My latest exhibition - SHELTER

 Yes, I got talked into doing another solo show at the Yarra Sculpture Gallery in Collingwood. 

I decided to make new work that involved ceramics, which were loosely inspired by Castles.

                                                                              Tower

Castle

Then I accidently made a two new works which seemed to reprise my work on nests and add to the Castles theme.

Nestled and Connected

Fortress

Then I added in some old nest inspired works that I manage to tweek a little bit.

Safe

Secure

I included two big works which also worked on the birds nests theme.

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High Rise Development

Nesting

And, finally, I decided to include the two Covid works, one of which hadn't been shown anywhere.

Global

Lockdown

The opening was on Sunday the 8th and the exhibition continues to the 29th June. The reception has been great with plenty of interest and good comments.

Fibre and Clay

 Many years ago I had a joint exhibition at Bolin Bolin garden centre in their gallery and shared the space with a ceramicist. It was a great exhibition in a lovely space.

I've always wanted to combine textiles and ceramics and finally managed to find lessons in the right place and the right time. (Though I did have to give up Yoga for four weeks!) It was at Clay and Co in Cowes on Phillip Island. It was a course that did both an introduction to wheel-throwing and hand-building. Alot of fun and I learnt alot, though, as usual, you find out how much more you have to learn.

Wheel throwing was fun and I managed to produce some pieces, but it reinforced my idea that this is not what I wanted to do.

Hand building had been beckoning ever since I read an article in the British magazines 'Crafts' . The potter being interviewed was a hand builder and liked to do it because you were able to get more texture into the work. This spoke to me as how I would like to work and the class confirmed it.

These are little pinch pots that are just clear glazed, but they do show off the different clays that were available. I like the idea of using different clays to get different effects, rather than using glazes. It feels more organic. 

My first piece out of that class worked well but wasn't exactly as I had envisioned. 

I decided to work with it and continue my idea. Adding Weave-it loom fabrics attached with wire, I made it into a 'Tower'.

I'm very happy with it and long to get onto the next work. I should manage this Thursday, but I've been saying that for weeks....no clay, no clay delivery, space closed...it all adds up. Can't wait.

Finally finished Plastic Fungi

 I've been working on 'Plastic Fungi' since late 2021. It's now delivered to the Yarra Sculpture Gallery for the 'Sculpture Now' exhibition. This is a members exhibition of the Contemporary Sculptors Association. I'll be going to the opening and trying to figure out if I can find time to sit the exhibition. This is the first time I've exhibited with the CSA since rejoining two years ago.

         Sculpture Now 2023

       Opening Exhibition
       8th of October 2023
       2pm - 4pm


Show will be open on Friday the 6th of October to the public and close 22nd of October

Plastic Fungi was inspired by the book 'Entangled Life' by Merlin Sheldrake. An amazing look at the life of fungi, which I carry around with me on my Kindle. 

An absolutely fascinating read. Makes you think about connectedness, life and where fungi sits in relationship to humans. It's the biggest single organism, fungi lives in our bodies. It can kill us, cure us, feed us, give us a trip, deal with all sorts of waste. And, who is the planet made for?

Somehow, this feeds into my artwork, and, plastic fungi is the first work to result from this inspiration.

I decided on plastic and to attempt to be more three dimensional with it. Rather than weaving a flat piece, I decided to work with it and attempt to 'build' a work. So, I've wrapped, stitched and fitted together.

I was still working on it when I did the residency at Ivanhoe Cultural Centre in July 2022, in the middle of trying to sell our house!! It did get displayed at the Banyule Art Salon, which was pleasing, but it still wasn't quite right and it wasn't stable.

I've added more to the base with a thousand, almost, plastic ties that I'd got from Gail at TACAS. I still have a box full. I'm now quite happy with it.

Finished 'Secure' Sculpture

I have been working on this piece all last year. It's taken all year to work and resolve golf balls, clay, yarn, fence pailings and nylon wire into a finished piece.

I've called it 'Secure' asking the question in our Security obsessed century, whether security is an illusion.

It's now been entered into the brand new 'Australian Textile Art Award' and I wait to see if it has been accepted.

However, I still think that there is a further iteration of this work to come!

UPDATE: It was accepted into the exhibition. However, due to COVID-19 all we were able to do was have a very small opening ceremony.  Even in June, it's still sitting at the Embroiderer's Guild waiting to be seen.

It's been a quiet week

Well it has been a quiet week. Mostly spent waiting for tradies - cleaning windows, fixing fans. All done, all happy, but little work to show for it.

Hubby and I managed to fit in a film, on Friday at the last minute. I had tickets to the Classic Cinema in Elsternwick and so we hopped on the train to head SOUTH of the river. It was a strange documentary film: Frankofonia. The story of the pictures in the Louvre during WWII. Very bleak from the Russian director, very arthouse, but great archival footage and reenactment. Only two couples in the cinema and we both loved it!

I did manage to get to a good stage with my prototype of the next set of work based around the fabric play that I did.

Will do some tweaking, but also start on the next one. The REAL thing!

When you're no longer sure, but you still keep going!

I've been working on this sculpture for awhile, which is good, as I've prototyped and experimented and made till I'm at the stage where it seems to be coming together.

But there are a few problems yet to be resolved....how do you arrange them?

Does my little crocheted flower look ok, and will it tie all the different islands together?

Crocheting next

Starting

Weirdly, at the start of the week, it's all about new work.

Firstly, the sculpture I've been working on, based around the idea of 'no man is an island' has come to the point where I think I've resolved most problems, but I've been working on it so long that I really don't know if it works. So a good photograph of the work-in-progress has put those doubts not quite off to bed, perhaps just getting in their pyjamas!

