Materials ... and materials

Spent today deconstructing a vacuum cleaner and a Swedish Facit calculator (they were somewhere in between abacus and battery operated hand held devices in the 70s) - and with hundreds and hundreds of pieces and a perfect afternoon in the studio ... played with hybrid forms. Lots of interesting things happen when a material is taken out of its original context and re-imagined. Cogs become scales, armour plating, flower gardens - hoses become defense systems and numeric keys turn into feathers. Experiment. Experiment. Experiment. Plenty of ideas for mark making and fabric too ...  great to be getting some "zing" back!

SAQA and Sentinels at the Festival of Quilts

Wonderful to be back at the Festival of Quilts in 2014 - and be able to share SAQA's 25th Anniversary Trunk show with so many visitors. caught up with Dijanne Cevaal who brought the Sentinels exhibition to Adelaide - spectacular exhibitions and wonderful to be able to see it in the cloth, as was Brenda Gael Smith's  Living Colour exhibition adjacent to my SAQA table. 

Life in Layers workshop - Adelaide

The SA Guild sure knows how to put on a workshop and look after a tutor.  Life in Layers at the Fullerton Centre was made so much easier with a great group and fabulous support crew. Ten participants each explored a different concept or idea about life through lots of experimentation and sharing of techniques, brought together in the creation of an art quilt - very challenging, inspiring and a pleasure to share Life in Layers with such an open and thought provoking group.We were able to effectively start the workshop weeks ahead of our get together through an online component so that when we finally met in Adelaide, a lot of pre-thinking and visual diary work had already been completed ... or ideas progressed sufficiently to let us make the most of our two days together. A fabulous weekend! Thank you everyone.

Murray River flows again ...

A wonderful few days at Victor Harbour and making the trip to see the mouth of the mighty Murray river - an exquisite experience crossinh the controversial Hindmarsh island bridge, then travelling a further 10 - 15 minutes to see the ocean The foliage was sublime - muted and softened in what must be a rather harsh environment. Next stop (for those thinking of swim) ... Antarctica.