celebrating both collaboration and compromise

it's been a while since I had anything really interesting to tell y'all but today I have two things to talk about.
one is the fabulous scarf I was gifted when I visited the Netherlands last (northern) summer, woven from her own exquisite handspun yarns by Caitlin Bongers (she's the one with the voice of the angels who started us all singing by the River Tay a couple of years back).
the other can wait for a moment.

the scarf waited patiently while I sailed in and out of home, emptying suitcases and refilling them, patting the dog, grubbing a few thistles and explaining to my cat just why I had to leave again. it was a busy year. so much so that I consciously cleared my dance card for the first three months of this one, so that I could find some space to breathe, to prepare for the next lot of teaching and to think about what my part of the collab might entail.

I should explain that when I received this gorgeous armful of softness I was quite overwhelmed. I know what it takes to warp up and weave something, and this piece is especially beautiful. I asked Caitlin if she would mind me dyeing it, and being given permission I suggested we regard it as a collaboration.

so this week, in between working on the "other thing" that I will shortly reveal, I sat in the armchair, dogs at my feet, cats and kittens disporting themselves over my shoulders, and decided that I would knot the fringe of the scarf. such gentle repetitive work is good for quieting the mind. while working I listened to a podcast from On Being, John O'Donohue discoursing gently on beauty. it was perfect.

then I was moved to take my needle and do just a little stitching into the piece. just a little.

I soaked it in a diluted iron brew (students may remember it as 'magic potion', made by soaking rusty things in vinegar, and heavily diluted for use otherwise everything can turn black)

it was firmly bundled with Eucalyptus scoparia windfall, and then cooked in a pre-loved dark brew. (it doesn't matter what your bundle is cooked in, it's what's inside the bundle that's important)

when it cooled, I unrolled it, and it just took my breath away.  THANK YOU Caitlin, for entrusting this treasure to me. it will be joining the "essential travel kit".

and the other thing?  that belongs to the 'compromise' part of the title of this post. various people had been kindly urging me to consider making an e-course, but I simply couldn't come at standing and talking into a camera. I'm not good at doing and talking at the same time. something to do with the cerebral hemispheres.

but I do like making books. so the compromise is that I have made a wee book that is a kind of workshop-in-your-pocket (or on your screen if you take the PDF version). it's mostly handwritten rather than typed but I wanted it to feel as though you were looking over my shoulder into a notebook.

what's in it? it contains the secrets of the tsunobukuro, that magical bias stitched bag of Japan that I so frequently share with students. (little ones are perfect for buying vegetables, the in-between sizes brilliant for gathering leaves, twigs or keeping your clothes sorted in a suitcase...and I always carry an extra-large one in case I run out of luggage space.)

it is available at blurb.com and if you send me proof of purchase (via the contact form on my website) I shall invite you to the 'secret' Facebook group where, for the month of February, I shall be posting tips and tricks and one or three "how to's", and where you can post images of the bags that you make, and have conversations with fellow 'baggers' around this marvellous whirled.

thank you for staying with me and for reading thus far. 

here are some related links to explore.

Caitlin's blog

the riversong

On Being

bagstories (the book)

disquiet

my exhibition 'disquiet' :: observations on a changing landscape

formally opened at Murray Bridge Regional Gallery yesterday, July 23 and runs to August 26

Fulvia Mantelli, Associate Curator, Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art, University of South Australia kindly did the honours... and has agreed I may publish her speech in the catalog that I'm putting together (which may not necessarily be available before the exhibition closes - good things take time)

meanwhile here are a few images 

'counting the days'

'drawing the line' detail

'riverbed' detail

'washbowl'

'waterhole' detail

journeying

it's nearly 9 years (next March) since Eco Colour (a book i wanted to call 'botanical alchemy' but was told the title wouldn't sell) hit the bookstores. in that time what i initially referred to as 'ecoprint' has spread far and wide. thousands of people are making a living by printing with plants.

hilariously, though i was the first to publish the technique* i usually see myself referred to as an "also ran" in various media. a recent book about natural processes in textile art listed me merely as a "practitioner" of the technique (though instructions for ecoprinting are scattered generously throughout its pages).

