especially for my fabulous students

When I handed over the manuscript for Eco Colour back on March 19^th, 2007 I had no idea what an exciting path was about to unfold.

Nearly seven years on I’ve been on the most glorious adventures, many of which are entirely due to kind folk joining me over a cauldron.

I think it’s time for a celebration.

Given the very kind response to stuff,steep+store I want to put together a book that honours my wonderful students [many of whom are now my friends, bless you].

So here’s the plan.

If you have been a student of mine and would like to take part, please

[1]  write a brief statement about yourself   100-200 words

[2]  write a story about something that you have made or dyed as a result of being in a class and what that piece means to you   100-200 words

[3] supply three images of the work, one “hero” shot and two details 

[4] supply a picture of yourself, or if you are camera-shy... of your garden, or your studio assistant

[5] include the name of the photographer if it isn't you

Martha assisting in the studio

Images will need to be high resolution 300dpi  and sized at least about 23 cm [9 inches] as the minimum physical dimension.

If that doesn’t make any sense to you then simply email me the images at their original size and I will do the rest.

There’s no cost to participate, you can choose to buy the book or not - the only condition is that you have taken a class with me at some point. [Do please remind me which class it was…bears sometimes need a bit of prompting.]

When all the words and pictures have been gathered I will collate them into a book and make it available on Blurb. 

please send your contributions to 

mezmaja[at]gmail[dot]com

lets take March 19th, 2014 as a date to aim for getting all your bits together. [and if there's a tidal wave of them it will either be a very fat book or several volumes!]

Felix, training to be a studio assistant

and the winner is

thirty years ago today i was with my beloved great-aunt Rose
taking part in the Feast of Santa Lucia
with the Swedish expat community in Paris

it was a wonderful evening as we processed through the streets
carrying candles through the snow
led by a group of girls wearing crowns of lighted candles
their hair protected by alfoil
their long white dresses made from sheets
worn over sturdy cold-weather gear

in some parts of Europe it is traditional to mark Santa Lucia's Eve by setting small boats afloat
to drift downstream carrying candles
here in Australia in summertime that would be asking for trouble

but you aren't here for reminiscence
you're here to find out who will be receiving a wee package by mail.
Martha decided sleep was more important than pouncing on gum leaves
so i had to use other means

and now, without further ado
the winner from the comments left on the blog is

Madam Shen aka Sheri Ricker

and then we have a winner from FaceBook as well
Tarla Elward

finally
because there were a multitude of private emails
[from people who were having trouble leaving a comment]
i dipped for a winner there as well

Brece Hunnicutt


i think i have postal addresses for Tarla and Brece, but Sheri if you could sling me a line via the contact page on my website
here
and tell me your address

i shall get myself organised for a visit to the Post Office on Monday!

thank you all for joining in and leaving lots of helpful comments. there's much fodder for thought...

home, sweet home

after a very pleasant class at Fort Bragg
where my host Lolli Jacobsen at Pacific Textile Arts
was very kind to me
and
where i was housed in a most delightful apartment midst the redwoods
[splendidly designed by its owner Jackie Wollenberg on quarter inch graph paper]

i also had the great good fortune to meet Larry Thomas [thank you Lolli] and visit the studio he shares with his partner Ann Hedges [attending a workshop with him is on my bucket list] 

i motored south on the coast road

[would have loved to stay for the snow, but i had a plane to catch]
...there was pretty ice building on the pond as i left.

someone had echoed my thoughts concerning that lovely city by the bay
on the walls of one of the old forts in the Marin Headlands

it's always a little hard to leave
but
the flight across the big pond
is easiest if you take the option of landing in Brisbane [as opposed to Sydney]
it comes in at the civilized hour of 8am
gliding in over azure waters and sandy islands
and then you have the bonus of a lovely flight across the middle of our beautiful continent

and so to home

to family and friends
and the scent of eucalyptus

goodness me, the piggies are big girls now!

peaches are their favourite vegetables

peacocks have taken over the pizza oven as their roost.
[that may change at the conclusion of the fire ban season]

our sleepy local town has discovered yarn-bombing
[a mere nine years or so after the rest of the whirled]

and now, having unpacked
washed my clothes in rainwater [such bliss not to have to smell of chlorine]
enjoyed a couple of early morning walks under crystal skies
it's time to get back to work.

i think i have a bit of sewing to do...


+


and you have two days left to enter the draw
Friday 13th is going to be lucky for someone

the last 9 hours before the pond hop

on the beach at San Gregorio

no stones, so i piled driftwood

a favourite winding road

California poppies wild in California

Pacifica

i spend my last nine hours in California revisiting favourite haunts

driving familiar roads that take me back in time

stacking wood and then some stones - that pale one on the top

came in my pocket from Drakes Beach, near Point Reyes

and 

the third one down

was found perfectly split

i had a perfect and ridiculously cheap lunch

at the small taqueria that occupies part of the gas station

at Pescadero

across from the thrift store where i found a number of cashmere sweaters #

my friend Claudia gave me this white stretchy dress

one of a new series she is working on

it has great shape

and fabulous pockets

i stitched around the neckline while waiting for flights

[it won't stay white for very much longer]

there was an all too brief stop in Auckland
followed by a fabulous view of beautiful Awhitu

and then after a few more hours i was home
where someone was waiting
[and immediately took up her position on the suitcase]

+    +    +    +    +    +    +    +    +

#  to be transformed into a big sloppy-joe/hoodie arrangement

with a big pocket across the front for my hands to meet in

and perhaps a tiny silk pocket on the back, just in case of notes.

i need something warm and soft and comfy for cool evenings

day of rest? que?

