into a long progression of works that all relate.That is fine if you want to work in that way, but there are other ways of working as well and one of them is thematically.

I tend to work to themes- they set my imagination more alight than endless variations in abstraction.And yes they are variations on a theme so they do have that in common with working in a series. I suppose I am a semi-romantic still wallowing on the edges of realism.I have over the years made fire quilts. I think they number 17 or 18 plus some smaller ones- I only have one and a half left ( the half being one part of a diptych). I hesitate to call them a series as the imagery is quite wideranging and identifiable , though some are a bit more abstract than others, but they do relate to each other both by theme and technique. I have images of them in all sorts of format- but not digital to see how they do relate to each other.

And in recent years I have been working with variations of pomegranate- again I hesitate to call them a series as such though the inspiration is all pomegranate with its mythical overtones, as well as its modern religious iconography and its medicinal properties, which seems to be so much the basis of the so-called "mythical" fruits..There are a few more waiting in the wings arising out of the postcards I made. I painted a piece of cloth the other day which will form the basis of the new work ( but I have to buy some more fabric to dye)

And since my visit to the Middle east I have been playing around with Crosses and by connection noughts as well. Variations of crosses, colourings, stitching- looking at ethnic clothing, the use of cross stitch in western society, and as mark making and identity . The page from my sketch book was variations I came up with whilst sitting and waiting for connecting flights in airports. The page made one waiter at Heathrow very interested- ( I had about 6 hours to kill there so had something to eat and a glass of wine) he kept coming back to see my progress and said he wished he could do such a thing. I said he could- he said he would try. I hope he did!