Rhapsody in Blues

Rhapsody in Blues is the theme for the ATASDA display at the Sydney Craft and Quilt Fair at Glebe Island in June. Six of the members of Fibrecircle are creating a collaborative work for this stand, shortly to be unveiled over on the Fibrecircle blog. This is my section of this larger work...

This is rather deceptive of me, because the main work looks nothing like this! Well, you'll see in a few days, when it's assembled for display and I put a photo over on that blog!

And still more

And a few other bits and pieces...

Here’s a postcard I made to swap recently.

It’s one of a series I’ve been making on a Forest theme. I mentioned one of this series back here. This one is from the same piece of cloth, but in the centre of the lower half. Here’s how it looked when I cut the cloth apart…

…and here it is, with layers of transparent paint built up on what was there. I didn’t border this one at all, just mounted it on mat board with a fabric backing, slip stitched in place.

I’ve also made some earrings to add to my ever-growing collection. These ones were made with some cute curved floral elements I found in my local bead shop, which were designed for the centre of a necklace.

I liked their curved line for earrings, since I don’t much like earrings that are just a straight line.

The second pair are from a kit I made myself a year or so ago.

I often put together a set of findings and beads that I think will work well together, ready to be made when the right time occurs. I bought the chandelier findings in a pack on special several years ago and I think the blue beads with gold patterning came from Spotlight, in a pack of mixed colours. It’s quite a simple project, but for some reason, it hadn’t reached the top of my pile until now.

The most special thing I’ve made lately is a piece that’s part of a collaborative work for ATASDA’s upcoming exhibition at the Palm House in the Sydney Botanic Gardens, Fragment. We divided an image into sections and each interpreted our section in our own way. The resulting pieces were reassembled into a three-dimensional work.

I really enjoyed making this piece, far more than I usually do. It seemed to be largely devoid of any of the usual anxiety issues I feel when I’m making work for public display. I built up layers of paint and appliqué and stitch, mimicking the layers of plant life in the photo I was given. It was a really fun activity and I’m very happy with the result. If you want to see it with the other works, come and visit the exhibition, from next Thursday, August 16 through until 28th August. It’s open 10-4 every day except for 28th, when it closes at 2pm.

Another t-shirt

I've been busy making things for the ATASDA Open Studio on 6th & 7th November. Here's another painted t-shirt. This one is inspired by my granddaughter Kate.

The Open Studio will be held at Epping Creative Centre, Dence Park, Epping, in Sydney, Australia. Lots of interesting work from talented textile artists - should be fun!

Time to play

Back home again, after a fantastic trip to France (of which more later). It's so terribly hard to get out of holiday mode, don't you find? I managed to wring a few more days out of my holiday but this week, my computer is reminding me of things I ought to do, and the usual activities that fill up my days are happening, so I can't really pretend any longer.

One of the things my computer is insistently reminding me about is the ATASDA Open Studio weekend, which will happen on November 7 & 8 at the Epping Creative Centre, Dence Park, Epping, where most of our meetings and workshops in NSW are held. The idea is for ATASDA members to showcase their work, which is not only different from more traditional kinds of textile work, but different from each other's work as well.  Normally, this would just be a reminder to me to show up on the day, but in a fit of madness, Fibrecircle decided to take a table for both days, to show off our work and maybe even sell a few things. So I really need to make a few things, and maybe (gasp) finish a few things, so I can show people the kind of stuff I make.

So today, I drew and painted a kid's t-shirt. As you may have noticed, I'm rather interested in graffiti lately. (I must say I was disappointed in the Paris graffiti I saw - perhaps I just wasn't in the right places?) I've always been interested in layers - palimpsests on old documents, sgraffito work, walls with patterns marking traces of past occupancy - basically, traces of what went before and the interesting things that happen when you superimpose unrelated things. Graffiti is part of that interest, I guess, since graffiti artists seem to have no concern about what's already on a wall before they add their work, and even sometimes seem to incorporate it into their designs.

My graffiti designs are not that complex - they're time-consuming to draw and paint, and are much less layered than I'd really like. I think there's more to do with this idea, if I stay interested.

Anyway, here's the t-shirt.

It's a kid's size 4 and I'll probably be selling it and other stuff like it at the Open Studio weekend.

Finished!

Actually I finished the journal cover last Friday, just haven't had a minute to put up a photo. I'm really happy with it.

The front under the flap looks like this:
The butterfly hides the bead and elastic fastening. I think, next time I get out fabric paints, I might paint strokes of colour around the bead to make it into a flower. I did try adding straight stitches but they get in the way of the elastic, so I took them out again.

I've started adding pages to do with Fibrecircle, the new textile explorations group I belong to. I may share some pages later, as we go along.

The lull after the storm

I've just finished a period of frenetic activity and gee, it's so nice to do nothing for a bit! Well, nothing with a deadline, anyway. My design wall is empty - well, as close to empty as it ever gets!

You can see Mistrise is still being considered (I had some new ideas about where to take that, just this week), and it's partly obscuring a woven piece with added applique that is being contemplated upon before more action happens. The flock of butterflies is still flying south, though sometimes they move to other places on the wall. Some have been made into brooches for myself (they live on a gorgeous evening bag made for me by Rhonda a few years ago) and friends. And the quilt block designed for me by my clever daughter Kas is still on display.

You can also see a piece I made in August 2005, as part of my personal Journal Quilts project. It was for a challenge with friends called "I Get the News I Need on the Weather Report". Each of us chose a month of the year to represent in journal quilt format. Mine was August in Sydney, which is often wet. It's based on a photo of mine of leaves in a puddle, overlaid by a map of the coastline of Sydney. It's rather dark so it's not a really successful piece but fun to do. Here's a better view of it:

It needs overpainting to give a value difference between land and sea, to emphasise the coastline aspect a little more. One day when I have the paints out..

Almost hidden is an anti-Iraq war piece I started in 2004 on the theme of Purple Prose, which required a combination of text and a purple fabric, for my quilt group. The rhetoric about the war was very purple at the time, so it seemed appropriate! So far it looks like this...

It's based on many news images on Arab woman with their children and the woman's pose is based on a photo I saw of Palestinian refugees just after World War II. Some things don't seem to change. It still needs to have its painted background, which I envisage as a wall, in some disrepair, perhaps with bullet marks or other damage, against which the mother is leaning so wearily. And of course, the detail will be added with stitch, my favourite activity! It will be quite small, 23cm x 30cm (9in x 12in), including a border, which will incorporate purple and probably black, and probably the text. The words I want to use are a quote from Sir Horace Walpole in 1772, "It was easier to conquer the East than to know what to do with it." This pithy remark seems to sum up most attempts by western powers to influence Middle Eastern and Far Eastern politics, and yet it's a lesson they have signally failed to learn in the subsequent 235 years. Don't get excited though, it may still be some time before this piece rises to the top of the pile!

I'm also thinking idly about May Gibbs because ATASDA has been asked by the May Gibbs Foundation to mount one of a rolling series of exhibitions called "Inspired by May", in honour of the sesquicentenary of May Gibbs' birth. It's a little tricky because her artwork is still under copyright. I'm reading her biography and learning about her passion for the Australian bush, at a time when children's books in Australia were generally derived from English sources and images. I have an idea of what I want to do, and it will be small, as the display space is not large. But I'm not sure I will go ahead with it, as it's so nice not to have a deadline!

I wonder how long my wall will stay empty like this?