In the purple

We have been away in Melbourne most of the week work-working, but on most days walking to work and back so able to capture some of the life and art of Melbourne.

I found myself drawn to the purples I saw there, and on return home, so here is a collection.

You can't walk in Fitzroy without taking in walls and walls of graffiti - mostly stylish rather than ugly.

And then there's the yarn-bombing - plenty of it all over the place and in some very amusing places.

This isn't just purple but the purple did catch my eye.

And today we are home on the mountains where it is still hot and sunny.

Welcomed home by orchids, the first we grew. the second we were given.

And as part of the garden harvest - purple eggplants/aubergines. Looking forward to them becoming something else.  Plenty of cherry guavas too which will become jelly, which is purple when it is done.

It's back into the studio with a couple of jobs this week, so I shall hope to keep you posted.

Thursday Thoughts...

“Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul. When writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their truths, and even make us laugh about ourselves or life, our buoyancy is restored. We are given a shot at dancing with, or at least clapping along with, the absurdity of life, instead of being squashed by it over and over again. It’s like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea. You can’t stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship.” 

Anne Lamott

Two weeks in a row - Ms Lamott is the source of my quotes! Unintended, but she is the sort of woman who could provide food for thought each and every day of the week I expect.

And so to books and what they can do.

So true they decrease our sense of isolation. So true that they deepen and widen and expand our sense of life. So true that they can make us shake our heads at the exactness of their prose and their truths.

And how delightful to think about how they can restore our buoyancy; how they can change our hearts and our spirits.

So true.

It's funny to think of ALL the things that books can do, and on so many levels. I have recently read Charlotte Woods' "The Natural Way of Things" and it was hard. It was so hard, but it demanded to be read. It demanded that we think about the multi-layered stories within it and what they mean for this country. It demanded that it be read and discussed and thought about in ways I'd never thought before.

I wasn't buoyed by it, but I was changed by it and challenged by it.

A good book can do so many things...

The cover of this book is much more beautiful than this - but  I had to photograph it quickly in bad light sorry - this is what it looks like from the interweb... (but too small to show at my preferred size). Explanations over.

Giving and Receiving

Life as an artist-maker in the land of blog is a good place to be.

I have 'met' and made many friends through blogging and have even actually met some of them in person!

The main thing I have found is that they are kind and generous spirits and that occasionally parcels will appear out of the blue with gifts made with love and care and thoughtfulness inside.

Today was one of those days when I received these gorgeous gifts from a blogging buddy. They are special, they are gorgeous, they are precious.

Her work is so thoughtful, so personal, so supportive and connecting and the words that accompany each piece are always so perfect and so poignant.

This beautiful hand made necklace, strung on Habu thread in a perfect pouch. With flowers, seeds and sunshine motifs. 

And then this.

In memory of my gorgeous mum who died so suddenly and unexpectedly in December. These bells shall chime and drift and be open to the world as they hang in a tree on the block. The gentle tinkle shall be another forever reminder.

Again, the pouch so beautifully crafted and intrinsic to the piece it holds and protects.

And in a funny way I got a gift from myself. An envelope I had posted to myself as part of an exchange.  It still felt a bit like Christmas to receive it!

 And some pouches I sewed and stamped for some friends - there will be wee gifts and thank you s in side - it is nice to just give gifts to friend for being friends.

So I am feeling fortunate again today that love and care and friendship surrounds me, from all corners of the globe and that art and making is so rewarding.

Letterpress whisperings

The title of the post is an odd one, but it is how I have come to feel about getting access to letterpress materials - presses and type in particular.  Its not easy to find presses or type or the other bibs and bobs you need in Australia.  We don't have many left, and they seem to be part of an underground world, where messages are passed around between this one and that. Letterpress whisperings...

I felt beyond belief fortunate to have been part of the whispering network through the week. The fellow I visit to rummage around in his shed and see what sort of odd sets of type he might still have, emailed to say he had come across a stash of things if I was interested.

If!

So Barry and I enlisted the help and the car of my dad and headed south again - the second trip in ten days to gather more type and drawers and things...

It took two cars, packed to the gills and quite heavily laden, but it was worth it. I have spent the weekend sorting, cleaning, hauling, lifting  and detailing what I gathered and I remain elevated on a cloud by the sheer volume of it and its gorgeousness.

Loading some of the trays into the back of our car.

A pile of the trays on the floor in the studio.

And on the paper drawers...

I think there were 27 trays all up.

Full. Of type.

Barry spent most of his Saturday cleaning, sanding and oiling the cabinet to return it to its aged grace. What a gem he is.

I loved the back of the cabinet and its many many stories...

Barry also cleaned the furniture rack for me. I won't need to go looking for furniture for a very long time!

The small Adana that we bought up as well.

With all of this stuff strewn round the studio, I decided "Holy Exploding Studio Batman"
would be an apt title for this panorama shot.

This is where I got to by cob Saturday - cleaning the drawers and slotting them back in.

And when I pulled up stumps this afternoon, it was nearly done. Or at least there was enough room on a table for me to make and cover some book covers for a job I must do (when I am not distracted by type...)

And to add to the wonder of the week, I got an email asking if I would like to be gifted a book press, a sewing frame and sundry bookish bibs and bobs. Clearly yes was the only appropriate answer, so off we went on Saturday morning to collect that as well - lots of whispering going on amongst the binders and the letterpress folk. And lots of heavy lifting going on for Barry and I!

