before i die

when in South Australia [ie home]

i mostly hang about in places like this

but every now and then

i find myself in places that are not quite so open

i was taking a short-cut the other day

through the back streets

and happened to look left at that corner

before i turned right

 which set me thinking

what do i want to do

before i die?

the statement at bottom left sounds like a plan.

top right looks good too.

a few more definite things floated through the greyspace

i want to learn to swing dance

[and find someone who would like to learn it with me]

i want to play more music

to grow a garden again and stay home in it

with a Dog [as well as Martha and her friends] .

but really

truly

i suspect it really boils down to this

before i die

i want to reach a healthy, lucid and luminous old age
with love, joy, enthusiasm and curiosity

what would you write on the pole, if i gave you a piece of chalk?

piglet report

in case you were wondering

Kowhai [the piglet]

is doing just fine

somewhat comatose in these pix

from a day of romping with assorted dogs, cats and humans

[the top pic shows her snoozing on her favourite mattress...my lap]

a Good Day

i fed the piglet

[this will be the chorus of today's song, repeat every three lines]

the picture is blurry because milk makes Kowhai wriggle with delight

then i fed myself

washed down with

the picture shows the 'before'

it tastes good after the relevant buttons have been pressed

but is less attractive...

[then i fed the piglet again]

Sam would like the piglet to be fed...to HIM.

Felix was unimpressed.

Max didn't care

after a while i wandered off down a backroad

a little out of my own patch

signs were in the sky

and by the road

and when i stopped to have a look at something over a fence

a border collie shimmied silently along

gave me an appraising look

and came over for a cuddle

...bonus dog therapy!!

putting me in high good spirits

so

i went home again

and after yet more pig-feeding

made another book

taking advantage of the discount offer

at Milk + Moleskine books

available until March 31

and highly recommended!

daydreaming

 

idling through the Saturday papers [just a few days late]

with my coffee this morning

i stumbled upon something that looks remarkably like

a daydream i've been having for some years now

a place with a lake of its own

90 acres to plant and grow a collection of the best eucalypts [in terms of dyeing]

with an average rainfall of 1030 mm - that's 40.55 in inches

to sustain them...that's twice what we get at Mount Pleasant

it has a big old stone woolshed

just perfect for workshops [and dancing]

along with a separate storage building

that would make a rather nice gallery

 

the house has three bedrooms

and another room that could also become one

together with three bathrooms

so up to six people could live in for small classes 

work at their own pace

perhaps even take a longer residency

be nourished in body by food grown on the property

served in the lovely dining room

and in spirit by wandering the wonderful landscape in which the house sits

[really nice people would be allowed to help weed the garden

which is very good for the soul]

it's well away from other dwellings

[so i imagine that star-gazing would be fabulous]

but within 10 minutes of a freeway link to Adelaide

meaning far less frustration-by-caravan/horsefloat/grapetruck

there's space to create a walled vegetable garden

where chickens could have a fox-proof palace

and indigo could be grown 

safe from the hot north winds

and there would be plenty of room for a helpful border collie

as well as a flock of pet sheep for her to manage

if you look at the picture carefully

you'll see there is even a resident rainbow

the only catch is that there's a price tag of $2million

i can't even imagine that in marbles

let alone find it in dollars.

...er, i don't suppose there are a thousand brides out there wanting to commission wedding dresses, perchance?

i look forward to hearing from them. SOON.

meanwhile

i'll be here playing with those amulets...

and nursing Kowhai the piglet

felt stone part the third

i am writing this post with a lapful of sleeping infant 

fulfilling my grandmotherly duties because

my soft-hearted Eldest performed a rescue at the local ag show yesterday

[that's a 'fair', for North American readers]

but as she's working interstate this week

and can't possibly get the documents required when transporting livestock

i have volunteered to mind the baby

i don't know why the picture is upside down

but

you can see how charming she is

i'm also very proud because my son-in-law

came first in his class of the Speed Shearing

and was also awarded a trophy for Best Butt on the Board

...yes, dear reader, there is such a thing.

all the shearers line up with their backs to the audience

and take a bow.

Rangi's posterior was judged the prettiest.

but enough giggling, back to the matter at hand.

if you recall

we had left the pouch and stone

bundled and redyed

hanging to dry

with a stone inside to keep the shape

the straps turned out just as i had hoped

and the pouch was quite sweet

[seen here with magnifying glass on an extra strap]

but clearly there was still room for improvement

so i gathered up a few useful bits

and a small bead tray

[my cats love me for buying these special beading trays]

and began to play

here's a closer view

and here's the key to all the bits

and where they are from

i'm not entirely sure i have quite finished

it is such a joy to stitch on felt

which has good body

and in which loose ends can be so nicely hidden

it is also a very good sign

when i get excited by new teaching ideas

and can't put them down myself

hmm

amulets and landskins 

could go rather well together too

and now i'd better prepare a bottle for the baby.

it was quite cold and limp yesterday

and had to sit on its great-grandmother's lap for some  

Reiki

and bonding

now it has a voracious appetite.

