Midsummer murmurs

i had made seven dresses

for the seven daughters-seven sisters exhibition

due to open in Portugal next weekend

but in a bit of a Sagittarian moment

i had an attack of claustrophobia

caused in part

by someone telling me they'd seen clothes

looking very much like mine

in a store in LA

that wasn't Church Boutique

i suddenly decided those seven sisters

needed to be a completely different shape

and so 'slow cloth' went out the window

and speedy sewing came in the door

assisted by Yoda-san

he found it exhausting

so did i.

but it was worth it in the end

and now they are in the cauldron

and that, my friends, is as much as you will see of them

until they have had a chance to dance at Evoramonte

because i want this exhibition to be fresh and lovely

not

a dim shadow

that has already been replicated

and offered for sale by someone else

before the sisters have had time to settle in their castle

+

now please

don't bother making comments that shout down the replicant

or are intended to bolster my ego

this is not about that

because

by happy coincidence

the Dogs Above smiled

and showed me a new way of putting together cloth

to form three dimensions from two

literally sculpting dresses from silk

although

almost impossible to draft on paper

it took me into the Gehry zone

where the model has to be made first 

in order to understand

how the engineering works

and while i don't think i can explain the process

i'm pretty sure i can do it again

shapeshifting in paradise

imagine a wild garden with twenty five ENORMOUS mango trees

[bigger than those oaks and buckeyes in California, to put them into perspective for those reading on the other side of the pond]

and

a rosa mutabilis, a persimmon, an abundance of citrus

ferns growing with weedlike vigour

bougainvillea, eucalyptus

Avril's garden was frankly heavenly and it was unalloyed joy to be in it for three days.

we worked on a beautiful porch

supervised by Winston

who sometimes found the responsibility exhausting

we had a quiet but curious visitor

who may have been attracted by the dressmaking tools

that were being made

[a whirled without string is a whirled in chaos]

i was introduced to the 'ice cream bean'

whose botanical name Inga edulis sounds like she could be Latvian :o)

there is fluffy stuff inside

which is fabulously delicious

 

 

the usual suspects

which opened up to

the 'shapeshifter' class really keeps me on my toes

because everybody arrives with different cloth

and their personal collection of pre-loved goodness

ready to transform 

and

it is my responsibility to make sure that everybody goes home happy

with something beautiful

the Dogs Above were kind

i wore my hoodie because it was cool

[i meant the weather, but the hoodie is too]

and that gave some people ideas

i usually frown on people bringing tumeric to class

but those yellow spots there

were from the home-grown variety

[curiously that fern print later oxidised to a golden brown]

 my grey cells had a lot of exercise

and

i had a very happy three days

thank you, everybody

sustainable shapeshifting

i hit the ground the day before yesterday

running and dancing with excitement

that trip to New Orleans and NorCal was better than an intravenous vitamin B shot

today i sewed a shapeshifter dress - from a pre-loved bodice

and a pile of remnants, including a panel of silk pockets

that once graced Beautiful Silks' showroom

 i sewed another dress from an old silk curtain

and then

i made my Pescadero Sloppy Hoodie

by combining everything bar the ribbed waist bits

of three soft and fuzzy things 

[two were pure cashmere and the other a mix]

found at the Pescadero thrift store

[just across the road from my favourite taqueria]

there was one frustrating moment

when the thread on the overlocker snapped

and i found not one but two knots in it -

what is the point of tying in a tiny morsel of thread literally 9 inches apart?

 

the hood was once a vest

[the oil in the eucalyptus leaves i plan to use for dyeing will get rid of that pink]

i decided it was too short

so i added a big chunk to the lower edge

the sleeves of the garment that donated the extension

became a lovely big kanga-pocket for the front

which will be stitched on by hand

then all that remains is to add a little unifying pattern

but those are jobs for tomorrow

because

now

it

is

bedtime.

.

.

.

...

.........goodnight.........

...

.

.

.

