Stitches and Craft Fair

I went to the Stitches and Craft Fair at the Exhibition Buildings last week. And a good time was had by all!  I decided not to do any classes, as I wasn't really in the mood.  So I spent my money on THINGS instead!

From top to bottom:

Three books (obviously).  I had been looking for the Paintstiks one for a while.  I have quite a few Shiva sticks and have played with them, but this book pulls the techniques together quite succinctly.  The Stitch magazine (OK, not a book as such) I used to be able to buy in the newsagents but they haven;t had the last few copies, so that will be fun to read.  And the collage book was an afterthought, not actually bought at the fair but at a bookshop afterwards.  It looks like fun and I want to brush up on my collage skills, not that they are much to brush up on in the first place so maybe improving them might be in order.

Middle photo - yarn.  And two postcards from one of the yarn sellers showing some of the amazing stuff they do.  The two cones are (left) a fine dark denim merino (I know it looks black here) and the right hand one is a fine black and glittery mixture of cotton and stainless steel.  No, that is not a typo.  I think it might either be that Japanese Habu stuff, or else is similar.  They had a scarf there knitted in stocking stitch with the two yarns together and then lightly felted.  It looked amazing.  The yarns are incredibly fine and I will probably go bonkers trying to knit them together on biggish needles, but I don't have (and don't like) a knitting machine and want to have a go.  The turquoise and purple and green is actually a Habu yarn, raw silk I think, which I will knit in a very simple shallow V shaped shawlette/scarf thing on big needles.

Bottom photo - beady things.  A bead mat, which I had never got round to buying.  A twirly thing for making paper beads, and sparkle Mod Podge for sealing paper beads in a sparkle arkle way.Some new beading needles.  And a new set of pliers and things, because I am always losing the cheapy ones I have and because these come in a pretty case and include, I think, tweezers and a reamer, which I didn't have.

An expensive but fun day!

Birthday Loot

I had a very gratifying umpty umpteenth birthday a couple of days ago.  Not a significant number, but a significant number minus one.

Loot was acquired.

George gave me this gorgeous pendant.  It is an early 20th century print encased in resin in a silver setting.  It may or may not be Ernest Shepherd, the jewellery assistant had no idea what George was talking about!  I love that this is a mixed media technique that I know a lot about, translated into high quality silver smithing.

The flash bounced really badly off this.  Wombat gave me Michael Palin's diaries from the Monty Python years.

 Baby Bear gave me this exciting account of the REAL Robinson Crusoe.  Someone pointed out to me that I have an eclectic taste in literature.  They are dead right!  And unbeknown to me, Baby Bear has joined the whole reuse and repurpose art thing.  Apparently some time ago she cut up all her Mr Men books from her babyhood and turned them into cards.  This is obviously the first one I have seen!

 I always buy myself a birthday present.  It was these two books.

 My mother-in-law bought me this apron at a country show recently.  Not because she thinks I need to spend more time in the kitchen, but because she knows I enjoy doing just that, and thought I ought to be more colourful when I do it.

One sister-in-law made me this gorgeous little bag out of Moda fabrics and hid this resin necklace in it.  I might use the bag for a sock knitting bag.

And George took me out for coffee.  Doesn't everyone eat chocolate mousse for breakfast on their birthday?  Bobby helped.  He thought it might be too much for me to manage on my own.


My mum gave me a gift card and my other SIL is recovering from food poisoning so is rather out of action at the moment.  All in all I had a lovely day and felt thoroughly spoilt.

Loot

I went to the Stitches and Craft Show in Melbourne yesterday, and generally had a good time.  There was lots of interesting stuff to see, and to wonder over, and some of it followed me home...

There was some cool textile art, like this from Prudence Mapstone, which was as amazing as everything she does (and it was nice to say hello to her again too).

The Quilt Show was obviously very popular though I admit that to my tastes there are never enough 'art quilts'.  I really do admire the work and the patience and the artistry of the more conventional quilts that are there - I would never in a million years be able to sit down and do them - but I seem to gravitate towards the more weird and demented types of art quilt these days.

All in all a fun (and expensive!) day out.

Friday Update - the Sequel

I had fun at the Australian Quilt Convention! See the goodies I bought.

There was interesting quilts there, too. As usual, I liked the smaller art quilts the best, but could appreciate (and like) a lot of the more traditional quilting as well.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself. But I came away feeling perturbed about something. The three years I spent studying textile art was supposed to enable me to discover my 'voice' and come away with a defined body of work which I would build upon for ever afterwards. In one way I did discover my 'voice', the very detailed bead embroidery that I love the best of everything. But nobody is ever likely to pay the price for that sort of work that I would like to sell it for, so I am unlikely to make money out of it. Maybe I could write and (probably) self-publish books on it, which is a possibility but would still not make money in any serious way. I am a lousy teacher - too impatient. There are other things I love to do too. Nothing I bought today had anything to do with bead embroidery (I already own the books I like the best on that subject, though there may be some new ones that I don't know about yet!) but with other things that I have already experimented with but want more inspiration and technique to encourage me. I have had a couple of forays into selling on Etsy, or rather NOT selling on Etsy, though I am planning to start again. There is also an Australian equivalent that I am building a shop for ... From the market research I have done, for things to succeed in these online marketplaces they need to be reasonably inexpensive and postable (obviously), and preferably have a unique selling point. I am working on things like this.

