nine days later

it was a glorious week on the shores of Corio Bay

at the Geelong Textile Forum

[conceived, organised and brilliantly run by Janet de Boer and her fabulous team of dedicated volunteers]

where i taught as part of the "Design Focus" group

the weather threw everything at us 

from thunder and lightning and soaking downpours

to balmy blossom-filled spring sunshine

it was a wonderment to see how many people are including 

ecoprint items in their wardrobes these days

often as foil to bold pinks and purples

and it was a joy to be told by former students

[taking part in other classes]

that they had brought their plant-dyed samples

to incorporate in new work.

 

being at a Forum for a week

is a little like being encloistered

away from incoming news and most other media

so

in the quiet evenings i managed to work my way through some of the reading pile

including

'a Field Guide to Getting Lost' by Rebecca Solnit

which contains delicious and devourable text  [example below]

we all worked solidly, even on our one afternoon off

and there was much burning of midnight oil

as people dyed and stitched into the wee hours

on the last day

we sewed some rather lovely garments

and the students all wore theirs to the last supper

and now i'm dashing home for a day

to wash my socks and scanties

empty and refill my suitcase

ready to fly out to the United States

on Monday morning

Marking Time and Mapping the Spirit

this is the title of an exhibition i am in

together with Susan Gaylord

Christine Mauersberger has bravely been hanging the work

challenged by a compact gallery space

and by a somewhat erratic correspondent [me]

she has kindly sent a few pix of the bump-in

meanwhile i am at home in amongst the blossoms

marking time and mapping the spirit in another way

sewing a dress [and a nightie to replace the lost one]

fashioning a cardiganthingy from a woolly jumper [that's 'sweater' for Americans]

and wondering just what i will do in the last week of October

[too short a time to hop home and back]

there had been talk of visiting Alabama

but plans seem to be skittering about like fireflies on a warm June night

maybe

it's a sign

to take time out 

before heading to New Orleans on All Hallows Eve

ready to take up my residency on All Souls Day

east or west

flip a coin?

 +++++++++

Marking Time and Mapping the Spirit: Two Artists of the Natural World

will be on display at the Howson Gallery at Judson Park, Cleveland, OH, September 21, 2012 - October 28, 2012.

The Howson Gallery is located at Judson Park retirement community, 1801 Chestnut Hills Drive, Cleveland Heights, OH 44106. 

Call (216) 791-2885 for gallery hours.

the eye of the whirlywind

the calm days at the eye of the whirlywind have been a delight
yesterday in perfect weather
Roz and i pootled off to Reedy Creek

...after i took advantage of a Qantas special and booked my flight to New Zealand for the workshops there in January...which may quite possibly be the only Southern Hemisphere classes for me next year unless the pencilled plans for Queensland are inked soon - i'm locked in now so if NZ doesn't fill i'll be in the Land of the Long White playing somewhere anyways :o)

where [the story is back in Reedy Creek after that quick aside]
in the slightly sideways light of
JustAfterMiddayInSpring
i spotted a petroglyph i hadn't noticed before
quite possibly because i have usually followed a trail that passes directly beneath it
and
when following that trail had been keeping a firm eye on my family of mountain goats
not
looking up for signs in rocks

unfortunately the pocket pinhole camera doesn't have quite enough resolution
to clearly show the image from across the canyon

so i'll show you the tannin-rich water instead

there was just enough time
to build a calming rockstack
before the airport run

life

it's good to be home for a bit

and be involved in life

this weekend we celebrated a wedding

it took place a while back but didn't get the attention it deserved at the time

because there was deep sadness in the family

about a passing

and the dancing feet were limping

 the woolshed scrubbed up very well

especially as Roz swung in from Queensland

to lend a hand

draped the place with twinkle lights

and apple blossom

the feast comprised both Latvian and Maori yumminess

[including Hangi, Pīrāgi, potato salad, delicious cakes]

with a little southern US influence

[pulled pork] 

thrown in for good measure

and of course there was a bonfire

next day the coals called for a dyepot

 

 

and when i awoke this morning

and was looking at the stains here and there

i was put in mind of Stuart Kestenbaum's beautiful words

photographed at an exhibition on Deer Isle recently

the TSA had fun

 

the TSA certainly had fun this time

they left two notes in the leather hold-all that is my portable studio

took the gaffer tape off my jar of maple syrup

[guess who will be experimenting with maple syrup stains on cloth as pre-mordant]

and i can't work out whether they kept my nice silk nightgown

or whether i foolishly left it behind at the last helltell

but

at least my crown

[thank you Sally and Ben]

arrived home intact

tucked safely inside my North America 110 volt dyepot

[thank you Monika, the little sputnik is travelling well]

i know it's not fashionable to say so in Australia

i know it's not fashionable to say so in Australia

but 

i love America*

maybe it's cos i have some history here

but i think it's a bit more than that

i've had wonderful times here

many pleasant encounters

deeply quiet moments

amusing conversations

along with unfailing politeness and courtesy

i'm as familiar with the woods in New England
as i am with the sclerophyll forests in Oz
thanks to my mother who told me what was which
when i was little

this week past i took some days

flying solo

on a roadtrip north from Boston to Haystack

and then back down again

an excursion for which i didn't once need a map

...that says something, i think

waiting at Logan airport for my flight home

reflecting on the journey

and gazing happily at my new boots

[bought in New Hampshire cos 

the stitching finally gave out on my old trusties - 

which will now become the sloppy farm boots for home]

i am well content

especially with the thought

that i will be back

very

soon

*and that doesn't mean i am being a disloyal Australian,

just that i feel i have two [and quite possibly more] homes....

