being (t)here...again

it was lovely to come back to Newburgh

to work with Netti and Alison

who are like sisters and very kind to me

we worked on paper

first with words

and then with dyes

 local meadowsweet

made lovely colours

 we made a concertina river book

and a new sweet folded book

that i developed especially for the class

i call it the "island book"

because you have to sail around it to appreciate it fully

 trusty studio assistant Jazz cooling off

 wonderful peonies

 and the beautiful river

fresh and full of new stories each day

 we wrote and shared poetry

 found hearts in the streets

laid bundles in patterns here and there

and generally had a wonderful time.

Isabel [who works at the charity shop]

told me how the church [where our workshop took place]

used to be the drill hall for the "territorials"

and then that the Poles lived there during the war

and that there was a dance held there

"and the floor was ever so slippery"

+

the trouble with having good friends scattered around the whirled

is having to say goodbye. 

but not forever, merely ae fond farewell [misquoting Robert Burns] until next year

you can see more pix from class

here

and

here

And please, Father Christmas, may I have a bear like this?

the bundle book

many of you have written to me and asked if i would consider making a pocket-sized book that simply looked at ecoprint bundling.

you told me that 'Second Skin' was a good read but it didn't fit well into a travel bag.

i'm a girl that can take a hint. especially when it is a good one.

so here it is, folks. the bundle book.

and yes, at long last, it has a section about printing on paper.

i hope you like it.

blues, riverside

i left Portugal behind [with some reluctance but also with plans to return]

headed for another good place

back to the beautiful Tay River at Newburgh, Scotland

to immerse myself in two days of blues

with none other than the bluesmaster himself,  Michel Garcia

my banana blues in New Orleans were good

but his henna blues were better. much better.

and of course being back at Big Cat Textiles is wonderful

Nettie and Alison gave me such a warm welcome

and when i tottered down the street for supplies i bumped into several people i knew

Newburgh really is another home from home

and then there's the bonus of peonies
[these are in the garden of the lovely woman who bakes our bread]

and down the lane near the river are spectacular dark-leaved, pink flowered sambucus

now i have two days in preparation for 'being there'
and there may just be a little more indigo dyeing this weekend
because i have to maintain my blue fingernails

so i'll leave you with another bluesman
the fabulous Hugh Laurie

peregrinations in Portugal

I've never been to this beautiful country before 

but

it's already on my returns list

and

next time 

I need to know more words than just

saudade & obrigada

there are stones to play with

i've hung my dresses in this castle

surrounded by Sally Stafford's beautiful paintings

   

a fierce guard dog keeps watch on the castle steps

   

the light is so clear you could cut and butter it

and tonight

our exhibition opens

see y'all there?

Dorothy was right.

there's no place like home.
[that photograph was considerably tweaked. cos it was dark.]

Midsummer murmurs

i had made seven dresses

for the seven daughters-seven sisters exhibition

due to open in Portugal next weekend

but in a bit of a Sagittarian moment

i had an attack of claustrophobia

caused in part

by someone telling me they'd seen clothes

looking very much like mine

in a store in LA

that wasn't Church Boutique

i suddenly decided those seven sisters

needed to be a completely different shape

and so 'slow cloth' went out the window

and speedy sewing came in the door

assisted by Yoda-san

he found it exhausting

so did i.

but it was worth it in the end

and now they are in the cauldron

and that, my friends, is as much as you will see of them

until they have had a chance to dance at Evoramonte

because i want this exhibition to be fresh and lovely

not

a dim shadow

that has already been replicated

and offered for sale by someone else

before the sisters have had time to settle in their castle

+

now please

don't bother making comments that shout down the replicant

or are intended to bolster my ego

this is not about that

because

by happy coincidence

the Dogs Above smiled

and showed me a new way of putting together cloth

to form three dimensions from two

literally sculpting dresses from silk

although

almost impossible to draft on paper

it took me into the Gehry zone

where the model has to be made first 

in order to understand

how the engineering works

and while i don't think i can explain the process

i'm pretty sure i can do it again

dye experiments

dye experiments don't always end in spectacular results...here's an example

Squashing slices of Lactarius deliciosus between the pages of a moleskine notebook the first reveal [above] looked quite promising 

but it oxidized quite quickly

and was even less exciting after cooking

Good thing I was using pieces from one that was a bit too decrepit to enjoy 

warmed in a frying pan with sour cream, garlic and a little salt & pepper.

sometimes good food is just good food...and that's enough for me!

so eventually i drifted into the home paddock

where i found a pile of mail
which included
a wonderful scarf from Hilde Blank in New Zealand
handwoven polwarth wool, dyed with eucalyptus

a precious bottle of my favourite scent, sadly no longer in production
when i heard it was to be axed i ordered some back up bottles and sent a note to Aesop bemoaning its loss...you could have knocked me down with a feather when i found a whole bottle had been sent me with their kind compliments

and magic dust! thank you Heidi, my sweet host at Titirangi. we had seen the empty space on the shelf marked "magic dust" when out shopping for gumbo ingredients in January and i'd expressed some curiosity as to what it might be. now i know. yum.

and although i had work to do
the forest was calling

there were mushrooms to be found
and picnics to be had

and later on
after a feast of potatoes and Lactarius deliciosus
to bed with some tasty reading

i love the way Nigel Slater writes about food.