On my line from today’s workshop, Shibori folded, clamped twisted and sewn. I found some triangles, circles and squares to clamp onto the cloth at Reverse Garbage, http://www.reversegarbage.com.au/ We created some very geometric pieces of indigo dyed cloth, with the pot bubbling and churning with it’s green to blue magic.
The little artists took their guests to their opening at the Exhibition Centre. Along with their individual pieces that I framed, I had hemmed the long cloths that we had printed. When I first arrived at the preschool in March I had brought along a cut out calico teepee.
As the project went on it’s journey I had forgotten about it, and still hadn’t done anything with it. “What about the teepee?” Apologetically I confessed I had no time left, so I left it there. In their own time the children painted and printed it, and Vikki, the pre school director stitched it together. The parents pitched it, and I was delighted to see it in the vast space of the exhibition hall inviting the curious in.
It coincided with a teepee weekend for me with my own dear old teepee full of happy memories and some tears, folded down for the last time before I remake it into something else. Something I love about teepees is that you can light a little fire inside, and then there is warmth. light and a glow from the inside. The simplicity of the structure is hard to believe and when I sit inside I am always surprised by the feeling of generous space.
The 8.30 ferry from Victoria Point took us across to the little island .
I had brought along some silk, and I wanted to print some treasures from Coochie onto it. The group were busy preparing for their annual exhibition, but made time to join a little printing adventure.
Exploring the sand near the hall I found a crab that had been speared by a bird. I brought it back up to the hall. As I stepped from the sand onto the red clay rock of the island I noticed an eroded layer thick with shells. A midden. Coochiemudlo has a heritage listed wetland. The island has a feeling of peace and timelessness.
The little blue crab was sketched, photographed and saved as inspiration for the Sense of Coochie exhibition in November this year at Redland Art Gallery
Everyone printed silks, and I whisked their finished pieces away to take these photos. I just love the sight of the material in the place that inspired it.
I visited Toowoomba, stepping out of my car into another world: Autumn leaves, historic buildings, grand gardens and mist. So close to Brisbane and yet it has a different climate. It was a small class at The Glennie School, and the girls were working from images they had in their journals.
I was there to run an etching workshop with aluminium plates and copper sulphate, a technique I learned in the early days of the internet from Nik Semenoff D Litt, Artist-in-residence, University of Saskatchewan
He kindly answered my emails as I worked from a paper that he had published on the technique that he and Dr L.W Bader from the department of chemistry had developed, so that we could replace acid etching at Warringah Printmakers Studio in Sydney in the 1990s.
We used ink for the ground. It can be scratched through, etched, then sanded or wiped off. For tones we experimented with oil crayons. Inking was done with a water based printing ink that is very black and slow drying. We used the same ink for both a ground and for inking up the plates.
The mist had cleared for the drive back down the range through the valleys back to Brisbane and I thought about how much I like getting away from Brisbane, and all the good places I have been on these Flying Arts trips.
A weekend at Rusty Roo artist retreat collecting leaves for printing onto scarves. I was very happy to see how well the leaves from the property printed onto the material. Brewing the pots on a fire that Cameron built for us was a treat. Peaceful mornings watching the wallabies as the mist rose, and an evening around an open fire under the stars. Sumptuous shared home cooked meals. I brewed up an indigo pot for some shibori, and we added an extra layer to the plant prints.
Sharon Lees Rusty Roo Artist retreat Esk
http://sharonleeartist.blogspot.com.au/
Occasionally when things don’t go as planned I discover some interesting things. I’ve learned to follow these misadventures, and see what happens. My ink was too thick, and too dry for screenprinting, so everything had haloes, then I became interested in the journey of the stencil pieces. My screenprints look like drypoints, and as the ink travelled up my sleeves I felt the exhileration of a new process.
I unrolled this small silk bundle this morning, It looked dark grey and smelt of gumleaves and sauerkraut, and I was surprised at the vibrant colours that were revealed, even some turquoise from the copper that I had wound the silk around. This year I have had some very peculiar brews of indigo, leaves, vegetables: the strange unravelled cookpot. I have been invited to run plant print and dye weekend at Rusty Roo Artist retreat this May. All plant dyes need time, and they seem to choose their own colours. The brews, pickling smells and alchemy of the process have a certain witchy quality. Some photos:
The pre school group are putting the finishing touches on their individual textile pieces, ready for the Early Childhood Educators conference at the Brisbane Exhibition centre. They discussed all the steps, and remembered all the stages in making their prints. For the second layer I put out yellow and red palettes for them to explore, as a second layer. The colours filled the leaf shapes they had made the week before, creating autumn tones, and bringing the objects created by shadows forward. Next week we begin framing them.
This year I am visiting Iona College for their Artist in Residence Program. There is a quilt making project planned, and I worked with the year 7 groups on some designs for the pieces. We were making designs for a few hundred rectangles of quilting cotton, pieces for a quilting group to make up. About 80 students worked on the designs, I chose a few that were completed in each of the four sessions to place on the screens, and then we began printing the pieces.
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