Anyway, that isn't meant to be a rant or suggest that I have not enjoyed my day nor that I am not feeling creative. But I wonder if I suffer from some art-related form of ADD - can't I stick to any one thing but have to keep experimenting and trying to find new things to try? All of which require new supplies and books. If only I could add the hyperactivity part to it - I am so slow to get anything off the ground.

And now I will indulge in the wonderful procrastination of doing nothing about any of it, but drinking tea and knitting a sock instead. Oh, and I might start to flick through those new books!

Because I can

The result of some idle playing with photo software on a quiet Saturday afternoon. The top left picture in the grid is the real picture (they are on sale in my Etsy shop) but I had a bit of fun fiddling around.

And the other half

OK, it's only just occurred to me that Picasa only uploads four pictures at a time no matter how many you marked!!! I couldn;t not post this other four, the toilet in the garden is just priceless!

Chris and Mary-Lou Pittard, Potters

Yesterday we also visited Wendy's next door neighbours, Chris and Mary-Lou Pittard, who are potters. I took quite a few pictures of their lucious pottery, as you can see!

Stitched Up Festival, Wangaratta

Two weeks on and I haven't blogged about this!

We had to leave Melbourne earlier than usual to drop Sirius off with her dog minder, so i got an extra hour in Wangaratta. This gave me a chance to go to the aerodrome plus some exhibitions in the town itself.

I fear that a semester of 'art school' has turned me into an artistic snob. I found myself going around the exhibits at the aerodrome muttering under my breath. There was some lovely stuff there, certainly, but nearly everything that won a first prize in its section was so conventional, while the wilder stuff rarely got even a commendation. There was a lovely series of A5 embroideries, for instance, that made me think of encrusted corsets - lots of exciting techniques and effects - and absolutely nothing for them. That artist did win a prize in another section, but with the most conventional (and least interesting) of her pieces.

It was nice to see a lot of (excellent) work from High School dressmaking students, demonstrating some really nice flair for what they did. Some of them should be wearing some nice clothes in the future.

Then we popped into town and went into one of the wool/patchwork shops. Upstairs there was a small exhibition of (mostly) small art quilts. They blew me away. Some of the best work I had seen in a long time, and one of the artists was doing something that I have been contemplating for a while, and I came away full of inspiration. I also bought some Opal sock wool (currently being turned into a pair of Feather and Fan socks for me - the first 'lace' socks I have knitted!) and some hand dyed fat eights.

Then there was an embroidery exhibition that was also pretty exciting. Some of it was, again, quite conventional, but the level of technique was so high that I forgave it (after all I use some quite conventional techniques myself!) A few times I found myself thinking 'yes, I;ve read that book too' as I could tell where the particular techniques had come from, which made me smile.

Again I came away feeling inspired and enthusiastic.

At the last minute I dashed into an exhibition of church embroideries - which was way over the top, I don't really like ecclesiastical textiles much though there were two lovely Australiana themed pieces that were refreshing and beautiful.

N is for Natural Dyes

I am fascinated by natural dyeing, though I am forced to admit that this is the only lot I have actually done! It is my homespun, dyed with lemon-scented gum. I used alum as the mordant, it being the only one I had to hand (it's used in swimming pools). Actually getting other mordants has put me off a bit - they would all have to be got mailorder or by trecking across town. Yes, they are poisonous too, but then I keep poisonous dyes in the shed too so the mordants could be stored there.

I am now keen on trying it out with fabrics. I have been reading about rust dyeing, and one of my tutors last semester had done a lot of cloth dyeing with dirt. I met a textile artist last weekend who had been using local plants to great effect, too. 

Project Spectrum - June - Blue

Rather late, but here are the pics from the gorgeous stuff sent to me by Carolyne. The teddy bear is just too, too cute! She also made me a darling little needlecase out of Japanese fabrics. There was also fabrics, threads, beads, a necklace and earrings, and some yummy Lindt chocolate which did not make it to the photo!! 

Project Spectrum - May - Green - Project Colourswap

Sneaking in JUST before the end of May, here is a picture of the glorious goodies that Celia sent me. The two balls of Anny Blatt funky stuff will probably go into freeforming - it has funny bits sticking out of it and will be perfect in lots of freeformy type things! The roving I will either spin or needlefelt. The embroidery threads will go into my stash of very special threads and will turn up in something crafty some time. I felt very spoilt, thank you Celia! 

Project Spectrum - March - Red/Pink