School holidays

For the school holidays this year we decided to take a family trip to Sydney. The boys were keen to go, though, when pressed, had no idea why? It's a big city? We drove up, stopping overnight at Bowral - home of the Bradman Museum. Yes, we did visit this amazing museum, obviously well funded and extensive in its' coverage of both Don Bradman and cricket.

For the textile lovers amongst you, there was even an exhibition of the baggy green cap and it's construction. For the non-cricketers, it is the cap that is presented to players when they make the Australian cricket side. Iconic.

Bowral is in the Southern Highlands, about an hour out of Sydney and is very picturesque. This is the scene from our rooms that greeted us in the morning.

More about the trip later....

I did, however, want to tell you about the wonderful exhibitions I managed to catch in Sydney.

The first, at the Gallery of NSW was the exhibitions associated with the Archibald Prize (portraiture), the Wynne Prize (landscape) and the Sulman prize (everything else!)

My oldest came along and it was great to have someone to discuss the various works with and what 'should' have won, etc. etc. Yes, he is still happy to be seen in public with his mother. He also came in handy as at approximately 6'4" (sorry not metric for height) we used him as our meeting point, as he's easy to spot above the crowds.

The Art Gallery of NSW is always worth a visit, if only for their very excellent Australian painting collection. All the ones you know! See what's on there at: www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au

The other exhibition I wanted to catch was 'I walk the line: new Australian drawing" at the Museum of Contemporary Art on Circular key. My drawing teacher has work in this exhibition (loved it - portraiture on books on the shelf). This was a broad survey of drawing ranging from stunning strong portraiture, through a traditional drawing executed directly onto the two storey wall of the gallery, to, video works....all drawing!

On a whim, I caught an exhibition by a japanese artist named Yayoi Kusama. I am always drawn to Japanese art and culture, so much so that I wish I could work out a way to travel and study something(???) there. The exhibition was called 'Mirrored Years' and it was absolutely astounding. It too was a survey exhibition covering a broad range of her work.

I can only recommend that you have a look at her work on her website: www.yayoi-kusama.jp There are pictures from the exhibition in Sydney there. Wikipedia also have an entry for her: www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yayoi_Kusama

The exhbition is on till the 8th June, so if you're in Sydney have a look. For more on the gallery have a look at www.mca.com.au

The power of all these exhbitions for me was their breadth. Landscape, drawing, an art life, can be as broad, as diverse as you make it. Landscape can be 'Red reef', a crocheted reef (Yes, I know it's be done before, interesting though that it turned up here and it was well done.) A drawing can be a three dimensional work, intricately executed. And an artistic life can explore different ideas over a long time. (Yayoi Kusama was born in 1929 and is still producing amazing new work)

There was much to think over and absorb.

Another fibre sandwich

For the second year in a row, the HWSG weekend in Harrietville had a group fibre sandwich. The originator of this wonderful weekend long build was unable to be there, but in her honour one was built and she will be receiving her bundle.

This was the pile that was created and duly split up into about 60 bundles.

This was mine.

As it is the school holidays we've decided to have a holiday with the boys, so I'm closing down all activities, blog, shop, etc.

However, it isn't a holiday without something to do. Even I'm not that good.

I decided that I would card the fibre sandwich and spin it on my new CD drop spindle. This sounds slow and relaxed to me.

I carded the lot in one go, which is rather more than you 'should'. So the bits that were left over were carded, separately and just laid on top. I'm going to split it up across and create a rolag rather than spin it in a worsted way. Should be fun. I'll probably ply it with purple again, when I get back.

There are a few holiday projects packed away, but more of that when I'm back.

I do however, promise to sketch......

Catching up

I seem to be quite behind in my blogging. SnB, Harrietville, magazines, art, all are beckoning. My mornings have become short (which is when I can work on the computer - quiet, no boys, access....) and that is a subject for another entry.....later.

However, I have to start somewhere.

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I've just subscribed to Piecework and that it had arrived and I really liked the idea for a 'Sontag'. The issue I received focused on textiles for reenactment. Not something I really am interested in, I always like to learn from the past but use it in a modern context. However, Piecework didn't let me down and there are a number of really interesting projects: a 17th Century undershirt, Civil war socks and a Sontag. As always the articles are interesting and the issue is dotted with wonderful old photographs.