+  +  +

in case you've only just joined us
the rest of the story can be found here

part one
part two

Je prends un demi,s'il vous plaît

the felt+stone story continues

as any experienced feltmaker will have surmised

felting on stone does not allow for much "shrinkage"

as there is a solid object at the core of operations

and therefore the felt will not have been fulled to completion

i was pondering this notion

and mentally labelled it "semi-felt"

which led to the French "demi-feutre"

[which would more properly be "demi-feutré"]

but then the German possibilities were not so snappy

..."halb-filz" lacks energy
and "halb-gefilzt" sounds positively insulting
[even though German is my first language]

but enough musing. the felted stone shown in the earlier post

which, incidentally

began with scoured, undyed white merino wool

came out of the dyepot richly cocoa-coloured

which is how i wanted it

curiously, the inside layer, close to the stone

was a rich silver grey. a cause de quoi? je ne sais pas.

but i'm thinking about it.

anyway i had a plan for this little sample

having an eye of seeing [small magnifying glass]

that was beginning to become a bit scratched through its residence in an apron pocket

and needing something soft that i could hang around my neck

to keep the glass within reach

+  +  +

demi-felt [a good bit sturdier than pre-felt]  

is delightful to stitch upon.

and stitching is a good means of securing the slightly fuzzy surface

however

in the course of stitching

the object began to resemble [in shape] the purse of a ram lamb

as the stitching had pulled it in somewhat

[in Australia the testicles and scrota of sheep are referred to obliquely as "stones" and "purses". go figure. and then think about what a sporran might originally have been made from]

not attractive

the great thing about felting with wool

is that it is a continuous and ongoing process

[also irreversible despite what people mumble about the use of Fuller's Earth and stretching]

so

i thought i would go back to basic principles and play with the notion of

"shocking" the wool

by dipping it first in very hot and then in very cold, water

which worked a treat 

as well as offering a happy reassurance about the substantivity [i made have just made that word up] of eucalyptus dyes

as you can see, no colour is leaching into that very hot water at all

before i began the re-felting 

i drew around the object on an old envelope

so i would be able to compare shrinkage [or not]

as it turned out, once it had been shocked

and then re-shaped [with the help of another, smaller stone]

it hadn't really lost much volume at all

although the stitching now sits nicely into the surface

rather than looking like the icing on a slightly strange cupcake

the next challenge was to bring the stitching [mostly glaring white, which i had initially thought would be rather nice] closer to the colour of the pouch itself

sometimes things are better when you have to discover them through investigation

rather than being glaringly obvious [both in actuality and as metaphor]

so i pootled down to the creek [sadly dry]

for a bit of windfall gathering

wrapped the pouch around another stone to help it keep its shape

[remember that wool has the memory of an elephant for what happens to it] 

and then nestled my little treasure

into a pot full of [windfall, gathered from a city carpark] citriodora leaves

which were once classified as eucalyptus but have now been renamed corymbia

by the white-coated botany-boffins

 
i poured in the water that had been used for felting

[no soap or wetting agents used, so no dramas]

tossed in the rind of a lemon that was lying on the sink

[extra acidity always makes for better eucalyptus colour - which is why the need for alum as mordant escapes me]

+   +   +

  why am i making small things?

firstly because i need a small pouch for that wee glass

and secondly,

because it's dawned on me that with the rises in airfares

and increase in the cost of accompanying bags

those of us travelling to workshops [whether as student or forest guide] are feeling the pain in our hip pockets

so

i'm playing* with ways of making small things

through which many techniques and tricks can be learned

small things are easier to finish in class

there are less materials to carry [for the student, at least]

and with the application of a little thought

all of the learning can be applied to larger objects in the student's own studio

part 3 of this series follows soon

+   +   +

*  remember the words of George Bernard Shaw...

"we don't cease to play because we grow old, we grow old because we cease to play"

it was so hot i felt like dyeing

these images are for those of you who think 

that eucalyptus

needs to be boiled for hours and hours

when you boil eucalyptus for more than an hour

what happens is

the kino in the leaf is released

making everything

brown

in this instance

brown and also well-boiled felt

is exactly what i wanted

cos

i'm not finished with this object

just yet

loose ends

the Wild Rose came home for the weekend

and was persuaded to try on this dress

commissioned by

Company Miji

[i designed and made the cozzies for their production 

Reliquary a couple of years ago]

her well-meaning but not wildly bright friend Molly

helped.

Molly is more Staffy than Border Collie

but has Very Good Intentions

i too had good intentions today

and spent my daylight hours

alternately hand-stitching on the dress

and 

virtually stitching on my website

which had been a little neglected

i also put together a small book

with images and the text

from 

muddy waters

writings on walls and printing in books

a sweet set of pix over at Shell-nola

reminded me that i had promised to put the wall-text

from muddy waters

on my blog in readable form

but before i do

i want to show you what arrived in yesterday's mailbag

 exquisitely made by fellow wayfarer Ronnie

it will accompany me on my travels

and now here's that wall text. if you click on it it will get bigger.

i'm getting around to putting images and text together

for muddy waters

perhaps on blurb. we'll see.

back to work

hand sewing costumes for

Company Miji