Sunday at Gallery 159

Ahhhh, a day at home, on my own, working in the studio. Brrrrrrrilliant! There was a bit of hard work involved, as I continued assembling my garments for my Studio project. This meant dealing with lapped zips and lining, which I’m a bit out of practice with. I have to say, I did not attempt the skirt vent with lining – I did the research – but I’ll face that tomorrow! It just hurts my brain! But, the motivation that keeps me going is seeing the gorgeous end result.  I

also got to do some fun stuff - some more dyeing and shibori shaping for my second piece.  It was also a fun challenge to play with pinning the silk organza shibori pieces onto my first garment, and taking great delight in it looking quite a bit like how I imagined!! Now I’ve got to track down the perfect beads to finish it off…

Here's a pic of the wonderful TAFE teacher Janice Mengerson, AKA Janois, wearing the top hat I made during my Certificate in Millinery several years ago. And here she is, calmly being torn left, right and centre by the class, which just wants to devour her knowledge. I know that we all appreciate her calm, her encouragement, and her amazing knowledge across many fields. Not to mention her wonderful sense of fun!


After a relaxing bath this afternoon enjoying ABC classical radio and a glass of wine, I prepared myself for the trip out to Gallery 159 for the opening of the Timeless Textiles exhibition featuring the fantastic work of Pam Hovel, Anne Leon, Myfanwy Sterling and Gina Mastio. It was beautiful, scrumptious work, one of the loveliest exhibitions I have seen at 159.

Donna Toussaint and cake icing...

I am a huge fan of Pams’ work, and have had the pleasure to meet her at a TAFTA forum at Geelong several years ago. I was also fortunate enough to have met her husband last weekend when the works were exhibited at Mt Coot-tha – the very man that made her a rolling machine! Yes, Jenelle and I did attempt to enveigle said machine to our upcoming workshop in Ballarat… NO! What?!! Still, it was a pleasure to see Pam again, and to meet her lovely man. What would we do without these engineering genii?

Phillipa Rooke, Jane Simpkins and Janet de Boer

The exhibition was beautifully decorated by Donna Toussaint’s flowers – I arrived a little late and missed a lot of what was going on, but there were petals everywhere, ladies with their feet in foil, and a little later on, cake icing over their faces!! Yes, I was a little unsure, and walked away, away, backwards, backwards…. I’m pretty sure I wear enough makeup…?!! Get away from me, Donna!

A wonderful way to finish a cruisy day - I  so love my Sunday afternoons at Gallery 159!