where did this year go?

cumquat marmalade. yum.

suddenly it's July and i'm on the brink of a two-and-a-half month wandering.

i shall miss my furred friends, but this is how life is - and it is what puts the food in their bowls as well as mine. 

the postcards for Solace have been designed and are being printed this week, using vegetable inks on recycled stock. i should be doing my income tax but have made marmalade instead.

i have made progress on my new apron...it dives into the dyepot this afternoon.

a hen.

that same hen, gazing at my new apron in wonderment. clearly a critic.

random stitched morsel from a journey some years back, now happily at home on the front of the apron

it has four visible pockets (so far) and one hidden

and i have purchased a pair of waders that will probably take up residence at Big Cat Textiles in Newburgh.

waders? 

well, i have some interesting plans for the 'being (t)here' class in Scotland. if they succeed you'll see pictures here in a couple of weeks time. if they don't succeed it will probably just be an amusing story involving me flat on my face in river mud. fingers crossed i won't drop the camera.

in the meantime i'm trying to sort out my plans for the rest of the year, which is why i am (for the first time ever) offering an early bird discount for the two classes in Mansfield, Victoria.  internet access is going to be intermittent while i am wandering and i was hoping not to have to schlepp my computer along.

so if you register before July 22 the cost is $800, later than that it will be $870

and remember Marion of Beautiful Silks is offering a 10% reduction on any materials you purchase from her for the class

please drop me a line here if you'd like more information about the classes

riverwandering

i love tidal rivers

they have a magic all their own

things are hidden and revealed

muddied one day, squeaky clean the next

in + by the river

what is lost can be found

the whole become broken

+ the broken whole

troubles + sorrows washed away

messages entrusted to the mud + tides

faith replenished + spirits lifted

while the river mumbles + murmurs by

rising + falling

going in + drifting out

and just as it is with life

you can never step into the same river twice

riverside [gallery]

yesterday i hung a selection of this month's work in the Riverside Gallery at NOCCA. 

 here are a few pix

'bywater'

'bridge'

'trinity'

'treme'

 the three textile pieces above are approximately 4' square [1.2m x 1.2m]

the cloth is linen-cotton mix. 'bywater' also has applied additions [silk, wool, cotton]

'the ninth'

dimensions of above work 4' x 8', mixed textiles. 

 +++

outside the river rolls on by

i would like to thank NOCCA, particularly Nikki Jackson

for giving me this glorious opportunity

- it is so very rare for me to have an entire month in which to concentrate solely on 

making/dreaming/thinking/writing/being

also

the Joan Mitchell Center

in particular Frank Gleber, Ted Martin and Shelley Boles

who have made me so very welcome

and have given me a "home from home"

in this wonderfilled place, New Orleans

and

Bayou
who sleeps across my door

wade in the water [or maybe not]

i'm here in New Orleans as the happy guest of both NOCCA
and the kindly folk at the Joan Mitchell Center
developing work that i hope to include in my solo exhibition 'muddy waters'
opening at the Murray Bridge Regional Gallery in March 2013

whilst our mighty Murray is a mere rivulet by whirled standards
it's the most significant river in Australia.
the Mississippi is America's Big Muddy and like the Murray has been used as transport system/water supply/agricultural drain/convenient disposal unit.

and water is of course a vital ingredient in making dyes from plants.
water quality [and i suspect, the invisible presence of substances such as sodium compounds] is one of the reasons it's so difficult to make a natural green dye
[unless your water is rich in either copper or calcium]

so how do i test water before i dye ? [note spelling of that last word]
easy.

i take a shower.

if the water feels slippery and makes my hair feel silky it's probably acidic *

if it feels slightly sticky it's probably alkaline *

if it feels itchy on my skin then it certainly contains dissolved salts

and your nose will be able to detect chlorine [a "colour eater"].

these are all useful things to know before you begin dyeing [again, note spelling...according to many writers i have died several times and yet, surprise, here i am still churning this earth]

water quality differs from town to town, whether reticulated as a community supply, harvested from the roof or a river
or
drawn from a well, which seems to be very common in rural America.
[septic tanks close by are also common. think about it]

anyway what this means is that unless your water supply and your plant supply are identical to those of the authors of all those lovely dye books that contain colour swatches alongside their recipes you are highly unlikely to achieve those exact same colours.

this is not a criticism of those pretty dye books.

merely food for thought.
and if you were wondering whether i am now going to apply my skin+water theories by immersing myself in the Mississippi
the answer is no.

