The Kimberleys

There is a reason for my silence of late and that is I have been to the Kimberleys to see Tim of Tim's tapestry.
The trip involved 3 days in Adelaide, the Ghan to Darwin, 6 days in Darwin then flew to Kununurra for 8 more days then home.  What an amazing trip. The Ghan was great with side trips around Alice Springs and to Katherine Gorge; the food was especially good. Darwin is hot and very hip.  While there we went to Kakadu which is very special. But nothing prepared me for the Kimberleys, the highlight of which was a trip to Lake Argyle then a boat ride down the Ord River to Lake Kununurra. We were lucky to be shown around by locals, my son and his partner, and probably saw things not on the tourist agenda. Ivanhoe crossing was lovely and at Wyndahm it was awesome, in the true sense of the word, to stand next to a 2,000 year old Boab tree. Saw lots of art work and I was supposed to go to Warmun the day before we left but it had to be cancelled because of a death in the community.  Next time.
However with all this travelling I am weeks behind in my work, so will have to make a big effort  trying to catch up.  But it was worth it.

Katherine Gorge

Loved this in the Rundle Mall

Rock Art inKakadu

Mini Bungles Kununurra

Ivanhoe Crossing

Escarpment along the Ord River

                                                                      

Tim's Tapestry

 I have been doing Tim's tapestry at odd times and am up to here.

Getting there.  I have taken photos at various stages and put them into a slide show  for Tim and I tried to ulpoad them on here; however to no avail.  They uploaded but it looked like a puzzle to solve as they were not in order. So far I have spent nearly 70 hours on this tapestry which will measure 37 cm by 27 cm.

Finished my first assignment.

Bobbins used for weaving the Picasso image

I have finally finished the first assignment which I found very challenging, but enjoyable.  I  also finished Miro and the sewing of the lines across the image took ages and was more difficult than I imagined. Here they are, hopefully.    As you can see I wove the Picasso separately because I thought the hatching would work better vertically.
                                                                                 

 
                        

                                                       

I have managed to download both which is an improvement on my last attempt at adding photos. However I now need to work out how to make them level. I have done it but it was accidental

During the past week I have been to see a couple of exhibitions before they close. I went the Sensorial Loop at Storey Hall and after that I went to see the Analog Digital  at the First Site gallery downstairs at RMIT.
Both were worth the visit but the Analog... had more fashion than in other years.

Happy St. Patrick's Day.

Another tapestry done.

I don't know where the last 2 weeks have gone. I have managed to see a couple of exhibitions; Real Nowhere Land at Manningham Gallery and About Time at Bundoora. Both were worth the trip (both galleries are on the other side of town from where I live). We were early at the Manningham one and bided our time sitting in a shelter made from old slides painted pink which I loved. However as usual, we left the camera at home. At Bundoora, the homestead was worth a trip on its own, beautiful place. We had a meeting of our tapestry group at the Spinners and Weavers last Saturday and it was good to welcome 2 people from the SWTAFE course. Some people worked, mostly we chat and exchange information. I have managed to finished another of the exercises called Leti, a difficult piece to interpret.  I decided to put it 5/6 ft away from me as it is so complex and weave what I can see. Hope that works.

I wanted to put a  copy of the original beside my woven one and although I have downsized it to 1.23MB, it says it is too big.
C'est  la computer!!!!!!!!!!!!!

           

Miro

Miro is finished; Miro being the small, feisty character on the bottom of 3 tapestries I have to do for my first assignment.

 I had started it when I was in Warnambool, however I didn't get far.  The picture above shows lines over it which I intend to sew on.  I also have some  mentors one of whom thought I should weave the lines. Sewing them on seemed a much easier option and I will do that when I take it off the loom which will be after I do the red one. Although the image is small, it took me several days to do and I am reasonably happy with the result.

Here it is.

Mine doesn't look as happy as the one above and I see that I missed weaving one of the stars. C'est la vie.

The Tree of Life

My husband likes to re - invent things and give them another life and as a result I have some quirky  "installations" in my back garden.  At the end of last year, my daphne bush died and it has been dug up and has been recycled into The Tree of Life. My other half has a wild sense of humour.  I will enclose his artist's statement
                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                       

The Tree of Life

The Tree of life is a rare tree only found growing in locations where it is deemed to be of use to the population.

Commonly known as the Money Tree,  it is often sought but seldom found.

Within the central structures of the plant, you will see how the main branches of society integrate by using the fruits of this plant.

No matter the colour, creed, ethnic background or religion, the fruit of this tree bind the nations through trade, fraud and money laundering.

The example before you is only young and at this stage of development only shows signs of coin.  As the year passes into late autumn, the coins will blossom into notes.

Please do not take cuttings.

More Tapestries

I had planned to do a blog a week, however sometimes life intervenes. Last week I went to Warnambool to begin the third year of my Dip.of Tapestry so Tim's tapestry has not been touched since I returned. However before I went I worked on it as often as I could and it is about half way there. Being a glutten for punishment I now have 3 tapestries on the go.  One for the Circles and Squares Oz tapestry weavers challenge which is nearly finished and my first project for SWTAFE

Here it is; quite a challenge.












Now I have 3 tapestries on the go