Thursday Thoughts...

“Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining.” 

Anne Lamott

This is one of those quotes that I have glanced at and read times over and always smiled and enjoyed and thought 'I like that'.  Today I chose it to ponder upon, and it struck me that I really hadn't ever thought too much about what it might really mean.

In terms of application to my own life, or my observations of life I wondered what it meant to be a lighthouse?

As I though about it, I think it means for me that the true value of a person's shining light is that they are somewhat steadfast and reliable and they are just there.  You know they are there, they share their light and you can find them easily.

They don't run around like a chook without a head trying to rescue people; they are there sharing light and possibly wisdom and care.

So it's about light - and all it offers, but also about presence and availability. They are there, and their gift is shared.

I'm intrigued what a wander these words have taken me on when I so instinctively just liked them!

So having happily chosen the quote and gone a'wandering with it, I then thought do I have a single photo of a lighthouse with which to illustrate this post?  Barry reminded me that on our recent trip to NZ we saw a lighthouse - but did we have photo of it? Yes I did take one!

From inside a boat and all, but you can imagine this wee lighthouse shining for boats to keep them safe.

Back to 'Endure'

I was looking for a photograph for something the other day and was wandering through the professional photographs that Susan and I had taken of the collection of collaborative books 'Pas de Deux'.

I realised how beautifully Anastasia had captured our large Perspex books and that I had never really been able to show anybody what my book Endure actually looked like.

I had made attempts, but photographing Perspex is nigh on impossible and the light in our home adds a further degree of impossibility.

So to take you all back a few months, here is Endure in all its professionally-shot glory.

Enjoy!

Endure (L) and Susan's Perseverance (R). Studio photography by Anastasia Karyofillidis.

Close up and personal.

 And from behind...lovely little stitches.

And here it is on display at Noosa Regional Gallery last year.

Our two books were the entrance feature.

The lighting was superb...

And oh me oh my the shadow-play!

More joy with type

My love affair with type and letterpress continues.

During the week Barry and I got dirty and dusty on a road trip to discover more type.

We travelled south a bit and visited a fellow who has a shed of type and things and sometimes presses.

No presses this time, but I did get to purchase some 'fancy' typefaces and some ornaments, as well as a few technical and very useful items.

But first to the dirt on the fancy type. Such fun and fancy, but oh so dusty. Task one is to wash it it all, then discover what might lie within. Is there a full alphabet? Do I have punctuation?  It's always a gamble, but I just want to gather type and save it from being melted down.

A fancy N or an upside down U?
 It's a U.

I also picked up some random wooden type and a small box of more fancy things - ornaments as they are called in the trade I think.

And then on the weekend I got to play a bit too.

 So I put a test chase into the 1890 Lightning Jobber press to see what was there. When you are working with fancy or unusual type, it's always hard to tell from trying to read them backwards whether things are as they seem.

From this test sheet, you can see I don't have a capital D, K, or M, and that what I thought might have been a fancy L is in fact the pound sign.  And what I thought might have been a fancier lower case l was in fact a b. I was happy that all the lower case was there, including two 'e's and two 's's and two 'd's.

And so I went to town, merrily printing away with my beautiful old workhorse press.

Just a bunch of cards to have in my stash to send, but such a fun time. The over-printing doesn't really work, but that is what play is about no?

Sigh, love that soft impression into the paper.

One of my favourite cards to send.

And how cool was it that Barry found another tray of type that had two smaller sizes of a fancy typeface; and it wasn't until I had cleaned the larger size  that we confirmed they were pretty much smaller sizes of the one in the dirty type tray, with a few variations here and there!

And then I played with the ornaments. Not an easy task to just pile a bunch of different sized pieces of type into a chase and try to lock it up - so the pressure wasn't perfect in a few places - but I just wanted to get a feel for what they looked like. You'd never really use them like this, but once more it was fun getting in and learning heaps.

Nothing earth-shattering here again, just some lovely swing tags to attach to gifts at some point.

It was good to get into the studio and make something again.  It has been a while, but I am slowly working my way back. I have started thinking about a book I want to make using letterpress, so that is  a good sign.


Until then, I am just so happy to be playing and learning.

Thursday Thoughts...

“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” 

Maya Angelou

It's a funny superstitious kind of thought isn't it in a way? - that we have a finite amount of creativity within us, and after using it, it will all be gone.  I don't think I've ever thought of it that way - like Maya I tend to think the more you use, the more you create.

My original profession was a physiotherapist, so I look at creativity like a muscle - the more you use it, the stronger it becomes; the more effective it is and the more efficient you are.

I guess if you look at in the reverse, that the less you use the less you have, that also seems to hold true. Those times when you haven't been able to get to the studio and be creative in any way shape or form, seem to show that when you do, you are often searching, looking here and there for the creative juices to flow, for the spark that will set you going again. It's as if by not using it, you have lost some of it.

I also think it happens that once  you start making connections, leaping here and there, trying this and that, following that lead, exploring that option, trying that idea out, that the creativity just multiplies and the energy flows and the wow! factor is there.

Not the most beautiful L in the world - a bit unbalanced and all the rest - but it shows me playing and trying and testing and letting loose...