gardens of the heart and a free class

what a month it's been ... unpacking and documenting the lovingly stitched contributions to Gardens of the Heart, putting the pieces together with the help of lovely volunteers and installing the exhibition at Fabrik Arts + Heritage has taken up much of my time. I'm so grateful to the h.ART group and to the new Director at Fabrik, Melinda Rankin for unstinting and generous support.

here's a wee video to give you more of an idea of how it turned out. If you live in South Australia you have until March 17 to see the show for yourself. I keep expecting Oberon and Titania to step out of the shadows.

I've also made a free class for you at the School of Nomad Arts :: 'laundering leaf prints'.
so many people write to me asking how best to wash their naturally dyed and printed textiles that I thought I'd save myself a bit of email-answering time by offering some instructions.

you'll find a link to it here

a collaboration

life seems to be steaming by like Niagara Falls.
blink and another month goes by.

since my last offering here I have become a grandmother.
other grandmothers will be smiling quietly to themselves as I confess that I have totally fallen in love with the tiny buglet.

In between cuddling the wee one (and making silly hats for her) I have made another course for the School of Nomad Arts - this time it's an offering for February. It starts now (four months ahead of time) so that participants can prepare by doing a bit of preservation dyeing.

And then (on my way to Maiwa in Vancouver) I've been in New Orleans for a week or so, working on   a piece of cloth and a short film, to which local guitar legend John Fohl has kindly added a soundtrack.

Wanna see it? click here 

running red lights on memory lane

so i was looking for something yesterday 

(which i didn't find yet)

and while i was rummaging 

i found some old photo albums

from a time when pictures were regularly printed

when i made collages by cutting and pasting

not Photoshop (which hadn't been invented yet)

i found pictures from nearly thirty years ago

when my friend Yasmin (with whom i also shared a house) and i

co-taught for the former Arts Council of South Australia 

(which has now been reincarnated as the Country Arts Trust)

and went out on the Tea and Sugar train

with an exhibition of T-shirts

hand-painted and screen printed by South Australian artists of the time

(don't ask me why there are Flake bars sticking out of my ears

i have no idea)

 we went to Cook, Barton and Tarcoola

Hawker and Maree

(all in the arid lands of South Australia)

 and taught workshops in lino-printing and hand-painting t-shirts

at Tarcoola, the teacher of the 15 student school

happily dumped them all on us

and went off to the public house

that was the day we realised we should have packed a first aid kit. 

all we had for cut fingers was masking tape and toilet paper

i fancied myself a new David Hockney

sticking pictures together

which is why Yasmin appears twice in this one

back then i also had a dog with a spirit eye

and a very silly haircut.

we were too young to know better

threw mad parties

drove too fast

danced too long

sang too loud

they were very fine times

and

we are still friends

i'm glad i was there

rhapsodies in blue

it was easy planning my clothes for this trip

all i had to do was throw anything blue into the suitcase

and then at the other end

take a daily lucky dip and wriggle into it

[too hot and steamy for boots]

packing the materials was another thing

handstitching indigo-dyed ecoprint bags

and stuffing them with selections from my cloth collection

was fun

[though i will say counting beads can be confusing for a bear]

and happily the baggage-mishandlers did not play football with my suitcase

because the blue-and-white teacups that were to stop the beads rolling off the tables all happily arrived intact.

Roz and i both brought fabrics from our homes and had a glorious time decorating the workroom on the afternoon before class

our wonderful host Tarla had grown all sorts of indigo-bearing plants

as well as madder [which is most useful in reducing an organic vat]

 you could almost think you were in Japan, with such fields

Tarla and her daughters prepared delicious food for us

with fresh ingredients sourced from the garden

where a Satin Bower Bird had busily gathered blues

from the surrounding district

 we looked at ways in which we could bring our blues together

sharing stories about the meaning of this beautiful colour

reading a little poetry

considering what the colour meant to us as individuals

 we stitched, experimented with fresh indigo

worked with the metals that Roz had brought

made string

and at the very end

overdyed the finished pieces in the gloriously rich vat

that Tarla had prepared earlier

thank you, all of you, for making it such a splendid three days

not yet saturated with the blues?

here are more stories

Roz's version

and

a few more links via our shared blue bower

back country, back story

if you click on the image above it should take you to the Moleskine site

where you can read the back story to back country online

when i receive my print copies

of which there will only be three

i will be annotating them in pencil and ink

one for the gallery

one for me

and one to go across the seas

what's in the bag, indeed

having very publicly condemned the transport of bio-hazards around the whirled i thought i would share with you, for your amusement, the pre-flight clearing of the lovely Whipping+Post tote that carries the bits and bobs i seem to need each day

what the picture doesn't show [because i took them out already]

a journal [stuffed to the gills with scraps]

my passport

stones from Baker Beach, Lopez Island and Willunga Beach 

a seashell from Port Elliot

my SilkyMerino infinity scarf

my batfone

a lot of pencils and a small watercolour set

my trusty raybans

a couple of tsunobukuro shopping bags 

a rusty nail from New Orleans

and also a fan from the above

the bombay sapphire bottle i carry water in

several messy notes on the backs of envelopes

and the dress i was finishing while waiting somewhere

there's a reason this tote is called the Swiss Army Knife of bags!

