Thursday 3 January 2013

muttering and fondling the crystal ball


i've been roaming the whirled and teaching many many classes since the publication of Eco Colour [2008] and Second Skin [2011], the two books into which i poured my dye knowledge so that

+ folks out in the whirled could make fabulous colour without the need for toxic chemical mordants

+ the techniques wouldn't get lost and so that in the event my children [or who knows, potential grand-children] ever wanted to know what Mumsie was brewing out the in the shed they could look it up

+
there'd be some kind of record that, although i didn't rush out and patent the ecoprint [something many people have since told me i should have done], it was actually me who realised that when Latvian Easter Egg Dyeing techniques were married with Shibori-zome and blessed by eucalyptus then extraordinary magic would happen.


musing on life in this crossover limbo time sliding between one calendar and the next,  i'm beginning to wonder. foremost in my mind is that you can't have a dog and keep wandering like a fly in a bottle...and i am very much missing the daily delightful companionship of a dogfriend [thank you all those kind folk who let me have dog therapy with their friends last year, especially that lovely chap in Washington Square, San Francisco who let me spend time with his two polar bears who were pretending to be Maremma's]



doing my 2011-12 tax [a little late] on New Year's Eve the numbers were scarily clear. there i am rushing around the whirled, disseminating techniques that took me years to develop but there's not that much over after paying bills. it may sound glamorous and it can be wonderfully satisfying but in the end it's also really, really exhausting. [even though i've never had jet-lag]

 i try to distribute transport expenses by setting a flat fee whirled-wide but despite this very often when i am asked to teach a class somebody will want to haggle about the cost.
 a person in Alaska actually had the audacity to suggest that i consider a teaching gig there as a holiday.
what?
on which planet does that make sense? how is it a holiday if i am working? how will it benefit me to pay $4000 in airfares from Australia plus accommodation plus plus plus. oh yes, i forgot, it will be a holiday. thanks so much.



to cut a long story short, i'm letting y'all know that while workshops have been planned for 2013, there may not be so many in 2014.  there'll be a West Coast series [Washington, Oregon, California] in the northern fall this year [2013] and a gig in Vancouver, Canada 
none of which is listed on the website yet
but
other than the yet-to-be-posted West Coast Wandering, what's on the workshop page is IT for now.



if you would like to learn something from me in the Southern Hemisphere there are only three options available. one in West Australia in April and the other two in New Zealand [one on each island] in a few weeks time.

the workshop in the South Island will be held at the Keylock family property in the Lud Valley. we might even manage an excursion to Cable Bay [the scene of our wonderful "wade in the water" session the year we made reconstructed garments and immersed them in the sea prior to dyeing]


we'll be making a wayfarer's wanderbook. stitching a beautiful wrapping cloth. dyeing paper and fabrics. telling stories, doing a bit of writing - penning poems as well as prose. we'll be paying close attention to a very beautiful part of the whirled - enjoying nourishment for the spirit together with very practical dye techniques.

if the prospect of five days doing this interests you, do please drop Judy Keylock a line here  

     judykeylock[at]mac[dot]com

or give her a tinkle on +64 [0]3 545 2176 as there are a couple of places left in the class


if you made it to the bottom of the page, thanks for hanging in there.

and have a fabulous year.


27 comments:

  1. india, glad you are setting some limits and contemplating dogness. your energy is enormous, and generosity as teacher is rich. need i say that your work has enriched my work immensely. i am glad about the (potential) dog. xo.

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    1. it's now over two years since Kip passed...so i think it's ok to begin dreaming of a dog again and to create life space for one to wander in...

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  2. With a spotted dog pressed against my right side, a chocolate one in the armchair on my left and the black one at my feet, I understand how lucky I am.
    Raising a glass to a fabulous year ahead, full of delight and discovery.

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  3. i get it. i'm broke and considering quiet retirement in a cave somewhere.

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  4. Excellent self-care.... essential. Your clarity is crystalline. I can't imagine what you do - how you travel. I am mostly tree and only part human, so I need to stay put with cat (s) and owls and bears. And it irks me to NO END that folks want artists to give themselves away. I doubt anyone in Alaska would ask a lawyer to fly over for a vacation and, oh, while you're at it, would you come to court with me, for fun?

    I'm with jude... 19 years teaching a little less than a full-timer and I probably qualify for food stamps (actually, I know I DO qualify) I know the cave. Only its not so great in winter, even with a fire.

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    1. Valerianna, i'm at the stage where i'm not even sure what i am anymore. being a tree sounds good.
      and i do like your lawyer example!

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  5. Ms. I:

    You are a treasure beyond measure, and there are just not the words to express what you've given us.
    Really and truly.

    That said, you've got a family to feed and the best wishes don't put food on the table or pay the mortgage or any of the myriad other bills of life.

    So please excuse this if it seems pushy or nosy, but do you happen to read JoAnne Mattera's Art Blog?

    http://joannemattera.blogspot.com/

    She has a column (in red, on the right-hand side of the page) titled 'Support this Blog!'
    Don't know how you feel about something like that, but I DO know it helps.

    Just a thought...

    Oh, and have a super happy (healthy, prosperous) 2013.

    And thanks again for everything.

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  6. Ms. I:

    You are a treasure beyond measure, and there are just not the words to express what you've given us.
    Really and truly.

    That said, you've got a family to feed and the best wishes don't put food on the table or pay the mortgage or any of the myriad other bills of life.

