Kayla, one of our Year 12 VCE art students, did extremely well with one of her folio pieces. She needed some photographs of her creation for publication. She asked and I was happy to do it. We went bush early the other morning and got some great shots.
Kayla designed, made and modeled her creation beautifully, along with plenty of support from her teacher, Annemaree.
All my luck seems to have come at once. I have just found out that I won two hand woven towels from Sue at Life Looms Large.
Beautiful. Can’t wait till they arrive. And being a novice weaver myself, they will truly be appreciated.
Mitty and I went to the Grampians for a couple of days in late Spring, specifically to check out the wildflowers.
Well recognisable landscapes of the Grampians.
So many kangaroos in the one spot.
Looking for wildflowers.
Had to drive very slowly to avoid a head on with kangaroos.
Grass Trees are very slow growing with mature plants being centuries old.
‘The grass tree Xanthorrhoea, aka ‘black boys’, is a uniquely Australian plant, which epitomises the Australian landscape and is as tough as goats' knees. It will withstand drought. Bushfires will burn the foliage and blacken the stump, but then it regrows. Often a bushfire will encourage flower development. These remarkable plants have a lifespan of 600 years.’
Another typical Grampians scene.
We kinda left for our holiday on short notice and didn’t get organised for food. We had to buy in Hall’s Gap at the supermarket. We actually thought this would be a more economical way than eating out for our meals. Not so. This photo represents $95 worth of groceries. We went into shock at the cash register. In retrospect it probably would have been cheaper to eat out.
And this is kinda embarrassing. On the left we have my luggage and on the right we have Mitty’s luggage.
THE WILDFLOWERS
Common correa
I know it’s a daisy but that’s about it.
The common donkey orchid ‘diuris’.
Everlasting daisy.
Fringe lily.
Goodenia.
Green combed spider orchid.
Holly Grevillea.
Grevillea but unsure what type.
Pea flower.
Pea flower.
Pink Finger orchid.
Running postman pea flower.
Salmon sun orchid.
Swamp goodenia.
Tinsel lily.
And sighted amongst the native flora and fauna was a feral deer.
Not surprisingly, we decided that we needed to stay a lot longer to do a proper job of exploring the Grampians.
P.S. If anyone who happens to come by, and knows the correct identification of any of these flowers I would appreciate you passing on your knowledge.
What I have made recently…
Lime cordial – a thirst quencher with soda water. Goes well with vodka and gin also. We have a lime tree and every lime produced is appreciated and used in some way.
Spun baby suri alpaca fleece – so very soft. I’m slowly getting better at spinning, not that I am worried about my skill levels as I still think it is gorgeous yarn with all it’s lumps and bumps.
What is happening in the back yard…
Water lilies in the duck pond.
Plentiful supply of yabbies.
I went to a clearance sale today – something I’ve never really done before. I certainly haven’t ever bid at an auction before, other than ebay. The sale was at Glenormiston and I went because I knew there were a few looms on offer. I would like an 8 shaft table loom. However, there weren’t any of these on offer.
Glenormiston is primarily an agricultural college managed by South West TAFE.
Anyway, on with the story. Georgie, a student in my weaving class, happened to turn up. We had a quick chat, and soon after the auction began. Things happened very quickly. The weaving equipment was the very first to go under the hammer so to speak. I was hoping to get an old drum carder and a raddle, but wasn’t too worried if I didn’t.
Shock no. 1 – they offered it all as one lot.
Shock no. 2 – Georgie and I had a bid and got the lot for $30. We’re talking about 2 x huge floor looms, 6 x four shaft table looms ( on a recount there are seven of the table looms), and a huge assortment of accessories like raddles, reeds, a warping mill and much more. We literally need a truck to cart it all a way. Luckily, Georgie does have a truck and an unused shearing shed to house it all. We are returning Monday to pick it all up.
I bought one of the smaller looms home and Murray got to work on it. It has cleaned up beautifully.
As I said, truly amazing.
Part 2 of today’s story – Also at the auction was Karen, our weaving teacher, who also happens to do machine embroidery art work. We now have to bow down to her as she recently won the PFAFF International Embroidery as Art Excellence Award for her piece Ruined Forest, which can be viewed at:
http://karenrichards.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13&Itemid=26#
As part of her prize, she got to fly and stay in London to accept her award as well as receiving a whoopee do sewing machine. Truly amazing… More details here .
And so I don’t have a post without an image, here is the feted artist herself.
Following on with the SEASHELL theme I decided to make use of the 8 shaft loom at TAFE and experiment with HONEYCOMB weave. For the last honeycomb weave I did, I used my 4 shaft loom.
With an 8 shaft loom I had more options. This was the sample piece.
And this is the where I went freeform – varying the size of the honeycomb cells in width and height, and varying the colour.
Now I’d like to start over again and perfect it as this piece has a few imperfections.
To be continued…
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