supernova

supernova
Originally uploaded by textileseahorse

sketch from my notebook - supernova. inspired by this photo on hopkinsii.
watercolour pencils on moleskine notebook

undulation

undulation
Originally uploaded by textileseahorse

sketch from my notebook. sketch done on the beach at caloundra, december 2007. don't ask me what it is; it emerged from my subconscious
watercolour pencils on moleskine notebook

ta da!

well here is the wanna be rusted quilt - no rusting so i did the tried and true burning instead. i put some synthetic fabrics on top of the painted and gessoed piece, then the painted lutradur and then a layer of black tulle, pebble quilted in orange, red and a patch of turquoise and then hopped in with the blow torch and voila - another alice quilt :)

i would like to give the rust technique another try if i can work out what i did wrong with this one

watching paint dry.....

m has taken the kids camping for a couple of days so i have a free evening - no tv, playstation or requests for food, i ate a spinsterly dinner at 6.30 slugged down a large gin and tonic and hopped straight into the fabric painting. (i've been fabric painting and not sewing much lately because i hurt my back again - bummer)

i have 3 pieces drying at the moment - 2 pieces of lutradur and a piece of silk all painted with burnt sienna and sprinkled with salt. the silk won't dry until morning but i am hoping the lutradur can be used tonight - the gesso rusting piece (see previous post) was not a resounding success - i think i used the wrong sort of foil or paint or something but there was no rusting evident. luckily i used gold foil so it still looks ok but i'm thinking of machine quilting the lutradur over the top and then blowtorching a bit to see what happens....

i had a bizarre supermarket twilight zone experience tonight - in dire need of dental floss i went to the supermarket and regained consciousness at the checkout holding a mop (yes a mop - a very handsome fire engine red mop, but a mop nevertheless), a packet of dried fruit, sandals for 3yo W, chocolate, batteries and (luckily) dental floss. and in front of me was a rather beautiful 6 foot something man with a beehive of dreadlocks and a luxuriant blond beard wearing a skirt (the man not the beard). his shopping was solely made up of soy products. bizarro.

crappy weekend

not even good enough to be a curate's egg.....

2 good things did happen though - i had my hair cut and coloured by the lovely jay at chainsaw massacre in elgin st carlton (wave) and the prodigal chook who vamoosed a couple of weeks ago was returned by an apologetic neighbour who had taken her in....

as a distraction from the yuckiness i made another lino cut - this time with real lino which is much harder than the other stuff but i'm quite pleased by the result.

i printed onto

• cotton

(oops - sorry this black one is actually sheet music - will see if i can find one printed on cotton)

• rice paper

• and silk

i also had a play with gesso, mixed with paint and slurped it onto some cream cotton then overlaid a swathe of dishcloth fabric and gessoed that too. destined to be something watery i think.

and this object is the first stage of a gesso rusting technique i found on judy scott's blog. a thick layer of gesso (mine's on fabric) then some bits of foil chocolate wrapper and some casting of salt and sugar and when it's dry i will apply some ink and paint and see what happens. this is not good drying weather though, so this stage is taking ages :(


on the other hand the garden is looking less dessicated and it's lovely not to feel hot

lino prints

i had a day of playing yesterday - a foray to zartart on monday yielded wonderfulnesses like more fabric paint, silk habotai, rubbing sticks (they look like shiva sticks but i haven't tested them yet- luscious ochres, browns and coppers), silk tops in blue and turquoise, a block of stuff for lino cutting that isn't lino but looks like a piece of soft chopping board and some gesso.

i had already photoshopped a leaf in preparation for this lino printing and i'm really pleased with the way it turned out - i used setacolour paints (the sun dye paint is way too thin) and they had the right consistency but i can see i'm going to have to play with some alternatives as this process sucked up a LOT of paint.

i also painted a length of silk turquoisey greeny blue for the big alice quilt although i am rethinking this piece completely - it's too red and green and needs to become more siennaish and blue - i haven't posted any pics of this one because it's not right, not even close to right but i will have a go at it on the weekend and hopefully have something less christmassy :)

and i'm up to the toe of the kermit sock :)

mad dog, sir?

thank you no, we are well provided for...... evidence of extreme heat induced nutcaseness:

item #1 walnut and choc chip bikkies (jill dupleix's recipe from the times in 2003)



item#2 socks to which i added a few rows yesterday. in real life they are a much more kermitty green. they are resting on my wonderful catherine manuell bag which is perfect for holding a sock wip...

today i think we will lie low until the change comes (due at lunchtime) and then venture forth to find food and perhaps get a good coffee

hot hot hot

sheesh! it's 40 gazillion degrees out there and what do i want to do?

knit socks

and bake chocolate chip and walnut bikkies (cookies to our uber the pacific friends)

photos of both to come.....

seahorse

seahorse
Originally uploaded by textileseahorse

this is a beautiful leadlight seahorse, made for me last year by a dear friend. isn't it wonderful? only his second leadlighting project too.

leadlighting and quilting seem to have lots of elements in common - including being very matchy matchy about points and getting things to fit... the sort of things i'm not very good at and why i have drifted into the more slapdash (for me anyway) realms of art quilting where no one can hear unmatched points scream.....

what better adornment....

hot cat
Originally uploaded by textileseahorse

for hand painted fabric than a burmese beauty? min the sinless reclining in comfort

my very 21st century 3 year old is cross with me for not handing over the compute and just threatened to 'take a bad photo of you, mum'

salt closeup

salt closeup
Originally uploaded by textileseahorse

a taster of the dyeing i did last week - this is a close up of the meteor shower effect i got from putting salt on the wet dyed silk

new veg garden

new veg garden view 2
Originally uploaded by textileseahorse

the kids and i worked for a couple of nights this week to turn the old veggie patch into something a bit more chook proof and attractive. a trip to bunnings and some deft posting, nailing and unrolling of wire fence and ta da!

planting hopefully tomorrow when it's not a gazillion degrees.... late tomatoes, zucchini, leeks, onions, pumpkin, marigolds, nasturtiums, basil, parsley et al are planned

the chooks have been most miffed about the denied access - they'll be even miffter when the plants go in

unbummed :)

well pretty much. i've retrieved most of my links and have gussied up the place some.

what do you think?

bummer

well all i wanted to do was insert a flickr badge to my (relatively) new flickr site and my entire blog changed, taking all the links and gadgets with it :(

will be back on the weekend to fix it