Showing posts with label musing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label musing. Show all posts

Friday, 29 April 2016

here and there and everywhere



it's funny how the zeitgeist thing goes.

scanning the interpixies to see "who is doing what" these days reveals that 

P L A C E

is the current favourite workshop flavour.

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i think it's always been mine.



i have fond memories of my wonderful class teacher at Shelford Girls School in grade 5, who sent us outside to randomly choose a foot square patch of ground and then
after we had made our choice
explained that we were to study it closely
map it
draw it
write about it
count the insects walking across it
imagine ourselves to be their size
see the grass as a forest
make rubbings of it with pencil and paper

i'm pretty sure that Mrs Pownall has long gone to the dogs above
but i don't think i will ever forget her

the classroom was always filled with flowers and seeds 
and bones and other assorted found things

a couple of years later my love of language was nurtured by the redoubtable Mrs Williams, a flame-haired and passionate Scot who read us poetry and made history come alive.

my father instilled in me a love of maps and wandering
while my mother had me drawing plants almost from when i could hold a pencil

 i have been trying to remember the first time i offered a class that brought all these things together and i think it must have been 'mapping country' at the Kapiti Summer School of 2009
which evolved in various ways, stepping sideways into fieldwork
and eventually blossoming as being (t)here or being t(here)
it works either way.

 similar workshop titles are sprouting around the whirled
"where is here" and "you are here" are two that i found this morning
both with subtitles about mapping place

for me it's less about mapping, these days
and more the practice of
paying attention to where we are
finding beauty in sometimes surprising places
considering the poetics of place, even in the parking lot
and each time i offer this class
whether it's in the heart of a city
or deep in a wilderness
or somew(here) in between
i find my life wonderfully enriched by the people who join me.

T H A N K    Y O U

all of you who have been on the journey with me.
i'm so grateful that you give me work.

work that i love.








Monday, 30 November 2015

the need to know

unless you know what it is
unless you know what it is, it's legal and it isn't going to make you sick.


during a class last week at the Beautiful Silks Botanical Studio somebody asked the question
"what does oleander do?"

which reminded me that when i pootled across the ranges to Rockford in the Barossa Valley earlier in the month to pick up bottles of assorted nectars (with which to enhance the lunches at Mansfield) i drove past a group of young gentlemen assiduously stripping flowers from a huge Oleander (Nerium oleander). it occurred to me about a 100 metres later that they had bare hands. 
so i did the grandmotherly thing, made a u-turn and went back. 

poor things, they thought i'd come to give them a talking-to for stealing flowers. not so. but i DID give them a talking-to about health and safety.

they had no idea of the name of the plant, or that it was poisonous.
so i told them. 
i also suggested they would want to wash their hands before consuming their next meal (or rubbing their eyes)
their plan was to scatter the flowers at a wedding...but if i were the bride i wouldn't want bushels of  toxic plant matter tossed at me.
i'd also be concerned about small children picking up the flowers and putting them in their mouths. as small children so often do.

i tell my students time and time again "identify the plant, at very least by genus, before gathering". because it's just common sense.

somebody told me in the USA years ago how she and a friend had been hospitalized with anaphylaxis after lifting the lid on a pot full of boiling poison ivy. the genus name Toxicodendron tells me to stay well away from that one. i was so stunned by the story that

i completely forgot to ask "and what colour did it dye?"

so what DOES oleander do? i have no idea. and i don't plan to put it in a dyepot because even the smoke from burning oleander is poisonous.

while i'm on the subject
there have been a spate of images of "ecoprints" from castor oil plant leaves floating about the internet. call me old Mrs Unadventurous if you like, but i would be a bit nervous about bundling leaves from the plant whose derivative was used to kill Georgi Markov. admittedly using it in a dye bundle may not get the stuff into your bloodstream (which is where it is most effective) but there's very little research about the effects of inhaling steam from boiling such bundles.
once cloth is rinsed and dried it won't be a longterm poisoning device (unless you were to soak it in a poison before offering it for use, not a pleasant thought).

so given about 80% of ornamentals in suburban gardens are poisonous in one way or another, i recommend caution.

simple errors like confusing colchicums for crocus and hemlock for angelica have led to tears before bedtime in the past.

i'm not scare-mongering, i just think it's important to know what you're dealing with.

