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....

Studio Workplay

This is a picture of my studio space that I share with a metalsmith/jeweller and a glass artist. I have my printing press, my silk screens and my knitting machines all vying for space and time. (I also have a sign up from my birthday party, but the happy birthday bit has fallen down along with the balloons and streamers).

I am making progress in my knitting, I took my first finished piece in last tuesday for the guild meeting, it's a scarf made from a thick ply variegated cotton that a friend gave me after realising she'd never finish her project. So this is getting sent to her this week. I started off doing every needle, and tried to do lace work, but the ply was too thick, so it didn't really like doing it, and then I went to every second needle for the majority of the scarf, coming back to make it even at the other end. So it's kind of got a ribbed body almost, and then more structured ends. I've told her she can pass it on if she wants!

This is what I've been doing with my sample pieces - making little pouches with them.

From top left: plain mohair -- terrible to work with, I'm handing over all my mohair/angora/fuzzy stuff to my hand knitting neighbour, it's really frustrating to put through the machine, you have to freeze it before hand, and then dislodge the tangled fibres every two passes, it takes a looooooong time to do anything with it. (The piece of kaki knitting on the machine in the photo above took a crazy amount of time, I was lace making with mohair, will have the finished piece of that up sooner or later)

:sock yarn (3 or 4 ply) 80% wool, 20% nylon, really fast to work with, playing with my cam lever. I also dyed this at an open day at the spinners and weavers guild in Hobart in january.

:working with a tuck stitch pattern (I can read the diagrams - yay!) and using a really nice 80%bamboo 20% wool 4/5ply (can't quite remember) it has a lovely sheen and a nice weight to it.

:stripes! the red is the bamboo mix, the black is a nubbly cotton. When I get two carriages, I'll be able to do stripes without knots, which will be fabulous.

: another tuck stitch pattern in the bamboo mix. The lilac one is the only one that I didn't sew wrong sides together and turn out, and I think it sits the best, so will probably redo the lime one to make it the same way.

I'm happy to have made something useful out of my samples, I've used one for carrying jewelry when travelling, they are good because they can be folded in half, I'm thinking of using one as a wallet..... got to figure it out.

I'm working on other things with the pieces, I just need to resolve them before putting up photos.

I'm also doing some lino cutting at the moment, just very slowly...

branching out?

This began a couple of weeks ago when someone got interested in my screenprinting and mentioned it could be applied to ceramics. Now, I already have a multitude of interests and don't have time for them all as it is, so I didn't really follow it up until they suggested a time and date and doing some samples. So I said, sure (cause learning new things is fun). Meanwhile my ceramics knowledge consists of a bit in highschool and a subject in 1st year uni where I made the most disgusting wheel thrown objects ever to be seen, and coupled with the fact that I put every single colour of glaze on each object......well, I was not destined to be a thrower....

Now these are the plates, printed on a flat and then shaped on a plate mould. They are not finished pieces, just samples (with the potter demonstrating background splatter). I think it would be interesting to make a mould and design a print specifically for that shape BUT I have enough things on, so I think I'll just stick with these bizarre set of four cracker plates....or maybe give them to my mum for her birthday or something (poor mum). Maybe one day I'll have a burning desire to print on clay, but it won't be anytime soon.

I just used screens I already had made up, so here are the works that they are from:
It's photographic silkscreen print on a fake suede (actually upholstery samples I found and kept for that one special project) with LOTS of little feathers glued on and embroidery.

iguanadonThe scientist: how can you resist an iguanadon in a lab coat?

This is me in front of my work, all are quite small pieces, due to the size of the samples, and the fact that I was pretty damn nauseous unable to work much, and Adelaide was going through a heatwave (again, didn't help the work or nausea)

I thought I'd have to pull out of the group show, but ended up finishing 8 pieces and even selling a few!

'I aim to have fun exploring the possibilities of fabric and print, and maybe shed some light onto the mysteries of dinosaur civilization.

A long time ago, an elite team of dinosaur scientists developed space travel technology and left on a mission of exploration into deepest space. Upon their return they discovered alarming changes had taken place on earth.....'