Bunz wif Gunz go felting in da Grampz Part 2

Thursday started with more delishus coffee, and a short walk to the pier, as we were due to head off. There had been a nice dump of kelp overnight,

which I enjoyed rummaging in, much to BB's
displeasure, and even found two big bunches just waiting for me to lift them up - phwooaaar! Those guys are heavy!! (Why does my back hurt, Bunneh?) We had a successful op-shop mission on our way out, and headed towards the Twelve Apostles. (Side note, PB has announced that she 'shall not brain today'.)
Whingy BB seems to have an issue with sand, of all things, so whinges when we walk down Gibson Steps (STEPZ, Bunneh!!) for a selfie on the beach. Back up and exploration of the cliff walks, where PB is somewhat daunted by the amount of tourists!! Hilarious signs advise of possible death, unstable cliffs, and snakes!

After a fuel stop in Port Campbell (next to Frying Nemo - bahaahahaa!) the hangry bunnehs decide they can make it to Warnambool (AKA 'Womble'), although BB insists PB eat the fricken muesli bar - now!! Good idea, Bun.

We decide not to stop at some other scenic spots (how many rocks do we need to see) - we need to get to our burrow and to noms!! We reach the lovely new burrow and immediately set out for noms, at the lovely and likely looking Pavilion Cafe. Well, disappointment has a name - Pavilion Cafe is serving coffee and cake - unasseptable!! The Bunnehs stomp their way back to the burrow, jump in the car (with PB driving, as BB refuses to get back in the drivers seat) and head to Fishtales, where BB is delighted to find a Boho Bowl, and PB gets a beer and lovely lamb souvlaki! Now in a happy food coma, PB needs a little convincing to get back out there, but supplies are needed, and getting that done will free up some time in the morning. We pick up pool noodles for the workshop, and noms to keep us going, before returning

to burrow. A few hours are spent relaxing - reading and catching up on komunukayshunz, before a video call with Matt (hilarity) and watching Wogboy, where some unfortunate new words enter our vocabulary.

Friday begins with PB sending a text upstairs to BB - "Oh Hai Bunneh - what time is upz?" "Now is good", comes the response! A strange offer of coffee is shouted down - "You want Asian Wisdom mud or regular mud?" "Just regular mud, thanks Bun". It's a strange language... Back to Fishtales for

a real coffee before our walk around Lake Pertobe, where we enjoy a bmx track, a maze, a flying fox (which is too high for scaredy bunnehs) - and many bounding Bunnehs on the pathway!! After breakfast and a look at Middle Island (of Oddball fame - are they penguins? No, I think they're seagulls...) we set off for the Grampians. After a boring, sleepy
drive, we pull over for a stop at "The Picaninny". BB explodes out of the car to stretch her paws, and we decide to walk the "1.2 km's" to the 'Picaninny'. Well. After 15 minutes of relentless ups in the hot, dry midday sun, PB, who is not wearing active wear but actual clothes for the first time in three days, chucks a bit of a sad when we reach the sign that says we are 0.8km. Errrrrr, NO! With AC back blasting on us, we drive into Halls Gap and find the workshop venue, and determine the morning coffee destination before finding our new burrow - a lovely three bedroom house! After settling in, both bunnehs have a little noy noy on the lounge floor in the a/c....
The dry heat is killing the Pink Bunneh, but the crayzee bunneh goes out for a walk!! Although the opening party is on that night, PB cannot face the heat, so we meet at the Indian and order takeaway! Shortly after that, Big J (Janet de Boer) rings and suggests meeting for Indian, so we highly recommend it to her! We manage to watch Memoirs of a Geisha (amazing)  after which PB attempts to sit outside - still Hot as Hades!

Bunz wif Gunz go felting in da Grampz - Part 1

After the smoothest check-in in my history, this Bunneh was very excited to enjoy the Virgin Lounge

Great Ocean Road!

once again - aaah, to have Priority Bunneh Kompanyunz!! First stop, after picking up the car and hitting the road was lunch in Torquay, where we enjoyed yummy food, great service, and a lovely view - well done, Torquay! There was great excitement as we saw this sign confirming that
we were, indeed, on the Great Ocean Road! Next stop was the Mantra in Lorne, where I delighted a group of oldies with my appearance (purple suede stiletto boots, black lace-up leggings, long pink hair out...). "Are you here for something special?", they asked. "Just my life", is what I should have replied!! (We passed this group a few times around town that afternoon, even getting a raucous round of applause as we passed them dining on the street. Not even one day in town yet!!) So it was straight out for walking, starting off along the beautiful

Relentless upz!

ocean road and including the pier ('well, as long as one of us wants to go"), but then heading inland, for what became 'relentless ups'!! It just didn't seem to stop! Signage, directions, 'you are here's', times and distances were non-
existent. Walking directions - Lorne, you're doing it wrong!!

