Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord sent this beautiful photgraph of her Peace Leaf out into the world to celebrate the Autumn Equinox in the north countries as spring has sprung here in the Land Down Under
Laurie Anderson’s second Norton Lecture – The Forest was available for 24 hours, I watched it three times… will post a link to part 3 of her Norton lectures next week over and over “I find myself lost”….
just picked up my new eye glasses yesterday! Waited a year after the cataract surgery to let my eyes settle before seeing the optometrist, he said my distance vision is 110% better and wow these new transition lenses for reading and the computer are brilliant, so comfortable & stitching is a dream! PS a bit shocked by the latest wrinkles but at least they’re honest…
This year’s Peace is a Journey weathergram hanging out with the rest of the gang at the front door
it’s very windy this afternoon so it was a bit tricky to get all the weathergrams facing the right way!
and here’s the Peace button (I must do some dusting!)
we had a picnic with our friends Richard & Marika for the first time since the Covid variant D lockdown started 3 months ago here in Sydney, it was so good to catch up with friends again! Richard took this magic photo of the Full Moon last night!
the vertical garden in this courtyard needed new plants for spring and has lost a lot of the original potting mix over the years. I have some vintage stockings from the 60’s and they make the perfect plant burritos!
the old nylon is so fine yet strong, it will last for quite some time!
filling the knotted stocking with a bit of potting mix and a viola
easing the plant burrito into place
it works, will add more plants along the top next month now that I know how to to it!
a red Belgian hybrid Clivea
Neomarica aka Brazilian Walking Iris
the deconstructed kid gloves are becoming a new pair with thoughts of Honesty being fragile and in need of being handled with care
Back in 2019 Beth Brennan of Still Life Pond who made the beautiful Tree of Life pennant for I Dream of a World Where Love is the Answer sent me her mother’s exquisitely fine leather gloves with this note. In our e-mail conversation she added, “Ah good! I felt like Cinderella’s stepsister trying to put them on. My mother was impossibly tiny and had elegant taste. I don’t know how much they were worn—not much by the look of them! She was married to my dad in 1940, so they probably date from the late 1930s. You were my first thought for repurposing and I knew you would appreciate the fineness of the leather. But I also absolve you from doing anything at all with them. Set them free if you need to when the time comes.” The time has come to throw down the gauntlet!
whilst carefully dissecting the seams on the very fine leather I dreamed of merging the two pairs into one pair of starry gloves with contrasting stars as a follow on to Reaching for the Stars
love how the fourchettes with quirks look like birds!
as I explored all the seams and felt the different textures in the leathers I realized these gloves have their own ideas about what each pair wants to be next!
the gloves need to be longer between the thumb hole and fingers for the bigger hands of today & in the width so I cut a 1/2 inch strip from the bottom edge to insert across the knuckles and cut the foredge to increase all the edges with hand stitched button hole lace. I was going to use white silk but have some vintage Silkworm thread that works much better.
last night as I was trembling on the edge of making the first cut, I spoke to my wild artist friend Dotti & she helped me see how I needed to throw all caution to the wind & jump into the stitching so at midnight I did just that! The other challenge was Artsite advising to not share work in process for the Collector’s Choice xmas show on social media this year. I bristled at first, then settled my hackles back down after talking to the director who recognizes this blog as an important part of my process especially with this l-o-n-g Covid lockdown (ongoing here in Sydney since June 26th) I need to communicate what’s going on & with just reading Jude Hill’s latest post and seeing her pocket collaboration revealed I love the magic that happens when minds meet through the ether!
some Cream coloured Cliveas our gardens are looking spectacular this spring!
It’s Spring here in Sydney to celebrate we went for a walk to Sydney Park wetlands and the native Clematis aristata was in full flight! The house is totally clean and cleared to celebrate the change of season, just repairing a couple of old patchwork cushions a neighbour tossed out 15 years ago that needed mending back then.
Stitching with a big needle and thick thread is fun & so quick!
We have lived here in our old lady of a house for nearly 13 years. A lot of stuff has gathered in that time as well as dust so I am busily cleaning and clearing everything down to the smallest scrap of cloth, sorting the buttons & beads, feathers & sticks, stones & bones, books & journals, old sketches and drawings, artworks and tools etc etc and feeling so much lighter!
will get started on the dining room next as I have to wait til the sun comes up to vacuum this corner where I type on the computer and keep the business records, it’s already sorted as our two 11 year old printers died when I was preparing the tax earlier this month.
We are still in lockdown here in Sydney but allowed to go for walks within 5 kilometres of home, Sydney Park wetlands is keeping us almost sane
we miss seeing our friends and Rod is looking forward to going for a beer at the local pub, the Covid variant D restrictions will start being lifted when 70-80% of the population are vaccinated but we have a long way to go!
River of Moons (go with the flow) Mo 2020-2021 H22 cm W107cm linen, silk & cotton cloths indigo dyed by Glennis Dolce (Shibori Girl Studios), Jude Hill (Spirit Cloth), Ulrike Bogdan (Nemo Ignorat) and Jacinta Leishman (Spiral Dyed) linen, silk and cotton threads, boar bristles, bangalow palm inflorescence, milk paint, white glass beads, antique parchment stars every knot and stitch is filled with memories of my best friend Julie RIP August 7th, 2020
as the moon moved into the watery sign of Cancer the River of Moons (go with the flow) was looking dead in the water, simultaneously Jude posted about reconsidering her ideas which made me look again at having a loose starry fringe along the top edge of the river and am busily stitching the stars down, they are working much better! I want to have this finished by August 7th in memory of my best friend Julie.
