farewell 2015

New Year's Eve again, and traditionally the time to look back and remember the year. 2015 started very well as we were in lovely London and then Rome.

Looking back over the blog there were exhibitions both here and overseas;

 There was a lot of playing with paint

I tried a few new techniques (papermaking, printing and incorporating porcelain slip were highlights);

 I learned a lot from the wonderful Cas Holmes when she came to Australia in the southern winter;

 And I made slow but steady progress on the big Wedding Dress project

 There were trips to the beach, both here

 and in Tasmania

 And we had a generally lovely time.

2016 is looking pretty good already as I have booked into a workshop with the inspiring and knowledgeable Sophie Munns in April and, hopefully, one with the fabbo Velma Bolyard in March.

Happy New Year everyone!

anniversary

It is our third third wedding anniversary - three years ago we had our third wedding with W's lovely family in the UK.

*ETA we had three weddings in 2012 - a commitment ceremony with our Australian family, the formal, legal ceremony also in Oz, and a beautiful wedding blessing in the UK with our English family :)

into the lacuna

I love this part of the year - the lovely lacuna between Christmas and New Year. Summer is really picking up speed and everyone, or almost everyone, is on holiday.  A time for lounging around, eating leftovers and reading. I'm greedily reading Philip Pullman's compulsive, many-layered Dark Materials trilogy, so full of archetypes, tropes and echoes of everything I've ever read, or wanted to read.

I have also been doing a little studio work, creating a wrapped bundle

 doing some random stitching 

and practising drawing with my left hand.

And there have been quite a few sunset walks, waiting until the worst heat has gone out of the day.

Hope you're enjoying your lacuna too.

Happy Christmas!

It's a hot Christmas Day here in Australia with the usual brew of bushfires and cyclones in various parts of the country.

Wherever you are in the world have a wonderful day - thanks for reading Textile Seahorse.

Felicity xxx

making new work

I have spent a lovely weekend combining stitch, collage, paint and textile in some new work that feels quite exciting.

Still very much works in progress - here they are drying in the studio.

 End of stage 1.

running to catch up

I have fallen sadly behind on my blogging. Instagram is swifter and needs less consideration - there is after all no narrative - just a photo and, perhaps, a label.

I had several blog posts in mind:

• more paper making

• indigo dyeing 

• shibori

• seeing some wonderful things at the Blue exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria

and making unexpected progress on some languishing Works in Progress by striking out in a new direction

 I see I need some photos of some outputs as well as process! Which is another blog post...

making paper

For the past two weekends my studio time has been spent experimenting with a new skill - making paper. I have admired the work of papermaking artists such as Velma Bolyard for ages but had never thought papermaking was something I could do. But, partly inspired by the prospect of a long, very hot summer splashing about with water and pulp seemed like an excellent plan.  I liked the idea of making my own cotton rag paper and it was a chance to do something different with some of the miles of fabric I have in my stash.

Following a mix of instructions drawn variously from Nick Neddo's excellent book The Organic Artist, May Babcock's excellent blog Paperslurry  and a lot of trial and error I turned an old cotton sheet from this

 

 into this

 In between these stages the sheet became strips 

 

cooked squares

a sort of cotton milkshake

and finally pulp

Then it was into the studio to turn pulp into slurry and eventually, via my home made mould (viz an old picture frame and some insect netting) and book press,

paper

possum tails

A little ringtail possum lives in the rolled up blind on our front veranda. As the afternoons get warmer and the air is full of rose and jasmine scents, s/he gets more careless about how much tail hangs out of the back door of the nest.

It's just low enough for me to have a gentle pat of the tail and feel the soft strength of fur and the underside of bare skin for gripping.

On Saturday the possum was so drugged with warm sleep that its furry little bottom was hanging out too - and that is how I got to pat a possum's bottom :)

making ink

Using the straightforward instructions in this fabulous book 

 the smallest sprog and I turned this

 and this

into this

Also this weekend I made cotton rag paper and patted a possum's bottom - but that is another blog post... Or possibly two.

a post about the weather

Melbourne has a reputation for capricious weather. In the past week we have had 30+ degrees with howling, desiccating hot north winds and bushfires

Slightly less hot but humid days

 Sizzling, crashing thunderstorms

 And back to 11 degrees and raining.