final exhibition

The month is at an end, and so is my residency.  The exhibition of work produced by the community members who joined me in activities throughout the residency is installed and being enjoyed, not only by those who contributed, but also by others who've come to see what we've been up to. 

Pop-up museum of historical home-made toys in the foreground, and photo essays depicting Yanchep stories on the walls behind.

Another view of the exhibition.

Puppets made by the talented children in Miss Spowart's Year 3 Class at Two Rocks Primary School.

The community of socks dolls made by Angie, Merryl, Helen and myself

Monoprints and collagraphs printed by Merryl, Pam, Suzie and Angie with Karen in her studio.

Postcards and printed fabric by Merryl, printed fabric by Ann and Pam, with Pam's used to create several wonderfully inventive bags.

Printed fabric by Angie, and our young visitor Molly.  That's Molly's fabric on the left, specially impressive because this was her first ever printing session!    
Everyone who has visited the exhibition (approx 40 visitors so far) has been impressed by the amount and the quality of work produced by these talented locals.  Well done everyone!  Last chance to see the work is 11am - 4pm Sunday Dec 1st, at Capricorn Community House, 73 Lindsay Beach Bvd, Yanchep. 

Collagraphs

On Friday Angie, Pam and I had the good fortune to spend a few hours with Karen McGlurkin in her studio, creating and printing collagraphs.  Here Karen is winding a plate through the press.

Karen removing the excess etching ink from the plate.

Angie watches intently as Karen refines the ink removal process 

Pam with her frog print

Angie compares her plates and the resulting prints

Some of the results of our labours.  Thanks, Karen! 

creative children at Two Rocks Primary School

A big thank-you to teacher and TRYCAN member Renae Spowart, who arranged my visit last  Tuesday to Two Rocks Primary.  I had a busy time, talking to seven classes of attentive and appreciative students about the family heritage of making-do which inspires my work.  Best of all was the final talk, to Ms Spowart's Year 3 class, where I had time to include a brief activity.  Inspired by my family collection of old rag dolls and the sock dolls made during the residency, the children created a wonderful range of dolls and sock puppets using pegs, socks and a variety of scraps.  I managed to get photos of some and also a few descriptions.  I hope to have the whole class's dolls on display, with their stories, at the residency exhibition at the end of November (more on that in a later post).  What a wonderful talented class! 

 A cotton ball red-back spider, and a sock puppet horse

 

A crazy-haired, googly four-eyed monster

Happy family in the making - Dad was missing from the group only due to the lack of a third sock! 

 

Mr Money, a robber

  

A grandmother, and a masked Ninja

sock dolls underway

We've been busy recycling old socks up at Yanchep, and here are the beginnings of the growing community of sock dolls which is expanding daily.  Keeping them company are my little vintage sock doll found in America at an estate sale, and the rag doll made a century ago my my grand-mother.

Angie and Meryl have been keeping me company and stitching up a storm.  This photo was taken last week.  The number of new sock dolls has since grown to nine. 

Why not come along and join us on Friday to add some more?  It's an open house from 10 till two, everyone welcome.  Tea and coffee will be flowing (bring your lunch), and you can sew in air-conditioned comfort.  Yanchep Capricorn Community House, 73 Lindsay Beach Bvd, Yanchep, (enter car park from Azure Mews).      

connecting threads

My first post for 2008 delivers an untold tale from 2007. Marjorie Colemen, Margery Goodall, and Cherry Johnston live and work in my home town of Perth, Western Australia. I count these women among my closest friends and colleagues.

While our art practices are independent and varied, we have formed a strong bond through our shared focus on working with stitched layered textiles. We meet regularly, taking advantage of the opportunity this affords to exchange information, share ideas, and engage in lively and stimulating discussion.

All of us exhibit internationally and have travelled extensively, but we are happy to be based in Western Australia. We don't see Perth's isolation as a disadvantage in a world where communication is so easy.

After working together over the years on other people's projects, we realised it was time we mounted our own joint exhibition. Connecting threads was held in September 2007 at the Gallery at Ellenbrook, as part of Artopia, the biennial festival celebrating the talent of Western Australian artists.


I exhibited both textile works and photographic images. This installation view shows stitched textile works from my Jetty Suite.


My work again, photographs and a quilted piece.

I will show more detailed images later.

Najibabad

I am high as a kite, floating on the euphoria of savouring a wonderful experience.



I've just flown home from India, where I have been visiting a young friend. My friend Intekhab is a rafoogar, a darner of Kashmiri shawls. He comes from a long line and large extended family of rafoogars, who for generations have devoted themselves to restoring these old and precious textiles.

Our friendship was formed early in 2006 when we undertook a joint residency in Ballarat Victoria, along with Intekhab's fellow rafoogar Zakir, as part of the Common Goods project. You can learn about this project and discover what we did during our residency by following the links at the right to the website and blog respectively.

I speak no Hindi. Intekhab speaks a little English. He is of the Muslim faith, a young man the same age as my daughter. We would seem to have very little in common except our shared interest in mending old cloth. Even there, our attitude differs. Intekhab is trained to mend invisibly, to remove from the cloth any trace of the passing of time. My interest in mended cloth lies in exposing the effects of aging, allowing the marks to tell the story of the life the cloth has led. I am very happy for the mends to remain visible.

Yet this young man and I, as we collaborated on a work for Common Goods, formed a bond which has stood the test of time and distance. Intekhab has phoned me from India every few months, to ask about my family and my health, and even to offer me Christmas greetings on Christmas Day, each time urging me to visit him and his home town of Najibabad, 200 kilometres north east of Delhi.

How could I refuse such an enticing offer? So of we went, my husband and I, to Delhi, and to Rajasthan, and then finally north to Najibabad. We met Intekhab's family and friends, who made us very welcome. We visited Intekhab's workshop, and those of his extended family and colleagues, where we saw the results of the rafoogars' very special skills and creativity.







We were taken touring to visit local landmarks which spoke of the history of the town. Intekhab's family welcomed us into their home, where we experienced great hospitality and generosity. We shared a special meal cooked by Intekhab's mother. Intekhab's father kindly showed us some of his treasured old Kashmiri shawl fragments.



I was given a precious gift of two embroidered strips of centuries-old shawl. I am charged with honouring that generosity by incorporating these precious fragments into a worthy piece of work.



All too soon our special visit was over, but our memories will last a lifetime. Intekhab, how can we ever thank you enough?