At the first opportunity I guided Bunneh towards a downward looking track, and after passing a great

Cheeky cockatoos at Lorne Hotel

sign  (Bush Walkers, turned into Bus Wankers)

Our dinner table!

we passed the lovely sculpture park, where we saw these crash test dummies hanging rather tragically yet beautifully from their posts. We emerged into the township around 6pm, which felt so much earlier to us, and everything was closed! It was such a beautiful afternoon that we decided to head up to the Lorne Hotel, where the Cockatoos posed for photos along the rail, awaiting any opportunity to raid tables. ( Jenelle taught me to remember that the white ones were cockatoos, because the pink ones, like me, are galahs!) One was lucky enough to nab a saucer of tartar sauce, and to everyone's delight, actually flew off with it! Sadly, there were a couple with beak and feather disease - broken beaks and
tattered feathers - very tragic. Unfortunately the disease is untreatable - I hope they have a euthanasia programme for them down there.

Carisbrook

With nowhere really taking our fancy for noms, we decided to do our own, so headed to Foodworks, where we were delighted to find a selection of sushi and Bento boxes. I also found beer, so we assembled a picnic and headed off to the beach to devour - in our active wear!! With around 30 hopeful seagulls...

The next morning we found delishus coffe across the road at the Moon cafe,  and walked along the Erskine River before returning for breakfast at the Mantra. We made the foolish mistake of sitting outside, where the cockatoos were very cheeky, and Jenelle lost her toast to one! Off to Apollo Bay on the Great Ocean Road, stopping at Sheoak Falls for a supposed ten minute walk.  (Signs, Lorne - you're doing it wrong). The path took us down through a spooky feeling patch of 'corn' (what is IN there?!!) and up, up, up to what might, in wetter times, be the falls....

Merengo

At Carisbrook we stopped to view the recent phenomenon that is the hundreds of stone towers - apparently some tourists built a couple, and people keep adding to them! We stopped at Merengo to start a bit of the Great Ocean Walk,  but had a little trouble finding it, then figuring out what to do when the path petered out onto a beach! After struggling with a giant section of 'UP', we

stopped to assess our situation, and were horrified to see we had made very little progress on the map - the complete opposite of what normally happens to us! We turned back and drove to the Cape Ottway Lighthouse, which we didn't even get to see as they wanted to charge $20, each, just to get there! Hhmmmppph!!  We returned to Apollo Bay, where BB (Blonde Bunneh) was very happy to find  a roast vege salad, and PB (Pink Bunneh) was pretty excited to find this place, the home of the scallop pie!!

Mornay Scallop pie! NOM! It was here that I checked my emails, to find out that my application to go on the study tour to Japan had been accepted!! Squeee!!

R2D2

Scallop Mornay pie and coffee

On return to the Mantra we found that we were locked out of our room, and after BB made two trips to reception, we learned that they thought we were checking out that day, so of course, our room had not been serviced either. (Speaking of the room, can we just show you this amazing piece of machinery, aka R2D2, which was our cold air device. Never seen anything like it!!)

Shaun and sardines

We grabbed our cold drinks and headed to the beach once more, before migrating into the Lorne Pavilion where I dined on tinned sardines, !! We were too lazy to get out of our active wear and go out!! Shaun sheep was much admired, and was asked by the waitress to do a 'sheepy shake', which he performed to her great satisfaction!

Design time!!