one of the reasons that green became the colour of bad luck in the theatre was that actors who regularly wore green costumes became sick and eventually died...if the colour green in the cloth was dependent on the presence of orpiment (arsenic trisulphide)
they may not have known why, just that you became ill if you wore green.

but that's another story.




ps thank you everybody who offered a word (or two) in response to the previous post...i'll be working with those words and shall hope to find them some friends soon

Thursday, 9 July 2015

where did this year go?

cumquat marmalade. yum.


suddenly it's July and i'm on the brink of a two-and-a-half month wandering.

i shall miss my furred friends, but this is how life is - and it is what puts the food in their bowls as well as mine. 

the postcards for Solace have been designed and are being printed this week, using vegetable inks on recycled stock. i should be doing my income tax but have made marmalade instead.
i have made progress on my new apron...it dives into the dyepot this afternoon.

a hen.
that same hen, gazing at my new apron in wonderment. clearly a critic.
random stitched morsel from a journey some years back, now happily at home on the front of the apron

it has four visible pockets (so far) and one hidden

and i have purchased a pair of waders that will probably take up residence at Big Cat Textiles in Newburgh.

waders? 

well, i have some interesting plans for the 'being (t)here' class in Scotland. if they succeed you'll see pictures here in a couple of weeks time. if they don't succeed it will probably just be an amusing story involving me flat on my face in river mud. fingers crossed i won't drop the camera.

in the meantime i'm trying to sort out my plans for the rest of the year, which is why i am (for the first time ever) offering an early bird discount for the two classes in Mansfield, Victoria.  internet access is going to be intermittent while i am wandering and i was hoping not to have to schlepp my computer along.

so if you register before July 22 the cost is $800, later than that it will be $870

and remember Marion of Beautiful Silks is offering a 10% reduction on any materials you purchase from her for the class

please drop me a line here if you'd like more information about the classes

Wednesday, 1 July 2015

it's not business, it's personal.



every now and then there's a flurry of correspondence from folk demanding to know why i am continuing to destroy the planet by flying about in planes, teaching face to face instead of simply offering classes online.

it was the subject of lively discussion with my son this morning as we shared several portions of delicious caffeine. i wish i had taken notes as i've already lost half the words he offered (all of which were deeply insightful).


i had mumbled something along the lines of it probably being easier to stay at home ecoprinting mass-produced garments and plenishing the bank account than teaching instead except that this would go starkly against my life philosophy. and would be quite lonely. and i would miss the wandering.

and

that when boiled down to the essence, what really takes me out into the world to teach is not business, it's personal. it's the being together with a dozen like-minded souls eager to learn and keen to share. 
it's the importance of making a connection, of spontaneously reciting poetry and breaking into song, about the burbling laughter and sometimes even the tears. it's that moment a face lights up with joy at the work that has come from a person's hands, the energy that fills a room when we collectively read the aleatory poetry created by sharing gathered words, the hilarity that follows an impromptu dressing up session (and sometimes simply knee trembling awe at the intangible presence of beauty) and when someone tells you that something in their life has been bettered or even healed simply by being present in a class. *



when we go online (as my son pointed out) we are (no matter how we try) dislocated from reality. people might sit at their computers, thinking they are being deeply social and being included because they can participate by pressing a few buttons but really (if they thought about it) being very much alone, no matter how many comments buzz back and forth or how many little hearts and happy faces are pasted into the screen. (i'm not being dismissive of those of you who live remotely and to whom the internet has been a boon, just trying to explain what i'm thinking)


to me there's little that beats being gathered around a cauldron or in a cosy sewing circle, sharing cups of tea and morsels of chocolate and above all, sharing community. and  it's almost impossible to recreate the satisfaction generated by the ceremony bundle-opening in a happy group through simply demonstrating to a camera in a "virtual" class 

 
signing up for a workshop (and i do this myself several times a year) means choosing to participate in a group of people who share your interests, being embraced, as it were, in a way that is non-threatening and nourishing to the spirit. being (t)here, being present.

it's why i am working at creating more opportunities for people to gather together in places where i can also prepare food for us all (i love that the roots of the word 'companion' are from a Latin word for "one who breaks bread with you") and i think that minds and bodies function better when fuelled on food that is delicious and healthy

sharing food communally for the duration of the workshop/class/retreat gives us the sense that we are truly companions on a journey, however brief


which is why the substance of my classes has stretched, shifted and broadened over the years. sure, i could simply continue to teach "an introduction to ecologically sustainable plant dyeing" in a purely academic way, but that's not how i want to experience my work with making colour from plants.

