More domesticness....

I got into a cooking mood last night. I decided to make up enough meals and luches to get us though the week so that when the cooking urge dissappears (as it tends to around Wednesday), I would still have some nice meals to dish up without too much hassle. Otherwise it'll be off for takeaway and the wallet is feeling the punch from that. It also means that I can now play and create this week, cause I don't have to worry about cooking.

I (we) have another challenge but I can't say too much 'cause it's a secret!! All will be revealed in a few weeks time....

Exhibitions...

I went last week to an exhibition that was quite intrigueing. Intrude Contemporary Art (the sister gallery to the one where we exhibited) has an exhibition called "Open for Inspection". The gallery was set up as a house, with various artists submitting works which fitted the domestic theme. Textile flowers in a textile vase, a lazy chair made of tennis balls, a kithen made up completely of black and white checked fabric, and other gems.

Another exhibition which I should get along to is one that Loobylu has also pointed out, a textile/fashion exhibition on at NGV - Akira Isogawa - that looks interesting too. The write up says that the exhibition looks at the creative process that Akira Isogawa embarks on. This is what I'd like to see - how other people approach the design process. To me this can be just as inspiring as the finished works.

Domesticity

Despite my promises to myself, I didn't finish my flickr challenges. Life and work got in the way as usual, as it is again today. I'm off to tidy up the house before my brother comes over, but that should give me a good fresh start for next week. I am to have both flickr challenge pieces done by the end of the week, cause I really have no idea how long it's going to take to get to Canada...

Flickr challenge progress

As promised, I set to work on my Flickr challenge pieces last night. As I was still struggling with my right brain to find a cat design that I liked, I set to work on that first. And I am soooo please with myself!! I collected resources, made some sketches, chose one that I liked best and ran with it. I've transferred my design to the fabric and have almost finished stitching - just the finishing touches to go. I'd love to post a pic, bu that would spoil the surprise!!

Tonight I'll work on Arlee's Orchids, so they'll both be ready to post next week.

***Shhh... don't tell Arlee or Maureen...***

Believe it or not I have finally made some decisions for my Flick Contemptextarts challenge pieces. I'm still struggling with the cats theme a little, but i've got a feeling about it - you know that feeling when you know a word, you just can't get your brain to connect with your mouth to produce it?... well I get that feeling about my work. I get this feeling that the idea is back in there, somewhere in the right side of my brain, I just have to coax it out. However I am determined to start stitching my blocks tomorrow, so I'll have it worked out soon.

Rust Dyeing

Rust Dyeing 2
Originally uploaded by artstitches.

My samples after they have been dyed and washed. It seems that the silks hold the colours the best. I'll have to try it again on cotton and leave it longer in the damp state, before washing the solution out. (Patience can be a virtue!!)

Rust Dyeing - washed and unwashed samples

Rust Dyeing 4
Originally uploaded by artstitches.

Washed and unwashed samples. The darker pieces on the left hand side of the picture are the strips that I removed and didn't wash - they are much more vibrant. Apparently if I leave the rusted fabric damp for a longer period of time, the colours will stay dark like that. I'm going to halve these strips again, dampen one half and wash it in a few weeks and see the difference then.

Rust Samples

Rust Dyeing 5
Originally uploaded by artstitches.

My samples, all laid out after washing and drying - aren't they pretty!!

I'm inspired!!

The rust dyeing workshop that I attended on the weekend was extremely inspiring and motivating. Rust dyeing really is a simple and effective dye method which produces the yumiest colours and patterns!! It's also quite a cheap technique as all the 'ingredients' can be purchased at either the supermarket or hardware shop.

Can you tell I had a great day!! I've even started a sample book (already!!) to show what I did so that I might be able to replicate the results.

Apparently the longer you leave the fabric damp, the more the rust will grow and the more vivid the colours. Of course we were drying our samples in the sun so that we'd be able to take them home, and I'm too impatient and have washed mine all already, however I did take a strip off each one so that I could compare the differences between washed and unwashed. I've also dampened one peice and will keep it a period of time to see how much more the rust will grow.

