Category: surface design

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Nothing Dodgey about Dodges Ferry

Yesterday’s aqua aerobics ended with a yummy hot chocolate at the Cafe and a nice little tour of Dodges Ferry – a little spot along the bay where the Carlton River comes in. Ralph Dodge ran a ferry business there, starting with a row boat, when the town was first settled. Got people from that side of the bay to a spit of land connected more directly to Hobart. He also carried the mail on horseback for the surrounding area. Busy guy.

Something I wasn’t yesterday (and not the guy thing!).

Both Di and Chris will be going to France in about a month for a dye symposium. Di is presenting a program on using native Australian  plants for dyeing silk so she is busy getting some samples ready. Chris will be presenting something, too, but I think it is more in the poster format. He is heading up some meetings tonight, though, so is involved with getting that all organized.

So I found a lovely spot on the front deck facing the bay, pulled out the bilum that I need to finish before getting to PNG and kept company with the birds in the trees. Didn’t appreciate the mozzies that found me, but they didn’t stay around too long once we put the electric bug zapper on.

Locally caught shark in an orange sauce was our evening meal entree (thank you, Chris!) accompanied by mashed potatoes and steamed carrots/green beans. A bit of cantaloupe finished the meal – I skipped the brandy this time.

Rain during the night as well as off and on this morning. Still looks like it might do some more before the day is done.

The three of us walked along the beach this morning through the drips – very clean, white sand – then made a loop by going up the Dunalley creek and then back along the road to their house. More bilum work as well as some laundry (never done). Will be getting ready soon to go to dinner and a meeting.

Ed.: pics of the beach and home now online.

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Mud class finishednd

A gray, misty day here after almost f full night of rain. Nothing torrential like they had earlier that washed out a lot of places, but a soft and gentle soaker.

Had a really nice treat when pulling into the parking lot of my teaching space after breakfast (roommate Robyn gave me a lift) – a mama roo and her joey were right next to the driveway. The baby didn’t look young enough to still be feeding (he was almost as tall as mum), but he was hanging on to mum for dear life determined to get HIS breakfast. (Assuming it was a male – hard to tell.) They didn’t budge, so we got a bunch of pictures that I’ll post later. Tons of roos about in the open fields on the way home after class, too.

The clouds finally lifted about an hour before class finished so our wet cloth had a chance to get a final drying.  Boy, did my students do a grand job!  They brought in all sorts of lovely local colors and all sorts of different materials to work on. Lots of small pieces as well as a number of larger works were mudded. Some got rinsed while most of the mudded cloth went home with the students to be finalized later. Our class exhibit tables at the end of class sharing looked quite grand.

Some real characters in the class – lots of laughs and good conversations. Everyone seemed happy to have been there, so I’m officially declaring it a success!

We finished the day with the opening of an exhibit at the MoCo Gallery – a glass of wine, a date scone, some cheese and lots of chatting – quite nice. Dinner was made and hosted by the coordinator of the conference – a delicious Thai curry – veggie and beef.

Right now I’m hearing some really weird noise outside – I’m sure it is some animal doing something I really don’t want to find out about. Which reminds me that we had a ‘red belly alert’ today – two red belly snakes had been spotted not far from our classroom space and where we were hanging our wet cloth between trees. The snakes were described as about a softball size diameter, maybe 6 ft long, bright red underside, venomous (but not the most poisonous so don’t worry) and shy. Oh, just stomp your feet when you walk outside and the snake will go away – I was told. Fortunately we didn’t see any to worry too much about!

One of those moments when you know for sure you are in a foreign land!

Ed.: pics of the mudcloth class work, the mama/baby roo and MoCo Gallery are now online.

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Rainy day in the Grampians

This morning started with a lovely rosy glow on the mountain side and a half dozen kangaroos plus a juvenile emu meandering in the side yard of the campground. The roos were a bit shy, but the emu strutted right up to us all curious. Or maybe looking for breakfast.

A great flock of cockatiels (I think that is what they were called – I may be wrong) took off making a huge ruckus and they started flying every which way. I was told they are ‘thicker than three boards’ and the dumbest birds around. They even fly upside down.

The only other wildlife that was really active today were the mozzies (mosquitoes) which came out while we were enjoying dinner outside in the garden area of the Grand Mountain Resort/restaurant. (I may be a bit off on that title, but it is close!) Had a delicious tomato soup and wedges (potato wedges, nice and crispy with a sweet and sour dipping sauce – very nice!

Have a great group of ladies doing some fun work with  mud. We have some really nice colors to work with. Finish up tomorrow with a show and tell of all the two-day classes.

The day was overcast and sprinkly so it didn’t get as hot as predicted. Right on schedule the rain started as we set up tables outside for some vending. And it is raining off and on right now, too.  Sounds good on the roof of the cabin.

Really  hoping for sun tomorrow as one of the classes is a solar printing class!

Ed.:  pics  are online now.

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Sunny day play

I’ve been using these hot days lately to do a bit of solar dyeing. Some of it rust and some of it naturals.  Picked up some appropriate fiber (cotton/silk)  items at the local thrift shop last week and have been enjoying the surprises that arise when you open up a dyed bundle.

On some clothing I used some of the wild black  cherries that have been dropping onto our deck for the past month. They have been super abundant this summer (what does the tree know that we don’t?) – we’ve been squishing them underfoot a lot and some little critter/s have been gnawing them to bits, including the tiny seed inside. I’m assuming it was a raccoon that overdosed on the cherries last week – a couple interesting piles of scat were left.

On silk and with vinegar, the cherries produce a lovely deep

Osage Orange (Maclura pomifera) bark
Image via Wikipedia

blue-black which stays after washing.  On cotton, the cherries leave a quite lovely rosy color with just vinegar and a more ruddy color with tannin (used some osage orange tannin I had on hand).  Both of those shades faded to  predictable grays in the wash water, but still lovely.

Some of the thrift shop items were just rust dyed mostly using steel wool. And I  have some thrift shop items that I want to mud first before dyeing.

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Twining

I’m on a twining roll. Started with paper twist and baling twine on Thursday and ended with the newspaper plastic bags today. Two separate pieces, one technique.

The baling twine and paper twist has some character to it – undulations, an opening on the side, a really nice found stick running through three sides of the piece.

The plastic bags piece has color – from the bags (blue and orange and dark green during winter so you could see it in the snow plus some lovely pale greens, oranges and tans). It’s shape is pretty staid – basically didn’t try anything different do to the very limp nature of the material. Halfway through the piece my love asked if I was making a bag to hold the bags?  Well…. That must be what it is!  Added a twisted handle at the end and hung it in the garage.  More bags to come!

Will get some pics up later this week.  ITMT, pics of the Oxford exhibit, Rock Paper Scissors are up on my Flickr site.