I have just been watching a couple of videos of the Women's Studio Workshop, the first is a documentary about the workshop and the second show the process of making an edition of 35 copies of an artist book.
Great viewing, I wish I lived closer and could apply for one of their residencies.
Last weekend we ventured down to Apollo Bay for an extended weekend because of Melbourne Cup Day on Tuesday. We had a great time and started the holiday at the opening of Anne Marie & Jo's exhibition at Aireys Inlet, we arrived at the YHA in Apollo Bay too late to cook dinner!! Well that's my theory anyway. We ate at the bottom pub the first night and even though the hostel is well equipped with two kitchens and even a herb garden we only breakfasted there, it was a real holiday. Sunday we went for a drive and a hike up in the Otways, they are amazingly green at the moment, all very lush and the waterfalls were wonderful, lots of water. Monday we went back into Lorne for their sculpture festival and walked from one end of Lorne to the other then back again, saw some terrific sculptures and of course we couln't visit Lorne without a visit to Qdos gallery where there was a show of Marny Fenton's found object sculptures and Mary Cooke's photographs. On Tuesday before we came home we visited the Cape Otway Lighthouse and just about got blown off, gale force winds are anything over 35 knots apparently and these were 50 knots, just amazing and the sea was so wild. I haven't even looked at my photos yet but I am hoping to put together an artwork for a friends apartment near Apollo Bay. The other project I have on the go at the moment is to make some paper from Mulberry bast, I'll start cooking that tomorrow.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Saturday, October 17, 2009
workshops
I have a very busy couple of weeks ahead, next Friday and Saturday I'm teaching papermaking and bookbinding at Art Education Victoria's conference, the theme is Asia so I'm putting together a powerpoint presentation on making paper nagashizuki style but we'll be making western style paper. The second day is oriental binding and I'm planning to show these three bindings.
I am putting together kits so I bought some papers from Zart Art for the covers and Melbourne Etching supplies and Eckersleys for the rice paper for inside the books. I picked up a few useful things from Reverse Art Truck and some threads and needles from Spotlight. I've made up hanks of the different coloured threads and like the way they look all together.
The other class I'm doing is a Christmas class for Lumina Gallery in Malvern, it is to be an ornament class making firstly eco ornaments which can be planted after Christmas. These ones have spinach, carrot, spring onion and candytuft seeds.
The second part of the class will cover ornament books, here they are closed.
And here open.
This class will be held on Saturday 7 November from 1pm, contact Lumina if you are interested in participating. I'll also be putting together some kits that will be for sale at http://www.luminatextiles.com.au/ and at the Alcove Artshop.
I am putting together kits so I bought some papers from Zart Art for the covers and Melbourne Etching supplies and Eckersleys for the rice paper for inside the books. I picked up a few useful things from Reverse Art Truck and some threads and needles from Spotlight. I've made up hanks of the different coloured threads and like the way they look all together.
The other class I'm doing is a Christmas class for Lumina Gallery in Malvern, it is to be an ornament class making firstly eco ornaments which can be planted after Christmas. These ones have spinach, carrot, spring onion and candytuft seeds.
The second part of the class will cover ornament books, here they are closed.
And here open.
This class will be held on Saturday 7 November from 1pm, contact Lumina if you are interested in participating. I'll also be putting together some kits that will be for sale at http://www.luminatextiles.com.au/ and at the Alcove Artshop.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
poetry swap, show and new books
Haiku for today
water gurgles by
as the fern
shines in the sun
All this poetry started when Valda challenged us to write a quatrain for the newsletter so I wrote one to describe Amanda Degener's workshop, then I submitted several copies for a yahoo papermaking group poetry swap, printed on flax paper of course. I was looking for a poem to go in a book and I discovered the allpoetry website and started taking some online classes, so here I am inflicting my Haiku on my readers. Anyway I finally bound the poems from the swap, I made it difficult for myself by sewing the pages into two concertina strips then coptic binding the concertinas.
water gurgles by
as the fern
shines in the sun
All this poetry started when Valda challenged us to write a quatrain for the newsletter so I wrote one to describe Amanda Degener's workshop, then I submitted several copies for a yahoo papermaking group poetry swap, printed on flax paper of course. I was looking for a poem to go in a book and I discovered the allpoetry website and started taking some online classes, so here I am inflicting my Haiku on my readers. Anyway I finally bound the poems from the swap, I made it difficult for myself by sewing the pages into two concertina strips then coptic binding the concertinas.
