Category: Mud Cloth

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Back from NY

The Eastern Great Lakes Fiber Conference went extremely well.  Held at the Chautauqua Institute in NY, we enjoyed the lovely autumn coloring, the mist on the lake in the mornings and the cool crisp air morphing into warm sunny days.

About 70 very fun fiber folks attended sharing their fiber passions and craziness.  I felt in good company! My students were the absolute best in both the twining session as well as the mudcloth class. I did get some pictures of some of their incredible work, but haven’t had a chance to upload them yet.

It is always a delight to meet new folks and pure joy to reconnect with old-time friends – and both happened in NY.

I was able to add to the pleasure of the trip with a stop in Cleveland on the way home, visiting with my eldest and youngest sons and a lovely blooming young mother-to-be.  Grandchild #2 is due in a couple weeks – can’t wait!

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Excuses

I know I should be finishing the last three weeks of my trip to PNG and OZ – all the pics are up but they need words to make them understandable.  I’ve lost the momentum at the moment as it has shifted to other more pressing things. Like…

…remembering all those who serve and have served in our country’s armed forces – this is Memorial Day weekend here in the US.

…cleaning up after our recent spate of storms. Nothing serious here, just lots of tree debris.

…making plans for a small papermaking gathering here in June.

…writing two articles with deadlines in the next two days.

…making sufficient samples for one of the articles.

…nailing down all the necessary aspects of a teen/river art project.

…working up plans for a community art project.

…hosting and attending various family functions and gatherings – all good fun ones. And setting up future ones.

…giving two presentations on my OZ/PNG trip.

…giving a mudcloth for quilters presentation – which got chased into the church basement due to a nearby tornado.

…quilting some of my mudcloth to use as samples at the above mentioned presentation – which I then forgot to take along!

…making plans for a couple possible trips.

…finalizing various teaching plans for the rest of the year.

…getting excited about the upcoming births of our first two grandchildren!

 

I promise, there WILL be final reporting on my two weeks in PNG plus the last week in Australia at the Orange Forum.  Just not promising exactly when….

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Basket Gathering odds and ends

Before moving on to my adventure in Papua New Guinea, here are some bits and pieces, odds and ends from the Basket Gathering that I didn’t mention earlier:

-I got to hold a baby wombat!  So cute and furry. Rosie was her name, 8 months old. She will eventually be released back to the wild.

-The guild from Canberra made a pitch to host the next Gathering in 2013 – and got the nod from the group. Lots of exciting plans in the works for that. Now, how can I get back for that one?!?!?

-I taught a small group how to do jiseung – Korean method of handspinning hanji (Korean made paper). Some caught on quickly, some not so quick, some decided this was definitely not something they would do again, others were delighted.

-Anne showed me how to do the wire technique from Africa – it is like doing row after row of simple rims, just very tight and close.  Kinda cool.

-Had a  laundry routine for the week – wash/rinse out while taking a shower and then let the breezes do the drying.

-One thing that they have in Tas is kelp! Lots of folks were trying their hand at using bull kelp to make containers of various sizes (necklace to table).

-The Gathering typically holds a basket exchange for anyone interested in doing it. Anne talked me into submitting one of my little twined sculpture class samples – funky looking, but kinda cute.  I was delighted with the hanging kelp piece I got in exchange. The gal who got my piece wasn’t quite as sure… LOL

-A wonderful range of basketry techniques and materials on display in the ‘gallery’ – really quite inspiring.

-I used some New Zealand flax in a couple slapped together baskets with the hope that the customs folks in the US wouldn’t mind baskets coming in with me. The official didn’t even ask to see them. The intent is to cut them apart and use the material for papermaking!

-One of the Tasmanian members (Karen G) did  a presentation on her work with school kids in Sikim (sp?) in India near Bhutan. The most inspiring part of it all was that she is retired and on a whim clicked on a website ad for ‘an adventure helping others’ (or something like that). Her family was aghast but she goes to Sikim for three months at a time (visa restrictions) teaching English and then has been doing some fundraising when she is home. She raised enough at the Gathering to put in windows in the new school being built – a terrific response from the group.

-I hitched a ride with Karen back to Hobart at the end of the Gathering and found out that she plays violin and viola professionally in local orchestras. Coll lady!

-Reunited with Beth from my trip to New Zealand in 2004 – great fun!

-Had a chance to get to know Tasmania Di (a friend of some of my other US basket friends) – what a hoot! And a hard worker.

-Connected with Suzie, Carolyn and Genease from Sydney – they will be waiting for my return from PNG!

-Had trouble getting an internet connection: the local internet cafe had a new owner and was just getting in service the Monday right before we were to leave.

-Native chooks (hens) roamed the camp grounds regularly. Bright green poop in  the grass!

-Love the range of ‘arty’ clothes in AU – lots of slanted hemlines on tops and skirts, layers and leggings.

-The other US attendee, Sandy W, was on a hunt for colors of dirt – which was right up my alley! We drove out one day with Di and Tracee, finding a local young farmer, Ben, who thought we were quite daft but gave permission to roam his property. Collected five different colors of mud.

-Karen had a cushion from her ‘family’ in Sikim which she presented as  challenge one evening: how was it made? A half dozen people with about as many bottles of wine and we came up with a very plausible solution to the technique challenge. No one actually did more than a start, though, which was probably a good thing! I MAY give it a shot, now that I”m home…

-The last day of the Gathering dawned with a storm warning for the east coast – which we were close enough to worry about. Lots of rain and wind but nothing more. It did make the clean-up rather soggy.