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

felt like retreating into textiles ???

an Uzbek patchwork fragment. because it's lovely.

i've had a very long association with TAFTA

its fearless leader Janet de Boer O.A.M. was the first to invite me to teach workshops

[outside my long-ago role with the Arts Council of South Australia,

where they were part of my job as Exhibitions Development Officer and my years volunteering as an unpaid art teacher at our local primary school]

as well as being the first to publish my stories

[other than the Heathfield High School Year Book]

Janet kindly let me join Karen Diadick Casselman's class as assistant 

[nearly fifteen years ago if my counting fingers serve me correctly]

and then Karen encouraged me to pursue my study of eucalyptus dyes

in post-graduate studies. she and i may differ on the subject of adjunct mordants 

but Karen was the driving force that brought natural dyeing back into public focus in the 1990s and i have huge respect for her

Janet is also the creative genius behind the original Textile Fibre Forums

and nurtured through them a sense of community

and the opportunity for [primarily] women

to leave their 'normal' lives behind for six days

join the sisterhood, dedicate themselves to the textile arts

be fed and nourished in both body and spirit

dress up and dance wildly at the party at the end of the week

in recent years others have profited by emulated Janet's trailblazing

and similar textile events have popped up all over the country

however forums convened by her remain singular in that Janet makes a point of knowing and remembering the name of each and every person who attends.

and her commitment to pastoral care, as it were, is legendary

given the plethora of offerings available

Janet has once again had a big think

and come up with the notion of a textile retreat

where folks can take classes with tutors of international repute

and participate in a design focus group

or choose to attend an open studio

and spend a week focussing on their own work

with an established artist as mentor 

all the while being well fed, with the option of attending talks in the evenings

and with a splendid selection of traders close by

the textile retreat is held at Geelong Grammar School

in September each year.

i won't be at this one [cos i'll be on an island off the west coast of the United States]

but some very fine people will be teaching

including Pat Hickman [whose company i enjoyed last year at the Haystack New Works Session], Ruth Hadlow [whose class is full],  Ilze Aviks [her class is full too]

and feltmaker Jorie Johnson

need some time out in September?

this would be a good place to take it.

you never know, it might be the beginning of a something amazing

just

as it has been for me.

an interesting life

i lead an interesting life
and
because i find endless fascination in the wonderments of the whirled
am delighted to be able to assure my readers that
boredom is not something that afflicts me.
ever.
it can be a life of extremes
i hang out with fascinating people
like
Bumble and Felix [while pruning roses]

as well as with my No1 son-in-law [an excellent shearer and generally very helpful chap]

you can't really see him...he's standing behind that pile of wool that somehow hid in the woods and escaped shearing last year

and at the end of the day
Johnniecat is always happy to discuss philosophies

in between writing and teaching
weaving, dyeing, stitching and dreaming
there isn't much spare time

that said,
i made time a while ago
to sew/dye/embellish a frock for someone
who said they wanted it for a red carpet event
and in rather a hurry
it involved several fittings [with long drives back and forth to town]
and some extended nights of handstitching
no payment was offered
and [yes, silly me] i was too shy to ask
sadly i cannot find any images of it being worn anywhere
[and none have been sent]
so the only pictures i have of it
are blurry phone-snaps.

i hope it doesn't end up in an op-shop somewhere.

it was an interesting experience
that momentarily left me feeling not quite "the lucky one"

[altgough other recent life events have reminded me just how lucky i really am]

anyways


the next special frock i make
will be for me
for an event at the Art Gallery of New South Wales
where I have been asked to come and tell stories
as part of the events arranged for a spectacular exhibition

Kamisaka Sekka - dawn of modern Japanese Design

maybe i will see some of you there?

by request

firstly this is for Samm cos she asked how the flotsam dress worked [see previous post]
hope the scribbles make sense, adjust sizes of bits to fit own body
[hint - measuring with a piece of string much better than using a tape-measure]


and then in answer to another request which arrived as follows [published with original spelling but name removed] :

...I am about to graduate from college and I was hoping that I could email you a few questions because I am really interesting in your chosen occupation and want to know what to expect...

 to which i initially responded :

To be honest I never had a career plan other than architecture but shall do best to answer queries as long as you don't expect an essay! 

I'm curious about the phrase "what to expect". I have few expectations and so find that I go through life being pleasantly surprised. 

and then came the reply [my answers are in green]

I was just wondering about simple questions like what do you do on a typical day at work. Do you find the work repetitive or is it different every day. it is different every day. thank goodness.  

How long does it take you to die [um i'm hoping you mean "dye"] the material [oh thank goodness, you were referring to cloth. i'm not ready for the other yet] and then begin designing your clothing? i make the object first and then dye it. it could take a couple of days, or six months or a year  

What kind of work can I do beforehand to be successful at finding sustainable plant dyes and making clothing designs? be curious about everything. it helps if you treat it as play rather than work 

Would you recommend any type of classes or something that will make a person ready to start creating dyes besides reading your book? yes, mine. or Tracy Willans'. or Roz Hawker's. or Nalda Searles'. 