i've seen colleagues absorb my work into their teaching practices, and observed "fashion labels" created after people have taken classes....sometimes only a one day class.

and there are so many people out there teaching "ecoprinting" (though much of it is not ecologically sustainable at all, as toxic adjuncts are increasingly employed) that i no longer offer basic "how to" classes. it would be like having to play "twinkle, twinkle, little star" over and over again.

not much fun for me, and ergo less for my students.

which is how 'being (t)here' took root and has grown into a retreat class that embraces being fully present and at the same time exploring the poetics of place.
it gives me such joy to be able to offer something more than just a class about printing with leaves.

for me, 'being (t)here' is a way of experiencing the whirled that helps open the cracks that let the light get in (thank you Leonard, for that phrase) no matter where you are. it offers a pathway to beauty that can be rolled out whether you're in a verdant forest, a shimmering desert, an urban wasteland or your own private paradise.

we observe and see, write and draw, print and dye. we fold paper into books...  the island book fold and its bigger cousin the river book, making a journals from single sheets of paper :: without having to thread a needle.

together we make discoveries, in ourselves AND in the dyepot. the other lovely thing that's been happening is that many of the students keep in touch with each other after the workshops. sometimes they make a facebook group, sometimes a blog. others just wrestle with an email list. but they maintain the connections and forge deep bonds. it's wonderful.

i've been teaching less through institutions (though i remain loyal to a select few), and more in beautiful and sometimes unusual places. the Yellow Ferry is one of these. there is something deeply magical about being on a boat, which is why i will be back there in February 2017.
i've reduced the class numbers and though the feedback from many people is that they consider the fee too high, the investment for the class is actually the same as for the first one, it's just that i have sourced a richer collection of materials for each person to work with, with treasures such as a limited edition silkymerino dress to take home.
 as a business proposition it is laughable because the expenses won't balance against the income...but to me it is absolutely worth it for the experience we will all have.

because it is the journey that matters, in the end.

and i am loving the ride.



*you'll see references to "nature printing" that are earlier, but that is a technique where the plant is dipped in paint or dye and pressed against a substrate of some kind

riding the rails

i deliberately scheduled a railway journey into New Orleans at the conclusion of our wandering in the land of enchantment. somehow i knew that i was going to need a good bit of thinking time, undisturbed by too much making or doing and preferably without the need to concentrate on driving

so

on April 2 i found myself sitting in a railway station

with a ticket for my destination

humming a song about being

"on a tour of one night stands

my suitcase and guitar in hand

and every stop is neatly planned 

for a poet and a one-man band"

none of which is true for me but

it's one of those songs that has stood the test of time

:::

i had secured a roomette to myself

and so could loll about in it in comfort

watching the whirled go by

and making soothing noises to myself

on the cedar flute newly acquired in Santa Fe

also

i made pictures with my batfone.

which was most entertaining, despite the fact that one of my favourite apps,

Autostitch, doesn't seem to work on the most recent version of the Fruit phone

 so i played with the Panorama setting instead 

which can be amusing on a moving train.

also i wrote.

the 31 hours on the train were enormously productive.

train travel allows the spirit to sit quietly on your shoulder

(it can sometimes fall off and get lost in flight)

at night i lay gazing at the stars until i was 

rocked to sleep in my little cradle shelf.

at some point in the night i awoke to see one streaking across the sky

in the hours before dawn the waning crescent moon rose 

i caught glimpses of my favourite constellation, the Pleiades.

train travel also allows poems to find you (sometimes when they stand by the roadside waiting with their thumbs out i'm simply travelling too fast to stop in time)

train travel can also put you into interesting social positions.

i discovered to my surprise that my ticket included meals.

on the first evening i shared dinner with a gentleman who had driven across America with his father because he didn't want his dear old dad driving a pickup across the country alone to his new abode in the Pacific North West. the trip back home was his first ever train ride. i think he said he had been on a train for four days already.
happily he was still enjoying it.

for breakfast i was directed to a table at which sat an older couple, on their way to share birthdays in New Orleans. they were quite clearly well off and seemed sweet but reduced me to the state of a stunned mullet when they left the table and he scooped up half the tip i had left for the server. (he had put down $5 for the two of them, i put down $4 for me and he then took $2 from mine. basically robbing the server).
i am rarely rendered speechless but by the time i had found my tongue they had gone.