Since returning to TAFE, I have been happy to be immersed in a design project, which also relates to my patternmaking/studio project. Basically, this means I get to do the whole process, from research and concept designs based on Spring/Summer '16 trends (more on this in a moment) for the category of Streetwear, to be worn during Paris Fashion Week, to the patternmaking and construction, and finally, to see it on the catwalk at the mid year show. Whilst I am quite happy to design to parameters, I still find this 'trend prediction' thing quite, let's phrase it as 'challenging'. I usually manage to find a way to work around it! With this one, I have managed to direct it towards one of my comfort zones of the richness of insect body colours, textures and designs, with only a mild limitation of colour palette that largely suits me. In order to try and keep it somewhat within commercial realms, I have channelled this rich imagery into an asymmetrical digital print, which will become basic leggings. In here are bee legs, crocodile skin, ant bodies, and ant eyes filled with the feathers of hummingb
irds. Having not really done this kind of work in Ph
otoshop for over a year, I was pretty pleased with the result. I just hope it meets the print requirements. Initially I had all sorts of ideas about stitching into felt, and reverse appliqué - but these may now find their place in the sculptural jacket I am now planning.... Okay, I can't let it go..... I really wanted to design an interesting jacket, but it must be based on research of 'trends' and what people might wear to Fashion Week. Are you kidding me?!! I have seen pictures of people wearing ball gowns, to slippers and rain coats - you can justify anything! And really, why do we have to? I cannot believe that this way of thinking is considered valid and still adhered to. In daily life, I don't base my choices on anything more than what pleases me! So anyway, I found plenty of sculptural jackets within the forecasting i

magery to back up my ideas - I'm sure I could find plenty to back up any idea I had! After lots of research on the many aspects of this project, it was time to start doing some designs, and after a little while doing some initial work, I decided that I could only progress by play. I can't draw it if I can't see it. So, I dug up some nuno felted fabric out of a box, and started pinning it on a mannequin to get a feel for it. This did the trick for a while, and then I remembered my 1/2 scale mannequin! This is perfect for getting a feel for the whole effect without cutting up or treating masses of fabric. It was whilst I was in the studio playing with this that I looked over and saw a leather piece that I had made last year during my Craft & Quilt Fair tour. And this is what I love about creating in the amazing resource that is the studio - a place already dripping with ideas, samples, materials, and things that you can just pick up and pin onto things, and sometimes just nuances. This is the extraordinary blessing I have, which I recognise and am so very grateful for. Sure, it's taken me years to amass this 'stuff', and thousands of dollars in tuition at workshops, and I'm sure at times many people wonder what it's good for... but every now and then, it delivers a golden nugget, and that's when it all becomes worthwhile.

Back to School 2016

This week I return to TAFE to continue my fashion studies, and I can't wait! My return is made even more exciting by what arrived in StudioSvenja today..... we welcome Bertie the Brother Industrial sewing machine!!
Bertie is the latest whiz bang model, and was installed by the fabulous Barry Goff of Sewmac - he liked him so much I don't think he wanted to leave him!! Bertie is so quiet, you can't even hear that he is running! I am ever grateful to my fabulous Patron of the Arts, Matt!! Thank you so much! I suppose I'd better make you some new shirts, eh?!


I did some creating in the studio on the weekend - not sewing, but in the felting studio. I'm not sure why - it certainly wasn't on my large list of things to do! I guess I just needed to, and the studio drew me in. At the end of last year when I was making lots of felted wraps, I covered the printing table in colourways of wool, silk and fibres, ready to create. I made quite a few then, but haven't for a while, so it was great to just pick up a pile and start laying out! Turns out it was a wrap for me, as I included the last piece of my favourite sari offcut in it. I really caught the bug, and picked up another piece  of silk - some crinkle silk chiffon which had been sewn for a panelled skirt and dyed during the process of Morphology II and didn't get used. Inspiration struck - I could unpick one of the seams in the centre to turn it into a poncho, and finish it by felting a very fine ruffle around it. I was so pleased with the result that this too, became mine! It's unbelievably light, and feels just gorgeous to wear!

Ice dyed rayon

Supplies!

Large nuno felt wrap

Whilst in the felting studio, I began to pack the goodies Jenelle and I are going to need for our fabulous week away in the Grampians - exactly one month away!! Well, we're away for the week, but we're only doing a 2 day workshop - Bunnehs work smarter, not harder!! We'll be felting with Pam Hovel, using wild and wooly locks, raw fleece, and adding bamboo, tencel, flax and silk fibres. Delicious! I've also decided to participate in the market event on the Saturday night of Grampians Texture! It just happens that my travelling kompanyun has special status and is allowed to take two bags - thanks very much, I'll have that!! I will stuff it with as many scarves, silk tops, ice dyed rayon garments, and unique nuno felted wraps as I can fit in that case!
If you are visiting Halls Gap, come and join us for what I'm sure will be a few hours of fun!