* if my skin begins to dissolve then acidity/alkalinity is probably extreme and it's time to get the hell out of Dodge.

the eye of the whirlywind

the calm days at the eye of the whirlywind have been a delight
yesterday in perfect weather
Roz and i pootled off to Reedy Creek

...after i took advantage of a Qantas special and booked my flight to New Zealand for the workshops there in January...which may quite possibly be the only Southern Hemisphere classes for me next year unless the pencilled plans for Queensland are inked soon - i'm locked in now so if NZ doesn't fill i'll be in the Land of the Long White playing somewhere anyways :o)

where [the story is back in Reedy Creek after that quick aside]
in the slightly sideways light of
JustAfterMiddayInSpring
i spotted a petroglyph i hadn't noticed before
quite possibly because i have usually followed a trail that passes directly beneath it
and
when following that trail had been keeping a firm eye on my family of mountain goats
not
looking up for signs in rocks

unfortunately the pocket pinhole camera doesn't have quite enough resolution
to clearly show the image from across the canyon

so i'll show you the tannin-rich water instead

there was just enough time
to build a calming rockstack
before the airport run

riverstitch

it's funny, really

i'm often asked to arrange more workshops in South Australia

but when i do

it's rare for locals to sign up

riverstitch [planned for February 2012]

is very nearly filled

largely with folks from someplace else

but there are a couple of spots left

today i swung down to the brewery at Goolwa

so visit my lovely friend [and the workshop host] Jenni

and catch up with another good friend, Trace

who happened to be passing through on her way west

a fine instance of the Dog Above doing a bit of mustering

to read about a recent class

please visit Elisa Bartels

planning ahead

today i was taken on a tour of NOCCA
[the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts]
a wonderful school overlooking the Mississippi

i've had the great good fortune
to be invited there as resident artist for the month of November next year
so it was lovely to have a look around
begin to get a feel for the place and the people
and
leave a bundle behind
something to open up when i come back in thirteen months time

a bit of cloth
leaf sweepings from the back garden
of the place i'm staying
some slightly soft Concord grapes that came in my bag from San Francisco [my favourites]
and a piece of steel
that jumped in to my pocket
down by the railway track

and what has this image of a vegetable garden being cultivated in a bit of spare land to do with NOCCA?
think about the planting of seeds
and the potential for blooms and harvests...

moreNorthpix

there were

petroglyphs at Chambers Gorge

and way up high at the top of the cliff

swifts were nesting

and making a spectacular aerobatics display

i collected bits of bark

and odd stones

even managed a swim in a crystal clear rockpool

the fat tadpoles kindly moved over and made space

the last time i saw the North look so green

was in 1989

the year my son was born

but there's a price to pay for greenery

here are the flies on my friends hat...

last light in the red dust

with modern technology

any idiot can take a good photo....

more high country stories

on my 'day off' i drove up to Jamieson

where

i collected maple leaves

and borrowed a beautiful stone

from the river

when i returned to my digs

i sewed [by hand]

a shift dress

from some lovely silk that my friend Marion had sent me

tucker in that wonderful copper pot

i wrapped the shift around the stone

with the leaves

and with some other things i had gathered

along the way

those cherry coloured marks are from Hypericum perforatum

[St John's Wort]

more island life

at dawn on Steele's Island the ground is covered with a thin fur of ice

essentially the island is a midden composed of enormous shells

moss grows almost to the waters' edge

a stitched and felted landskin soaking in the briny rivermouth before baptism in the dyebath