Journeys Sold

I have just sold my piece Journeys which is very exciting. It is all well and good to sell thousands of metres of fabric you have dyed and painted but another thing all together to sell artwork.

It was beaded on painted timtex and the focal point is a beautiful piece of dicroic glass made by Nancy Geddes.

Of course there is other work for sale on my website if you are interested and everytime something sells it is reinforcement of my new life as an artist.

More on Take it Further

Other things are getting in the way with this challenge as the year starts to wake up. We are madly preparing for the Australian Quilt Convention in Melbourne in a few short weeks. As usual our house looks like a fabric factory with boxes and hand dyed fabric everywhere. Not helped by Peter finally taking his dream trip to India to a major book fair in Calcutta. I don't cope well with heat, crowds and lots of walking so I am staying home this time - upcoming quilt deadline also helped make the decision easier.

But I inch along slowly on my challenge.
I have cut a stamp using my tentmakers quilt detail. First one was not too good as the lines don't match so I cut another with just the motif. Worked a bit better.



Stamped onto hand dyed fabrics (of course) and now I need to put it together with some of the words Jenny has inspired me with.





Hopefully it will be finished in time but if not........

Take it Further Challenge - January

I am taking part in the Take it Further Challenge which is being organised by Sharon of In a Minute Ago

Each month there is a key concept. The challenge is to take the idea, develop it and push it towards a resolved design during that month. If you don't like the concept there is a shape or colour that you can work with instead.

For the January Challenge you have to think about the feeling of admiration we have for another. Who do you look up to and admire? Why? What is it you admire about them? MMM - difficult as it changes often so I thought about the January colour scheme instead. But I always work with colour and if this is to be a challenge then I should really try a bit harder.

So - who???
Well this was helped as I was going through my ever growing list of daily blogs which is an obsessive passion and I opened up my friend Jenny Bowker's blog. Jenny is an Australian living in Cairo but she travels extensively teaching quilting all over the world and her work is inspiring. She is actually on her way to the US to teach at Road to California where she is always popular.

Her latest post was about New Years Eve in Cairo and as usual, I was immediately transported there by her words. She has the amazing talent not only for creating the most amazing quilts but her use of language is astounding. So I chose her (after getting her permission to quote some of her work) and now comes the hard part.

Will keep you posted but at the moment am thinking of using some of her phrases in the New Year post as I am really keen on trying some lettering onto fabric. I want to tie them into the design of the egyptian tentmakers wallhanging I bought last year when Jenny brought them to the AQC in Melbourne.

Here are some fragments of it. Even the colours are close.

More Embellishing

Here is my latest piece. I think it still needs a little more but thought I would post anyway. Any comments or suggestions appreciated.

First made a piece of prefelt with rovings and some organza.

Then cut this piece up into rectangles and then diagonally and placed on 2in squares of acrylic felt





The placed on a grid on some green felt and felted down. The detail in the little pieces get a bit lost . I tried doing it from both sides but didn't like the green coming through to the top. Consequently there are lots of visible holes in the squares which I don't really like.

Also felted some nobbly yarns onto the grid.

Bit of simple stitching with yellow perle cotton but I think it still needs a little more something. I will block it so it lies flat.

Books to Devour

I heard an interview on radio a couple of weeks ago with Marlena De Blasi who was talking about her life in Italy in a little town called Orvieto. This rang a pleasant bell as we spent a little time there over Easter one year and it was one of those places you don't forget easily. It is a medieval village perched on a hill in Umbria.


She was so interesting that I decided to buy her book but on further exploration I discovered it was the third in a series. The first two - A Thousand Days in Venice (my favourite place in the world) and A Thousand Days in Tuscany (pretty special place too).

So as Amazon didn't seem to think the Orvieto one was out yet - I bought the first two.
She is a chef and a traveller and a romantic and is telling the tale of her love affair peppered with images of favourite places and food. What could be better.

I am already half way through the first one.

Odd Fabric Find

I was in a charity/thrift/Salvation Army store today and this pair of pants caught my eye. Not to wear myself of course (my lower half is far too large) but the fabric is 100% silk and great colours. So for $5 I think I have a bargain.

It wasn't till I got it home I looked at the design more carefully and realised what a strange design. Can understand why someone gave it away but hopefully bits of it will appear in a quilt someday.

La Clique

Last night we were lucky enough to have snagged some tickets for the Sydney Festival's La Clique which is one of the booked out hits of the Festival.
It is performed in the 'Famous Spiegeltent' (famous is included in its name).


Although of course you can't take photos during the performance I did snap this one at interval.

The stage to the left was where Marlene Dietrich actually sang Falling in Love Again in 1930. The tent is an original antique mirror tent built in Belgium in 1920. It is built of wood and mirrors and has a parquetry dance floor, glass etchings and detailed in velvets and brocades. It is a wonderful venue.
La Clique was a wonderous collection of circus type acts but most with a twist. One of the hits was Captain Frodo - the Rubber Man- who managed to contort his double jointed body through two tennis rackets (strings removed) whilst getting tangled up with microphone cords and a stool. You watched between your fingers as you just cringed as his two elbows met together on one side or both his knees wrapped around his head. I also loved Bath Boy - an extremely hunky man in jeans using a bath full of water as the starting point for an aerial act which sawa him swinging all over the tent covering most of the first few rows in bath water. Plastic sheets were thoughtfully provided although did little for protection.

It was a wonderful night although the rendition of Star Spangled Banner played on a kazoo inserted into an interesting female orifice did take me back to a certain performance in Bangkok which featured marker pens which still haunts me to this day.

Water

I have been asked to contribute a small piece for a larger work of art by a friend. The topic is recycled water and we have been asked to provide a textile and a word or two which means something to us.

I found a wonderful piece of hand dyed silk at my local thrift store and so as that is recycled I thought I would use a small piece of it. My word is refresh so I have beaded it onto the silk.

I quite like the effect so may be using it further. I hope it is what she wanted.

Finished Another

Finished the embellished piece I showed earlier in December.

Added more yarn to the top and the gold foil which was on the first layer is still peeking through which is nice

I did some wonky herringbone stitching with some hand dyed variagated thread which I have had for about 4 years so I felt quite virtuous.

More stitching - probably needs a name but I am not very good at names. Any ideas?