Do you plan out your own designs before you begin with the dye or is it purely experimental? depends on the project  

What kind of salary do you make if you are just beginning in your field. wondering if this question is a joke. i have never had a salary in this field. even now after over twenty-five years professional experience i barely end up with a profit. but i have enough and that is all that matters 

Is there anything really good or bad about your job that persuaded you to start besides being really good for the environment? i didn't choose my field of work just for the environment. i do this because i cannot "not" do it. it's called a passion. if you don't have it, don't do it. that goes for anything.  

Do you have any advice for people that want to follow in your footsteps? see previous answer. and it's better to make your own footsteps [people walk at different rhythms. try walking in someone's footprints on the beach sometime. can be tricky.] 

 Is there a lot of demand in what you do or is it very difficult to start? it takes 100% of me and then some. that's what makes it fun.

correspondence, and other things

i get quite a lot of correspondence
which
although it lacks the romance of yesteryear [stamps, drawings on the envelope etc]
is very entertaining

i respond to the students who politely enquire whether i will answer a series of questions to help them in their work.
i ignore the ones who boldly demand i send "photos other than what i have available on my website together with descriptions of how the objects are made and dyed". one person recently even suggested i should send "quite a lot, as there are three of us"

i also ignore the emails that tell me "_______[insert name] wants to skype with you". my friends know i have a reluctance to use the telephone, let alone sit there with the camera on my macbook pointing up my not insubstantial nose. eww.

someone just the other day hoped i could send a pattern for the garments that were featured in a magazine recently. i couldn't. not because i had anything to hide, simply because i hadn't used a pattern.

as i wrote to my correspondent, i use the sewing machine as a kind of 3D drawing tool. i attack the cloth with scissors and thread and hope for the best. of late i have been borrowing a little from Julian Roberts' sub-cutting technique, but adapting it to my own way of working. Julian is the master of the "tunnel" - i like to work from an open piece of cloth and give shape by taking chomps out of the skirt with the delicious terror of the slice-and-dice overlocker [serger] that cuts as it stitches. fun. and then re-inserting the cut aways in other places so there's almost zero wastage

and i still prefer to work in white and add colour at the end, that way no pretty bits are lost to the scissors

but while we're on the subject of patterns
here are a few links that may be of interest
Mary Huang talks about computational couture here
and links to a lot of fun here

you might like to check out Holly McQuillan too

and the image? much to my amusement i spotted a camouflage-printed dress at a store in Adelaide yesterday...the funny thing was that i was wearing something that was similarly coloured and patterned, except that my version was coloured by mother nature

loose threads

i'd so like to be able to show you some footage of 'breathe'
but it was hard to get reasonable images
let alone moving pictures
here's the best i can do

a valiant effort but not really up to much.

while wandering the compound before this evening's performance
i discovered an interesting designer
slogging it out in the WOMAD market.
Tina kindly permitted me to take a few pix
and has promised to let me know when her website will be up
she was showing a limited range - skirts , trousers, dresses
in really interesting shapes

the dress on the left reminded me of those i made for 'Debris' in 2007 [see image below]
similar cut at the top
but without the clever moon-shape at the bottom
some of the Sakki* dresses had nifty clips
so that the pointy bits at the side could be clipped up
a nice touch
and i found this link 

a scene from 'debris' choreographed by Frances Rings
costumes by your correspondent

and while i can't show you bits of 'breathe'

i've found footage of 'seven'

a production we worked on together a couple of years ago

[ie i made the costumes]

*curiously, Sakki translates from the Japanese as "a thirst for blood"

drawing for dancing

it's good to be back in the dance studio
working on 'breathe' for Leigh Warren & Dancers
with Frances Rings as choreographer

the costumes will be made from silk and wool and Milkymerino TM

if you're in Adelaide for Womad on the second weekend of March
you can see the production at 9 pm on the Saturday
8.30 on the Sunday

thanks to Beautiful Silks

yes, in know, twice in one day already...but exciting stuff!

thanks to Beautiful Silks i've had the luxurious indulgence of
freehand cutting into a tube of pure silk velvet today
[Marion kindly sent me some a while ago
that had a hint of transit damage]

inspired by a combination of Julian Roberts' subtraction cutting
combined with some other folding techniques gathered along the way
and
by the crossover apron pattern first shown me by my friend Jenni Worth
[who will be my glamorous assistant at the 'enfoldments' retreat in September]

for another amusing news snippet...you might like to [metaphorically speaking]
hop across the ditch by clicking here