my faith in humanity was restored by sharing lunch with a brother and sister (he slightly disabled, she taking him home from the west coast to live with her in Mississippi). i think, but i am not sure, that they were both adopted. the other person at our table was a grandmother of eighteen grandbabies who cheerfully announced that she was living day by day due to a brain tumour which, as she told us, had to be managed by "opening up my head every three years and scraping the surface back because the can't take it out" and that after that procedure she has to learn to walk and talk again but that the pain was worth it and she's just grateful to be here. 

the train crawled into New Orleans at sub-glacial speeds, which is probably just as well as the tracks are in a sorry state. and today, seeing the wobbly wooden trestles that the double-decker train had been balancing on, i was grateful for the slowness. 

(last night i was not so sure)

apparently pandas and penguins rule the interwebs

 dear readers

yesterday i received the email below. i was very tempted to write back but didn't want my inbox to be filled with advertisements for Russian brides or penis enlargers and so i am writing back here on my blog instead, where it is easier to delete any comments posting links to the above. my responses are tucked into the text in a different font.

Hello Indiaflint.com Team,

Hope you are doing well.
  

well in the sense of health or in the sense of a well dug into the ground that fills with water? these few weeks at home have felt like the latter. though it is dust dry where i live, spending quiet time at home has been deeply replenishing, like an empty well filling with water. so yes, i suppose i must be "doing well". perhaps that can become the new phrase for replenishment. what are you doing today? i'm doing well.

We would like to have a discussion with you regarding the web promotion strategy for your website Indiaflint.com. We wish to work out a proposal to strengthen the online presence of your website, via a strategically planned web promotion campaign. In today’s online era, you should be focusing on the new revolutionary ways of generating traffic (and subsequently, leads).

there's a revolution? i don't think my grandmother would approve. she saw too many of them.

We are curious to know if you are aware that a few issues bugging your website. Sorting out these will help you get the best returns out of your website.

bugs? not bedbugs, i trust? no. i misread. it's the issues that are doing the bugging. see answer to point 3

1. Your website seems to be attracting traffic, but this traffic is almost stagnant and limited, which affects potential sales as you move forward.  

"move forward". such a politburo phrase.

2. Your website doesn’t feature in Google's first search page for some of the major keywords in your niche, which affects visibility.

it doesn't? will the sky fall? must warn the chickens.

3. Your website has been diagnosed with On-Page and On-Site issues, which affects the ranking.

ah yes. issues. Mrs Poo (one of our cats) has issues. at least my website doesn't try to pee in the pantry

4. Your back links profile is not efficient enough to help your search engine visibility.

and to think other advice i've received is "don't have too many links, they take people away from your site". 

5. Your website is currently not being properly promoted online according to Google’s new guidelines (after latest Google Panda & Penguin update), which is affecting your marketing strategy and goals.

there are Pandas and Penguins writing guidelines? Darwin might be pleased.

6. Your presence in social media platform is minimal. This is depriving you of a huge market of prospective referral clients.

that would explain why i have been such a wallflower at the weekly village dance. 
meh. 
this year i will dance regardless, both on and off platforms. and what is a referral client? isn't that what you become when your doctor has been advised that
 the specialist needs to service his Rolls Royce?

7. Your website may penalized by Google.

penalized? will it be put in the naughty box like the boys who don't play nice in ice hockey?

8. Social media profiles are not updated regularly.

holy guacamole Batboy. i only joined Farcebook because way back in 2011 Nancy Zeller said nobody would sign up for my class at Longridge Farm if i didn't have a profile. turns out that none of the people who signed up came via FB, all of them came via my apparently ineffectual website. update, schmupdate.

9. Low number of internal and external quality links present on your website.

dear me.

10. Not updating fresh contents of your website and blogs as per the latest Google guideline (Penguin & Panda).

the wildlife again. 
i would have thought the pandas would be too busy chewing on bamboo or enjoying "pleasant biological enounters"     v  e  r  y     s  l  o  w  l  y   to bother with all this. and how do the penguins manage keyboards with those tiny winglets? they can't even scratch their noses. 

And many more...