and what got tipped onto the blanket

moo cards

a star-spangled baci wrapper

a lone gingin [thankyou Christine]

Aesop deliciousness

several buttons from a thrift store coat

random coinage from several countries

ticket stub from the fabulous Mr Laurie's concert

an empty Altoid box [in which i put water for painting]

a marquisite pin from St Thomas' thrift store

a pod from a gleditsia tree at Flinders University

lovely black felt pens for drawing

an Ikea pencil and others

the stub from a plane ticket

a drinking straw in a paper wrapper

several rubber bands

some string

and rather a lot of dry crumbled eucalyptus leaves

+  +  +

it's all clean and tidy now

lots of space for stocking up on Altoids

in San Francisco later this week.

and i think i might allow myself a new journal.

even though i should probably just make one.

especially for my fabulous students

When I handed over the manuscript for Eco Colour back on March 19^th, 2007 I had no idea what an exciting path was about to unfold.

Nearly seven years on I’ve been on the most glorious adventures, many of which are entirely due to kind folk joining me over a cauldron.

I think it’s time for a celebration.

Given the very kind response to stuff,steep+store I want to put together a book that honours my wonderful students [many of whom are now my friends, bless you].

So here’s the plan.

If you have been a student of mine and would like to take part, please

[1]  write a brief statement about yourself   100-200 words

[2]  write a story about something that you have made or dyed as a result of being in a class and what that piece means to you   100-200 words

[3] supply three images of the work, one “hero” shot and two details 

[4] supply a picture of yourself, or if you are camera-shy... of your garden, or your studio assistant

[5] include the name of the photographer if it isn't you

Martha assisting in the studio

Images will need to be high resolution 300dpi  and sized at least about 23 cm [9 inches] as the minimum physical dimension.

If that doesn’t make any sense to you then simply email me the images at their original size and I will do the rest.

There’s no cost to participate, you can choose to buy the book or not - the only condition is that you have taken a class with me at some point. [Do please remind me which class it was…bears sometimes need a bit of prompting.]

When all the words and pictures have been gathered I will collate them into a book and make it available on Blurb. 

please send your contributions to 

mezmaja[at]gmail[dot]com

lets take March 19th, 2014 as a date to aim for getting all your bits together. [and if there's a tidal wave of them it will either be a very fat book or several volumes!]

Felix, training to be a studio assistant

in which a small white rabbit peeps over the brim of the hat

what with the waiting list for the Second Skin class in March being considerably bigger than the class itself

and Sally Harvey letting me know that the proposed renovations at lovely Crockett Cottage will have been completed this year

i decided that it really was time to plan another retreat at Mansfield.  

here's what i am dreaming...

three days at Mansfield in Victoria’s beautiful High Country, making and dyeing a beautiful and versatile SilkyMerino  second skin to keep you warm while wandering, together with an exquisite hand-stitched bag in which to carry it when it isn't being worn.

spring in Mansfield is gorgeous

and i'm looking forward to the roadtrip there

please drop me a line through the contact page on my website if you'd like more information

 +

and what is a trampoline doing in the sea? i have no more idea than you do...

at the tin thimble

here at the Tin Thimble in Loomis

we have been gathering windfall in the main street

devising marks to identify each piece of cloth

stringing a story [thank you Sandra for letting me adopt the clothesline to hang clues]

cooking bundles in a fabulous copper pot

eating delicious lunches made by Violette

and sharing a big table

on which to reveal the magic

and again i've had the chance to meet people

with whom i have corresponded in the past

as well as

catch up with some folk

i've encountered before

my list of special places is growing

i think i may have accidentally nibbled on a pomegranate

metaphorically speaking

leaving is going to be hard

but before i go

i promised the kind folk at the South End Restaurant

that i would mention them in dispatches

in case other visitors to the island want to play it safe

and eat delicious things that are not pomegranates

drop in here to see what they offer

night flight to lost angeles

about the lost one

the weaver of grass

since coming to Newburgh i've hardly been able to tear myself away from the river

but i went to Perth for a day

to see an exhibition at the Perth Museum and Gallery

'the weaver of grass'

the work of Angus McPhee

whose sad history can be read here

the works speak for themselves

 

there was a "touchable" sample at the exhibition

made by Joanne B Kaar

whose own work is also fascinating

i'd also like to add a virtual bouquet for the kind gentleman on the desk at the museum who, when i tottered in and inquired about the exhibition practically took me by the hand to lead me thither. what a sweetie.