And more about Africa - Cape Town

Whenever I  travel, I'm always on the lookout for dyeing and printing, and such. The first thing I saw in the Company Gardens, in the middle of Cape Town was a tree called a wild plum, also called the Kaffir Plum, which is traditionally used for dyeing. Its botanical name is harpephyllum caffrum and I thought the dyeing part might have been the fruit.  I've since found that the bark gives a mauve or pink colour. That's quite unusual and I'd love one in my garden! But I've also discovered that it's something of a weed in Australia and many councils have it listed as a problem species, so I won't be adding it any time soon. I guess I could go walking in the bush with my identification sheet - no-one would mind if I stripped some bark off a tree that they don't want there in the first place, would they?

I also had a close encounter with a squirrel in the Gardens.

I know a lot of people think they're cute but I regard squirrels as an interesting variety of rat. I sat down on a seat to watch the world go by and this squirrel clearly saw it as invitation to join me. I don't just mean sit and beg.

I mean, "I love you, I'd like to sit next to you."

Then it was, "May I just sit in your lap?"  (No photo of this moment, strange to say.) I was busy saying, "No, you may not! Scat! Boo!" It was quite convinced I didn't really mean it, so I had to get up and walk away. Mobbed by a squirrel, such is my life.

One thing I loved about Cape Town was the remnants of Dutch architecture. You have to remember to look up. We're so used to seeing modern towers and there are plenty of those too. But, hiding in plain sight, there's also this:

 and these:













I wanted to take lots more photos of the details but they're on a busy street and it was hard enough to take just these. They seemed so striking, squished in between modern tower blocks.

The other building I loved in Cape Town was the Castle of Good Hope.

It was built by the Dutch in the 1660s and 70s, so it's the oldest building in Cape Town. It reminded me of the forts of Vauban that we saw in France (like the Citadelle de Belfort - sorry, link is in French) and, to a lesser extent, the Henry VIII Device forts we saw in the UK. There is something about ancient enclosed spaces like these - they have an atmosphere, almost a tangible feel of history. There are several small museums within the castle precinct, but photography was generally not permitted.

Of course, I have photos of stones in the wall and cobblestones and such, which I won't inflict on anyone!

In the upper photo of the Castle, you can just see Table Mountain, covered in cloud. It was such a looming presence over the city, it was impossible to unaware it, wherever you went. Along with Devil's Peak and Lions Head, it encloses and towers over the centre of the city. It's about the same height as Mt Victoria in the Blue Mountains, so it's not that tall by world standards, but it's like building a city at the bottom of the Grose Valley, looking up Banks Wall, which is roughly the same height.  The terrain reminded me a lot of the Blue Mountains and, without spending a lot of time on checking, I think their formation was probably similar - sedimentary rocks uplifted and weathered. It makes for spectacular scenery!

Enough about Cape Town, let's go see the animals!

Arty stuff in Cape Town

On my free day in Cape Town, I was lucky enough to see an exhibition at the South African National Gallery called Print in the Spotlight: Impressions of Rorke's Drift. This had nothing to do with the famous battle; it referred to an almost equally famous artists' colony. More properly known as the Evangelical Lutheran Church Art and Craft Centre, it operated for only twenty years, from the early 60s, but produced some of South Africa's most influential artists. Mostly working in black and white linocut, these black South Africans were able to comment on South African society at a time when few other options were available.  The prints were incredibly powerful and moving. Photography wasn't permitted but you can get the idea if you look at the work of my favourite of the artists, John Muafangejo.

I also lucked on an exhibition of ishweshwe cloth (also called isishweshwe and shweshwe) at the Slave House, now a gallery space. This cotton cloth, traditionally dyed in indigo, was brought to Africa by French missionaries and became common throughout Africa.  Again, photographs weren't permitted, so click this link to see some images. If you know anything about the history of cloth printing, you'll know this story already.



Once upon a time, in India, there were some clever people printing cotton fabrics, which came to be known as chintzes. These fabrics were imported into Europe and became hugely popular. They were so popular that the French King tried to have them banned to protect the French textile industry, on the pretext of Indian shipping having brought disease to Marseilles. The English also banned the wearing of it, for the same reason.