We expert in running promotional online marketing campaign for websites. We have a host of ethical services and techniques, which you can utilize to improve your website's performance.

if you were experts at English grammar it might give me more confidence in your other skills.

We would love to hear from you regarding any questions you might have. Please let us know if you wish to move further, so that we can schedule a meeting (tomorrow onwards) at a time convenient to you, without disturbing your busy schedule.

schedule a meeting, eh? i don't like your chances. especially not without disturbing my busy schedule of doing well. or just burying my head in the sand.

Best Regards,

Bxxxxxxe | Sales Executive

James Veitch replied to spam email. it's hilarious.

words words words

i love words

i keep a bowlful in the studio at home

to dip into

and to play with

when far from home i choose words with my eyes shut from whatever publication is to hand

and i learned (from poet Naomi Shihab Nye in a "new works" session at Haystack) that one of many delightful ways to begin a piece of writing is to harvest a collection of phrases from books randomly selected from an available shelf and then begin to dance with the words

in recent years i have begun classes by asking participants to write down their favourite word of the moment (never fear, it won't be set in concrete and i don't ask people to read it aloud or write it on their foreheads in lipstick...and it's likely to be something quite different in five minutes)

then the words are put into a vessel

(boat, bowl, bag)

along with a few others

and then we each take a lucky dip and begin to write 

the word that repeats itself time after time for me is

loved

what's your favourite word today?

a tutorial (of sorts)

yesterday i received an email which said "tutorials, how natural color really stays on fabric, please". i'm pretty sure i've covered that topic (the 'why' as well as the 'how') comprehensively in 'Eco Colour', 'Second Skin' and 'The Bundle Book'

but i was still thinking about it in the shower this morning and then fell into a puddle of verbage. so, from the bear who (almost) never writes rhyming poetry, here is a tutorial. in verse. in my somewhat dodgy handwriting.

announcing New Orleans (and a bit of a personal reality check)

it's been a big year.

i've exhibited in New Orleans, Atlanta and Minneapolis (USA)
Evoramonte (Portugal)
Barossa Valley, Port Augusta, Adelaide, Murray Bridge and Tamworth (Australia)

i had work acquired by the Art Gallery of South Australia and was rejected by the Waterhouse Art Prize

self-published a number of books and taught at least nine workshops around the whirled.

which seemed like a reasonable achievement until i clicked a link to Amazon from a friend's sidebar and read the critiques for Eco Colour which is apparently a self-indulgent waffle with no useful information AND in which (according to the several reviewers) i apparently endorse the use of chemical adjuncts "without the specific caution that these are quite toxic".
i don't recall that at all. but clearly i am getting old and batty as well as being "somewhat prickly and seems to be the Self Appointed "Green Police" "
sigh. 

the good news for those people is that i have very recently been blessed with a dog and so will be limiting my travelling to much shorter sorties (after i get through 2016) to stay home and be with her so our paths are far less likely to cross.

at the same time i'll be making a serious effort to get my novel together. BE WARNED. it has stories, contains my favourite food recipes and has been completely self-indulgently written in my own voice so if you didn't like Eco Colour or Second Skin avoid it like the plague and don't say you weren't warned.
rather than attempting to complete the trilogy and writing a book about pattern-making i'm building all that into the story too.
(note to self  :  do not read critiques of novel if/when it is eventually published)

+ + +

if, on the other hand, you are not one of the above and willing to brave three days in my company in New Orleans in September 2015

i can tell you that i shall be offering a compact intensive version of 'being (t)here' in the marvellous Chateau Curioso, down near the lazy river, in the lower 9th ward

the class involves drawing and writing as well as the dyeing of cloth and paper and the making of a beautiful 'island book'. it is about being in place.

dates : September 4,5,6

the cost will be US$700 and i will be brewing a daily cauldron of soup (with accompaniments) for our lunch. some materials will be supplied but there will be a small list of things to bring. by and large we shall be working with treasures we find in the local area

if you are keen you may secure your place with a non-refundable deposit of $100*
drop me a line via my contact page if you'd like to sign up

* in the event there are insufficient takers for the class i shall refund your deposit in full

back country

i returned from the sea refreshed in body and spirit
so today i tackled the task of processing the 'back country' story
via Blurb
and
though it crashed several times
have managed to get it all together and LIVE.

