Current creativity

Oh, it has been a long time since posting… Mostly busy with life and grandkids (who are so wonderfully adept at sharing their colds!). Lately, though, I have been gearing up for a new spring sale that the Studio Collection group decided to do. Saturday, April 25, 10-4pm at Harmony Hall (same place as usual, just a new day/time to see all the artists).

Since winter in my neck of the woods is not very conducive to outdoor dyeing with plant materials, I decided to show some of the other artwork I like to do besides natural dyeing and sewn clothing. Sooooo…..

…. Just finished a bunch of blank bound books to go along with the smaller ones using handmade papers and dyed papers. The studio still shows my activity… 

img 0652 Judy Dominic Fiber Artist The Fiber Art of Judy Dominic 

Of course, I will have baskets on hand, too. And since I have gotten into sewing again, I played with making coiled vessels on the sewing machine. Pretty happy with them! 

img 2383 Judy Dominic Fiber Artist The Fiber Art of Judy Dominic 

Come by and see all my new work as well as the new invited artists to the show. Should be quite an exciting event!

The flight gods…

…are with me. I scored an aisle seat of a threesome with no other seat mates! I’m thinking that the flight snafu has worked out positively.

Late Saturday I went online to check for my seat assignment for the Virgin International flight out of Brisbane to LAX. Turned put the initial flight was moved up an hour early (good thing i checked!) and my direct flight from LA to Indy was now a choice of two flights to Atlanta with a late flight to Indy from there.totally unexpected! All my eleven flights up to this point have been spot on with nary a whisper of a problem. This looked like it would make up for all the rest.

No one was at help desks late Saturday night, so I went in for the Sunday flight hoping I could make something positive happen. It is bad enough to have a long wait between flights after the 12 hour one, but to have to deal with an extra flight plus waits was more than I wanted to handle.

The helpful women at the Virgin service desk were able to find me a direct flight to Cinti plus get me the aisle seat. Not sure how I lucked out with the empty row, tho! I wound up with four pillows, four blankets, three waters and long flight packs and seats that I could almost comfortably stretch out on. What would have been absolutely heavenly is actually getting some sleep! Oh well, I did see the Mr. Peabody movie along with two Australian flicks: the Rabbit Fence and Tracks (about an Australian lass who trekked across the Aussie desert with three adult camels, one baby camel, a trusty dog and a National Geo photographer in tow). Both movies based on real life – and pretty incredible.

Customs and Immigration went smoothly and then… The boarding pass for the newest flight to CVG wouldn’t print. An hour later, Nancy at the Delta service desk finally found me in the system, realized the problem was in how Virgin Air classified me, and got me a new boarding pass for the CVG flight. Waiting a bit longer, but in the long run, this gets me in to CVG the earliest.

Now I am fighting to stay awake in the gate lounge area so I don’t miss the flight.

Morning clouds over the ocean off the coast of California looked like cobbler in the dawn light. Lovely. Looking forward to seeing the sunset over Ohio.

[p.s. Sunset happened later than my flight. Dozed the whole way. Safely home. Initial unpacking and sorting of mail. My own bed felt great!]

Forgot …

… how many days it has been raining here in Amberley, NZ. Suffice it to say that there have been a goodly number, as evidenced by the flooding that is happening around us.

The main road to Christchurch is under water and homes are being evacuted in North Canterbury, near here. There must be some back roads open as the traffic past the house has not been slowed very much.

Our papermaking has been stymied somewhat. Hoping for a break today so we can pull some huge sheets. Have been filling the ‘pond’ with water diverted from the house downspout. Check out the ‘system’!

In the meantime, Mark has been working on critters and i have made paper flowers and leaves formfuture paintings. Just hoping they dry sometime this year!

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Off to …

… New Zealand this morning! On such a lovely gray, rainy day in Melbourne. I hear NZ is sunny today.

It has been absolutely peachy in Melbourne and environs. Couldn’t have enjoyed it so much without the superb ministrations of Anne, Tony and friends.

Last weekend was spent in Meeniyan with nine enthusiastic new mudders from all over the country. Other than a bit chilly in the mornings, the weather was perfect and we took advantage of the courtyard, bushes and wide roll up door to expand outside with our work. And, as with any fiber event, the food was delish! (First pic/s)

After spending time with the gracious Glenys, Anne and I stayed in Woongarra at the home of some friends of hers. Lovely rambling ranch dwelling surrounded by lush vegitation and fruit bearing trees. The friends are both vets so we were treated to the attentions of Poppi and Yara (dogs), Peter and Nelly (cats), 5 or 6 chooks (they kept moving around! and only laid one fresh egg while we were there) and a number of calves in the paddock. (Second pic/s)

The rain held off yesterday in Melbourne to give me time for a couple loads of laundry and major repacking. The cabbie was a bit early 6:18am which was fine as there was a slow down on the way to the airport. Lots of lines for departing international flights (immigration check) and the gate for my flight is the absolute furthest you can be from the entrance to the facility. Lots of shops open early to tempt along the way. (Last pic)

Now, to wait patiently for the New Zealand adventure to begin. (This was written while still in Melbourne and just posted now after some time lapse – sorry!)
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The News

Just got a link to the Wagin Argus which must be the local paper for the Lake Grace area: http://www.waginargus.com.au/story/2280130/lake-grace-artists-experiment-with-unusual-techniques/?cs=1539

Nice story and set of pics from the workshops held there several weeks ago.