midsummer/midwinter

in seven days time

i will be in Hollywood

showing a few dresses, some wraps and

a couple of other things

which seems a little surreal

and

possibly even comic, when you think about where i live

and how i work

right now

i'm enjoying some boil-ups

under

the watchful gaze of the angel

[wearing a beautiful crown - thank you Ben and Sally]

the colours are singing

and so is Miss Pigsley

she wants MORE.

not sure exactly what of,  but more.

Boston [wearing a fetching coat]

is hanging about sympathetically

if you're in LA on June 21 [the solstice eve] do swing by the Grau Haus

the gardenias are flowering

and we'll give you a warm welcome

que?

opening the mail this morning i nearly choked on my porridge

when i read the unequivocal statement below

while the second sentence is true,

my response to the first was quite simply "bollox".

if you don't know what that means, good.

if you do, be assured that i have put a gold-coloured coin into the swear jar.

the reason green is traditionally considered to be a "difficult to achieve" colour is quite simply because of the way the plants have been processed.

most water supplies contain at least a little sodium

which tends to make everything yellow.

if you're lucky enough to live in Philadelphia

or Göttingen or other places where the water is rich in calcium; or if your water comes from a copper-rich bore/well then you'll be familiar with beautiful greens too

 or you could go play at Mount Tamborine

where the climate and soil and magic-in-the-air gave us lovely greens

there's an old Japanese dyeing family whose name sadly escapes me for now

but you could google them if you had half an hour to spare, Dr something-beginning-with-K

spoke at the UNESCO dye conference in Hyderabad in 2006

and i distinctly recall him showing slides of the 167 repeatable and named 

shades of green that his family could dye to order

[i'm pretty sure there must be either copper or calcium or both in their water]

their sample books go back over six or seven generations.

the samples above were dyed at Gore, New Zealand

and here's a link to the process we used at Warrnambool, Victoria

bundle-dyeing or ecoprinting [much the same thing]

is by far the best way to achieve greens

as the outside of the bundle acts as a filter

so what reaches the inside is relatively pure steam

without nasties that will dull the greens or change them to gold

and if you've pre-soaked your cloth

in a diluted copper+vinegar solution 

[NOT copper sulphate, it is toxic and corrosive]

success is guaranteed.

now that i've got that off my chest

i'll clear up the mess of spluttered porridge

and get back to the dyepot...

its contents have to be packed and on a plane on Tuesday.

mercy it's June already

i suspect the first six months of this year slipped while i was looking the other way

because 

quite suddenly

it appears to be June

i should be pruning my roses

instead, i have been smelling other people's [er, roses, that is]

i headed south from the mango forest

stopping only to assist with a dyepot

and

plumbed new depths of ingenuity [sacrificing a bit of alfoil in the process]

to keep a fire going in torrential rain

[yes, i got wet, but this time i had the sense not to wear my cowboy boots]

at Tamborine Mountain we found blue skies

and more glorious greens in the dyepot

[my friend R murmured something about that being Queensland in winter]

i am treated to perfect coffee

and drink it standing on the red earth AND by the trees

that it grew on

i think that pretty much defines 'terroir'.

once again we had canine guidance

[there are so many lovely dogs around the whirled]

inspired by the bundle above, we unfurled the dresses to the tune of

'do or die' [spelling it differently in our heads] 

from the album 'teeth and bones' by John Fohl

i could happily have hung around here for a while longer

but

it wasn't possible

+ + +

heading much further south a day later

i turned up at Glenmore House as the sun was setting

in time to filch a few leaves from the roadside

we spent an intense day

working colour into winter wraps

using local windfalls

and

in the evening

i found another friend

but now, by way of something completely different

 i'm on the way home

to sew and dye

for a trunk show in Hollywood

[no, not dreaming!]

shapeshifting in paradise

imagine a wild garden with twenty five ENORMOUS mango trees

[bigger than those oaks and buckeyes in California, to put them into perspective for those reading on the other side of the pond]

and

a rosa mutabilis, a persimmon, an abundance of citrus

ferns growing with weedlike vigour

bougainvillea, eucalyptus

Avril's garden was frankly heavenly and it was unalloyed joy to be in it for three days.

we worked on a beautiful porch

supervised by Winston

who sometimes found the responsibility exhausting

we had a quiet but curious visitor

who may have been attracted by the dressmaking tools

that were being made

[a whirled without string is a whirled in chaos]

i was introduced to the 'ice cream bean'

whose botanical name Inga edulis sounds like she could be Latvian :o)

there is fluffy stuff inside

which is fabulously delicious

 

 

the usual suspects

which opened up to

the 'shapeshifter' class really keeps me on my toes

because everybody arrives with different cloth

and their personal collection of pre-loved goodness

ready to transform 

and

it is my responsibility to make sure that everybody goes home happy

with something beautiful

the Dogs Above were kind

i wore my hoodie because it was cool

[i meant the weather, but the hoodie is too]

and that gave some people ideas

i usually frown on people bringing tumeric to class

but those yellow spots there

were from the home-grown variety

[curiously that fern print later oxidised to a golden brown]

 my grey cells had a lot of exercise

and

i had a very happy three days

thank you, everybody

in case you want to wrap yourself up...

