happy wanderer

You know you're working in a good place when neighbourhood dogs swing by for a quiet word with the house pups and are welcome to hang out together in the sunshine for a while

I've been made welcome too and am being pampered within an inch of my life. 

Our outdoor studio is just beautiful. 

Each afternoon the pot goes on the fire

In the mornings I step out (carefully) into fields of flowers

My grandmother would have loved the dandelion patch below. She used the flowers for champagne, the leaves in salad and made ersatz coffee from the roots

We are making exquisite bundles

And above our heads

notes about dyeing with plants

flutter like prayerflags in the breeze

I'm counting my blessings today

grateful that my work takes me to magical places like this

(and so very happy to be so wonderfully hosted by Hilary, John, Binou and Diva)

only because you asked so nicely

i've had at least half a dozen workshop enquiries from Queensland in the past ten days
and so when i was booking my flights for the US next month
it seemed that fate was poking me
when the possibility for coming home through Brisbane emerged

my friend Roz kindly agreed that i could swing in for a visit on my way home
and share a stitch-and-bundle day around the firepit in her beautiful garden

[the end of May is usually gorgeous in Queensland but if it DOES rain we have a plan]

we will be working with my favourite ever cloth and thread
to make a versatile and gorgeous "snug-as-a-bug in SilkyMerino"
that folds into its own pocket

i'm envisioning the day as intensive and soul-nourishing

and i'm going to post all the materials we need to her ahead of time
so that all you need to bring will be your scissors and thread

Roz and i are planning a lovely lunch for you
[vegetarian, gluten free, keeping dairyfoods on the side]
with a glass or two of wine [or juice or that nectar from the gods, water]
while the bundles bubble in the cauldron
rest assured there WILL also be chocolate [possibly even from San Francisco seeing as i'm coming home that way] so it will be body-nourishing as well

after lunch i'll demonstrate some nifty cutting tricks while the bundles cool
before we have the glorious reveal

please drop a line to Roz if you're keen

rozhawker09[at] gmail[dot] com

or email me via the contact page on my website
and i'll forward more details

Titirangi tidbits

every morning i walk to class past a beautiful magnolia

today there were bees queued up around the block

waiting to feast on the flowers [it's clearly the coolest bee cafe around]

 when i arrive i read this

[i think the bees have read it too]

in the evenings i take a walk somewhere

preferably barefoot [no snakes, remember?]

we've been making zero-waste dresses

to have something substantial on which to practice bundling

before we dye the celebration dresses

here they are, immaculate [ie spot free]

but that will change

 we spend some time talking about how pots might influence colour

and then

 

on the first day everybody fended for themselves at lunchtime

but i was missing the convivial sharing of food

[we don't have a Chloe or a Violette here, i may have mentioned this before]

so on the second day

everybody brought in the vegetable of their choice

[and some folks also brought bread and delicious plums]

we cooked a splendid soup in the lovely pot that Renee brought

and then today

from the leftover vegetables

i made a curry while the class was busily sewing

we had it with a "deconstructed" beetroot raita

and it was jolly good, though i say it myself

+

tomorrow

we are having lentil soup

yum

yum

small wonder

this small patch of paradise in the Lud Valley

looks a good deal like Monet's Garden

without the hordes of tourists and the Japanese bridge

[but there are plans for a pond or two]

there are no snakes

[or foxes]

so i can wander about with bear/bare feet

as long as i am careful not to step on the friendly bees

[otherwise i might get a beefoot]

or

step in the cauldron

which would not be[e] a Good Plan

we work outside on the deck

scattered about the soft lawn

around the fire [for which we have a permit]

or under the trees

where birds sing constantly, continuously and melodiously 

we have been making string

sewing zero waste nightgowns [using every scrap of a 1m x 1.3m piece of cloth]

thinking of how we will want our shapeshifter dresses to make us feel

and stitching those words on morsels of cloth

taking time to be, in this good place

+

at intervals Chloe appears with wonderful food

[most of which has been grown here in the gardens]

and the day concludes with a sumptuous afternoon tea

small wonder

New Zealanders call their country godzone...

lost for words

the terrible situation in Tasmania has me almost lost for words
i'm grateful to have established that friends there are safe
deeply saddened for the losses that have been suffered.

smoke gets in your eyes

when i boil cauldrons
over twigs and sticks
people inevitably ask about carbon
my response is that the twigs and sticks
will produce the same amount of carbon-based gas
whether they rot in the woods
or are consumed by flames

in the former case the gas will [i think]
be methane
in the latter
carbon dioxide
[chemists finding flaws while reading this page are invited to correct me]

on balance
probably better than using
coal-sourced electricity...

be it ever so humble

there's no place like home

even without ruby slippers

a letter and a Good Idea

Hi India,
As you involved with many creative people, I thought I'd tell you what
my reading group (made up of artists and potters) is doing.
We are going to compile handmade goods which will travel well (so no
glass, pottery, etc) and send them up to a small town in the Lockyer
Valley towards the end of the year when they are facing their first
Christmas in drastically changed circumstances. It's no good sending
anything too early when there is so much cleaning up and rebuilding to
be done.
We did something similar with Marysville after the Victorian fires. Last
Christmas we decided to make for carers through a local branch of
Barnardos. We could really go to town as we could deliver the goods
ourselves so we had all kinds of art, textiles, pottery, mosaics,
journals, biscuits and little Christmas cakes. We find it is much
appreciated by the recipients and very satisfying for us.
The Pea Soup blog link below, with the quote from Liz Tilley, a bushfire
survivor, really inspired us to start. There is also a link to Handmade
Help.
I really enjoy reading your blog.
Marg Walters.
http://peasoupoftheday.blogspot.com/2009/02/more-ways-to-help.html
http://handmadehelpsout.blogspot.com/

times approximate

5.15am

10.13am

8.09pm

enfoldments

today [on this side of the whirled] is February 16

another Phoenix day slides by

the 27th since 1983

and there is, i think, a new moon

a good day for announcing new beginnings

here are a few

firstly, Elaine Lipson of the Red Thread Studio

has launched a splendid new initiative

Slow Cloth

and

given that the two textile retreats planned for Mansfield [Victoria]

in November this year

seem to have filled themselves before i've even had a chance to mention them in a newsletter

[apologies to folks on the mailing list]

it seems timely to announce a special retreat in rural South Australia

'enfoldments - the traveller's notebook'

will run from September 5-10, 2010

on a lovely property near Strathalbyn

it will be live-in

in simple dormitories

we will be permitted a fire for our brews

and my favourite cook will be preparing delicious meals

to sustain us in our work

if this interests you, please drop me a line through my contact page

the bird in the tree

somehow i can't bring myself to flatten the surface

that's the front above

behind, below

and if you look closely

you can see the silk has birds woven into it

it makes me think of a book i read as a child

'the bird in the tree' by Elizabeth Goudge

and also of the Phoenix

magically reborn in the fire

the recent time in Victoria brought forth many fire stories

at Healesville there wasn't one of us

who had not been affected by fire in someway

whether recently

or back in '80 and '83

ash-dusted sisters

relishing the fresh greens of the whirled