where did the day the week the year my life go?

the title of this post is running like an earworm in my head.

since we last met

I have been in the west of Scotland

and also in the west of Australia

both beautiful.

I took a few days on my own after teaching at Newburgh (the two reddish pix are details of 'shibusa felt', followed by printed paper and then some stitched and dyed organic eri+cotton cloth (acquired from Maiwa)

we had students from all over the whirled...both coasts of the USA, as well as the south-west, Australia, New Zealand , the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland, as well as lovely locals.

all gathered together in happy community around a dye cauldron

(and the delight, for me, of bilingual teaching...good practice!)

then I sailed for Harris

where I exhumed last year's bundle

and made a small film

and thought about music

it was hard to tear myself away

but journeying through the Wester Ross brought other delights

notably the extraordinary Inverewe garden, just north of Gairloch

where I spent a happy morning dodging midges

before driving onward for a glorious studio visit

exploring common ground with my friend Kerstin Gren

home again

I was called west, to the Dryandra Woodland

where we had to step carefully, with tiny orchids underfoot

and were required to apply for a permit to gather windfalls

(which, technically, all leaf printers in Australia gathering anywhere that is NOT private property, are legally required to do)

and where we found the perfect pot, with only one small leak that was successfully plugged with clay, scraped from the edge of a nearby dam

now I'm home again, briefly

and thinking about next year.

because I can no longer teach in the USA

(the current regime is not keen for wandering dye-stained gypsies)

those who wish to spend time with me

may like to hop the pond to Scotland (November next year) where

plans are afoot for some new explorations (details to follow)

or

or Norway (September)

when I shall be adventuring with Arts and Cultural Travel

who knows where the time goes

it's been a while since I've published anything here , and the field of the year has been very thoroughly harrowed in the interim, beginning with the passing of my mother in February. 

not something I am ready to write about yet. so I will not.

in May I travelled to Vancouver, to give my first two-week class at the Maiwa School of Textiles. 

the magical view from the air as you fly into San Francisco

as Qantas only flies there direct in midwinter and midsummer, I had to travel via the United States.
in the past , my arrival at SFO has been met with a cheery "welcome to the United States".

not this time.

I was accused of lying about my tattoos. seriously??? I have a tattoo of a maple leaf on my wrist. it was drawn by one of my daughters, based on a leaf gathered from under the beautiful Acer palmatum atropurpureum that lives at the foot of the Vallejo Steps in San Francisco. the officer asked me what the tattoo was, I responded with "it's a maple leaf, sir". whereupon he informed me that he was a patriot from Ohio who had seen plenty of maples in his time and that it was his duty to keep undesirable elements out of his country. and that he did not like to be lied to.

it IS a maple leaf.
(and my hands were squeaky clean at the time)

the officer continued to insist that it was a marijuana leaf (which, even if true, should not have mattered as Cannabis sativa is legal in California). he wanted the names and addresses of my friends in the US. he demanded to know if I were an activist or an environmentalist. I responded truthfully that I was a tree planter, then he sent me for "secondary questioning".  hours later I was released into the USA. if you want to know what those hours were like, read Mem Fox's account of her experience. it's quite similar, except that in my case there was no apology (and I haven't given any books to Prince George).

curiously, everyone else in that detention room was brown, too.

I wasn't even wearing my amulets, but clearly I look like someone to be suspicious of. 

happily I had had the foresight to book my onward flight to Canada for the following day, otherwise I might well have missed my connection. but as a result of this experience, and given the current administration's attitude to aliens sharing their skills in the USA (although apparently it's ok to have your hats, handbags and suits made in China and Mexico) I shall not be teaching there again for the foreseeable future which is ironic, given the number of people who have set up small businesses churning out ecoprint textiles, teaching workshops and e-courses; none of which seemed to be around before Eco Colour was published. I like to think that I'm actually making a useful contribution and doing a bit of good around the whirled. I could just be misguided.

enough of the sad ranting. I'll miss all y'all.

now back to the story.

having two blocks of five days to work together, with a weekend off in between was just marvellous. I was there to teach feltmaking, of the kind that doesn't require truckloads of soap (but DOES need a bit of stitching and is a splendid means of using up little scraps of cloth. I call it shibusa), but there was of course lots of other dyeing on the side, including in a deliciously fragrant banana-based indigo vat. 

beautiful student work, printing on (unscoured) linen

the students worked like beavers.

on my weekend off I was spirited away to the most gorgeous island , where I slept in a dreamtent

we all found it a wrench to part company on the last day.
happily I've been invited back for next year and the class is in June, so I can fly directly to Vancouver from Sydney on my favourite airline.

after a few other adventures, early June found me in the Netherlands, where I was included in the exhibition 'Earth Matters' at the Textile Museum in Tilburg. 

at the opening I met Christina Kim (whose work appears below). I'd visited her Dosa space in Los Angeles a few years ago going to cross paths, but she'd been out of town at the time. I also met Birgitta deVos and acquired a copy of her gorgeous new book. 

I am so very grateful to Iris de Voogd for organising a workshop at such short notice, which meant that my airfare was covered and I could attend the exhibition opening. also I had a chance to catch up with lots of people I had not seen for a long time, some (Geesje and Dorie) not since 2011.  Marijke (who joined me in Newburgh a few years ago) was there as well, and her daughter Caitlin (she's the one who led the singing in the riverbed) has woven me the most glorious scarf and given me permission to dye it! do stay tuned for developments on that front, we are now treating it as a collaboration!

anyways Iris and I had been having an extended email conversation for around two years about the possibility of having a class there and May 2018 had already been inked into place...but she enthusiastically leapt into action a whole 11 months earlier. (and even let me play her saxophone).

Dorie van Dijk's enormous studio amidst the flowerhouses is a fabulous place for a class. I'm already dreaming of a return, and Marijke has been kindly murmuring about organising something in her region too. 

the seeds are planted, we'll see what blooms.

one of my lovely students, Dajana Heremic, with her delicious apron

the ridiculously bright #nofilter colour from Italian eucalyptus, a surprise delivery at Dorie's studio.

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

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.