Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Photo shoot

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 VCE folio 10

Kayla VCE folio 14

Kayla VCE folio 6

Kayla VCE folio 17

Kayla designed, made and modeled her creation beautifully, along with plenty of support from her teacher, Annemaree.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Weaving and Roses

honeycomb weaving framed

The seashell themed honeycomb weaving, blogged about here, here and here,framed with watercolour paper.

 

flower 5

And a perfect rose photographed in my mother’s garden.

Friday, December 25, 2009

Christmas Day

Christmas tree 2009

Our last minute Christmas tree – minimalist look this year.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

I’ve won something else!

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.

image

Beautiful. Can’t wait till they arrive. And being a novice weaver myself, they will truly be appreciated.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Late reporting of trip to Grampians. Beware – photo laden post.

Mitty and I went to the Grampians for a couple of days in late Spring, specifically to check out the wildflowers.

Grampians

Grampians 2

Grampians 3

Well recognisable landscapes of the Grampians.

Grampians 5 

So many kangaroos in the one spot.

Grampians 6

Looking for wildflowers.

Grampians 4

Had to drive very slowly to avoid a head on with kangaroos.

Grampians 7

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.’

Grampians 9

Another typical Grampians scene.

Grampians - $95 worth groceries

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.

Grampians - my luggage and Mitty's luggage

And this is kinda embarrassing. On the left we have my luggage and on the right we have Mitty’s luggage.

THE WILDFLOWERS

Grampians - common correa

Common correa

Grampians - daisy

I know it’s a daisy but that’s about it.

Grampians - donkey orchid

The common donkey orchid ‘diuris’.

Grampians - everlasting

Everlasting daisy.

Grampians - fringe lily

Fringe lily.

Grampians - goodenia

Goodenia.

Grampians - green combed spider orchid

Green combed spider orchid.

Grampians - holly grevillea

Holly Grevillea.

Grampians - grevillea 2

Grevillea but unsure what type.

Grampians - pea flower

Pea flower.

Grampians - pea flower 2

Pea flower.

Grampians - pink finger 2

Pink Finger orchid.

Grampians - running postman

Running postman pea flower.

Grampians - salmon sun orchid

Salmon sun orchid.

Grampians - swamp goodenia

Swamp goodenia.

Grampians - tinsel lily

Tinsel lily.

Grampians - wildflower 1

Grampians - wildflower 2

Grampians - wildflower 5

Grampians - wildflower 6

Grampians deer

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.

Surprise, surprise

nablo.blewit.1109.120x90

Monday, November 30, 2009

How lucky can one be?

I have just found out that I have won this book

color-cloth-book

by leaving a comment on this blog post by Erin – House on Hill Road. I have been a fan of Malka’s work for quite some time.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

What’s happening?

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.

lime cordial

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.

baby alpaca spun

What is happening in the back yard…

Water lilies in the duck pond.

water lilies

Plentiful supply of yabbies.

yabbies in net

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Truly amazing…

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.

image

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Amazing colour from beach flotsam

A visit to Crazy Kate’s beach near Peterborough produced this…

 

Beach flotsam 2 with border_resize 

Beach flotsam 3 with border_resize

 

Friday, November 13, 2009

Weaving – Interior Project Part 3

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.

8 shaft freeform honeycomb

And this is the where I went freeform – varying the size of the honeycomb cells in width and height, and varying the colour.

8 shaft freeform honeycomb 2

Now I’d like to start over again and perfect it as this piece has a few imperfections.

To be continued…