so
for those of you who expressed interest when i showed the Milk+Moleskine version
here's one at a much more affordable price
with the images and text condensed into 40 pages from the original 60

back country by India Flint | Make Your Own Book

coming soon

i've been working on the booklet

promised to participants in the Second Skin classes

that will take place in lovely Mansfield, Victoria

in November this year

unlike The Bundle Book

which contains explicit step by step instructions

on how to print on cloth and paper with leaves

string me a story on shapeshifting

will be 32 pages of ideas

jumping off-points

sketches and photographs

i'm hoping Second Skin participants will add to their copies

by writing extra notes in the pages

perhaps even tipping in a few extra ones

adding their own drawings

the odd swatch

other inspirational images

so that it becomes a highly personal working tool

this will be a strictly limited edition

100 copies only

numbered and signed

testing the water for that other publishing idea

that i floated a while ago

and Sidnee?    i owe you a dress [as well as the first copy of the above]
...those pix i shot of you in Portland last year 

have been getting a hammering

also

i think we need to do another photo-shoot

with a real photographer

in New Orleans

now that would make a fabulous publication

just sayin, is all

reflecting on deep things

i had an email this morning from someone who required to know whether my books were printed on recycled stock.
she wrote :

"I am curious. Are your books printed on recycled paper and with other eco-friendly materials? I have Eco Colour but borrowed Second Skin from the library. They look like they were expensive productions. Please tell me they are produced with recycled paper and earth friendly inks and materials."

i wrote back and explained that the Australian edition of Eco Colour and the first edition of Second Skin were indeed printed on recycled stock and with vegetable inks but that the United States edition of Eco Colour wasn't [it was out of my control along with the advertising that appeared in the back of the book much to my surprise : for the record i do not endorse any of the advertised products] and that the second edition of Second Skin wasn't either [due to management changes at Murdoch Books]

but afterward i wondered whether she was typing her message on a computer made from recycled parts and using only earth-friendly energy? hmm.

and is there a reason why a book made from recycled paper should not look sumptuous?

that would imply that those of us who choose to wear environmentally 'friendly' clothing should perhaps dress in sackcloth so that we don't look too elegant. [admittedly my family too frequently observes that i look as if i am wearing a sack but that is another matter. entirely.]

the Blurb books are not printed on recycled stock. nor are the inks made from plants. i accept this is a drawback. on the bright side, though, the "print on demand" platform means that there will not be warehouses full of remaindered books rotting away because nobody wants them.

i've had that problem before, having overestimated the catalogue numbers for the exhibition 'watermarks' back in 2008. fortunately they were printed on recycled stock with vegetable inks so the box of extras [which nobody wanted at the time] made environmentally friendly [if expensive] weed suppressants in the garden.

i was hoping that 'shapeshifter', the handbook about clothing that i am preparing to publish in the Australian spring could be printed using as environmentally responsible means as possible.
that it would be a limited edition available by direct subscription, even if that meant i had to package them all personally [unlike Blurb which has printing houses dotted around the whirled and does all the packaging and mailing]

i'm still debating whether i will be able to fund it myself or whether to dive into something like Kickstarter. or whether i should go that road at all.

the cold hard fact is that though it's really exciting for me each time some kindly person buys a book, total sales [of all titles] through Blurb so far this month number only 352 and 30% of those were 'e' books or PDFs.  in order to keep the unit cost reasonable [so that with postage it is affordable as well as returning something on the investment of my time] i would need to have at least 1000 printed. and there wouldn't be an 'e' version. the thought of investing it what may become yet another pile of unwanted weed suppressant is somewhat dispiriting, so in the interests of market research...

what are your thoughts, oh gentle readers?

make a huge financial investment in eco-sustainable printing the hope of breaking even?

or stick with Blurb?

neither way is perfect. neither am i. but as i wrote to the correspondent above, i'm doing the best i can.



