Stuck in the Heat (or New Studio)

Well, it's supposedly 37 C outside and we're now hiding in our one a/c room, baby's sleeping, and I do not dare make much noise, so that rules out tidying the room!

I spent some time last week setting up my new studio space at the Blue Pony, studiomates with DCBS and my husband, as well as other fabulous artists. I actually spent most of the time trying to figure out the orientation of things so that I could see the baby from wherever I would possibly be (on account of the multiple roll stage and lots of lovely things to put in mouth).

So here is the space before unpacking:

and after:

I've decided not to unpack all my boxes, or even bring them to the Pony, on account that I'm sick of setting up spaces and unpacking stuff only to never be able to use it. So I'm hoping this time I'll actually have a chance to dig around for something because I'm producing work.

I went in this morning with Xi just to drop some things off, and ended up staying and working for a bit which was lovely and unexpected. My space is upstairs, which is very hot when it's hot, so I moved my knitting table downstairs and just hung out in the relative cool for a while with another artist. Nice to have some company, and I actually started the collaborative project I'm involved with at the South Australian Museum (which I was getting more and more worried about). ....more about that later though....

A spot of emergency sewing

Well, another blind finished.

I'd had the top of this completed before christmas, just was delaying the actual putting together of it all, but when we came back from holidays, our neighbour had trimmed the tree adjoining our fences (which I was totally happy for him to do) and we discovered that our bedroom, which has the only window facing that direction, actually does get a lot of sun - it was just the tree making it dark and gloomy.

But dark and gloomy were perfect for settling a baby, so I needed to do something about it quick smart.

The fabric is cottons that my mother in law brought back for me from China (since I couldn't fit any in my luggage). The cotton is a really nice weight, not quite as heavy as a drill, but just nice and sturdy and soft to boot. The shop assistants thought it was pretty funny that we were interested in it, because apparently it's the standard material and patterns for waitress' and shop uniforms.

A harvest of sorts

Darkcloud beat me to it!

I didn't get much from the garden this last two months, mostly because it was very hot and I was away for part of it.

But I did dig up my garlic last week, so I'm pretty happy about that.

I also helped her go shopping for her new back garden. .........I picked up a few things as well....

I just wanted a little bit of colour and life and order amongst all the dried out plants and weeds in the rest of my garden. I've got lettuce in the middle with flowers each side, hopefully they'll survive and lush out... and I'll have something pretty to look at while I begin the rest of my garden again..

cooking shenanigans... and jelly building

I thought I'd best post on Christmas before re-jumping into the new year.

I had visions of our holiday being so relaxing, like we could just stop running around like mad things and breathe a bit. I forgot that after running around like said mad things for so long, it's often likely that you get sick when you stop. Which Tom did. Not fun for him. And teething ramped up a notch for Xi. Not fun for him.

But we were still on holiday, and much hilarity ensured.

I decided I had the time to be in the kitchen properly, and took advantage of the babysitting of nana and poppy to bake. Unfortunately I wasted my cooking zeal on a new type of cake recipe (make a sugar syrup and whip egg whites... never done it that way before) which promised moist, but I found a bit dry or bland or something that doesn't live up to the process of the making, spiral biscuits, you know the ones, chocolate dough, cinnamon dough, layer them on top of one another, roll and cut...... terrible recipe again, waaaaaay too short, thought they were going to melt in the steamy humidity while I was attempting to roll them up, and then melt into black buttery splatter in the oven. Surprisingly they didn't (melt and smoke that is) but after a time in the freezer, they weren't round anymore, instead we got crazy spirals which looked cool, but tasted quite bland, and to add insult to injury, after they were initially eaten, the bottle got forgotten in the cupboard, and the rest of the biscuits went to the scrub turkeys as a holiday treat.

All this disappointing baking happened in one day after weeks of thinking about cooking and what I'd do if I had the time. All I can say is, make a favourite recipe first, or else you'll just despair.

Thank goodness for jelly.

I love making layered jelly, not that excited about eating it, but stripe making is fun. So I volunteered to do the Christmas trifle - individual build your own - style.

Here's a pic of my mum 'supervising' my cousins in the plonking of chocolate cake (beautifully cut out by Kayt with cookie cutters) on top of the jelly.

And here is the 5 star jelly in a plastic cup. Four layers of jelly, one with fruit in it, and a top of chocolate mousse (that was my favourite bit) A bit of cake, and then add your own cream, custard and ice cream. It started out for the kids only, then we figured everyone would like a jelly cup, and I heard that one uncle had the remaining four left over for breakfast the next morning.....

As much as jelly layering is fun, thank goodness for garden produce.