Sculpture - provisional title 'Island'

 I also need some new knitting to take with me, but swatching was essential! Here it is and I'm using self-generating patterns from the book 'Unexpected Knitting' by Debbie New. With a mix of handspun and commercial yarn, I'm happy with the result.

What do you make from fabric yarn?

So I've found a couple of ways to make yarn from fabric, but "what", I can hear you say, "do you do with it?"

You knit dishcloths from the woven cotton fabric. They work really well, but not so easy to squeeze dry....still working on them!

Knitting dishcloths from fabric yarn.

My first dishcloth!

You stitch and use lazy squaw stitch to make little baskets to hold those errant keys!

Little bowls from fabric yarn and fabric strips.

Lovely little fabric bowl.

And you make coasters from the knit fabric which work really well and you knit more dishcloths.

More dishcloths and stitched coasters.

A finished coaster

And, what is it all for? To start my next sculpture! This is my prototype started!

My next sculpture!

An exciting new adventure!

It's been a funny year! After finishing up at Greensborough, the previous October, I managed to participate in two exciting exhibitions: the Toyota Sculpture Award and the Wangaratta  Contemporary Textile Art Award. I felt very special being chosen for these two amazing exhibitions.

Wangaratta Contemporary Textile Award

With these under my belt, my partner and I headed off to the UK for 6 weeks, finishing with a stopover in Vienna where we met up with friends. An amazing trip.

Like all trips they come to an end and you feel just a little let down, and it's not just the jet lag! It's taken to now to feel that I have a new focus.

Just before going away I was invited to participate in a new venture, the Textile Art Community. Unfortunately, being away for six weeks meant that all I could do was read emails, I did go to their opening, where they were weaving straw animals. This is where I met up with Annie, a friend from my Visual Arts course. She was looking for someone to share her studio and shop and with some trepidition I have taken up the offer.

Annie's upcycling sculpture

601 Waterdale Rd, is a community of people based around recycling and the skips that come in each week. There are those that sort the recycling, and make furniture from what they can. There is ReVamp (Annie) who takes both collectables and makes things into Art, selling them in her shop. And there is the Textile Art Community (Gail) who are also make use of the available recyclable materials. It's a new venture, an amazing place and I'm happy to be joining it.

My space, waiting for a table to arrive..in a skip...for my loom!

This week was my first week and it's been hectic and exciting as I battle a cold and try and make my part of the studio my own, try and join the activities and help with the shop. It's just been fun.

So, come and say hello, it's an amazing place and you never know what you will find. It's open every day from 10 till 3pm. I'll be there Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays each week. I'll be there at other times, but more irregularly as I try and fit this in with my schedule of other activities.

601 Waterdale Rd, West Heidelberg (next to the bus depot)
10am-3pm daily

Hope to see you there!

Five on Friday - regrouping!

I know......

Not alot of photography taking place and alot of work not suitable for photography taking place....do you really want to see a picture of my vacuum cleaner?

A finished Sock Madness warm-up sock, the Stroop, Stroop sock.

Another Sock Madness warm-up sock called 'Choose your own Adventure', involving choice of the stripe, the pattern and mixing it up with a dice.

And I am anxiously trying to finish the second sock before the games begin!

I did manage to make a trip with my Mum to Herring Island. This is becoming an annual event for us. From December to April, Parks Victoria run a punt over to the island where there is a permanent sculpture park and a gallery with exhibitions running. This year I wanted to see the Basketmakers of Victoria eachibition, and, as usual, they are fabulous. Lots of interesting work, both innovative and traditional.

It's a short trip over on the punt, costing me all of $2, Mum is free. The advantages of age! It's just a gentle day, where we walk all around the island, seeing how the permanent sculptures are wearing and becoming part of the landscape. We have lunch and then coffee when we get back at the coffee shop directly opposite. Well worth the trip.

Opening day at the Studio, Gallery & Shop

Yep, it was the first official day that the Studio was open. I had three visitors and a delivery of some gorgeous signs from my husbands' brother-in-law, Lee from Signs UC.

It was a bit of a shaky start, as I wasn't quite ready! We had painted, pulled up the bright blue lino to reveal concrete for the floor of the 'gallery' part of the shop, but there are still some missing pieces from the gallery.

I can't hang all my work in the 'shop' but the method of display works well and I'm quite pleased with the effect. I haven't enough coat hangers and macrame rope upon which to hang things. And I still haven't quite figured out how to hang the neckwarmers. But I'm pleased with the effect.

The first exhibition, I've called 'Journey' as it's a sort of survey of the work that I've done since the days of my Diploma of Art (Studio Textiles & Design). Once I have everything hanging, it will be quite good, but I'm pleased with the effect already.

The studio isn't really set up at all, that will happen over this week. It's exciting!

Celebrate with a mystery box!

Jan and Marie from the Handweavers and Spinners Guild of Victoria have come up with a lovely way to celebrate the coming 60th Anniversary of the guild. They distributed mystery boxes, filled with mysterious stuff which we will make into something mysterious for an exhibition in April and May next year.

Here are my boxes:

Yes, I know, there are two.... I didn't realise that I would get a choice, so while I was trying to make up my mind, the keepers of the boxes (Joy and Doris) decided I could have one of each! How could I refuse? I can't pick spinning over weaving, or weaving over spinning...just not right!

Here is what is inside:

 I think you can see the strange threads, bright blue beads, feathers, a playing card!, bits of wire, all sorts of yarns and fibre, oh, and shells....

These are actually the most interesting and the colours match yarns and fibres, and me, and will form the basis of whatever it is I'm going to make. It will be a sculpture, and, as far as I can, I will use all the materials and it will be done by the 29th March, 2014.....just not sure about those blue beads yet!

Stay tuned for progress reports!

Oh, and sorry for not blogging for awhile, bit crazy round here, going to get crazier....