LATEST ART PROJECT

I am still playing with the book idea - for me it is a good way to experiment and to extend ideas but mostly a way to consoliadte 'stuff' that I have lying around.

I have hundreds of rather nice life drawings. What to do with them? Leave them in the cupboards for the silverfish and cockroaches? I can't bear to cut up the good ones, but I am happily using the mediochre ones for collaged book pages.

Yes, I am using tea bags, tea, mould and rust dyed fabrics, and various inks, paints, pencils and waxes.

Lots more work to be done on the images before they become a book.

I am also playing with scanned and printed images - this one has been printed onto T shirt transfer paper then ironed onto calico.

Rain, rats and a mouse

Yes, we have had lots of rain this past week. I love it!

Water and fine silt washed onto the concrete of my carport. I guess that a few worms were also washed down my driveway.

I swept a few months accumulation of gum tree leaves from my deck and found this lovely natural stencil print.

...and this morning I went to empty my 'recyclabes' bag which I had left outside - I think I have rats!!

The highlight of my week technologically speaking, has been the purchase of a CORDLESS MOUSE. I love it - it's one of those situations where I should have done it years ago but I was stubbornly sticking to my 'if it ain't broke, why fix it?' rule.

Hello Friends!!

Hi to all my lovely friends whom I have just added to my automatic email list, and thanks for verifying the email. If you scroll down from here and then go to 'older posts', you will see what I have been up to [creatively] over the past couple of months. The blogs go from newest to oldest - yeah, a bit confusing, I know.  Do you remember me when I looked like this? I am scanning old slides - this one was taken in 1980 - 30 years ago!!

I belong to a blog group called ALaW [ A Letter a Week] where 20 people from all over world make/draw/create a letter of the alphabet every week then post the results on the blog site. Maybe we will have an exhibition when the alphabets are complete. It gives us a creative goal every week and it's great fun to share with people we don't know. I have taken photos of an old green wooden box then used minimal photoshopping to create letters.

 

This is my letter for the coming week.

POJAGI SCARVES

I have been making lovely pojagi scarves for a few months. Pojagi is a  traditional Korean translucent 'patchwork' technique, using old and recycled fabrics. I am using beautiful silk kimono scraps brought back from Japan last year. Many have found homes back in Japan with new friends, I have given some to friends in Australia, and I have sold some through local galleries.

I love making them. The fabrics are oozing with history - patched, hand stitched and mended wabi sabi elements; stamps and labels indicating names of makers and regions; dyed, faded and stained areas all telling tales of their makers and wearers.

The reds are especially gorgeous - such a rich and vibrant colour . The red silks were used mainly as linings in wedding kimonos -a teasing, seductive glimpse revealed only when the bride moved.

...still playing with teabags

I am totally transfixed by these ephemeral and esoteric little 'spirits'.

I am still playing and have no clue to the 'practicality' of this play but I think that is the idea!! I am usually so 'result' driven and must have an end product in mind. It will be wonderful to follow the path on this journey, trusting in the process, as our dear Jill Jordan used to say.

TEABAGS to DIE FOR

I first came across  lovely silky pyramid teabags in Japan last year but have since found them in Australia. In fact, my sister found them in her local supermarket and bought me a packet for Christmas - for the bags of course, not the tea! I love them. With pearls stitched to the corners, they fall like a cat falls on its feet.

ANOTHER FINISHED PROJECT

I am starting to really love my 'down time'. It has taken a month, but I am really in to it now. I have just finished a work which I started in a Glen Skein workshop in 2007. I have called it 'Time Peace'. It started out as an homage to the important women in my life, but has evolved to be a literal and figurative reference to time - past, present and future, especially the desire to 'live in the moment' with love.

        tiny books       crystal ball     antique watch parts

The fabulous array of old watch parts were sent to me by friends Carla and Richard who are keen Clock club members. They found a big box of old stuff at an antique clock market and thought of me. Lovely friends!!

I have even included secret compartments - what fun.