Thursday Thoughts...

“Being solitary is being alone well: being alone immersed in doings of your own choice, aware of the fullness of your own presence rather than of the absence of others. Because solitude is an achievement.” 

Alice Koller

So often we think that being alone is like being lonely.

And yet, I love being alone at times: on my own with just my thoughts and a book; or my art practice; or my wandering time to the studio and back.  I don't feel lonely at these times, and I think these words help me understand why.

There can be a completeness in being on one's own.  The simplicity and satisfaction of having all that you need, within you and your space, with little need or demand of others.

Like so many things, when you turn the words around and think about solitude as being the fullness of your own presence, rather than the absence of the presence of others it takes on a whole new, more positive meaning.

For me, when solitude reflects my fullness of presence I am so very happy. If my solitude was all bout distance from, the absence of, the emptiness, then yes I would feel lonely and at times this can be so very true.

This, a book, a cup of tea, a glass of wine, my stitching...solitude at its best. Companionable solitude!

3 D Printing

 Who knew?

I think of myself as a very analogue maker.  Everything I do is pretty much by hand, and takes time.  Whether it is stitching books; stitching my handkerchiefs, setting type, or designing calligraphy layouts; they all take time and the hand of the maker is all over them.

So it was weird that I got excited about the chance to do a workshop on 3 D printing and printing plates to print from.

I did and we did. Barry and I went along to Noosa Library, where with the generosity of the Noosa Council and Noosa RADF grants, we learnt how to make files and print plates.

One of the printers,with purple filament. 

Moving my image onto the base plate in the computer...

In position; but the base plate is big big for my simple image.

So I shrank the base plate.

And then transferred the file to another program to slice it - ie tell the printer which bits to print in a pass; and where the gaps were. I think!

The printer mid-way.

Completed.

Close up

Ta Da.

I still need to file it and dust the muck off it; but tomorrow (Wednesday) we print!

The imagery is a modified version of the fishing sheds in our village of Armadale in Scotland.

Printing here we come!

Eclectica

A random gathering of things...

There are a lot of things happening and doing in the studio, no major progress on any one thing, but a feeling of pushing along and discovering, which is nice.

Recently we received a package of linotype, cast for us in NZ.  With this, you have a line of type cast which means you don't have to fiddle with small individual pieces of type.  So we got the name of the press, and ourselves and a few bibs and bobs done.

For example, I can juts slip the line 'decklededgepress.com' into the chase' lock it and print it on the back of all our cards, with no need to set up all those tiny letters. Good plan!

Whilst in Melbourne we basically sold out of Go Girl tea towels.  I also took an oder for ten more so had to get down and inky and print. 

One lovely thing was a woman who ran a women's shelter bought three so the they could be in the kitchen of the refuge, as a subtle reminder...I really like that idea and it is exactly how I think of tea towels - domestic posters, subtle and subliminal messages...and useful!

I had an idea for a small work and wondered if I get an interesting back ground by using wet paper and ink.  So far so good on these 800gsm pieces of card.  They are heavy and solid and yet I like the wispiness of the marks.

And of course, the edges...

It is headed into winter and we are all bit chilly around the edges up here on the mountain.  I love that we can still wander the garden and find moments of brightness.  Our previous garden was much more functional - lot of fruit and veg; here we have more flowers.

This is a small bowl (about 7cm/2.5inches across) with delicate little grevillea flowers resting in it.

We bought a pot of hearts-ease that are black! Usually deep purple and yellow, I loved the look of these. Once again they are tiny, but they add little moments in the office and the kitchen.

And when the light is right, you can see the original purple and yellow.

I love having flowers around, and love that I live in a place and a way where I can gather them in regularly.

Thursday Thoughts...

“Everyone wants to understand painting. Why is there no attempt to understand the song of the birds?” 

Pablo Picasso

As I sat and pondered this one I felt like I was in bit of a loop.  As I have said previously, I like to see the work and have a response; and then sometimes I like to look and see what it's about. And then I often go back and look again and see if I can see what they said they were thinking or doing.

And sometimes I simply respond and my heart is filled and all I need to do is to know how it made me feel. 

So I figure I am a bit on the one hand; and then on the other.

I then thought about bird song.  I am more likely I think to simply stop and listen and love it.  But oftentimes I will wonder (either out loud or just to myself) I wonder what they are saying?  Why are the birds so raucous at dawn? Are they  saying to each other "I hope you had a good night, I'm heading off to x,y or z today I think there's some great fruit down there"?

Are they just letting each other know where they are ? "I'm over here!"

So I ended up looping this all the way round and then back again and ended up knowing that sometimes I just love something; and sometimes I want to know what's going on.

I wonder if others work the same way?

Whilst they weren't singing, I did wonder what these nine magpies were up to in the one tree!

Fabric endings and beginnings

 In the spirit of playful exploring and testing, I also played with fabric bits and pieces.  I finished my needle case last weekend and enjoyed it so much I wanted to see if I could continue some way along this path. 

Front

Back - am yet to iron out the fabric marker you can see!

Inside open 

Outside open 

And so I went into my fabric stash and rummaged around to see if I could find some complementary bits and pieces.

Some of my fun corncob printed fabrics became key players. Clearly the tones were all my favourites ones...

And I trimmed and I fiddled and tried this and that. And for now, I have four pinned up possibilities. 