One twelfth of the way through 2016!

Storm and Sheepa!

It's true - well, very nearly! Much of this hot month has been spent either working at home in the blissful air-conditioning, or getting sweaty and dirty down at the shed working on Storm, my kombi. The more I do on that beast, the more I see to do!! Last week I took the doors off, as once I find rust I can't ignore it. There's no point spending all this time making a lovely looking beast that may crumble before me, although I do have to draw the line somewhere. My mother recently returned from NZ and brought me back this adorable sheep for my collection - having come straight from Mum's, Sheba (or is that Sheepa?) got to hang out with me and Storm the next day as surgery progressed...

Corriedale and Alpaca over Merino

But, this is a blog predominantly about textiles, so back to it, although quite often I can't always share everything I'm working on. This is a detail of a sculptural piece I've been working on. Underneath is a wire armature covered in padding, then merino pre-felt, which has been wet felted, then needle-felted with corriedale and alpaca.  I have not used either corriedale or alpaca before, nor needle-felted, so it has been an interesting process - both fibres are so much rougher! There have been a few late nights as I got carried away with stabbing, a little bit of blood, quite a few screams, and one bent felting needle from stabbing the wire! This piece has been giving me plenty of ideas, one of them being making a replacement lamp shade for the generic paper one I decimated a few weeks ago - I'm still not quite sure how that happened! However, I have the framework, some ideas, and hopefully, some time soon.
I've just spent a contemplative hour or so on the back deck, enjoying the breeze flowing over my skin and the ideas running through my head. It's a funny feeling, the one of ideas and images brewing. It's almost as though you can see half-formed ghost images, suggestions of something to be. I think I'm very lucky to have that going on, and I would like to give more time to that. Perhaps if I do, they will stop hunting me down at night when I'm trying to sleep?
Ahhhh, Etsy, I once thought you were the answer to my problems, but now, not so much. Shops take so much commission, I thought Etsy would be the answer, as there are only small listing fees and PayPal transaction fees. However, here I have this rack of wonderful hand-dyed, hand-felted items....
 and in order to put them on Etsy, I have to take around 5 photos of each, upload the photos, write the descriptions, enter as many 'tag' words as I can think of that people might search for, and unfortunately, tell people to contact me for International postage costs as there seems to be no way of guestimating this with any kind of accuracy, and it can be nasty!! (I'm also aware that this need for contact before sale is unappealing to many, who, like myself, are more than happy to click their way through to final purchase without the burden of awaiting contact.) And I have to do this for every camisole, tank top, pair of leggings, skirt, wrap.... see why it hasn't got done yet?! I'm thinking of looking for some special markets to go to a couple of times a year instead - I'd rather travel than spend a month uploading all this stuff!!
Speaking of travel, I'm starting to get excited about our trip to the Grampians in March, just over a month away now!! Squeeee! We will be felting with the wonderful Pam Hovel, after a little trip along the Great Ocean Road (or what's left of it after the fires!!) I believe we will also be catching up with Janet de Boer and the fabulous Martien van Zuilen down there too!!  Of course, I am very much looking forward to travelling with Platinum Bunneh and the Virgin Lounge good life that attends that fabulous relationship, as well as spending a week being absolutely ridiculous and talking our very special language for the duration!! Oh, how hard it will be to come back!!
Back to uploading, I will soon have some unloading to do, as I have discovered that my crate of goodies that toured around Australia with me at the Craft and Quilt Fairs is back in town - now I'm going to have to find room for it all here!! Actually, it's probably more the garments themselves that are the issue... anyone need an exhibition to fill a space?!!

