New Journals and a frivolous day

My stars today said that I could expect some frivolous activity for the weekend. Could be true! We started it by going to a Fringe Festival Cabaret. It was fun though we were four of about a dozen in the audience, very cozy!

I only know what the stars had in store for me because V who is the same star sign as me came and we drove together to the Geelong Forum. I guess you might call visiting the forum frivolous although I did keep a fairly tight hold on my purse strings, only bought a bag of silk worm casings and bits.


I'm not sure what I'll use them for but they looked interesting enough to add to something. When I opened the bag it smelt rather bad so not a good omen.
I think they reminded me of the "eggs" I made during the week. I've taken the better ones in to Artisan books for the basket show coming up next week. We have to stretch to call them baskets, one had woven paper the others were just cast, high shrinkage stuff, a mix of dyed well beaten ginger lily, montbretia bracts, artichokes and some gingko pulp given to me by B. I didn't take any photos of the ones I took to Artisan but here is the one that stayed at home.


I had duty at the Alcove Art Shop on Wednesday so it was a chance to get some binding done. I seem to only bind at night or when I have shop duty. I've been out so much lately I haven't been making many books although I've made a couple of large (about A4) Journals and want to make a few more to build up a few supplies before Christmas. I think we'll give the dark one to the friend who's 50th birthday party it is tonight.

Bulletin and Show

I haven't done much this past week apart from work on the IAPMA Bulletin. I've nearly got it done, just waiting on a couple of things and still struggling a bit with InDesign.

I ended up just taking the hemp out of the beater half beaten and I've put in some pulp with an additive that Mark sent me to sharpen the blades. I'm hoping that will stop it sticking. Then I might have another go at the hemp.

I did quite well at the show this year - two firsts and a second. I had planned to go to the Show on Friday but decided instead to do the galleries with a friend. We started at Charles Nodrum, where cousin Bill Yaxley's show is about to finish. Then on to Pollock, Dickinson and Christine Abrahams. Then we went to Albert Street and did the galleries on one side of the street then went to Kazari - this amazing warehouse with Japanese furniture, fabrics, old books, etc. Then back down the other side of Albert Street and home. All in all I think we visited 10 galleries - a record, even for us. We saw some great art and some ordinary art. But it was a good experience to prepare for the Women's Art Register gallery walk I'm organising for the 27th of October.

Blurb and Beater troubles

Today I did an interview for a new TV program for Channel 31 called Blurb. It is planned to air early in November at 7.30 pm on Monday nights. I had taken way too many books but we got to look at a few in detail. I'll have to find someone with a video player to tape it for me. I also took my books to the show which opens on the 20th September. I must try and go this year since I've missed the last couple of years and they've made some big changes to the showgrounds in recent years.


We've got yabbers here on Wednesday and the plan is to beat up some hemp. I've started with one batch but have been having awful troubles. It started when I beat up some samples of curtain fabric which were described as being 93% cotton and 7% linen. Well they eventually formed some type of pulp but I had to constantly stand at the beater to help the fibre around. Now I've started on some hemp and although it is rotating properly it is constantly getting jammed unless I have the roll so high it doesn't do anything to the fibre. The pictures show the chopped up fabric and the state of the pulp now. I have been attacking it with scissors from time to time but don't have time to stand all day chopping. I need to put on my editor's hat and get on with editing the IAPMA bulletin. (http://www.iapma.info/) I think it will be a good one this time as I've got some interesting pictures and stories.