In the 1730s and 40s, a couple of Frenchmen had sent home samples of printing at each stage, basically pinching the Indian process.  The resourceful burgers of Mulhouse, now in eastern France but in those days an independent entity, decided to set up shop themselves. In 1745, they set up their own print works, and France followed suit a decade later. Block printing began and then printing with roller presses, and the patterns moved away from the large chintz patterns to smaller repeat patterns. Printworks set up all over Europe.

Pretty soon, everyone was wearing this very useful hard-wearing cloth.

Right at the same time, indigo was beginning to be imported into Europe in a big way. Before this period, it was rare and expensive, but now, with the spread of colonialism, it flooded into Europe in a big way and got way cheaper. The result was blaudruck or blue cloth - the ubiquitous clothing of the working class throughout Europe. (Incidentally, this is the source of the equally ubiquitous denim jeans.) It was this cheap cloth that the missionaries brought to Africa - a kind of round trip since indigo dyeing had always been important in West Africa. (This information, and the images, are from my visit to the Musee de l'Impression sur Etoffes de Mulhouse back in 2008.)

That's the roots of ishweshwe. Pretty soon, Africans were printing their own versions of the cloth and it became part of their traditional culture. Actually, pretty much the same thing happened in other parts of the world, where missionaries went. For example, missionaries also brought the blaudruck to the South Pacific, which developed into the "Mother Hubbard" dresses.

The difference with ishweshwe is that it became part of the social events of the time. White women began wearing the traditional cloth and international designers began to use ishweshwe cloth in their designs, as a way of showing solidarity with black Africans under apartheid.  Now, modern South African designers are wowing the world with the cloth too.

I had a brilliant time in the exhibition. I spent so much time there that the museum guard came to see what I was doing. "You must really like this!", he said. Yes, yes I did.

I've been to Africa!

And yes, like others before me, I've eaten great food, seen wonderful things and had an all round fantastic time.

Don't panic, I'm not going to bore you to tears with stories and photos. I'll just share a few things that strike me anew as I work my way through the (literally) thousands of photos I took.

First up, I took these photos of the flower market in Cape Town because, as you all know, I'm fascinated with colour, especially the colours Nature creates.

Who'd have thought there were so many different proteas?

And there's going to be an election!

News to you? Either you don't live in Australia or you've been living under a rock. (Is it a large rock? Can I come and join you?) I am so over this election campaign. I never thought to hear myself say this, as I've been interested in politics all my life, so I am shocked at myself.
But this is such a non-campaign. I've rarely heard so much said about so little.

I have another plan. How about every ballot paper, House of Reps and Senate, henceforth includes the option None Of The Above? If NOTA wins (as I suspect this time, it might), we hold another ballot in four weeks. But no-one currently in parliament is allowed to run again for at least five years. 
No-one.
Yes, this does mean they can't run next time either.
Goodbye Tony.
Goodbye Julia.
Wayne and Joe, you're out too.
Sorry, Bob, you might have done better but the electorate didn't like you enough either. Maybe you could ponder what it means to run the country as well as saving the world?
Now, who is left that might just have an idea about where this country might go? There must be someone... (and no, Nick, it ain't you.)

And how about we change the way we do things? No more having weeks of, "will they call an election?", followed by two weeks of "yes we did, but we aren't campaigning yet", and then tarradiddle US-style Campaign Launches where every creaky ancient politician is dragged out of retirement to tell the wildly-applauding party faithful, and the omnipresent cameras, just how great the latest batch is. And then two weeks of being as nasty as possible to the others, without actually stating any policies that might distinguish one from another. No more. Hooray, I hear you say? But what would we have instead?

Nothing.
From the minute the PM steps out of the Governor General's office, no party may advertise.
No new policies may be launched to public fanfare (or, more likely, indifference).
Anyone kissing other people's babies in shopping malls will be arrested as a child molester. (Hey, anyone else would be!)
Any politician who holds a press conference about *anything* is immediately disqualified from running.
Let's see the politicians running *from* the cameras for a change. With a paper bag over their heads.
Let them sit quietly in parliament wondering if they've done enough.

Extreme? Not really.
Guys, if you didn't bother to tell us what you stood for before the election was called, we don't believe what you say you stand for, once it has been called. Sorry, but we just don't.
You've had your chance to show us what you stand for, what ideas you have, what vision you have for Australia, during the past three years. If you didn't bother, you don't deserve our vote.