Welcome, 2016

At this busy time of year, my online ramblings have slowed - but that's only because everything else sped up! Since my last post, we have hosted several pizza parties here, with Matts' new and improved pizza oven starring once again, impressing all with the organ-like stacks billowing smoke. Firstly, it was his work party - around 20 people. The next day was an intimate gathering of 'Wowza's' - fellow WOW entrants Jessica Thompson and Erica Gray and their partners, and the indomitable Janet de Boer and Peter. Awww, such a cute couple! Sadly, the photo I have of these two sweeties that should go with that comment is on my camera, which has gone AWOL, much to my dismay, and absolute frustration! I have turned the place upside looking for it, which has at least led to some tidying up!
We enjoyed talking about past and future entries, as only the truly addicted can....
Then another firing the following weekend. So much pizza. So good! A few weeks were spent lying low, trying to rest my left arm (suffering from old injuries and RSI), which meant I got some solid work done at the computer on my TAE qualification. (This will enable me to be a tutor at TAFE when completed in May.) The first module was mind-numbingly boring, and resulted in much wandering around the house and particularly towards the fridge in the search for something more satisfying - fortunately, the second is much more real and quite enjoyable. Hopefully also less fattening! After multiple visits to my beloved physio, we decided rest was not having much of an effect, so I have thrown myself back into both the gym and the studio, albeit with another glamorous brace on my arm. It's been great to be playing back in the gym with my personal trainer Bunneh - I feel very lucky to have had her expert guidance back onto the floor - and it has been wonderful to work with my hands again, once again with wire, tubing, and bridal offcuts. It has been the best Christmas gift, to sit in the airconditioning, creating, drinking bubbles, and watching old Family Ties and Charlies Angels!
This week we went up to Woodford Folk Festival - Matts' first time, my first in about 22 years. (Feels old, saying that...) After working pretty hard, it was great to just chill, hang out, and listen to interesting music. My favourite haunt was Bluestown - no surprise there! The organic sculptures were fabulous, as were the crazy puppet creatures. Children ran screaming in terror - awesome! Not surprising - these beasts were genuinely freaky. The black and white one unspeakably so!

Murray the truck made quite an impression throughout the entire trip, and made a wonderful bed for us with a tarp draped from the headboard to the back of the tray. I'd definitely do that again!
The day after our return, Matt and I went down to the shed to work on our vehicles - he on his 1941 Buick, me on the beginnings of the great kombi makeover. It was great to see Storm again, and drive him. I hope to have him finished in time for Woodford 2016. I've been playing with some ideas in Photoshop....
By the way, I hate the formatting issues with Blogger - this looked perfectly lovely in my draft - now look at it!! Aaaaaghhhh!!!

Where do I start?!

I've had several weeks at home since my return from Adelaide, which already seems so long ago. Within the first week, I had spent a great deal of time in the studio making felted and nuno felted wraps. I enjoyed trawling through my stash of wool, silk, and embellishments, finding cohesive elements to bring together. Here you can see a lovely piece of dyed silk organza which just happened to go beautifully with some wool I had - from layout to finished wrap. It felt really good to be 'using up' all these bits, which simply means I can
dye/buy more! The green and blue piece to the left was made with wool I had managed to matt together during the dyeing process, (I must have managed to boil it!) which was able to be rescued when I bought a comb for removing matted hair from pets, and worked my way through it - I can't throw it out! Sadly, RSI in my arm kicked in after a while, and I had to stop, so I moved on to ice dyeing for a while. I really enjoyed working on these, working out how to fold the garments to get the best effects (quite different to just dealing with plain material or scarves) and how to mix my new palette of dyes.
Dealing with powdered dye rather than liquid means that the dye doesn't always look like it's going to, so I'm really glad I invested in a colour chart as well - very helpful! All this effort was in aid of ensuring I had a varied amount of stock for the Etsy Made Local market, held last weekend in Brisbane City Hall. Sadly, it was all in vain, as it was a fairly unsuccessful day for me. The venue had a bit of a weird vibe, (just look at that carpet!) the poor crowd looked dazed and glazed by the time they had made their way in through the large queue in the sun, and 2m x 2m with no space between neighbours sure was small! I certainly noticed the difference between that and my generous allowance previously enjoyed at the Craft & Quilt Fair, and most noticeably, the lack of walls! It was a long day, but there was a silver lining - my neighbour was the lovely Juliarna of Carpe d'Art, which produces fabulous hand painted sneakers. We had a hoot! Both of us were also supported by our mothers, who came to visit and offer encouragement!

Last week we visited TAFE for the graduate Fashion Parade, which sadly, I have to say lacked a little punch! Many of the designs seemed to share similar elements, and the colour palette was woefully sedate. That may indeed be the 'trend' right now, but I'm sure you've all figured out that fashion 'trends' don't feature strongly in my world of unique design! One piece that did garner my interest was this lovely ombré dress.
This Saturday I will be at the ATASDA Christmas Fair and celebration, at the BVAC hub at Weller's Hill, open from 10-2, so come and visit myself and many other fine textile artists with goodies for sale.