it's been a rather hot Sunday here

fortunately not too much smoke in the air

i decided that the waterbag i am making for the 'muddy waters' exhibition

needed more embellishment

which [because i usually work in white] meant dyeing some thread

my little grandmother and my great-aunt Rose both stored odd lengths of thread

on paper spillikins

and so of course i did that too

but

my friend Roz is the clever bunny

who began slinging such thread-and-paper spillikins into the dyepot

[while i was still winding thread and leaves together around popsicle sticks or around the outside of dye-bundles]

they all four went into the same pot.

the two on the right are wool, clearly still wildly in love with eucalyptus

the far left is Japanese silk and the next one toward the middle is Chinese silk

all protein fibres but responding differently to the one brew

 to keep myself from pacing like a tiger while the dye was being absorbed

i decided it was time to start making a new cardigan

- i have a few woolly ones but need something cooler to

keep the mosquitos at bay and snuggle into on long flights

so i dug out some nice American-grown cotton knit fabric that my friend Claudia

had sent to me in a care parcel while i was enjoying my residency in New Orleans

i also ferreted out a pattern from the last century.

eighties, i think.

i wanted the cardigan to be loose and quite short, with three-quarter length sleeves

so i simply folded the papers a bit

and took a few corners wide

[and at speed]

naturally Martha decided to supervise proceedings

after all, her paws tone in so nicely with the general arrangement

 i stitched the pieces together by hand

making sure to "love" the thread [thank you Natalie Chanin]

and [perhaps unusually] using a quite thick pure silk floss [thank you Rachelle]

 it occurred to me that i could use a scrap of this cloth

to have a quick play with a stencil and some milk and that hot eucalyptus dyepot

 success.

but i am not going to stencil on to my cardigan

much as i love Natalie Chanin's exquisite work

my gut feeling is that it might be a little formal

for scruffy old me.

my friend who lives over the rainbow has shared some of her interpretations here

i think she is very brave.

for now i am adding a button or two [from a moth-compromised silk thrift-store blouse]

and what i fondly think of as an "Isobel" pocket

[in case someone needs to discreetly slip me a note while we are dancing cheek to cheek]

i shall be enjoying a few more weeks of stitching on this cuddly garment

making snailtrails with that lovely silk

before it goes anywhere near a dyepot

clearly though, this post has been far too long

so Martha has gone back to sleep.

the other side

i was looking for an excuse to quote the Grateful Dead

and say

'it's been a long strange trip"

but it's only partly true. has indeed been a goodly while since i've been home

but

it hasn't been strange. wonderful is closer to the mark.

+  +  +

moments after the suitcase was dumped on the floor

it was claimed by its rightful owner

who promptly fell asleep on it

indicating it would not be going anywhere anytime soon

i'm back in the land where magpies gargle at dawn

sheep totter past my bedroom window complaining about nothing in particular

and strange new life-forms have taken over a cauldron

left to its own devices for nearly three months

happy holidays, dear readers

enjoy the Solstice

 slip gently into that New Year

and maybe i'll see some of you on the other side...

a thoroughly rotten apple...

yesterday was my one day at home
after Geelong and before heading Stateside for two and a half months
i filled it with as much as i could
laundering clothes
packing new sets of workshop materials
having a gin with my mother
and laptime with Martha

who is not best pleased by the sight of the suitcase
i even spent an hour blissfully weeding in the garden
creating a small patch of order in what otherwise resembles a hayfield

and was put in mind of my favourite scene in Michael Ondaatje's book
'The English Patient'
where the nurse, Hana, takes her nailscissors and cuts a perfect footsquare patch of lawn in the long grass around the monastery where she is caring for the burned man
[it's not in the movie version, which makes it easier to imagine somehow]

i took photos of the roses
the quince blossom
the rich chocolate earth
crab apples
and the horses

and then last thing at night
after cooking dinner and while doing the dishes
i foolishly downloaded a so-called update on my iPhone

and then
my phone no longer worked.
so i had no alarm to wake me for the 4am airport trek
and consequently stayed up all night so i wouldn't miss my flights

i've managed to restore some of the functions to my phone
but all the audiobooks have disappeared
as well as my lovely late afternoon photos.

i'm not at all happy with Apple at present.
on the bright side
i shouldn't have trouble sleeping on the plane
having now been wide-awake for 29 hours...

on the other side

it was a bit hard getting away

Miss Martha was not best pleased

and made no secret of it

cattle class on the plane was even more vile than usual

the tubby gentleman occupying the seat next to me had seven elbows

and an overly liberal attitude to the passing of wind

- thank goodness for the adjustable air thingy

i stitched a lot

to try and get my dress ready for here

not quite Alabama Stitch Style

but i'm thinking it will need those strong surface elements

if it is to carry off a forest floor of leaf prints

 when i finally reached San Francisco

after the obligatory hour-long shuffle through LAX

[not a criticism, i quite understand the need to be cautious about letting gypsies like me cross the borders]

i was delighted to find an exquisite exhibition

at the airport

all about the acoutrements of hand-sewing. 

i decided it was a SIGN.

i headed for the great outdoors

and a glorious day, full of happy bouncing dogs

weather that played peekaboo with the Bridge

between bouts of brilliant sunshine

i wandered a long way

to make up for hours in the sardine can

found a lovely burgundy-leaved form of Agonis flexuosa

which would be a joy in the dyepot

yielding lovely colour as well as a delicious peppermint fragrance

[i think i shall be checking the pavements near here

when i'm ready to dye that frock]

  

found an abundance of rust

 

some lovely stones to stack

and more irresistible images

[using the polaroid filter on the batfone]

words of wisdom from William Blake

and finally

just to make certain that i really was in the right place

i found the 'four winds'

marked on the pavement

near Fort Point