just a couple of places remain

in the one-day wrapclass at the Grau Haus

as far as i can count on my fingers, the only other workshop places left this year

will be at Maiwa in September and in Portland in November

most all the other ones are taken

and

the diary is making squeaky noises and popping at the seams

so

it's highly unlikely i will be adding anything else to the schedule this year

especially if i am to realise that other project 

that's warming to a simmer

on the back hob

happiness + hey ho, hey ho, it's off to work i go

driving to the airport this morning

through swirling fog and mist

watching the dawn light break through to the treetops

i realised that what my work is about

is happiness.

i might be pootling off to teach people how to shapeshift in cloth

or make an ecoprint bundle, or felt a landskin

or magic colour into paper and make a book

but no matter what the subject of the class

the outcome is happiness

which comes from the magic that mother nature creates

when we set the stage in a certain way

by paying attention to small things

leaves, sticks, stones, a rusty bottlecap or a shred of aluminium foil

and wrap those bundles that are really presents to ourselves

and by coincidence, this morning's mailbox had something from
Zen Habits ...The Little Book of Contentment
you may want to have a look [confess i haven't read it yet
- will do that later in the day]

wishing y'all a happy day

....i'm optimistic for mine!

pescadero sloppy hoodie

i am going to be so snuggly warm in my hoodie

stacking rocks at dawn on the Atlantic coast next month

the photos [using shake-it photo app] don't really do it justice

[but they make old-fashioned polaroid noises come out of the batfone]

stitching a few shiny pearl buttons on

to ward off the evil eye [just in case]

and of course

there is a pocket for a poem

a mite overexposed...

carpe diem and a mailbox mystery

when i was much much younger

i thought that 'carpe diem' meant 'a fish a day'

[a bit like the doctor-deterring apple]

now i know it means something else and is quite Sagittarian.

[that Nike slogan 'just do it' sums us up quite well

and though it can sometimes lead to trouble

most times i find it a good plan]

anyhoo

when the Dogs Above were having me land stateside a couple of days early next month

i took it as a sign that they wanted me to do something there.

and when i floated the idea to my friend Claudia at the GrauHaus

she thought it showed signs of promise as well.

which means that if you're in Hollywood and at a loose end on the solstice  

you might like to join us for a day of play [and delicious lunch]

[if you're in Australia earlier in June, your playdate could have been found here, except that i just checked and it looks as though it could be booked out]

and thank you so very much to all those who took the time to comment on the previous post

especially if you had trouble with google and had to resort to trailing through the contact page on my website to encourage your pigeon to fly - it means a lot to me

awaiting a few more quotes from printers and then i shall be taking that big leap off the diving board

[fingers crossed no-one takes the plug out of the pool]

finally

i do love getting stuff in the mail

but

this one has my grey cells morris-dancing [with bells on, in nineteen different positions]

.... why is it that i can think of at least nine people whose hand-writing is just like this?

+

+

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thoughts?

 back in 2008, on the ides of January to be quite precise, I dipped my toes into the sometimes murky waters of the whirled of blogging for the very first time, posting a first experimental scrawl on the wall, just to see if [as I wrote then] the paint would stick and what sort of fish one might catch with it.

and I have to say that the fishing has been such fun. I’ve been frankly astonished that 1143 of you are swinging by regularly and delighted to meet quite a few of you out in the real whirled, at classes, exhibitions and the occasional conference.

 

The blog has given me a chance to share some roadpix, tell stories and sometimes rant a bit. [sigh. The latter isn’t really the most effective way to spend my remaining and precious days on the planet]

And when it comes to the crunch, reading a blog

involves scrolling down a screen. On a machine.

 

I’m a girl who likes turning pages, preferably with a delicious beverage in hand…whether that’s Bombay, Bourbon or simply a fragrant cup of Lady Grey tea [loose leaf, Twinings]…and while turning pages I also like to make marks on them. scribble in the margins. Underline. Maybe paste in something extra that I’ve found elsewhere. A smear of dark chocolate for fragrance [but only if the crumbs have fallen on the page, dark chocolate is meant to be eaten]

 

I like a book I can stuff into a small bag or a biggish pocket. Something I can build on in wanderings. Mutable, not fixed. Good paper stock. Something that makes me want to write and draw in it

 

So I am cooking a plan [y’all know how I LOVE to cook]. I’ll be launching it on the coming solstice [midsummer for those in the North, mid-winter if you’re in the South]

 

There will be actual pages. A good big handful of them.

They will arrive, beautifully bound, three times a year. There will be pictures

Stories from wanderings. Charms to murmur over the cauldron. [And in amongst the other treasures, those recipes you’ve been asking for…the ones for things to eat]

There may be

Precious pieces of ecoprint cloth and there will be patterns for things you will want to make and wear.

And of course other amusing [and useful] surprise presents because, frankly, presents are fun.

 

It means

You’ll be able to look over my shoulder while relaxing in your favourite armchair with a furry friend

or on a grassy hillside or while wriggling your toes in warm sand

or strapped into your seat while the captain is revving for take-off

But

Perhaps not while in the swimming pool.

 

The pages might get soggy.

So, what do you think? want to come along for the ride?