cooking other things

i've packed my blanket

and

my knife

and 

a large cauldron

off to be chief cook and bottle washer

for my buddy Roz

who is teaching in Goolwa this week

 

better get a wriggle on

it takes as much time to drive to the airport

as it does to fly here from Brisbane

Turner from the Tate

last Thursday evening i [along with a cast of thousands] was a guest at the opening of

Turner from the Tate

at the Art Gallery of South Australia

there are an overwhelming number of pictures in the exhibition

if you go

allow a whole day

take a picnic lunch and perhaps a yoga mat for a nanna-nap in the afternoon.

i was enchanted by

J.M.W. Turner's travelling paintbox

it's metal 

[a rather slimmer and more elegant version of my own portable studio : simply an old Brockhoff's biscuit tin]

and contains delightful glass-stoppered bottles of pigments

small bundled pig's bladders

and more

Turner was an enthusiastic wanderer

in pursuit of wild landscapes

in some of his marine paintings the vessels seem to be tacking against opposing winds

perhaps there were curious meteorological phenomena

and i do wonder how some of those bits of cloth casually draped across the bodies of women in his paintings stayed put in the days before double-sided tape

but his rendering of the impression of light is wonderful.

utterly.

and his orderly paintbox
has inspired me to try and tidy mine
shown here emptied of its contents
so as to facilitate a bit of panel-beating
after its most recent experience with the flying kangaroo

BTW that black blob is not usually packed in the box
it is Felix
graciously assisting me with my labours

eucalyptus uses + studio placements

the genus eucalyptus yields so much more than just dyes

timber, honey, paper, oil

and

a very useful trick for cleaning rust from tools

i bought this lovely implement when i was working on costumes

in Yamaguchi, Japan

nearly seven years ago

it had been lost for some while

and then i found it again. rusty and in need of care

so

knowing that eucalyptus leaves yield acids and oils when heated in water

and that those acids work to assist a rust reduction whereby the red rust

[ferrous oxide] which is quite hard

is turned black and soft [ferric oxide] and is then easy to remove from the tool

i boiled up my little cutter in eucalyptus and water

after tying some string around the handle in case of accidental patterning

[those are not my paws]

after an hour or so

the blade was as black as its shadow

so i dried it and honed it

greased it with lanolin from a scrap of wool

and waxed the handle

so now it's as good as new

+    +    +

which brings me to the second part of this post.

studio placement.

it's the time of year when i am deluged with requests from people who want to come and stay so that in a few short weeks i can teach them everything i know. they say that in return they will help me with my work.
it's kind of y'all to offer

but
i already have all the help i can handle

 and in case you were wondering

the liquid left over from cleaning the tool

...perfect as an iron-rich mordant.

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.

the wind from the west

screenshot, slightly tweaked, from 'nightsky' app

actually the closest way there is to head east from here

what am i talking about?

forgive the gibbering

but when the news that the Lopez Island class had filled

before it had made it to my website [or to Sweetpea's blog]

i was momentarily lost for words

and felt like this [see above]

so the long at the short of it is

i will be on Lopez Island in the Fall

tweaked screenshot : google images of Lopez Island

[there will be other points of call on the Left Edge of the North American continent

but i can't confirm them until March as there's a residency decision that won't happen earlier - details here if/when it all gels]

good honest work

coincidentally also good honest fun.

Koha

+   +   +

when my friend Rachelle decided to leave the land of clouds

for the West Island [usually somewhat dustier pastures]

she kindly left a treasure parcel behind

for me to collect the next time i drifted into the city of winds and waters

i arrived in Welly to find that our mutual friend Caroline

[who had been the guardian of the treasure in the months since Rachelle departed]

had kindly delivered it to my helltell.

there were many treasures

including things found, stitched and dyed

gathered by Rachelle over years

[her gathering skills are legendary]

+   +   +

had it been a weekday i would have been tempted to ship my Koha south to await my next visit to the Lud Valley

but

it wasn't, so i unpacked and repacked.

fortunately i had been travelling relatively lightly 

[bar feeding the book addiction with acquisitions]

in the end i was left with the empty red suitcase

[i did try fitting it inside my bigger one]

and the question of what to do with it.

giving it to the Sallies was a possibility

but i was sure there was a more amusing solution

so

i decided to step out into the whirled 

and see where the colour red might lead

maybe the red suitcase could follow red markers and

find a new home

drifting along my trail

i found myself on Cuba Street

then wandered a little sideways

through a park with red gates

and saw Global Fabrics in the distance

upon which it occurred to me that quite often [on a Sunday]

there are students and other young folk working in the store

who might be able to use a suitcase

and

i

was

right

 

 

Brooke Barrett 

was very happy to give the suitcase a home

+   +   +

after which i followed some more red marks

and went home myself

ka kite ano

time moves strangely in this precious green valley

it felt like our few days were weeks

and yet

they passed so very quickly

am packing my bags once again

for the hop homeward

but

with a warm feeling in my heart.

yesterday i was handed this

which made me very happy

so

over delicious scrambled eggs this morning

Judy and i decided we should take the suggestion seriously.

and

i'll be back next summer, to lead a 'shapeshifter' class

in which

we will be re-constructing worn out favourites from the wardrobe

into a new and lovely garment

embellished with dyed silks and wools and lots of handstitching

to sew and dye

something beautiful to wear on special occasions

[standing up and breathing is special enough for me!]

and

of course we shall also make a gorgeous bag

in which to keep the dress when it isn't being worn

so for now it isn't goodbye, but

arohanui, ka kite ano

re-polishing the rose-tinted spectacles

Moana unbundling...

Aotearoa may be considered [by some]

to be at the ends of the earth

but

i suspect that's actually an attraction

last week we had folk from the Cook Islands and from Australia

this week

we have more West Islanders [see the 'A' word above]

from both extremes of east [QLD] and west [WA]

as well as participants from Scotland, the east coast of America

and from all over New Zealand 

when it came to the crunch

we had more applicants that we could comfortably accommodate.

it's been a wonderful journey.

full of intriguing signs and waymarkers

and serendipitous moments, such as

on one of the days at Titirangi

when i murmured something about needing to choose a poem for our morning reading

and Heidi [our gracious and graceful host] slipped a page into my hand

which turned out to be exactly the 'randomly selected'  poem i had read for myself at dawn.

[and then read it to us exquisitely]

 

here in the green heart of the Lud Valley

we revel in simple pleasures

balmy breezes, songs of beeses

exquisitely prepared and indescribably wonderful food   

[mostly grown here]

 + + +

once again our pots are heated by fire

and while we work at coaxing local colour

into cloth and paper the days pass far too quickly

this evening i too was permitted to play at the kitchen stove

and to harvest the ingredients from the garden

[for those of us of Latvian descent there are few greater pleasures

than being allowed to seek for potatoes in soft earth with our hands]