 
 i think plant dyes are situated at a kind of crossroads, a meeting place for art, craft, medicine, chemistry, botany and ethnobotany, geography, culinaria (why isn't there a more romantic word in the English language to describe cooking?), ritual and poetry. i think that paying attention to the natural world in this way (and of course it's not the only way) makes for a richer life experience.

i see life as a glorious adventure, over far too soon and often completely out of my control. heaven knows i'm not perfect but, like Phyllis in "The Railway Children", i mean extremely well.


so i'm going to keep walking this path, sharing the delight of the ecoprint but at the same time also hoping to make a difference in people's lives and doing the best i can. i'm aspiring to do it with grace. i hope to keep learning as i go and to keep playing, because so much of what i have learned has been through play

i was lucky enough to win the interplanetary lottery, not just to have been born but to have so much choice in what i do and, with that, to be in the position to (i think) do something of use...and i'd like to continue sharing that in person, not at the click of a download**

so i'm leaving the idea of online teaching (and also classes on DVDs) to those who do them well.
you'll find me out the back, piling twigs and thistle heads, blowing a flickering flame into life, wrapping a length of well-loved string around a bundle or three,
with my pockets full of leaves and my heart full of hope.


fingers crossed i'll see you there.

 

*in the interests of total honesty i will reveal that there have been about five people in all my years of teaching who haven't liked what i offer, or have found it not what they hoped for... at least, five that were brave enough to tell me.

**making the PDF of the Bundle Book is the closest i want to come to that!


PS thank you, all of you who have been part of my journey so far. i am truly grateful.

and lastly,
if you've made it down to the bottom of the page
i've decided to give an early bird discount to those who sign up before July 22 for either of my two classes in Mansfield this year (which is a saving of $70 per class)

Wednesday, 29 April 2015

musing over the dyepots



I'm told a program broadcast by the ABC recently allegedly claimed that ecoprint bundling is a practice originating from and belonging to indigenous Australian culture. The truth is that it is derived from Latvian Easter Egg dyeing, a pagan tradition pre-dating Christianity, involving the wrapping of hens eggs with plant matter followed by boiling them in a pot full of onionskins and water. I transposed it to cloth (experimenting with steaming as well as boiling) substituting eucalyptus leaves for onionshells. They smell a good deal nicer, for one thing.

As far as I know metal pots, as well as woven wool and silk, only came to this country with the European invasion of 1788 (other than accidental arrival via shipwreck) and it wasn't until they became available that eucalyptus leaves could be boiled in water to reveal their extraordinary colour potential, now in such demand whirled-wide.

But maybe I'm wrong.  Perhaps metal pots were salvaged from the shipwrecks that occurred along the West Australian coast from 1622 onwards (though that first one, the Tryall, was quite a distance offshore). If you have information I'd be very interested to read it, especially if you can back it up with references. Dye history fascinates me.

I have a theory that dye traditions around the planet follow traditional regional cooking practices quite closely...for example the slow-brewed indigo of Japan relating to their fermenting of foods, the soup-like dye extraction traditionally used in Europe and the stone-ground ochres and stains of indigenous Australians that echoed the ground pastes of seeds that formed part of their diet. The absence of boiled food in aboriginal cooking pre 1788 seems to be a clue about dyes.

I'm not being picky, I really want to know.


Friday, 28 November 2014

here and there

a couple of days ago my lovely Wild Rose kindly frocked up and let me take happy snaps of some recently finished pieces. i'm fortunate to have a family prepared to assist me by modeling!


a simple shift dress in SilkyMerino


sometime next week i shall be loading up the ute (that's a pick up, if you're American) and pootling off across the interior of Australia to deliver and install back country in the Tamworth Regional Gallery
the opening has been set for the evening of December 13th (which is also the feast day of Santa Lucia)
and there's a chance i could offer a one-day intensive workshop on Sunday December 14th if there is sufficient interest - please drop me a line in the comments below if you think you'd care to join us


earlier today i spent time in the Tardis at Australia's national broadcaster (Auntie ABC) pre-recording for the program Talking Plants with Tim Entwisle (Director of the Royal Melbourne Botanic Gardens) and fellow guests John Wolseley and Jim Fogarty, which turned out to be rather fun.