The Sontag was named apparently after a German Soprano and also called a 'bosom friend'. It was used for extra warmth, though I feel today in our air-conditioned world, it would add that little extra warmth we need, rather that big jumpers.

I can imagine this is a fantastic novelty or big slubby yarn, totally changing the look.

I am keen, at the moment to come up with some sort of 'little' warmer for sale. Not great big jumpers, just a little something to keep you warm.

Flattened totem poles

I've been battling for the last week with my entry for the Old England Outdoor Sculpture Award, and, finally, yesterday I thought I had it licked, only to be greeted this morning with a very flat piece.

I left it out last night....it is supposed to be an OUTDOOR sculpture, thinking that all I had to do was one more piece (the other is also flat!) and I'd just make it.

I've let Tony at Banyule City Council know that I'm pulling out, which was a big decision for me as I have entered the last four years.

It's hard to know if I've learnt anything from this.....start earlier....but I knew that and worked hard to overcome the problems. I just feel relief really.....

Paverpol - it does do what it says except:

1. to get a really good set you have to use alot of product and you can't water it down to thin it out, and it's expensive to do a big project like this. It doesn't help if you step in the tub, spill it and scoop it up again as best possible.

2. I think it makes the fabric too brittle to support any weight. That would explain why all the examples they show are built around a frame.

I still would like to pursue this line of work. It was starting to look good. However, I think I have to abandon the idea of getting fabric to stand on its own. I know that sounds a bit obvious, but you have to have some theory on which experiments are based.

Now I'll relax and make hearts.......

Autumn Sale

Saturday (March 21st, 10am-3pm) is the next 9"x5" QMM market and I'm going to have a GIANT sale. 20% off everything.





There are several reasons for this and I'm actually quite excited. This is all part of the ongoing research into the how to run my business successfully.



Here are the reasons I have for having a sale.



1. To move enough items that replacing them will freshen up my range of products. There are some things that are seen and admired at most markets, someone will want them!

2. To see if the price difference makes an impact on sales. I don't want to reduce prices as they represent a fair price, but a sale can test the waters.

3. To see if just having a sale makes any difference to sales. I'm not sure how I'll tell the difference between 2 and 3, but we'll see.

So, if you're around Ivanhoe on Saturday, come and visit us. Maybe you'll pick up a bargain.

Heide Museum of Modern Art

One of the great things about going to Heide is that you can just wander around the gardens admiring the sculpture, the gardens and the natural bush along the river.

There were some new sculptures to wonder at, puzzle about and admire. And old friends to remember and photograph again.

As usual it was nature that stole the day. From the very small to the trees with treasures for us.

The trees have their own eyes!

CD Spindles

Last Saturday at Experimental Spinning, we played around a bit more with drop spindling. One of the ideas was to make our own.

Spin-off magazine and a quick search on the net revealed an array of different 'home-made' drop spindles. CD spindles had already been mentioned and these proved both popular and successful.

Once we found that the grommets mentioned were wiring grommets (thanks to ztwist for her intrepid research) and were easily available at my local hardware (Danahers, Mitre 10) it was a quick and easy job to construct the CD.

Here are the ingredients: 1 or 2 CDs, depending on the weight you might like, a 1/2 inch wiring grommet, a 10mm, 12in long piece of dowel and a cup hook.

They were very quickly put together:

1. Grommet inserted into CD

2. Dowel inserted into CD

3. Cup hook could be screwed in by hand, as the dowel wood was soft.

This could be prettied up with all sorts of colour or whittling or anything that takes your fancy...I haven't even sanded mine yet!

The great surprise is that it spins very well. It's an ideal vehicle for teaching and I'll be getting my beginning spinning students to make one in their last class and we'll practice.

Thanks to moorecat for the 'Park and Draft' method of teaching spinning, as it was quite successful. This allows you to spin in two separate actions:

1. Hold on to a close spot on your fibre, give a spin and build up the twist.

2. Park the drop spindle between your knees and then draft out the fibre.

3. Wind on and repeat.

Eventually, it is very easy to combine the two actions and become continuous.

References: Spin-off, Spring 1999