+

don't forget folks, those of you who have bought the Bundle Book still have until August 3 to enter that lucky dip for one of three ecoprint tsunobukuro bags, details
 here

 PS this dam was constructed by bulldozing legend Sam White for my father back in 1997. the bulldozer is not, in all honesty, and environmentally friendly tool, but in the hands of those above it created a very beautiful place for quiet reflection...even if that goat insists on coming along for a walk.

dyeing paper

much as i enjoy wandering

i also love being back in my studio

pottering about, stoking the fire

and of course opening up bundles

 at the risk of boring y'all

with too frequent references to my new book

i just wanted to make sure that those of you who had already bought it

knew there is now a lucky dip involved

[i'd mention it on the Blurb site if i could]

i wrote this book for those of you who don't have a chance to attend classes

as well as those who just like a refresher or

to read about the process in different words

and of course there's the field i haven't discussed in print before,

++ dyeing paper ++

blooms

back in 2002 the Helpmann Academy invited me to act as mentor to one of their flock of fresh graduates : Julia Robinson and I spent a few months sharing interesting conversations, creating small installations in the Wild Wood here on the farm and having the odd cup of tea

i'm still plugging away teaching, making frocks, calling cattle and writing but Julia has risen to far dizzier heights...creating installations for the Adelaide Festival of Arts

on the other hand
i have an exhibition in New Orleans soon
fieldnotes opens on March 11th

if you're in the Marigny around then, do swing by!

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

i made y'all something special for Christmas...

back in January of 2011 i set up a few experiments in order to test a theory about the alchemy of archaeology. the first results were unpacked in the middle of 2012
and now
right at the end of 2013
i've put together a book.

quite a few of you have asked for online classes
but somehow i couldn't yet bring myself to do that
so, being a little old-fashioned, i've written this little book instead.

it contains a technique you can do even in the smallest of apartments
and that i think you will want to do over and over again.

i was thinking about the mould problem that occurs while we wait patiently for bundles to ripen
and about the chewing-and-running-away-with problem that has popped up when certain puppies decide to play
and about how hard it is to wait
unless
we secure our bundles in such a way that they look so gorgeous we will be able to resist
and the good thing is that this process produces brighter results from those delicate anthocyanin-rich leaves

stuff, steep + store
is 48 pages, 10 x 8 inches so it fits easily in a bag
costs a good deal less than it does to attend a workshop and you can read it in the bath.

gardening

the internet is a lot like gardening except the weeds grow a good deal faster and you don't get any tomatoes

yesterday i began to wonder whether it might not be totally self-indulgent to be keeping a blog at all

and turned it off to think about it for a while


unfortunately blogger doesn't come up with a message to say "the person who is responsible for the guff on this page is having a bit of a think"

instead [as rather a lot of emails informed me] it rudely slams a door and tells the potential reader that they have not been invited to the party.

so please accept my apologies if the door hurt your toes
i've turned it on again [but i'm still having a bit of a think]

on notebooks and writing and revisiting things

sitting by candlelight this morning

feeling very grateful to the Oregon College of Art + Craft

for having gifted me this residency

an opportunity to slow down, contemplate, revisit

and apply myself solidly to the work of making

with the possibility of working in other media

exploring some things i had begun a few years ago

during a series of classes at the Jam Factory in Adelaide

except that at that time i became completely seduced 

by the exquisite luminosity of blue glaze

being in one place for a period of time

allowed me to make things that need time 

as well as wander back through notebook pages

re-read and re-examine

although i WILL say

that my chillun are right.

my handwriting is appalling

[unless i am writing in upper case architectural style lettering,

then it goes into auto-pilot and looks much neater - although i won't vouch for legibility]

it took me a good nine minutes to work out that the word i had written near the top right [just under the line] of that image was supposed to be "timeless". the words are from Sandra Brownlee, let fall during her "Tactile Notebooks and the Written Word" class that it was my joy to participate in during my recent stay in Scotland.

which brings me to some exciting news for my compatriots

Sandra Brownlee will be teaching a class at Goolwa in South Australia

during the last week of October next year

at Jenni Worth's beautiful [former*] brewery home

if you'd like more information on this

please drop me a line through the contact page on my website

and i shall forward you email to Jenni

meanwhile i'm going back to my notebook

to practice writing with my non-dominant hand

it seems to be more legible than the one i usually use

* 'former' applies to the brewery bit, not the 'home' bit...