 

to fortify my courage i wore amazing socks knitted by my friend Sidnee Snell
who (as they used to say in the better fairytales) is as clever as she is beautiful
the series begins on December 21 but the program i took part in today will air at 9am on Sunday January 25...i will be in New Zealand so won't have to listen to myself murmuring away.

on the way home i dropped into the wonderful emporium in Hahndorf called Poet's Ode. the proprietor Alia and i talked about me maybe having some work on display there in the near future (which would be lovely as i don't currently have anything on show here in my home state)


it's a clean and beautiful space with the most glorious pressed tin walls.


and now i'm out to give the cowbabies their warm supper, before sitting down to a cuddle with Yoda-San


close to this lovely fragrant Hoya bella

Sunday, 5 October 2014

back country, back story



http://moleskine.milkbooks.com/flip-book/default.aspx?ProjectId=f66b2de5-9ab9-46af-bd8f-ca6805c8db03&OId=75621&OLId=1333176&time=1412462191457

if you click on the image above it should take you to the Moleskine site
where you can read the back story to back country online

when i receive my print copies
of which there will only be three
i will be annotating them in pencil and ink
one for the gallery
one for me
and one to go across the seas

Friday, 3 October 2014

coming soon

i've been working on the booklet
promised to participants in the Second Skin classes
that will take place in lovely Mansfield, Victoria
in November this year

which contains explicit step by step instructions
on how to print on cloth and paper with leaves

string me a story on shapeshifting
will be 32 pages of ideas
jumping off-points
sketches and photographs

i'm hoping Second Skin participants will add to their copies
by writing extra notes in the pages
perhaps even tipping in a few extra ones
adding their own drawings
the odd swatch
other inspirational images
so that it becomes a highly personal working tool

this will be a strictly limited edition
100 copies only
numbered and signed

testing the water for that other publishing idea
that i floated a while ago

and Sidnee?    i owe you a dress [as well as the first copy of the above]
...those pix i shot of you in Portland last year 
have been getting a hammering
also
i think we need to do another photo-shoot
in New Orleans
now that would make a fabulous publication
just sayin, is all

Sunday, 27 July 2014

reflecting on deep things



i had an email this morning from someone who required to know whether my books were printed on recycled stock.
she wrote :

"I am curious. Are your books printed on recycled paper and with other eco-friendly materials? I have Eco Colour but borrowed Second Skin from the library. They look like they were expensive productions. Please tell me they are produced with recycled paper and earth friendly inks and materials."

i wrote back and explained that the Australian edition of Eco Colour and the first edition of Second Skin were indeed printed on recycled stock and with vegetable inks but that the United States edition of Eco Colour wasn't [it was out of my control along with the advertising that appeared in the back of the book much to my surprise : for the record i do not endorse any of the advertised products] and that the second edition of Second Skin wasn't either [due to management changes at Murdoch Books]

but afterward i wondered whether she was typing her message on a computer made from recycled parts and using only earth-friendly energy? hmm.

and is there a reason why a book made from recycled paper should not look sumptuous?

that would imply that those of us who choose to wear environmentally 'friendly' clothing should perhaps dress in sackcloth so that we don't look too elegant. [admittedly my family too frequently observes that i look as if i am wearing a sack but that is another matter. entirely.]

the Blurb books are not printed on recycled stock. nor are the inks made from plants. i accept this is a drawback. on the bright side, though, the "print on demand" platform means that there will not be warehouses full of remaindered books rotting away because nobody wants them.

i've had that problem before, having overestimated the catalogue numbers for the exhibition 'watermarks' back in 2008. fortunately they were printed on recycled stock with vegetable inks so the box of extras [which nobody wanted at the time] made environmentally friendly [if expensive] weed suppressants in the garden.

i was hoping that 'shapeshifter', the handbook about clothing that i am preparing to publish in the Australian spring could be printed using as environmentally responsible means as possible.
that it would be a limited edition available by direct subscription, even if that meant i had to package them all personally [unlike Blurb which has printing houses dotted around the whirled and does all the packaging and mailing]

i'm still debating whether i will be able to fund it myself or whether to dive into something like Kickstarter. or whether i should go that road at all.

the cold hard fact is that though it's really exciting for me each time some kindly person buys a book, total sales [of all titles] through Blurb so far this month number only 352 and 30% of those were 'e' books or PDFs.  in order to keep the unit cost reasonable [so that with postage it is affordable as well as returning something on the investment of my time] i would need to have at least 1000 printed. and there wouldn't be an 'e' version. the thought of investing it what may become yet another pile of unwanted weed suppressant is somewhat dispiriting, so in the interests of market research...

what are your thoughts, oh gentle readers?

make a huge financial investment in eco-sustainable printing the hope of breaking even?

or stick with Blurb?

neither way is perfect. neither am i. but as i wrote to the correspondent above, i'm doing the best i can.