Here is a new book featuring a Melbourne landmark the skipping girl vinegar sign in Richmond, I've sewn the text block onto tapes and extended the tapes as a closure.
This is one in progress that I'm making to donate to Curves for the Girls Night In which is fundraising for breast cancer research.
Here are my books from the show with their ribbons.
Nest Book mixed plant fibres, coptic bound.
Oriental Fern Book kozo with fern laminated in cover and endpages, bound with toji binding using hemp string.
Oriental Indigo Book kozo dyed with indigo toji binding with indigo dyed cotton thread.
Byron Bush Book mixed plant fibres with digital images and haiku bound with hemp string and a stick found on the walk in the rainforest near Byron Bay.
And finally a photo of one of the sports teams from my high school years showing off our wonderful sports uniform of Swedish bloomers, I think they were meant to be worn down nearly to our knees but noone did. I was reminded of these when I read a friend's blog bettybloomers.blogspot.com where she is researching the history of women's cycling. By the way I'm not in the photo, I was never good enough to get in any of the school sports teams.
Nest Book mixed plant fibres, coptic bound.
Oriental Fern Book kozo with fern laminated in cover and endpages, bound with toji binding using hemp string.
Oriental Indigo Book kozo dyed with indigo toji binding with indigo dyed cotton thread.
Byron Bush Book mixed plant fibres with digital images and haiku bound with hemp string and a stick found on the walk in the rainforest near Byron Bay.
And finally a photo of one of the sports teams from my high school years showing off our wonderful sports uniform of Swedish bloomers, I think they were meant to be worn down nearly to our knees but noone did. I was reminded of these when I read a friend's blog bettybloomers.blogspot.com where she is researching the history of women's cycling. By the way I'm not in the photo, I was never good enough to get in any of the school sports teams.
Monday, September 28, 2009
poetry, show and vessels
Haiku for today
bedraggled chooks
rain pours down
spring shower
And an acrostic I'm working on
Nature is all
Around us
Total immersion
Undermines commercialism
Radical ideas abound
Amongst papermakers who
Love to work with fibre
Freeing our minds
Indulging our senses
Breaking the bounds and
Revealing the treasures
Ever-present in the
Sensuous fibres for paper
I have been doing classes at All Poetry and have been having a bit of fun, my poetry still isn't good but I think it might be getting better, the acrostic certainly needs work.
I have just about finished putting the IAPMA Bulletin together and after about a month on the computer I had a day off last week and went to the Melbourne show, I had a pretty good day and had lots of free tastings in the main pavillion (no wonder my weight was up for my Curves weigh in on Friday!), found out about Test drive the Arts and booked a free performance at the Recital Centre and avoided the licorice showbags, though I did taste some licorice. It has been some time since I've been to the show and I was disappointed with the book display, there were only about four entries in each section and my two small kozo books looked very lonely on the top shelf of the case, the winning entry was in the cabinet at the front with the best entries for each craft. In the art books it was my nest book that won, not the Byron book. Come on all you book makers out there enter your books next year and stop me always getting my money back!
bedraggled chooks
rain pours down
spring shower
And an acrostic I'm working on
Nature is all
Around us
Total immersion
Undermines commercialism
Radical ideas abound
Amongst papermakers who
Love to work with fibre
Freeing our minds
Indulging our senses
Breaking the bounds and
Revealing the treasures
Ever-present in the
Sensuous fibres for paper
I have been doing classes at All Poetry and have been having a bit of fun, my poetry still isn't good but I think it might be getting better, the acrostic certainly needs work.
I have just about finished putting the IAPMA Bulletin together and after about a month on the computer I had a day off last week and went to the Melbourne show, I had a pretty good day and had lots of free tastings in the main pavillion (no wonder my weight was up for my Curves weigh in on Friday!), found out about Test drive the Arts and booked a free performance at the Recital Centre and avoided the licorice showbags, though I did taste some licorice. It has been some time since I've been to the show and I was disappointed with the book display, there were only about four entries in each section and my two small kozo books looked very lonely on the top shelf of the case, the winning entry was in the cabinet at the front with the best entries for each craft. In the art books it was my nest book that won, not the Byron book. Come on all you book makers out there enter your books next year and stop me always getting my money back!
It has been too wet lately to get outside so I haven't been doing much papermaking, anyway I have so much paper in stock I really should be using that up. I have started work on a series of vessels and here are a couple of my early attempts.
