beignets, bunya and beads

bear with me

the title will make sense quite soon

i love Beignets but having given up wheat last year

[for very good reasons and with a remarkable improvement in my health as a result]

i haven't indulged in these delicacies for ages

yesterday's experiments with spelt and a twist on my little [Latvian] grandmother's recipe for deep-fried goodness on the occasion of the [more or less] 125th birthday of my [German] great-grandmother's tiny frying cauldron 

resulted in some damn fine "fusion" Beignets

that disappeared with [as Winnie the Pooh's friend Rabbit would say] "Astonishing Rapidity"

washed down with coffee of course

which brings me to a fusion of a different kind.

after Roz Hawker and i met at Waiuku in 2010 we parted with friendly wishes on either side

but no huge plans

then

a bit later that year

Roz bravely invited me to come and teach in her lovely garden at Bunya

the pix above are of my notes for that class

[stitched, embellished with cloth and some metal from a tealightshell]

and a little while after that

we went on a trip into the wilds together [along with a friend from over the rainbow]

which has led to other roadtrips

in Oz, in New Zealand and even on the east coast of the USA

roadtrips offer lots of time for talking

and musing 

and coming up with ideas.

here's one we think is really good.

we're going to offer a co-taught class for wayfarers + wanderers 

firstly in Roz's garden and then a week or so later

in a green and gorgeous hideaway in north Queensland

please click on the mark  to read her side of the story  +

Roz is going to handle the bookings for this one

[ i'll be very happy to pass on email enquiries ]

and

you never know

there may be a Beignet or two

Bunya is where the first retreat will be held

and Beads? you may want to bring a few.

preview

 

 

 

see that dark lump on the bench?

that's my sax case.

i blew some notes in the space

for my friends in New Orleans

wishing they were a bit closer.

 

my residency in Louisiana was initiated by

the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts

and supported by the Joan Mitchell Center

again i'd like to thank 

Nikki Jackson [for having the idea in the first place] [and for just being]

 and her colleagues at NOCCA for welcoming me

also

Carolyn Somers, Director of the Joan Mitchell Foundation 

for letting me live there

and particularly 

Shelley Boles

Teddy Martin

Frank Gleber

and

Gia and Kenese

and all the others who made my stay so very wonderful.

[dang, i should have been wearing a fabulous frock to say all that]

down by the river

i went down to the big river today

to begin installing work for  'muddy waters'

i was worried this piece might be a bit short

it isn't.

soon it will be suspended

from good sturdy snapper hooks

acquired recently in Aotearoa

then i wandered off to collect dried mud to make mud paint

[why dried? ...have you ever tried to sieve wet mud?]

a thrift store strainer made a good start

and a finer mesh was provided by a cheap spatter guard 

mixed the fine sievings with a little powdered gelatine

to give it a good 'squish' factor

letting it rest until tomorrow

then

the writing will be on the wall

any leftovers can be used for stenciling...

unpacking the big roll with the work from New Orleans

unleashed a tsunami of emotions

New Orleans gets under your skin

in a way no other place does

so

when i got home

i rummaged on Youtube

and found this.

i was there that night.

in which Alabama meets the Deep South

after a satisfying morning when i realised i had "gone about as fur as ah could go"

with 'muddy waters' before the big install [which begins tomorrow]

i spent a couple of happy hours putting the flesh on the bones of an exciting new collaboration together with a Very Good Friend [expect to hear all about this in the not too distant future]

 as there hadn't been enough rainfall to even think about softening the earth

[so weeding was OUT]

i thought i would keep the hands from being idle

while the grey matter was charging about wildly upstairs

and continued on with the sample from yesterday

it was fun to play with for a while

[all the colours above are from Eucalyptus cinerea, even the grey]

but now it's back to work

cos

someone is watching me.

day of rest? que?

it's been a rather hot Sunday here

fortunately not too much smoke in the air

i decided that the waterbag i am making for the 'muddy waters' exhibition

needed more embellishment

which [because i usually work in white] meant dyeing some thread

my little grandmother and my great-aunt Rose both stored odd lengths of thread

on paper spillikins

and so of course i did that too

but

my friend Roz is the clever bunny

who began slinging such thread-and-paper spillikins into the dyepot

[while i was still winding thread and leaves together around popsicle sticks or around the outside of dye-bundles]

they all four went into the same pot.

the two on the right are wool, clearly still wildly in love with eucalyptus

the far left is Japanese silk and the next one toward the middle is Chinese silk

all protein fibres but responding differently to the one brew

 to keep myself from pacing like a tiger while the dye was being absorbed

i decided it was time to start making a new cardigan

- i have a few woolly ones but need something cooler to

keep the mosquitos at bay and snuggle into on long flights

so i dug out some nice American-grown cotton knit fabric that my friend Claudia

had sent to me in a care parcel while i was enjoying my residency in New Orleans

i also ferreted out a pattern from the last century.

eighties, i think.

i wanted the cardigan to be loose and quite short, with three-quarter length sleeves

so i simply folded the papers a bit

and took a few corners wide

[and at speed]

naturally Martha decided to supervise proceedings

after all, her paws tone in so nicely with the general arrangement

 i stitched the pieces together by hand

making sure to "love" the thread [thank you Natalie Chanin]

and [perhaps unusually] using a quite thick pure silk floss [thank you Rachelle]

 it occurred to me that i could use a scrap of this cloth

to have a quick play with a stencil and some milk and that hot eucalyptus dyepot

 success.

but i am not going to stencil on to my cardigan

much as i love Natalie Chanin's exquisite work

my gut feeling is that it might be a little formal

for scruffy old me.

my friend who lives over the rainbow has shared some of her interpretations here

i think she is very brave.

for now i am adding a button or two [from a moth-compromised silk thrift-store blouse]

and what i fondly think of as an "Isobel" pocket

[in case someone needs to discreetly slip me a note while we are dancing cheek to cheek]

i shall be enjoying a few more weeks of stitching on this cuddly garment

making snailtrails with that lovely silk

before it goes anywhere near a dyepot

clearly though, this post has been far too long

so Martha has gone back to sleep.

lending a paw [and west coast whispers]

 

today Mrs Poo [formerly known as Willow] is helping me with my work

by drinking the last of the milk i am using as mordant

painting x's on a waterbag

for the muddy waters exhibition

why x's? i hear you mutter

because 

i've been thinking about that tomb in New Orleans

believed to contain the earthly remains of Marie Laveau

where it's said that if you mark three x's

and leave a gift

your wish will come true.

waiting for the milk to dry

i have tweaked my website

and

now the details of this year's West coast Wandering

are up

[sorry to be tedious but if you click on the 'up'

and then scroll down

you'll get there....]

signs and doings

being away for a week

and just sorting out work emails on the batfone

leads to a big pile that needs excision.

the delete button is useful

especially

when you get things like this

yeah. right.

delete.

and then there was the one from 'Qantas Telephone Sales'

[i don't buy ANYTHING over the phone]

that wanted me to open a .zip file

i must look like a cabbage to some people

so much so that FaceBook

told me i was logged out

wanted me to log in again

and then

wanted to "check my computer for viruses"

er, no, thank you.

rather than take the risk and click the 'confirm' button

i'm outa there.

instead

you'll find me in the workroom

beavering away on muddy waters

 also

designing costumes for Company Miji

writing 

and

doodling

if there is a spare moment