Category: Mud Cloth

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Laundry Day

In Melbourne on an overcast, breezy day doing laundry. I kept up pretty good in Halls Gap with hand washing of small items, but just about the whole lot of clothing needs a good cleaning.

While it is washing and drying, I’ll catch up on some bits and pieces.

The class space I was in during Grampians Texture was the Whale Room in the Brambuk Cultural Center – did I mention that already? There was definitely the spirit of the whale present.

Our morning tea and lunch was prepared by the Cafe chef – hot out of the oven scones and damper (sort of like fluffy biscuits) with wattle seeds and jams and lovely mounds of whipped cream,  sandwiches with a number of meats and veggies on them, fruit salad.

The generous staff at Brambuk kept our room warm when it got chilled and entertained all sorts of questions about tools and room usage and cultural stuff. I was also gifted with the last copy from two earlier exhibits with lots of great info.

Ended my Halls Gap duties with a rich ice cream cone:  Stairway to Heaven, white Belgium ice cream w chocolate chips and swirls of caramel.

Was treated to a thick slice of salmon steak and wedges and fresh garden salad when I arrived late in Melbourne last night.

The hosts here have a really cool stove – called an Aga – which stays lit all the time and is useful for making toast, frying, baking, etc. without much fuss or time involved. Slick.

Our exhibit table at the end of the workshop was by far the most exciting – my students were absolutely the best! Would come back in a heartbeat.

Sorting through all my various bits of luggage, trying to consolidate for the trip to  Tasmania this evening. Very fortunately, Anne has offered to bring along anything I need for the basket Gathering as well as take things to Orange later in April so I don’t have to lug things around.  Yipee!

I left some little stuff at Halls Gap, but don’t think it is too important. Another excuse to go to the op shops!

Jane – it isn’t pants, but I did mud up an op shop shirt that I just rinsed out. Will wear it to the Gathering.

Since the second day on  this trip I’ve been mouse-less. My mini mouse for the computer died on me – sure it is just needing a new battery – so I’ve been just doing the keypad thing. Getting better at it as I go along.

Okay – got to get back to laundry.  Tasmania tonight!

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A lot of roos

Who ever warned me about seeing a lot of kangaroos in Halls Gap was spot on – they seem to be everywhere! One local home even had one in their front yard – within their fence, so I’m not sure if it was a pet or just jumped in.

Mostly visible in the evenings from late afternoon on, they start at the edge of the woods and then gradually make their way into the pastures, lawns, green spaces. Tonight there were maybe 35 in this one field above the place we had dinner. Lots of joeys – they birth more babes when the weather has been good. The last two years have been flood years so there is a proliferation of roos due to the abundance of foilage. I was told that a mum roo can be pregnant for up to 4 years (OH, MY!) waiting for good growing conditions, then the naked tiny roo basically crawls out and up the pouch where it is carried and cuddled and nursed till it is able to get about on its own.  Or something like that.

Laughed a lot at dinner – Louise and Jan are a hoot together (they were in my mud cloth class and Louise wore one of her mud pieces tonight – quite the fashion statement!) Margaret and Jeanette are just as bad (chums from an art program, going through it together).

A very filling dinner (deep fried fish, pan fried chicken patty thing that looked like the continent of Australia, fried potatoes wedges, mixed veggies and salad) and dessert (apple cobbler, fresh fruit and cheese cake – a bit different from ours – with fresh whipped cream and mango sherbet on the side) buffet at a reception center – some of the decorations for wedding receptions were up. Lovely veranda on which to enjoy the sun, which finally came out, and the roos.

Class was really good and challenging.  I love not telling people what might be hard to do if they are set on doing it – they usually don’t have any problems if they don’t know they are supposed to have problems. Well, I did have to steer a student in a different direction just so she wouldn’t be disappointed. Lots of design quandaries to overcome and options to explore. They still seem excited, so that is the best part. And our finished projects tables are looking spectacular.

Really beat tonight – almost fell asleep standing up while listening to the panel discussion on being a financially successful fiber artist that was held before dinner. Probably should not have had that glass of wine first.

Two more days to enjoy Halls Gap and the Grampians!

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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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Paper and Books

Today was filled with paper and books and all the lovely people involved with them.

After doing some mudcloth with Sue last night (great red and decent tan from local muds),  I packed up, bade a fond farewell to Sue and Andrew and the Dandenongs, and loaded into Tricia’s car this morning.

Along the way we made a stop at a local art center – really a cool place(even though I can’t remember the name right now. Built specifically for making and exhibiting art of all sorts, the spaces were large and open and full of light. They used art all over to decorate the place, from leaf tiles in the sidewalks to the wooden fence tops carved in whimsical figures.

While gazing through the windows at a large hooked wall hanging in one painting room, we were literally pulled into the space by the instructor who asked me to show off my scrumbled vest that I was wearing. Too funny! Nice bunch  of ladies who had been painting together for 13 years.  From there we visited a $2 store in Box Hill on the way to a lovely lunch at Gail’s home with seven members of the papermakers group.

A number of scrumptious dishes (topped off by fresh watermelon and homemade baklava) comprised our feast.  Gail then shared lots of pictures of some super paper pieces from various exhibits she had seen. She also pulled out books that the group had made in the past and there was some sharing of really cool work that various people had done. The papers were gorgeous and the ideas and skill of the makers was top-notch. What a pleasure to soak it all in!

Tricia and I then had the fun of checking out Gail’s backyard where the ‘monster’ pumpkin was overtaking the lemon tree!  A HUGE pumpkin vine was literally swamping a good-sized lemon tree which was filled with ripening fruit. And in the midst of it all there was a basketball sized pumpkin being propped up by stakes so it wouldn’t break the lemon tree limbs. Gail also had papyrus growing along with a number of other good papermaking plants.

We did a bit of clean-up at Gail’s and then the three of us headed off to a BBQ being held as a joint meeting of the basketmakers and the bookmakers. Another round of delicious salads and desserts (fiber people REALLY know how to cook and eat!) along with some wine and sausages/hamburgers/veggie burgers.

To fill out the evening and provide something to do, they had four vats working for marbling paper. Everyone was invited to do some marbled sheets (I’ve got one drying out downstairs at the moment) and I think pretty much everyone marbled at least one sheet.

Bags got transferred to Anne’s car. After she made sure all was cleaned up (such are the duties of the group president!), we headed off to her home in the city proper (Melbourne) where I am staying for the next several days. I was met by Boris, an imperial and egotistical  Russian blue cat, and Tim Tim, a more sedate tiger.

All in all a good one.  Time to  tuck in – feeling bushed for the day.