Indigo and walnut on Belgian flax paper, made in workshop with Amanda Degener
Walnut on Belgian flax
Cyanotype on hemp paper with drips of alkali.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Galleryavanting and show
It has been so long since I posted here I've almost forgotten how. It is a lovely day today but I'm stuck on the computer, I would love to be in the backyard with my hands in a vat but I'm meant to be working on the IAPMA Bulletin and I will get back to it soon. It seems like ages since I made any paper or even made a book, I am itching to get creative. I seem to be spending more and more time on the computer, I've just enrolled in a Photoshop course too to improve my image editing skills.
I did get out last Friday with my friend Denise to a couple of exhibitions, the first was 'I saw and heard of none like me' at the Abbotsford Convent c3_contemporary_art_space the second was to Counihan Gallery in Brunswick to see 'Walk' an exhibition of works by eight artists inspired by the Great South West walk which is a circuit around Nelson and the Glenelg river in the south west corner of Victoria.
I enjoyed both shows particularily the work of Jazmina Cinnas, Deborah Klein and Rebecca Mayo from the first show, Jazmina does amazing linocuts with many colours. In the second show my favorites were Jan Learmouth, Vicky Couzins, Carmel Wallace, Ilka White and John Wolseley. John was the keynote speaker at the IAPMA congress in March this year, he's a very entertaining character and does amazing work. I was reminded of the holidays we've had in the Nelson area, a couple in Nelson itself and a couple camping on the Glenelg River at Wild Dog Bend and some other camps, it is a great place for a holiday and I have done some little bits of the walk, I've definitely got to old to attempt the whole 250k.
Since we were in Brunswick we had lunch at A1 Bakery and bought up big on Middle Eastern supplies, I bought some Konafa (shredded pastry), some Lebanese couscous, and some bourghal. I made the konafa with walnuts (and lsa) on Saturday and plan to make tabouli and kibbeh using recipes from the course I did years ago. Last time I was going to make tabouli I couldn't get bourghal anywhere near here and I never see konafa for sale this side of town.
I just found out that I got a first, second and third prize at the Royal Melbourne Show this year, I don't know which book got first, it was either my nest book which was in our show earlier in the year or a new book I made and finished just before delivery day. That book was inspired by a walk in the bush up near Byron and was photos and haiku on plant fibre papers bound with hemp thread and featuring a stick found on the walk. I haven't got photos of it or of the two books I entered into the Traditional Eastern Bookbinding section, I will try to remember to photograph and post once I get them back.
I did get out last Friday with my friend Denise to a couple of exhibitions, the first was 'I saw and heard of none like me' at the Abbotsford Convent c3_contemporary_art_space the second was to Counihan Gallery in Brunswick to see 'Walk' an exhibition of works by eight artists inspired by the Great South West walk which is a circuit around Nelson and the Glenelg river in the south west corner of Victoria.
I enjoyed both shows particularily the work of Jazmina Cinnas, Deborah Klein and Rebecca Mayo from the first show, Jazmina does amazing linocuts with many colours. In the second show my favorites were Jan Learmouth, Vicky Couzins, Carmel Wallace, Ilka White and John Wolseley. John was the keynote speaker at the IAPMA congress in March this year, he's a very entertaining character and does amazing work. I was reminded of the holidays we've had in the Nelson area, a couple in Nelson itself and a couple camping on the Glenelg River at Wild Dog Bend and some other camps, it is a great place for a holiday and I have done some little bits of the walk, I've definitely got to old to attempt the whole 250k.
Since we were in Brunswick we had lunch at A1 Bakery and bought up big on Middle Eastern supplies, I bought some Konafa (shredded pastry), some Lebanese couscous, and some bourghal. I made the konafa with walnuts (and lsa) on Saturday and plan to make tabouli and kibbeh using recipes from the course I did years ago. Last time I was going to make tabouli I couldn't get bourghal anywhere near here and I never see konafa for sale this side of town.
I just found out that I got a first, second and third prize at the Royal Melbourne Show this year, I don't know which book got first, it was either my nest book which was in our show earlier in the year or a new book I made and finished just before delivery day. That book was inspired by a walk in the bush up near Byron and was photos and haiku on plant fibre papers bound with hemp thread and featuring a stick found on the walk. I haven't got photos of it or of the two books I entered into the Traditional Eastern Bookbinding section, I will try to remember to photograph and post once I get them back.
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