+

don't forget folks, those of you who have bought the Bundle Book still have until August 3 to enter that lucky dip for one of three ecoprint tsunobukuro bags, details
 here


 PS this dam was constructed by bulldozing legend Sam White for my father back in 1997. the bulldozer is not, in all honesty, and environmentally friendly tool, but in the hands of those above it created a very beautiful place for quiet reflection...even if that goat insists on coming along for a walk.





Friday, 9 August 2013

please put your tea down before you read this

or you might have a nasty accident.

my lovely agent Jen alerted me to this
and after i mopped up the spilled tea
i thought i'd share the giggle with my gentle readers

do read the fine print, it's so funny!

in the words of the immortal Darryl Kerrigan
"tell him he's dreaming"

now had i been a business person
i could have been flogging ecoprint franchises...
just think of the forests i could save
if i were able to earn sums like that

and think of the headaches i would have had
doing my tax.

thanking goodness for small mercies
and Amazon for the laugh

and

if you're looking a copy of Second Skin
it's being reprinted and on the way
+
the Book Depository will let you know when it's in.







Thursday, 16 May 2013

thoughts?



 back in 2008, on the ides of January to be quite precise, I dipped my toes into the sometimes murky waters of the whirled of blogging for the very first time, posting a first experimental scrawl on the wall, just to see if [as I wrote then] the paint would stick and what sort of fish one might catch with it.

and I have to say that the fishing has been such fun. I’ve been frankly astonished that 1143 of you are swinging by regularly and delighted to meet quite a few of you out in the real whirled, at classes, exhibitions and the occasional conference.

 

The blog has given me a chance to share some roadpix, tell stories and sometimes rant a bit. [sigh. The latter isn’t really the most effective way to spend my remaining and precious days on the planet]

And when it comes to the crunch, reading a blog

involves scrolling down a screen. On a machine.

 

I’m a girl who likes turning pages, preferably with a delicious beverage in hand…whether that’s Bombay, Bourbon or simply a fragrant cup of Lady Grey tea [loose leaf, Twinings]…and while turning pages I also like to make marks on them. scribble in the margins. Underline. Maybe paste in something extra that I’ve found elsewhere. A smear of dark chocolate for fragrance [but only if the crumbs have fallen on the page, dark chocolate is meant to be eaten]

 

I like a book I can stuff into a small bag or a biggish pocket. Something I can build on in wanderings. Mutable, not fixed. Good paper stock. Something that makes me want to write and draw in it

 

So I am cooking a plan [y’all know how I LOVE to cook]. I’ll be launching it on the coming solstice [midsummer for those in the North, mid-winter if you’re in the South]

 

There will be actual pages. A good big handful of them.

They will arrive, beautifully bound, three times a year. There will be pictures

Stories from wanderings. Charms to murmur over the cauldron. [And in amongst the other treasures, those recipes you’ve been asking for…the ones for things to eat]

There may be

Precious pieces of ecoprint cloth and there will be patterns for things you will want to make and wear.

And of course other amusing [and useful] surprise presents because, frankly, presents are fun.

 

It means

You’ll be able to look over my shoulder while relaxing in your favourite armchair with a furry friend

or on a grassy hillside or while wriggling your toes in warm sand

or strapped into your seat while the captain is revving for take-off

But

Perhaps not while in the swimming pool.

 

The pages might get soggy.




So, what do you think? want to come along for the ride?

Thursday, 25 April 2013

how to clean a bugle


today is April 25th,
the day on which the Last Post is blown all over the country
as Australia pauses for silence to remember 
those who gave their lives in service of the country. 

wars fill me with horror.
my great-grandfather died on December 10, 1914.
it was the day after my grandfather's birthday

but when i rustled up our bugle this morning
thinking i might let loose a mournful note in memory
it was filthy and housing a number of unfriendly arachnids
clearly something had to be done


 

now the bugle is nice and shiny
thanks to the helpful acidity of the eucalyptus leaves


 i have a wrap i can hide in
 become a stone among trees



and the bugle yields a much more beautiful note
[Kowhai doesn't care she's too busy digging]


They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.
 Laurence Binyon

+   +   +

and in the remembering, bear in mind
the words of another poet, Charles Causley
who wrote

O war is a casual mistress
And the world is her double bed.
She has a few charms in her mechanised arms
But you wake up and find yourself dead.