Me, I just wish I could vote None of The Above.*

*Opinions authorised by Nola in Bennelong for the entertainment of regular readers

Now we return you to your normal viewing. Thank God for textiles!

Bushfires

I really haven't felt like blogging lately. Watching the tragedy in Victoria unfold, I felt that my own concerns about textiles were very small and unimportant. It's hard to imagine the scale of the tragedy - whole communities burnt, so many lives lost, so many people left with just the clothes they were wearing. Balanced against that is the enormous upwelling of generosity - the volunteer and agency firefighters who put their lives on the line every year during fire season, the people I know making quilts and children's gift bags and pet beds and clothing, sharing their fabric and yarn stash with other crafters and above all, with money through the various donation points. If you want to help these families who have been left with nothing, the Red Cross is taking donations, and many banks have set up Bushfire Relief accounts that you can transfer money into. I know St George Bank has one and Bendigo Bank Please help these families get back on their feet.

Textile Travels Part 2: Mulhouse textiles

While I was in France, I went to the Museum of Fabric at Mulhouse. I have wanted to go there for a long time, since my friend Gerard sent me posters of their exhibitions, which have decorated my workroom. It's quite a small museum, but very detailed. Mulhouse, in Alsace, became a textile printing area when Louis XVI banned the importation of the fashionable Indian chintzes into France, after a cholera outbreak in Marseilles. At this time, Mulhouse was ain independent principality, and the town fathers saw an opportunity. Many Europeans had travelled to India to try to discover the secrets of Indian printing and part of the exhibition at Mulhouse mentions these people and their contibution to European fabric printing. Once the secrets were discovered, chintz printing became the major industry in this area. The exhibition (all in French) describes the technical processes, including the original design books of some fabric designers and three full-sized looms from different periods, and provides lots of examples of fabrics printed in Mulhouse. There are also some examples of garments made from chintz, and several "boutis", French wholecloth quilts, made from Mulhouse chintz fabrics.

When I was there, there was also a special exhibition called Black and White, of fabrics designed and printed in Mulhouse. Fabrics are still printed there today, but mostly as special runs for couture designers, and for IKEA. There were examples of couture outfits made from Mulhouse fabrics, plus IKEA fabrics and other design works. I'll add photos and more information once I'm home again.

Textile travels Part 1: Tapestries and Sewing Machines

The blog has been quieter that usual because I'm not at home, creating things, but off travelling. I've managed to include quite a number of textile-related things in our travels, which my husband seems to find quite surprising, though I can't think why, since I arranged our itinerary!

First was a flying visit to the Louvre in Paris, as soon as we got off the plane. This visit, I went to see the tapestry collection, and very impressive it is. These were just the first of many tapestries I've seen in France, but I love them and can't get enough! I don't have clear photos of them, as they are kept in low light conditions, but they are wonderful pieces of work.

The Louvre is an amazing museum and I really enjoy going back, because I see new things every time. It's an incredible resource for the textile artist - since it contains so many different examples of material culture, from just about every corner of the earth. I find myself photographing and sketching things I never knew I was interested in, because the shape or line or pattern captures my attenti0n. See this ancient potsherd. Doesn't it have a fantastic design?

And this mosaic.... made up of incredible details like this...

The next stage of my textile travels took me to the Peugeot Museum, in Haute Saone. Yes, strange that you should ask, the man I love *is* interested in cars, but I found to my surprise that the Peugeot company began life as a tool-making concern, and their tools included sewing machines, which they continued to make until the 1930's. Of course their museum wasn't very interested in providing the large amount of detail I wanted about their machines, but it was fascinating to see these old European machines, dating from only shortly after the more familiar US machines. Here is an 1867 hand crank machine:
And a pedal machine with an alternating foot action:
This one is one of their last machines, in 1936-37.

I love the way that utilitarian items were made to look so beautiful.

Next, textiles in Mulhouse....

Election results

Great happiness in this household today! Not only has the Howard government been definitively voted out of office, but it looks as if enough people here in Bennelong have finally decided against John Howard as their local member. There has been a 5% swing against him, towards Labor. Postal votes are still to be counted, of course, so it's too soon to dance about that.

It would be very satisfying if he went down in history, not as the noble successor to Robert Menzies that he imagines himself (Menzies would turn in his grave), but by joining Bruce as the second Prime Minister ever to lose his seat.