Sister's Market tomorrow

Do Go Out in the Pouring Rain

I had the most wondrous time in Sydney the week before last.  The torrential rain was a bit of a dampener but I didnt let it stop my fun altogether.  Caught the bus in the pouring rain to  Newtown to discover lots of funky shops.  A welcome warming hot chocolate for morning tea was had at A Coffee and a Yarn

Being in All Buttons Great and Small was like being a kid in a lolly shop

 

and i wished I had lots of money to spend on Turkish plates and lanterns

Riding the free bus around the CBD was a respite  from the rain.  Wettest July in Sydney for 50 years!

I'd seen the 52 Suburbs exhibition on Art Nation and was so pleased to be able to go and see it in the real at the Museum of Sydney.  Most days I found some time to go to Dymocks.  The little booths in the cafe were pint sized havens of peace in a busy city.  It did fine up on the last day I was there which made for a perfect day of walking along Oxford Street to the Paddington markets and back again to my Pitt Street hotel.  Such fun and so many inspiring, interesting things to see.

Slow Day

I'm in the Grampians.  After a sleep in, and a breakfast of steaming oatmeal porridge, I took an hour long walk to get the paper.  In the shop  Slow magazine caught my eye, so I bought it.  Reading the magazine later over coffee I discovered that today, this very day, June 21st, is International Day of Slowness.  It's a day set aside to make a statement against haste, an opportunity for reflection, and a day to celebrate all things slow.

So I spent the afternoon doing a spot of slow sewing, gazing at the magnificent mountains

and the beautiful trees I can see from my window, pausing every now and then just to think about 'things'

Tonight I am going to read my novel, slowly.  If today's anything to go by,  I wish everyday was slow day.

Knit one, save one

Save the children Australia are calling knitters to get those needles clicking in a campaign to knit 15,000 woolen blankets for distribution throughout India, Cambodia and Laos.  Each blanket will help a child stay warm and feel comfy and safe. Most importantly, the blankets will help to ward against pneumonia, one of the biggest killers of children under five in the developing world. You can read more about where the blankets will go, why they are needed, as well as find their simple knitting pattern  and where to send the completed 16 square blankets here

Iridescence of Colour

On my way to view the Top Arts: VCE 2010 exhibition in the NGV I detoured into the Indigenous Art Collection section of the gallery and was blown away by the work there.  At the moment there is an exhibition titled "Living Water: Contemporary Art of the Far western Desert".  The use of colour was energising and uplifting. It felt so good looking at such glorious art. The little book published to coincide with the exhibition says:

This living art form is a reverberation of iridescent colours, forms, textures and stories, both public and sacred, and of tactile sensations that point up transcendent powers sensed in country.......Far western Desert art is one of increasingly few contemporary art movements unashamedly focused on the practice of painting and the iridescence of colour, and whose most audacious practitioners are women. 'This is the art that, forty years after its eruption into the art world has become the most vibrant, dynamic and living art of the present, [that makes] other forms of painting look weak by comparison. '(Elizabeth Grosz ' Living art and the art of Life)                    -  Judith Ryan Living Water NGV 

 

Ginger Wikilyiri - Tjitji kutjara pitjangu yii - Nyii Ngampuka 2009

Tommy Mitchell Kurlilypurru 2009

Western Desert artists designs issue from their whole body - 'not just from fingers trained to hold a pencil'.  Having viewed the  dancing vibrancy of colour and pattern,  I felt truly joyous, somehow psychologically soothed, calmed and set free.

Blackbird Market

I was warm and toasty today minding my stall at the Blackbird Market.  Outside it was cold, wet and blustery with just the occasional period of sunshine.  Even the weather cant dampen the fun of Gertrude Street though. What a fabulous place to wander.

 

 

 

 

Blackbird Market is held the 2nd Saturday of each Month at The Workers Club, corner Gertrude Street and Brunswick Road, Fitzroy.

 

Numbat - a lesser known woodland creature!

On a recent visit to the Perth Zoo I encountered a Numbat and wondered why I had never seen one of these Australian marsupials before.  I was struck by her beauty.  The colours in her fur were vibrant - appearing orange with black and white stripes on the lower part of the body.  She seemed very happy foraging in her enclosure, oblivious to being watched, hoping and jumping and scurrying.  Numbats are endangered. Once found right across the lower half of Australia, they are now only found in a very small region of Western Australia. The introduction of the red fox has been one of the major causes for such small numbers of numbats. Loss of their woodland habitats has also exacted a toll. Numbats eat termites and are active in the day - making them even more vulnerable.  The Perth Zoo has a breeding program and has so far been able to release 100 numbats back into the wild.

The red fox, which destroys so much of our native wildlife, has been a popular motif in recent times.  I thought I'd have a go at adding a numbat motif to a skirt.

Using a photo I found on Google images, i sketched my version.

 

Then translated this into fabric and stitched it on to one of the skirt front pieces I had cut out before stitching up the skirt.  Here is the finished result.  I'm happy with it.  I wanted a soft, light approach that blended, almost camouflaged, with the rest of the skirt