                             (‘A Ballad For Katharine Of Aragon’)

Monday, 18 March 2013

daydreaming

 
idling through the Saturday papers [just a few days late]
with my coffee this morning
i stumbled upon something that looks remarkably like
a daydream i've been having for some years now

a place with a lake of its own
90 acres to plant and grow a collection of the best eucalypts [in terms of dyeing]
with an average rainfall of 1030 mm - that's 40.55 in inches
to sustain them...that's twice what we get at Mount Pleasant

it has a big old stone woolshed
just perfect for workshops [and dancing]
along with a separate storage building
that would make a rather nice gallery
 
the house has three bedrooms
and another room that could also become one
together with three bathrooms
so up to six people could live in for small classes 
work at their own pace
perhaps even take a longer residency

be nourished in body by food grown on the property
served in the lovely dining room
and in spirit by wandering the wonderful landscape in which the house sits
[really nice people would be allowed to help weed the garden
which is very good for the soul]

it's well away from other dwellings
[so i imagine that star-gazing would be fabulous]
but within 10 minutes of a freeway link to Adelaide
meaning far less frustration-by-caravan/horsefloat/grapetruck

there's space to create a walled vegetable garden
where chickens could have a fox-proof palace
and indigo could be grown 
safe from the hot north winds

and there would be plenty of room for a helpful border collie
as well as a flock of pet sheep for her to manage
if you look at the picture carefully
you'll see there is even a resident rainbow

the only catch is that there's a price tag of $2million
i can't even imagine that in marbles
let alone find it in dollars.

...er, i don't suppose there are a thousand brides out there wanting to commission wedding dresses, perchance?
i look forward to hearing from them. SOON.

meanwhile
i'll be here playing with those amulets...
and nursing Kowhai the piglet


Monday, 4 February 2013

felt like retreating into textiles ???

an Uzbek patchwork fragment. because it's lovely.


i've had a very long association with TAFTA
its fearless leader Janet de Boer O.A.M. was the first to invite me to teach workshops
[outside my long-ago role with the Arts Council of South Australia,
where they were part of my job as Exhibitions Development Officer and my years volunteering as an unpaid art teacher at our local primary school]
as well as being the first to publish my stories
[other than the Heathfield High School Year Book]

Janet kindly let me join Karen Diadick Casselman's class as assistant 
[nearly fifteen years ago if my counting fingers serve me correctly]
and then Karen encouraged me to pursue my study of eucalyptus dyes
in post-graduate studies. she and i may differ on the subject of adjunct mordants 
but Karen was the driving force that brought natural dyeing back into public focus in the 1990s and i have huge respect for her

Janet is also the creative genius behind the original Textile Fibre Forums
and nurtured through them a sense of community
and the opportunity for [primarily] women
to leave their 'normal' lives behind for six days
join the sisterhood, dedicate themselves to the textile arts
be fed and nourished in both body and spirit
dress up and dance wildly at the party at the end of the week

in recent years others have profited by emulated Janet's trailblazing
and similar textile events have popped up all over the country
however forums convened by her remain singular in that Janet makes a point of knowing and remembering the name of each and every person who attends.
and her commitment to pastoral care, as it were, is legendary

given the plethora of offerings available
Janet has once again had a big think
and come up with the notion of a textile retreat

where folks can take classes with tutors of international repute
and participate in a design focus group
or choose to attend an open studio
and spend a week focussing on their own work
with an established artist as mentor 
all the while being well fed, with the option of attending talks in the evenings
and with a splendid selection of traders close by

the textile retreat is held at Geelong Grammar School
in September each year.
i won't be at this one [cos i'll be on an island off the west coast of the United States]
but some very fine people will be teaching
including Pat Hickman [whose company i enjoyed last year at the Haystack New Works Session], Ruth Hadlow [whose class is full],  Ilze Aviks [her class is full too]
and feltmaker Jorie Johnson

need some time out in September?
this would be a good place to take it.

you never know, it might be the beginning of a something amazing
just
as it has been for me.