Preparation

I am getting ready for the Fibre Forum in Ballarat. I am doing a machine stitching class with Alison Withers, it was to have been Carol Shinn, however she was unable to come. I have seen Alison's work and it is truly brilliant. I thought I would like to use some sections of my own paintings, and peraps incorporate them into the original painting. These are some of the paintings I am thinking about. This is a mola I had to do for Uni work, but I quite like it the best of the ones I did. This painting is an extravagent version of the laneway opposite. It is as yet unresolved, quite a small painting, but as I have said before I am quite excited by the lanes around the inner city. This last is my most recent quilt, for Kate who was my neighbour, for only a year, but I miss her a lot as she was a bit of a regular at the predinner drink time. Anyway she went off and married a lovely man and they have bought a house at the beach so this is for the beach house...nothing spectacular, but made with love. These little creatures are for little Hugh, another 'new' neighbour. I made the one on the left first and a friend told me it was scary so I made the other, took them both to Hugh's parents and they wanted them both....so there you are. Feeling a bit glum at the moment and wondering how a week of stitching will go. I am doing things until I get sore as I am going mad not "Making" I am getting there but it is taking such a long time.

Buckets

Here are some of the buckets for the assignment. What do you do with 3D things when they are finished with?.........

here I am again

I am back after a very long time and realise I miss the blogs, I am back because I can not use my right thumb and you can imagine how distressing that is for a craft/art person....you try it! I thought I could share how of late my art work has changed. I realise how very fortunate I am and I have decided to work in the volunteer world. As a result I have begun a small group and we are making things for the less lucky. We are knitting for KOGO which is an anachronym for" Knit One Give One" and making toys for "Mirabel" for children at risk. I am also working for a group called "Stitches" (nothing to do with sewing) working in after school programs for kids in the highrise inner city flats, mostly non Australian born kids. I am setting up a worksheet and the whatever is required from our craft stocks, for a craft "play" in the park. This is a "crown" for the yong kids with straws, pipecleaners and balls....we have lots of these things to play with. More of that later in the meantime...so we can have some pictures I will show you what other things I have been doing.I have stopped Uni for a while, but we had to do 10 things with buckets and here is one of them This is a recent painting, it is not quite finished, I think the balance is not quite right and I want to do some stitching when I get my hand back. It is quite large but I am fairly pleased so far.

Lots happening

I have justfinished my second assignment for the term so I have time to post. The torsoes were submitted for the exhibition and rejected by my little art society in the suburbs of Melbourne (with a membership of 180) on the grounds that they were not a painting, My answer....do you think this is the Archibald prize? To which the answer...."rules is rules" or words to that effect. All hell is breaking out up there. My teacher is great and I have lots of friends who are abstract painters up there, but in order to have preference to show....Bowl of flowers...with white dot! Enough of that, if any of you are Mapp and Lucia people it is very "Tilling" and I can't help laughing about it all. Had the best time at Geelong Fibre Arts this year and worked with Bob Adams...a lovely gentle man, and we did discharge of various sorts on fabric. It was a super class with lovely people These are two pieces I made. The first is a little book I made up of a stitch-resest piece of black fabric...a tea cup.The second ie 4 small pieces a bit larger than A4 tracing the narrative of a cup. This was one of the possibilities for my assignment for Uni. I wrote a piece of doggerel to tell the story, but would feel diffident about airing it on this post. In this I used thiorox mixed with an alginate...manutex and did a monoprint for each one then added the cup with some stitching. I will post some of my assignment pieces tomorrow. I can not recommend Open University too much it is a fabulous way to study at your own pace. I am lucky that being a pensioner I can afford it, I do feel guilty a bit about having all this for free, but hopefully it will save the country ultimately, if I stave off the dementia!

electrical box

Well it did become a book in a box I used the plates for the side and the feet are little plastic electrical 'somethings' and the handle is one of those cords with loops on the end and I screwed them in.

Electric bag

For some extraordinary reason I could not download on the post before so here is the bag!

Electric

I have been working on the "challenge" I asked the local electrician if he could put his rubbish in a box and he kindly left it for me to pick up. I spent the next few days pulling bits apart it was truly cathartic as awful things were happening in my life. Well the "studio" began to encroach on the House as a whole. I was though amazed at the shapes and intricacies which were inside the pieces so decided to photograph them. Then realised how many "faces" there were: It was then that complications set in...my friend Trish would have found the solution out of the problem very rapidly, her skill is to set herself a difficult task and then see it through to the end. I tend to set the bar considerably lower...well I made a book and covers out of the switch plates I now think that the whole book idea may become a "book in a box"....who knows I have one more day to make my decisions...oh what a dilemma!I did however make a bag out of beads and electic wire .