Sunday 21 October 2012

the long and winding road


workshops and wanderings in 2013
January 12-16 'wayfarer's wanderbook and windfall cloth', Titirangi, New Zealand please contact Heidi Monks

January 20-24 'wayfarer's wanderbook and windfall cloth', Lud Valley [near Nelson], New Zealand   please contact Judy Keylock

May 3,4,5 'landskin' retreat on the California Coast, please contact Claudia Grau

May 27,28,29 class in Brisbane, QLD, please contact Avril O'Brien 

July 8 - 12 Madeline Island, USA please visit Madeline Island School of the Arts' website for details

2 x three day workshops in Newburgh,Scotland, Windfall Cloth and Windfall Book, August 12-14 2013 and August 15-17  please contact info@hatinthecat.co.uk to register 








Friday 19 October 2012

Thursday 18 October 2012

excuse me?

shortly after registering my attendance at the Watermarks Paper conference this evening i was slightly stunned to see this


on pp 42 of CAN Journal, Cleveland.

for the record
i am not an employee of the University of South Australia [nor do i receive or desire any financial support from them]

and i would not describe myself [professionally] as a blogger

i maintain a blog principally for the benefit of past [and future] students and friends who want to keep up with developments without having to exchange emails

presently my income is derived from teaching, writing [books and magazine articles], costume design, exhibition work and  commissions. while that may change, professional blogging is not on the bucket list.

Wednesday 17 October 2012

magical colour at the Morgan [and some pix for Ma]


i have been staying in a wee treehouse here in Cleveland
and have made a friend just up the street
i asked my new friend if i could take some happy snaps for my Ma
and my new friend [who seems to be of the strong, silent type]
did not object
 
 

Fall is a splendid time of year to be making marks on paper
and what better place to be making those marks
than the renowned Morgan Conservatory?

they have the biggest dyepot i've ever seen
- it took two of us to lift it up onto the gas hob


the pot even has it's own wheelie thingummy to go underneath
in a shape i am most partial to.
[i had to restrain myself from attempting carparksurfing on it]


looking out the back we are surrounded by gorgeous industrial buildings
there is truly splendid brickwork here
all sorts of different brick bonds to be seen
i've spotted English Garden Wall bond and also Scottish Bond [similar to EGWB but with two extra rows of stretchers] which is [on this side of the puddle] called American Bond
 

and so we made colour
using bio-regional dye materials, most of them gathered outside the backdoor of the Morgan
with the inclusion of a gift from the Dogs Above
who had kindly arranged for a branch from a dark coloured Prunus
to be deposited on my doorstep






we had a small and nervous visitor
Tom Balbo kindly put him outside


more images can be found on Christine's pages and over at Lotta's

Monday 15 October 2012

shifting shapes...and other things

i suspect most of the students of the Shapeshifter class
did not sleep much last night
all arrived with garments ready to bundle


one in particular is on a mission
meet Chelsey Green
who went to San Francisco on a brief vacation
a few weeks ago
decided it was where she needed to be
and was taking a couple of classes from me
on
her
way 
to live there
+++

i think you'll agree she will be appropriately dressed









i had a similar dream at 17
but it fizzled
wishing you stardust and sunshine, Chelsey
and a happy life in my favourite city!

Sunday 14 October 2012

Friday 12 October 2012

warming ever more to Cleveland

i'm daily warming more and more to Cleveland
it's a wonderful place with an incredible diversity of interesting architecture

[this one looked to me to have Louis Sullivan's style, reminding me strongly of the Wainwright Building in St Louis]

there are masses of beautiful trees [even a 'Latvian Garden' which has a sculpture called Mara's Akmens - meaning Mara's Stone - that happily for me shares a name with my godmother]
then there's that lovely lake that changes colour seemingly by the minute
and fabulously friendly people [even at the bank] who offered heartfelt personal welcomes to their town

today Christine Mauersberger kindly drove me around 
so we could run a few errands together before the Shapeshifter class begins tomorrow
and gather a few more supplies [but this below wasn't one of them]


Heinen's at Rocky River blessed us with an abundance of bouquets

i visited the whirled renowned Morgan Conservatory to have a look at the workshop area prior to our class there next week


and i fell in love with yet another rusty bridge




and found poetry nearby


with my initials in it



Thursday 11 October 2012

unexpected paperwork

last night i absentmindedly used the Cleveland wandering map
[kindly provided by Christine]
as a coaster.
i didn't want the condensation running down the side of my glass
to mark the lovely floor in my treehouse

this morning i thought i might go for a wander
and went to dream over the map

which was thoroughly stuck together.

now when this kind of thing happens in the movies
[or when somebody goes to surreptitiously steam open correspondence not intended for their eyes]
they simply whip the offending item over the steaming kettle
and within seconds the problem is solved.

in this instance
the problem was DIS-solved
- clearly the producers of the map have designed it to decompose quickly in the event of irresponsible tourists dropping said item in the Cleveland landscape.

note to students in the up-coming paperdye class : if you were thinking of bringing a local map to include in your work, don't.

stick with undyed, unprinted papers please...

Wednesday 10 October 2012

more cleveland

i am so fortunate to be in the hands of the superbly capable momma bear extraordinaire
who not only organised four classes in Cleveland
found me a tree house
hung my exhibition [guided by handwritten notes from a cardboard box]
is fixing delicious lunches
collected me from the rental car depot [and has ferried me all over, even diverting for coffee in the mornings]
and today took The Precious
[the youngest of The Three] to the airport, so she could head back to dance school in Oz.

not content with all that
she gave The Precious an exquisite blouse on which there were many beautiful stitches.
sigh.
[i could become seriously accustomed to this rockstar lifestyle]

that picture is a tad gloomy

here's a better look

meanwhile the students were beavering away







good times.
great students in the class
and
loved catching up with Lotta and Kelly again




Sunday 7 October 2012

cleveland


the fall foliage is glorious here in Cleveland
as are the stars underfoot


the Dogs Above have smiled upon us and
our dyed samples flutter like prayerflags in the breeze


the squirrels have left us a few walnuts
the challenge was to combine
a walnut + cloth + string
and see what happened.