New work

Despite the cold Melbourne wind today, I managed to get a lot done and was so grateful for the sun when it appeared in the early afternoon. It was glorious addition to the day. My yarn has arrived and I'm going to wind the warp tomorrow. This sample was simply to test the technique, as the plan is to use a combination of baby alpaca and coloured cashmere. I wanted to keep the weaving simple and use beautiful yarn and colours that I haven't ventured towards before now. It is all a little bit of an experiment. My next project will be to give my pin board a lick of paint. It's looking a tad rustic, but for now I'm off to bake delicious lemon treats. Stay warm. 

Sydney Road

A much anticipated visit from a missed brother and his girlfriend was the inspiration for putting these up. Sydney road is dotted with empty shop fronts and signage dating from a time when Europeans were the new migrants and established businesses along this strip. It's often the little things that I love - hearing foreign languages being spoken, salty Lebanese pizza or squeaky cheese pie, coffee, dried porcini mushrooms, parmesan, pasta bought in bulk, nut filled sweet treats and lemon trees. I think it's time to make some lasagna! Perhaps I'll have to postpone that mammoth task until David gets here.  

Colour

Right now, I'm working on a small range of scarves for a friend's exciting new venture. The idea was to use bright colours in combination with a few different shades of grey and a pastel or two. I've been in the studio, working with paint and mixing up colours. This time I don't have the yarn to work from, just a small sample card. Learning how to mix colour was akin to sitting through a painfully boring lecture, but I must say those lessons inform my current practice. Colour choice is probably my toughest hurdle at the beginning of any work. The constant question repeating itself is; is it going to work? I guess you never know that until you sample. Yes sure, you can simulate how colours might interact with each other in Illustrator but sampling is about the only way of being sure. Yarn after all, is not flat. So I'm going with my instinct, ordering some beautiful coloured yarn and hoping it all comes together. While tidying up my storeroom/bedroom, I came across this. I swoon over grey and bright orange.  

 

Getting out of town

There is nothing like having a weekend off and taking a short trip to the beach. Especially if one is blessed with wonderful weather and there are events to celebrate. It was Helen and David's wedding part two, for which I made this cake. Part one took place in London. Called Devils Food Cake, it is similar in texture to a chocolate chiffon cake. I made this one with a caramel filling and covered it in ganache. Running out of time to make crystalised rose petals, the fresh ones worked a treat. Luckily the garden was full of beautiful blooms to choose from. The views and sunset were spectacular, the dancing fun but most of all it was lovely to be surrounded by friends and be a part of it all. I figure, there isn't anything in the world like fresh sea air. 

Melbourne skies

Standing on a balcony at a friends, surrounded by gums and watching the local bats setting off for the night, this sky presented itself. It was indeed a lovely evening, quite a contrast to the thunder and fat raindrops now falling. I'm hoping it calms down before I head out for a late supper and midnight gig in the city. Although I haven't had much time for weaving over the past few weeks, I have managed to fit in baking. Last night I made a sweet tart shell, filled it with pastry cream and covered it with fresh berries. I'm enjoying practicing my pastry skills and I'm getting better at making custard. Which reminds me - there is enough pastry in my fridge for another tart, perhaps for another present as February is filled with birthdays. It is never as much fun eating sweets alone as it is sharing, especially among friends and family.

Pero

I took this portrait of Pero in Pula when I visited family quite a few years ago. Although there are exciting things around the corner and plenty of work planned in order to get there, I've been feeling the itch to travel. This past week I've been playing around with old negatives in photoshop, all while wishing I had access to a darkroom to print them on fiber based paper. I've been keenly watching the progress of some of my studio mates who are building an analogue darkroom. I'm hoping it will be complete in a few months and I'll get to hang in the dark again.

Simple pleasures

I've spent the morning watching the news and I feel so thankful that I have food in the garden and family and friends that are healthy and happy. Yesterday's heat has all but gone this morning so I'm going to make the most of it. Today I'll be finishing off some hand made presents for friends as well as testing a cake for another's wedding. Called a devil's food layer cake, I'm imagining it will be similar in crumb to a genoise base, layered with caramel and chocolate ganache, then covered in a fine layer of cake crumbs. I haven't yet decided if the crumbs are too fussy, in which case, the ganache will do the honours. Topped with some fresh flowers, I think it will make a simple but beautiful wedding cake that is hopefully as delicious as it looks.

Little ideas

I love woven samples almost as much as the end product. These samples that didn't make it onto boards are little ideas that were then worked into proper samples of the right size. No one really gets to see them. They end up languishing in neatly filed notebooks with details about warp and weft. Here are some of my favourites. A range of upholstery samples all woven on a grey linen warp using simple weave structures. I called the range Ode to Olivetti, after the Italian typewriter manufacturer and named each of my samples after subsequent typewriter models. I have wanted a Olivetti Valentine since I saw an exhibition of Ettore Sottsass's work at the Design Museum in London quite a few years ago. I am yet to own one but perhaps one will turn up for sale in the coming months.

Apricot season

Mid summer brings with it the arrival of one of my favourite stone fruits, apricots. The best kind always come from backyard trees and are no comparison in flavour to the commercial variety. They just don't cut it. After picking a few boxes off Trish's tree, I've made a couple of these apricot frangipane tarts, with the rest about to be quickly stewed in a vanilla sugar syrup as a delicious breakfast treat. It is going to be a lovely weekend, enjoy!

Wandering around Melbourne

What a perfect day it was yesterday. Cloudy and grey gave way to a lovely sun filled afternoon. In the mood for some inspiration, I met Kayo in the city for an excursion to the NGV International. I love visiting smaller exhibitions, often filled with work from the permanent collection. There was so much to admire and a few of those goose bump moments. A Eugene Atget silver gelatin print, exquisite lace samples with incredible fine detail, and a tapestry I saw being woven at the Australian Tapestry Workshop more than two years ago and now completed. Titled Alice Bayke, the work depicts a young woman in an ornate white dress staring blankly off into the distance, her black mass of hair melting into the background. Yvonne Todd, listed as designer, is the photographer commissioned by the Queensland Art Gallery to take the photograph which was then woven ever so skillfully in the Tapestry Workshop by two weavers, Sue Batten and Amy Cornall. It must have been a challenge to depict a realistic portrait, and replicate not only the subtle deep colours of her hair, but also the transparency of the sleeve of her dress along with the lace and embroidery details. It is well worth seeing up close. Clouds having eventually given way to sunshine, we wandered over to Gallery Funaki to try on some Karl Fritsch rings, unfortunately which I had to leave behind. I did however, purchase the catalogue below to add to my book collection.

I thought I would add some photographs of a concertina book I put together mid last year for my Luna work. The idea was to document some design ideas and pattern repeats that I was using, along side a small sample woven on a square wooden frame.

Moon image on the right taken from a small dvd catalogue which documents a collection of films by Jean Painleve called Science is Fiction.

Gallery Funaki

Australian Tapestry Workshop