Silk surprise

As I was leaving paid employment this afternoon the courtyard area was emptied of intruders - just the blustery wind and me left to argue over a piece of red silk. I love the public art in and around the streets of Ipswich - so many ideas, and 40 more circuits of the sun left to do it all!  Thanks for your comments Sue - I still want to know how you get the little bits of shiva off the tiles in the motel rooms. WMBM and I spent quite some time on our knees in New Zealand scraping minuscule bits of gold, cooper and iridescent charcoal from the floor tiles.

Leafy surprises and cannon rubbings ...

My friend Kate released a book into the wild at our place some time ago. I read the book. The pages of the book then gifted me two beautiful leaves from Canberra - perfectly dried and exquisitely Canberra. I cut the leaf shape out of template stencil with a surgeon-like cutting knife (the book was The Surgeon of Crowthorne) then pressed some gold shiva onto baking paper. Dib. Dib. Dab. Dab. I used a small sponge to transfer shiva over the stencil and onto hand dyed pieces of silk and fabric. Thank you Kate.
Speaking of shivas ... WMBM has requested  a set of fabric pieces and shiva sticks so that he doesn't have to wait about for me if he sees something worth rubbing. While wandering Russell in New Zealand recently, we did our first "joint" rubbing -  a beautiful cannon (that fires cannon balls ... not of the religious kind). The effect was gorgeous and part of that fabric now graces the binding of my entry for World Quilt. There are still 5 days left to meet the deadline for submission ... see Sue Dennis' website for full details. Thank you WMBM.


The cannon @ Russell,  NZ



Treading on beauty

One of the best things about having a really rude cardiologist (as opposed to the new and really nice one) is that you can spend a few minutes outside with the camera in the carpark debating whether you suck it up (the rudeness and the god complex) or stick it up (and attempt an adult discussion about the value of listening, respect and how his 70% statement of accuracy does not inspire confidence. I opted for the latter approach).

They say success has a thousand fathers while failure is an orphan. The feedback didn't go as well as I'd intended so Orphan Ali and camera headed off to the carpark to seek solace and beauty underfoot. Leaves, roots and nuts - treading on beauty.

Aubergine and leaves .. Round 2

I waited for the glass walled coffee shop to close beside our Ipswich Office and headed out with the fabric and shivas for "Round 2" of the leaf rubbings. The coffee shop has a "fish bowl" view of the leaf panels and it's a much easier process to pop out after 3pm. Round 3 will be to rub some individual leaves and look at bonding them  to the front ... very much a work and idea in progress.

Aubergine leaves and shivas

Aubergine is one of my favourite procion dye colours - along with Moroccan red - but yesterday aubergine prevailed. This is the piece I rubbed from the leafy public art in Ipswich which I did not heat set.  The shiva has provided an interesting resist for the dye - and when I'm in Ipswich next week I'll do more rubbings with the shivas and see how much depth can be achieved with the layering. I'll remember to heat set after the next rubbings!


Leaf rubbings in shiva