This probably isn't make much sense without pics, but they are uploading to Flickr and I'll blog them when I get to work. Speaking of which, it's time for me to go....

Dyeing Workshop

I've just registered for a dyeing workshop this weekend.  It's called Rust Solution and involves using ferrous sulphate to create a range of orange rust effects on paper and fabric.  Sounds like it should be a great day with lots of experimenting and sampling.  I'm really looking forward to it.

 

There are also lots of other great workshops that this lady runs too.  All are on Sundays, which I initially thought "great!! a weekend workshop... I can go to those!!" until I remembered that Sunday was my shift at the Hostel.  They almost fit in between my morning and afternoon shifts, but for 1/2 an hour either side.  Anyway, I've made arrangements for those 2 half hours and am all ready to go.

 

I'll give a full report on Monday.

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Rust Dyeing

I've just registered for a dyeing workshop this weekend. It's called Rust Solution and involves using ferrous sulphate to create a range of orange rust effects on paper and fabric. Sounds like it should be a great day with lots of experimenting and sampling. I'm really looking forward to it.

There are also lots of other great workshops that this lady runs too. All are on Sundays, which I initially thought "great!! a weekend workshop... I can go to those!!" until I remembered that Sunday was my shift at the Hostel. They almost fit in between my morning and afternoon shifts, but for 1/2 an hour either side. Anyway, I've made arrangements for those 2 half hours and am all ready to go.

I'll give a full report on Monday.

A challenge has been set!!!

A few of us over at the Contemporary Textile Arts group at Flickr, have started a swap. Each of us have selected a theme, then we each do a 5" x 7" peice for each person in their selected themes. At the moment there are only 3 of us in the group which could be a good thing because it keeps it acheiveable.

Soooo.... my challenge is to create a 5"x7" peice about:

• Cats - for Maureen over at Tangled Threads; and
• Orchids - for Arlee of Albedo Design

Hmm, now what to do...

I'm not telling, 'cause I know they read this occassionally and I want i to be a surprise!! I'll post pics when they've been sent and received so they get to see them first.

My tidy dyeing/paints cupboard

Here is the pic that I promised a few weeks ago. Thanks Mum for the reminder. See even after all this time the the cupboard is still clean and tidy - and I have used it so that's not the reason.

Rain, rain...

We have had some mammoth rainfalls over the last few days, particularly Wed night. So much so that I had some difficulty getting to work yesterday. It took three different attempts on three different roads, to finally find one that wasn't flooded, had a car accident or was blocked by great big massive trees that had just fallen over! Anyway, turns out I needn't have bothered as when I got there our office had no power and there's not much can be done with no computer these days.

We had spent Wed night at B's Grandma's place (we stay when her daughter is out so she's not alone) which turned out to good thing as where we live there were trees down everywhere and I don't know that I'd have managed to go very far at all with the roads blocked like that. There were still trees down in our street yesterday afternoon when we finally came home to check on our place (which was fine). We live in a street that has centre islands and one way traffic on either side. We got part way down towards our place and couldn't go any further because of a huge tree blocking the road. After reversing back up the stret, I went to go the other way (there's another street that intersects ours) and again got stuck because of another tree down. In the end the only way home was to illegally drive the wrong way down a one way street - but what choice did we have?... Will check this morning if they've been removed yet.

So that was an exciting day. The river near our place was right up and rushing, and lots of people were down there checking it out. It reminded me of home and the way that whenever we got considerable abouts of rain, everone would be down at all the creeks, checking the levels and watching them rising (my Dad in particular).

No more work to show today. I did get to the silk shop to buy some more blank scarves yesterday because I got to leave work early. B and I then went into the city for lunch and a beer (or2) and wandered around some of the shops before coming home to see LOST, the series that everyone has been raving about recently (seems pretty good so far). Today I'm working but tomorrow I've go the day off, so guess what I'm gonna do?? more scarves of course - the ones I've got for sale at work look a little lonely so I need some more to put with them.

Silk Scarves - Done

My scarves are finished and are out for sale - at long last. The pics can be seen at flickr (click on link above) as I was having trouble posting to my blog. When pay day arrives I'll be able to buy some more blanks and start again...