the gift of making something

Giving something ‘hand made’ is the ultimate gift. It takes time and contemplation and creative problem solving. When you know the person you’re giving the gift to, those creative choices are made more important and personal. It’s one of the most profound things you can do because you’re giving a part of yourself in the piece and representing a part of them. This quilt was a birthday gift to me from a dear friend, and it made me think of what it takes to make something for someone else.  A lovely offering.

and again…

Well it’s been awhile since I was here on the blog and I’m still figuring out whether to keep it going or not.  Any thoughts you can offer up on this would be most appreciated.

In the meantime I have (another) new website. This one is simpler and had exactly what I needed for my work. Feedback welcome on this as well. I now have a Facebook page so if you’re interested, go ahead and ‘like’ that – I’ll be mostly sharing stuff over there (instead of the blog).

 

On the new website you can see more about my photo book, All Prize Winners Paraded mentioned in the previous post. The book was launched in November last year and I’m incredibly happy with how it turned out. It’s a beautiful thing.

My website

The time has finally arrived to get myself a website and here it is!  If you’re wondering where I’ve been lately, this is the answer.  At some stage I may move the blog over to the website so I may be a little silent on my trusty little ‘first blog’ until I make that final decision.  I’m also starting a ‘big cartel’ shop on the website though not straight away.

My news: I’m working on my solo show at Branch3D in Sydney (Nov). I’m really excited about it; its pushed my work to another level.  Some of my photographic work is also being published in a beautiful book soon, release date is hopefully around Sept/Oct. You can find the work here at M.33.  I’ll be updating both of these exciting projects on my website as they develop.

 

Sharing…

I have seriously failed with my ongoing tea towel sharing exercise but mostly because I am using them in art works! It has been awhile since I blogged so I wanted to share this lovely, simple project by Catherine Bailey. She is doing a small community project in her local botanical gardens using flowers. I love Dahlias so much.  And they are incredibly photogenic. She has created this beautiful blog to document it so check it out.

 

 

 

 

Five tea towels: #THREE

I’ve been a little bit late with this last tea towel post due to a rather large festival that was in town last week. Got a bit distracted. But here they are, more gorgeous tea towels.

This week I’ve concentrated on tea towels people have given me lately. People are coming out of the woodwork with beautiful gestures of bundles of tea towels that were burning a hole in their cupboards. They’ve been sent in the mail, handed to me in person and dropped on my desk. Thank you everyone! I appreciate it so much. I couldn’t think of a better gift right now.

 

 

 

 

 

Five tea towels: #TWO

This week’s tea towel ‘share’ includes a batch of old, worn and well-used tea towels. I love the tea towels that are faded, they have such beautiful, subtle colours. They are also my favourite to work with because of their softness. I love the texture and of the linen.

Five tea towels: #ONE

This post starts a homage to my tea towel obsession. Most people that know me know that I have an unreasonable obsession with the little towel that dries our dishes. It started some years ago when I began collecting them to make art works. There are self-imposed rules around collecting these pieces but I won’t bore you with that here. Suffice to say, I’ve become expert at locating exactly what I consider ‘beautiful’ in the world of the used tea towel.

To share the love, I’ll be posting five tea towels a week for the next little while. This will keep the inspiration up for me as I work on a major tea towel piece for a November exhibition in Sydney at Branch3D.  Today’s post is for Sandra (thanks for the idea).

My newest tea towel. I simply couldn’t resist and have never seen one like it in my travels.

 

An example of the tea towels I love the most. Worn and faded. I love the subtle colours. I don’t even mind the stains.

 

This one needs no explanation. So gorgeous it’s on my wall.

 

Another well-used tea towel. Given to me by a friend. It was her mother’s and she wanted me to ‘use it well’.

 

‘Greetings…’. Classic.

 

 

 

 

A drawing a day (for play)

Myself and a few friends recently decided to start a ‘drawing a day’ project (a suggestion inspired by a similar project I was following on Instagram – go follow the great and wonderful @eleanorvee to see what I mean).

Apart from being fun (the main reason for doing this) and giving me a small space each day for creative focus, this little project is testing my drawing skills. I need to develop them, push them a bit further….get them back again. My approach so far has been to draw on any scrap of paper I find in the studio and to choose found objects.  I’m enjoying it so far, disasters and all.

Dog toy – poor deflated cow

Here’s a few ‘drawing a day’ projects by amazing people: ‘One drawing a day’, ‘Drawing a day for a year‘, ‘One drawing each day‘, and here at Lauren Nassef.

Growing back – a work about the environment

A little while back I was asked to be a part of an exhibition in Portland (Victoria, AUST) called Environment Change – a visual response, curated by Catherine Bailey and Sandra Winkworth, both talented ladies. Catherine had seen my installation at the Merrijig and asked me to expand one aspect of it. I took some of the pieces I used in the wall hanging to make this piece, called ‘Growing Back’. It’s a response to my observations of ‘growing your own’ and ‘making your own’ coming back into fashion as a way acknowledging the environmental issues we face at this time in history. I have used vintage book pages and vintage material & thread in the piece.

The exhibition is on until February, 2013 and includes a bunch of other clever people. Sandra has posted some of her pieces on her blog here and you can find some photos of the exhibition on the Facebook page.

A lovely project, now over.

I deinstalled the Merrijig project today.  I had such fun doing this project and the owners of the Inn, Liz and Tan were very brave in letting me experiment with their space (troopers). One of the pieces, the tea towel bottle installation is staying in the space which I’m really pleased about, it’s my favourite.

The Merrijig is one of the oldest and most beautiful buildings in Port Fairy and if you get the chance, come and visit.

Thanks to all at Craft for supporting the project. I recommend keeping an eye on the Craft Cubed festival next year.

Image of the Inn courtesy of the Merrijig facebook page