the fabric of society

i have terrible trouble with bookshops. somehow books attach themselves to me like magnets and beg to come home. this delightful book leapt at me recently in that mecca for booklovers, Kinokuniya in Sydney.

Annette Gero has collected exquisite images of all sorts of quilts i never knew existed along with photographs of the makers and stories about the making.

another source that's recently come to my attention is the International Quilt Study Centre and Museum.  located in far distant Nebraska this museum can be browsed over a cup of tea via the internet.

well worth a visit... 

handle with care

these beautiful hands belong to Humna Mustafa with whom i will be exhibiting in Following Threads, an exhibition being curated by Maggie Fletcher for the Adelaide Festival Centre Artspace [to be shown during the OzAsia Festival September - November 2009

Humna draws exquisite designs on hands [and also on silk] with henna. during the recent Womadelaide music festival the queues of people waiting to have their hands adorned apparently snaked off into the sunset. 

small wonder. 

visit her pages to see more of her work...

unexpected gifts

it's a gift when a student comes back for a second helping of workshop and even more so when the student has been working all weekend and produces a sample like the one above

all those delicious colours and patterns produced in a single dye session

absolutely magic!

fitzroy songline

fitzroy crossings

it's a country full of criss-crossing travel lines

with tracks visible and not so visible

of all those who wander back and forth

two days into a 5 day stint

i'm sittting at a window overlooking Albert Street

just down from the Treasury Gardens

my walk to work each day takes me through the lovely

backstreets of Fitzroy

on my way i gather pocketfuls of windfall leaves

and discover treasures on walls

and in gutters

it’s a good thing my pockets are generous in size

 

the clothes i wear are dyed with leaves

as if i have slept in the park

funny how the city i was born in is the one i look most out of place in now

on my first day here i lug a large leaf dyed bag of samples

another leaf dyed bag full of windfall harvests from the park

and a big garbage bag full of prunings given to me by the florist

 

parents nervously shepherd their children when they spot the strange bag-lady

in the park, gathering leaves and bark

and the odd twig

back in the middle ages they might also have crossed their fingers behind their backs

making the sign against evil

 

people walking to work look at me pityingly

a homeless person gives me a challenging look [clearly this is not my patch]

and a police officer sitting in a car by the side of the road takes out a notebook

and makes notes [or perhaps he draws funny faces to fill in time]

Fitzroy has a strange witch haunting the streets

and collecting leaves

 

the students have each been asked to bring ten windfall leaves to class

to enfold in their samples stitched from fragments of silk, wool, cotton, linen and hemp

those pale zigzag patterns are from banksia leaves acting as a resist

nature or nurture....

late last year i was approached to become a mentor 

initially i said no, i didn't think i could find time to adequately fill such a role

but the asker persisted

and so i relented

and now a star rises - not of my making, i hasten to add

Imbi didn't really need a mentor at all

and knows exactly what she is doing

making beautiful work 

that sings like a small bird anticipating dawn

visit two worlds to see for yourselves 

ovine ponderings

this painting is called "Shearing the Rams" by Tom Roberts. look closely at the shearer second from left.. not only is he [unusually, methinks] carrying the ram forwards out of the catching pen [it is usual to drag sheep backwards for a shearing  or crutching procedure] but the ram has been lifted bodily off the ground.

i've always found this intriguing...all of our rams are so huge that not even two people can lift the blighters. the only excuse i can think of is that at the time the painting was completed, merino rams were still quite small framed sheep.

graziers don't like to admit it but the British breeds were used to improve the frame size of the merino. typically anything NOT merino in Australia is referred to as a crossbred. this is ironic given the Lincoln and the Leicester played such strong roles in improving the merino breed.

which makes the merinos the crossbreds.

but back to the matter at hand. if that ram was of a size to be picked up and carried, then the gentleman carrying it must have been jolly strong...and perhaps vertically challenged given the suspected small size of the sheep!

feasting

on Thursday i took flight to Melbourne for the day, to worship at the shrine of the late Rosalie Gascoigne whose views on housekeeping were entirely aligned with mine [see the link to Jo's post in the sidebar to hear and view a video interview with RG]

i'd not seen these splendidly orange works before. 

the red coat was a happy juxtaposition

 

later after wandering to Richmond for a splendid rummage at Kazari Warehouse and then to NGV International to stick a finger on the biggest fish-shop window in Australia i began to wander back in the direction of the skybus stop

and discovered

quite accidentally

not just a wunderkammer

but 

THE Wunderkammer!

i had read of this establishment many times and had it on the "to do" list but had never quite gotten around to it.

and suddenly there it was...abounding with treasures bizarre and otherwise

further down the street Melbourne had a parting treat in store on the boards surrounding a building site....this delicious palimpsest strangely reminiscent of a Tony Tuckson painting 

some pictures [ for rachelle...]

'seven sisters' work in progress for the OzAsia Festival later this year

 

Elsje van Keppel's delightful "spinifex stitching" viewed through a glass darkly at the Powerhouse museum

playing with blots is most satisfactory...

making caterpillar shapes is also fun

and here's a wee boiled book, drying in the sunshine...