things that happen in childhood seem to have long-lasting effects

thank you Haystack

i was among the lucky ones

 able to attend the New Works session at Haystack 

this past week

on the first morning

i wandered out on to the deck

to gather a few leaves

here is the very first thing i found

 

as a portent it was spot on.

we spent four nights and three blissful days

working from early until very late

being fed wonderful food

lulled to sleep by the waves

and greeted cheerfully by jolly redbrown squirrels

Naomi Shihab Nye led three writing workshops

in themselves a revelation

as

i had not been to a writing class since year 10 at Heathfield High School

[which left much to be desired]

i would like to spend two weeks at Haystack 

[or anywhere really]

working with her

[just putting it out there]

i am replenished in body and spirit.

thank you Haystack and and all those who sail

and sail in, in this most marvellous vessel

blethering blissfully in Belfast

i'm wandering north to Haystack

hugging the coast 

[and this morning discovered to my joy that i had miscounted the days and have an extra one up my sleeve]

last night i stayed at a slightly dodgy hostelry

[the sort that might feature in Psycho III]

it's been raining paws all day

but

thanks to the Dogs Above

 stopped just as i decided enough was enough

tonight i have this outside my window

when i saw the field

i thought i had gone to heaven

[without even dyeing]

so many dye plants in one small patch

i'll spare you the binary nomenclature for once

and just give a quick list

queen anne's lace

jewel weed

golden rod

wild strawberry

rocket

at least three sorts of asters

dock

raspberry

and then at the edge and even down to the sea

oak

apple

maples

wild roses

and by the sea 

an abundance of seaweeds

[and very fine rocks]

in the morning i may do some gathering

if the breeze picks up there should be some nice windfall

i could live quite happily in this wee house

within earshot of the bell ringing on the buoy

which is the tiny dot on the horizon

in the picture below

on my journey i even found reading material

which is about a woman writing a novel

about the things that she knows

this is funny

in England last week

i decided to revisit the novel that i had euthanised

earlier this year

maybe i'll find some tips

ecoprint

the eucalyptus ecoprint began as a serendipitous discovery

back in the nineties [last century, in fact]

the situation was created by a broody hen

who sat on an egg during three days of rain

in a nest made of dried eucalyptus leaves

the warmth of her little fluffy bloomers

just enough to coax brown leaf prints

on to the shell

the egg led me to experiment with bundling eucalyptus leaves on cloth

where the results were so exciting [and so efficient in terms of the volume of plant material used in relation to the results achieved]

that i gave it the name

ecoprint

a concept that is now spreading like wildfire around the world.

even as far as a commercial printing conference in Berlin

being held this month

that bears no relation at all to the technique.

a friend [who happens to be a patent attorney] advised me to patent it, many other people have wondered why i published the method...the answer is that it's so simple and so easily replicated that i wanted to have evidence in the form of a book [now two books] that it came from me. just so i could say to my as-yet-not-even-thought-of grandchildren

"your granny did this"

and of course, that if more people are dyeing simply with plants and water

& leaving the more toxic dyes behind

then the whirled has a better chance of surviving a bit longer

the secret is in the pages of this book

 or you can take a class with me sometime

learning to expect the unexpected

we had another splendid day at St Augustine's

quite appropriately

ecclesiastical purple seemed to prevail

[the pagan orange usually provided by eucalyptus was in abeyance]

although a couple of pre-loved teabags did their best on this landskin

  

 

this little flower may prove to be the new love of my life

+++

+++

+++

and in a remarkable coincidence

i said to the class "i'm about to hand out a little present"

and one of the students, Aviva

said

"i have a present for you too"

handing me a lovely ball of wool dyed in yellow and green

oddly similar the the silk thread i was handing out

 at lunchtime i swung into the Selvedge shop

conveniently situated just up the road

yesterday i found a book of Chiyoko Tanaka's work

and i thought i'd have a look to see what other treasure might be on the shelves

[particularly as they were having a 20% off sale]

imagine my surprise when i found the catalogue

from my 2005 L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival exhibition

"benedictus ex-dress" on the shelves amid the books being offered for sale
[i sent it to them way back then as part of a media kit]

especially remarkable as Selvedge declines to stock both

Second Skin & Eco Colour