-A truly wonderful experience at the Basketry Gathering – many thanks to all the hard working gals and guys! It was lovely to just attend!

-Di and Chris came by for a late dinner (pumpkin soup and veggie tortellini – yummy) at the Airport Hotel in Hobart when I got in – and another round of good-byes.

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Mud day

A lovely warm and sunny day here in Connelys Marsh. I know, I told you it was Dunalley where I’m staying. That is the postal address and closest town of any sort. Connelys Marsh is the actual place where Crhis and Di have their home. Not sure I’ve seen a marsh, yet.

Di and I dove into mud work right after breakfast. We had prepped some cloth last night and pulled out the muds that she had on hand. Two different reds, a yellow ochre, a grey and a rich black. Worked up until lunch on sample pieces including one that Di had dyed with eucalypt leaves previously – we’ll see how that tannin works in keeping the mud colors. We even had Chris add a bit of color to one of the pieces.

I thought I was going to do a drive around by myself, but….. turns out I must’ve put the lights on by accident, so we wound up charging the battery instead of driving. Oh, well.  Got some bilum work done instead.

We did have a bit of excitement when Chris opened the boot (trunk) of the car and this big brown Huntsman spider (non-poisonous) sat there in the lock well staring at us. I think we must’ve injured it when Chris slammed the lid shut, but it did scurry off into the depths of the car’s body once we opened back up to have a peek. There was  another large one on the covering to the veranda couch as I covered the couch back up. The size really gets to me.  But I hear it is the little black ones I have to be careful with.

Earlier in the week I tore a hole in the sleeve of one of my shirts. An op shop shirt, it was made in Australia with all sorts of stitched circles and squares. I mudded some of the shapes during my Grampians Texture workshop to give it some color – worked well.  Not having an iron-n patch, I opened the hole a bit bigger and button-hole stitched around the edge. Now I have a real hole that mimics the design on the cloth.

One of the neighbors, Steve, had come over early in the day for a bit of a photo shoot – he is planning on entering some photo categories in the local fair coming up and needed a portrait subject. A quick pose or two and he was off, leaving behind an invitation to dinner at his place tonight.

Drinks and cheeses/crackers/olives at 7ish, a gormand chicken dish with broccoli and roasted potatoes, yams and that white carroty thing (lost the word!). His chicken was smothered with two of his chutneys – pear and peach. Almost like eating dessert for dinner!  And then we finished with a dessert of a very good vanilla and macadamia nut ice cream with fruit cocktail. YUM for all of it!

Steve is an interesting fellow and very friendly – he is sort of the neighborhood watch guy. He is recovering from an accident which damaged his neck so has lots of time on his hands. To keep from being bored, he is making all sorts of homemade jams, jellies and chutneys to enter into the fair – he has 30 of them ready to go. Zelda his dog only barks at possums and chooks (chickens). His goal is to rival the regular ladies who always take the ribbons.

We all will be hitting the road early tomorrow to see a bit of the eastern coastal area. Better get some sleep.

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Seems inconsequential …

… to be talking about what I did the last couple of days when Japan has been hit so hard with the earthquake and tsunami – and other countries are bracing, too.

I can’t do much to help the situation, though, so I might as well try to remember some activities…

Meant to comment that we met up with my hosts from Melbourne, Ann and Tony, at MONA on Wedesday – fun to share the museum and lunch with them.

Yesterday I did some errands in Hobart while Di took care of some business of her own. A bit of shopping, a bit of browsing, a nice smoked salmon quiche in the Antique shop Cafe and some answers to questions at the Visitors Center. I also was on hand when the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery started to dismantle their dinosaur to get ready for planned renovation work – watched while they unscrewed the head!

A trip to the west side of Hobart to pick plums and green beans at Brigit’s home – she has a fantastic hidden garden abundant with fruit/nut trees and flowers and veggies.

A bit of grocery shopping and then we were home to enjoy 2 dozen fresh oysters on the half shell plus a dinner of tuna steaks, mashed potatoes and veggies.

An early morning today resulted in an hours walk after breakfast. We did some time on the beach as well as up and down a couple nearby lanes.

The pluns from yesterday were divided into ready to eat, almost ready to eat, stewing and dyeing. I prepped the stewing and dyeing ones while we munched on the ready ones all day.

Di is getting ready for a workshop she will be giving in France at a dyeing conference so I helped cut up eucalyptus leaves for her to take. She’ll weigh and dry them to use with the class.

Chris trusted me with his older car – after a trip around the neighborhoods of Connelys Marsh and Dunalley he rated me a 10 out of 10. I was sure I saw a couple of white knuckles during the trip! The car is a little white one (that’s as much as I usually remember about cars!) with a manual shift. The shift is no problem since I learned on one years ago, but it is on the left side and all the typical things like turn signal and wipers are on opposite sides of what I’m used to. Going out again tomorrow for a bit of practice in prep for potentially a couple days of travel on my own.

Di and I will be doing some mudcloth and plum dyeing tomorrow – got the cloth ready this evening.

Heard that Papua New Guinea was hit with some of the tsunami waves. Will need to check out that all is okay before I head over in a week or so.