    So please excuse this if it seems pushy or nosy, but do you happen to read JoAnne Mattera's Art Blog?

    http://joannemattera.blogspot.com/

    She has a column (in red, on the right-hand side of the page) titled 'Support this Blog!'
    Don't know how you feel about something like that, but I DO know it helps.

    Just a thought...

    Oh, and have a super happy (healthy, prosperous) 2013.

    And thanks again for everything.

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    Replies
    1. thanks Petrena for the kind thoughts and words. always welcome.

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  7. And the one thing you have not mentioned, but I will.......is that in your travels and teaching.....and book writing......you have managed to connect an amazing group of women, perhaps the most important blessing for me. Thank you Darling for that!

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    Replies
    1. bless you pet, so true. in between all the cheeky ones who come to class or buy a book and then immediately set up their website/business featuring their ecoprint skills or [as in a recent example] undercut me in my home country by teaching $40 a day workshops [!!!]
      there are the treasures, you know who you are, who have become friends and occasional travel companions, with whom i will happily commune over good food and/or a dyepot and whom i value very highly. in some ways i consider myself most fortunate. despite the grumbly post i'd rather be working in this field than wearing a suit!

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  8. Cant attend your fantastic sounding seminars/workshops , so I bought a book instead- help you pay for your travel to one of your venues or just a small part of a bill.. good luck and have fun

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    Replies
    1. thank you for buying the book. every single one helps.

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  9. India your books are so well written, you are such an enthusiastic teacher/speaker and those magical talismanic dresses & wall pieces that I was fortunate to get the chance to see at the exhibition here in Sydney last year are truly wonderful. You are such a great inspiration, we stitxhing folk here in Oz need to see more exhibitions of your work in real life!
    NB I am wondering just why both you and Ros aren't booked to teach at the TAFTA Contextart coming up in the Blue Mountains and I got a bit riles when I noticed someone is teaching a patented plant based printing & dyeing workshop in Queensland this year?

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    Replies
    1. oops a few typos, mea culpa... I quite like stitching with that x but riles is really riled!

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    2. thanks Mo. i too thought it rather cheeky that someone who had discovered bundle dyeing through the internet would then copyright a phrase describing the process.
      even cheekier is her compatriot, who in addition to using the ecoprint technique in her own workshops also cheerfully appropriated the sea-water mordanting ceremony my students created at Cable Bay some years ago.
      oh and someone in Melbourne has trademarked the term 'Eco-Dye' even though it was actually coined many years ago by Canadian dyer Karen Diadick Casselman. i've tried to avoid using the term as I know Karen is quite proprietorial about it.
      it is wonderful to learn new things, but respectful to acknowledge from whom they were learned. and you can't simply go out and trademark or copyright techniques that have already been published.

      time for a cup of tea, methinks.

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  10. and thank you everybody for your tuppence ha'penny worth. very much appreciated.

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  11. I am saddened after reading all this Indiax I too gave up teaching workshops for other people many years ago because people were aleways being difficult about money and other silly things . i run workshops from my small school now and am a lot happier. I am saddenbed that l may never meet you and do one of your wonderful courses but l do have both your books. thank you India for all you have taught mexlynda Happy new yearx

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    1. i haven't given up entirely, Lynda...it's just that the way in which i approach this aspect of my work WILL change. not sure how, but it will.

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  12. I love the mental image of, "...what mumsie was brewing out in the shed..." with the addition of a trusty woofer by your side. That's just the grandest news EVER.

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  13. India, glad to have been able to share one Luna with you and Kali, too. Lucky pup that finds you when the time is right.
    Thanks for all you've shared with us all. And, these photos are lovely, especially (imho) the final one. Cheers!

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    1. your pups were two of the most welcoming hosts i've ever met. the memory of Luna gathering sticks to add to the bundle pile is one i will cherish to my grave.
      as to the pup that finds me...twill be a blessing. the door is open...

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  14. I hear you... but I really also hope that *one day* I will manage to undertake a workshop ... somewhere... somehow....

    oh and I also hear your reply to mo.... I shake my head at the audacity of some people... 'no generous deed will go unexploited' eh...

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  15. "on which planet does that make sense? how is it a holiday if i am working? how will it benefit me to pay $4000 in airfares from Australia plus accommodation plus plus plus. oh yes, i forgot, it will be a holiday. thanks so much."

    This person's perspective seems to fit right in the same category with the folks who eagerly write (and did you say in a previous post, someone actually showed up once?) to inquire about coming to live with you and be your apprentice. Uh-huh, right.

    When I enjoyed your class (both education, and your way of being) and your company at Haystack, the experience was as much about learning what you chose to share as it was how you taught us, especially in the simple stillness of just needing "to be", which you also gave us. A priceless experience in my estimation, and I SO SO SO needed to just be at that time... I arrived about 3/4 of the way through the body of work I just recently hung for an exhibition, a body I didn't know at the time was helping me process my father's passing several years prior. It was the first vacation I had taken in 10 years and so worth everything it required of me. (In fact, as I'm writing this, I'm realizing the last vacation I had taken prior to Haystack was a family one celebrating my parents 50th wedding anniversary, four months before my pop died.) I will never forget that week. Thank you India. Truly. It has stayed with me in so many ways.

    So from me to you, I'm recognizing and acknowledging and appreciating what you gave us in your travels, that is, everything you gave. Some things perhaps, without even knowing it. And it seems fitting now, after your period of sharing of yourself that you enjoy a time to just be as well, expectant for the pup that will arrive to give to you in ways it will never know either. With all you gave, don't be surprised if a whole pack of pups show up to give back in return.

    :-) pam







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