If I could bottle that feeling of time - the time spent far away in my head as all I had to think about was holding the fabric, trimming the fabric, fraying some, turning the pieces this way and that until a pleasing sense of something began to appear.  What a marvellous thing making can be.

As I walked back from the studio on Saturday having popped in to have a coffee with B, these kangaroo paw flowers against EA's rusty front fence were too gorgeous not to photograph and share.

Pottering and playing

 I have given myself permission slow down and play a bit this week.  I have realised that I was feeling very focused doing all this workshop preparation - linear, job-related, goal-oriented work.  Making oftentimes needs to be the complete opposite for me - wandering, exploring, open-ended, free.

So I picked myself up and out of  the focus and just started rolling thru the multiple half option ideas that had been lying in wait. All the questions! The what ifs? I wonder if I could? What might that look like? Would that work? How would I?

One of the starting points was that we gave presentation to the local Probus Club where we demonstrated traditional letterpress, spoke passionately about it and then got folk to have a go themselves.

I had set up this simple thank you, rotated a few times to make a lovely pattern and folk took one of these home.

We wrapped our brayers up in gloves to protect stuff as we packed up and brought things back to the studio.  I didn't get back to unfurling them until Friday (we did the demo on Wednesday) and so I had to gently pull the gloves off as things were bit tacky.

But wow look at those marks. You know what happens next.

So a few of the leftover squares got printed on

And I am sure they will be great backgrounds for something...

I was snuffling around in some drawers and found this very old paper which I had been saving for something, never knew what. Still may not know, but I did straight away head to the pebbles to see how they looked on those waves.

And I really did like what they did.

And to finish we were up in dad's orchid house and heard a noise above us - this fab magpie on the shade cloth.

Thursday Thoughts...

There is a wonder in reading Braille that the sighted will never know: to touch words and have them touch you back. 

Jim Fiebig

I understand that Jim Fiebig was a business man, and a gemstone lover; I am yet to determine his connection to Braille, low vision or blindness, yet I think he says something rather wonderful about words and reading using Braille.

Many of us are tactile, we love the process of holding and touching cloth and paper with our hands.  It is one of the ways we experience things, by reaching out to touch them

I had never stopped to think about reading Braille offering this unique and special delight - the touching of words.  Of words touching one back.  It adds another dimension entirely to the joy of reading.   

It seems to me this interaction, call and response almost is a wonderful addition to the reading process

One of the things I love about traditional letterpress is that it is about making words with your hands; the haptic nature of word making.

And in Braille we learn the haptic nature of reading.

Hand stitched peace from the book 'The Nurses'

Judith

 A while ago now I was approached by Amanda Earl (Canadian visual poet) to see if I would be willing to participate and be listed in an anthology she was preparing and editing around Women making visual poetry.

She was focussing on 36 women from 21 countries but had come across so many wonderful women that she wanted to try and include them all somehow.  Of course I was momentarily disappointed that I wasn't one of the 36! But keen nonetheless to participate in some way and keep the work of recognising women's work alive.

Amanda had seen my work A Subversive Stitch and loved it; and I took part in a Q&A interview type thing and this extended interview, along with several others, is available for download here.

In the interview I wrote about Women's Words - the hand stitched stories from the women at McAuley House in Melbourne. Stories from women who were leaving shelter after being accommodated safely.

On return home last week the Post Office Box presented me with my own copy of Judith - Women Making Visual Poetry. Oh my goodness, I think this book will become a classic companion and a treasure trove to dip into often. To learn, and to be inspired.

The foreword is by Johanna Drucker and there are detailed interviews and lots of photographs with the featured women.

Towards the end of the book there are even more essays.

I love reading about process and context for the art that I make and these thoughtful approaches and investigations are well worth spending time with.

As I flicked through the book, a couple of spreads sang to me, but on flicking back so many more did too!

Kate Siklsosi

Ines Seidel

Amnda Earl.

Erica Baum

And here is the lengthy list of 1181 women making visual poetry that Amanda sourced from around the world - a lifetime of googling awaits!!!

I know this book will take a long time to digest, but I am looking forward to slowly absorbing its magic.

The week that was...

 We had a great visit to Melbourne - a fabulous few days of being inspired at the Communities in Control Conference; as well as spending time together with dear friends and eating together and wandering the streets. Some places and some times fill you up, and time spent at the conference, as ever, renewed my spirit.

Our Pop Up Poster shop went well and we chatted social justice and women's issues with many a participant.  A few commissions came our way as well, and more Go Girl tea towels are about to hit the press!!!

One of my favourite wall signs near where we stayed. How I love artists and street art.

Home on Wednesday, to find that the ikebana arrangement I made at the workshop last Saturday was holding strong. Our good friend Tory had arranged for the wife of the Japanese Consulate in Brisbane, Hiromi Tanaka, to do an Ikebana demonstration (she is a Master) and for us all to then try our hands. As you can see a gorgeous gathering, and we all learned a lot.  It made us look at flowers and negative space so very differently. Thanks to John G for the group shot.

On  Thursday I baked bread. More aligned to to the rock family than the bread family, but it tasted good.

On Thursday night we attended a vigil for victims of domestic abuse.

On Saturday I baked more bread. Much better, but more trials to come!

A cornucopia of life - varied and full this week.  Friday and Sunday were spent in the studio with bits of this and bits of that.  Not as much focus as I would have liked but time to be gentle on myself and let things settle into place.