I try and try to grow basil down here to no avail, but at my parents, mum's got bushes of it, and yet there was no pesto in sight.......
We might have got them addicted to it after this harvest got pesto-sised! I started out just picking some for a small bit of pesto, then decided I mose well get rid of all the flowers and then ended up with a pile this big! That's a lot of pesto for someone who is proud of being able to pick five leaves at a time!

Happy New Year!

I think I'll do this a bit backwards, but got to start the new year with new year things (then I'll get back to christmas).

I'm at my parents house at the moment, having a holiday, which is great, but away from all my projects (well, I brought a couple up, but they were more work ones and thus not as exciting as play ones (because I have to do some drawings and they are not my favourite things to do...)).

But I do have a new diary and it's getting full of lists!

I love them.

I also love New Years Resolutions. I find them so exciting, but have always had a bit of trouble with them, probably because they don't contain the usual, eat less, exercise more, but rather I just keep adding to them, until it would take ten years, full time to finish them. So this year I am proposing to put them up here, and see how I go, also not get too carried away with all the things I ever want to do in my life!

As this is a finishing/making blog, and not an emo one, I'll leave off on the personal resolutions and stick with things I want to make/start/finish this year.

MAKING

* Five Fabulous Frocks - does not necessarily have to be a dress (just like the alliteration) but has to be something that has taken time, experimentation and is more than just whipping something up because I have nothing to wear. I have not made anything that falls into this category for myself for the last couple of years, and it makes me sad.

* Origami - I really love unit origami and the kind of obsessiveness it takes to make a structure containing 60 parts, each made up of three separate bits of paper. Aim big and conquer!!! (but I also have trouble following and understanding the instructions at times, so I'll start small)

*Zines - finish the one that I've almost finished, I've just got to do the faffing around for the printing and assemblage, but since it's been so long, I probably need to go back and do a re-write. AND continue (and finish) the one I've just started, about the bit of a life change I've had called Xi.

DOING

*Tidy - finish going through the last couple of boxes in my studio and figure out what to do with all my stuff. Hopefully I'll use a bit of fabric in my fff challenge.

* Photos - go through our entire digital library and print out a selection.

* Frames - finish my framing that I started last year and put them up on the wall!

MISCELLANEOUS

* Start (again) The Divine Comedy and actually finish it.

* Paint my toenails, because it's fun.

et voila!

You always need something easy, fast and cheap to do to help you start your list crossing off!

But they can't all be like that, they need to be challenges above and beyond the normal things you do, and special (or so I think) and to quote LKH,

If it was easy I wouldn’t need to be resolved to accomplish it.

Sample experiments evolve...

After nearly a year of trying, I've finally got a knitting machine that does what I want it to do - fair isle!

Oh how I love it so much.

It didn't really take me that long to figure it out, but it did take that long to get a teacher, realise that the machine I was given wasn't capable of it, find another one, service it, work, go away for work and have a baby....

This is where I thought I'd be in March, starting experiments, making fabrics. I did feel a bit thwarted at every turn for a while, but now all is good.

These were fair isle samples that I turned into stuffed fishie creatures for the babies in my bump club. They've got a magnet in them so they can stick to things (my sewing table for example) or later on, they can go fishing for them with a magnet on a string (I loved those magnetic fish games..)

They are suggestive of fish, I think the last one looks like a speedy dog fish, and the second one looks like a fat slow whale fish. It's the only one with a stuffed tail, and I'm not sure about it. They're prototypes and are whatever shape I made the rectangular piece, but they're for babies, so I'm sure they won't mind that they are a bit wonky.

I used cotton from cones that I'd had stored somewhere, and I thought I'd give them a quick wash before wrapping, and since today was a stinking 39 C, I thought they'd dry quick as a flash, but unbeknownst to me, outside it was becoming muggy, and now it's kinda raining. Hence the fish on the fan.

The textured tails felt quite nice wet, and I was thinking they could be a bath sponge toy maybe. (if I did the whole thing in a tuck stitch). not sure...

What Happened To November?

I guess this did.....

Setting up the show in Sydney, traveling with the bub for the first time (three flights, no crying, fingers crossed for the next ones) meeting 20 relatives (the Sydney and Canberra mob).

Hanging out at the gallery, trying to occupy himself.

Here's a view of the show, Moore Is More, from the mezzanine. It's the same set up as the JamFactory show in February, with some different pieces, and less ponds and more roads.

I don't know what we were thinking when we believed that we could install that kind of exhibition with a 13 week old baby. We did it, but we didn't emerge that triumphant, more like shell shocked. Babysitters will definitely be invited next time!