WOW 2018

Peter and Janet

As I write this draft, we're sitting exhausted, on Sunday night, in our hotel room eating sandwiches. I just trotted out to get them, and after a really windy Wellington day, it was a lovely calm evening - we've been pretty lucky with the weather, as you will see. Early, early, Wednesday morning we arrived on the same flight as Janet de Boer and Peter, where a WOW themed luggage trolley was found! After a good rest, we headed to our beloved Avida for the famous goats cheese puffs, as well as fabulous smoky spiced prawns and other delights, stopping on the way to get the photo in the Welly Loves WOW sign, before readying ourselves to meet up with our WOW family, old and new, at the Foxglove Bar.

The next day was Designer Day, but I skipped the morning intro to have brekky with the Birthday Boy at Sweet Mother's Kitchen - Heuvos Rancheros and Eggs Bomba!

 I joined the gang down at Te Papa for the talks, lunch, and a workshop in leather tooling. After wrestling everyone off the Welly Loves WOW sign on the way, (rather like herding cats at night!), it was back to Avida to celebrate the birthday! Plenty of shenanigans to be had here!

Paula Jackson, Fifi Colston and moi at Designer Day.

With WOW Legend Susan Holmes

It's youuuuuuuu!! Creator of the amazing work which scored her the Cirque du Soleil internship, Annabelle Ellebanna

After all of this, it was an early start on Friday morning at the Australian High Commission, where myself, Erica Gray, and Phillipa Stitchbury and WOW representative Ali Boswijk ,were part of a panel sharing our design journeys and answering questions, mainly from design students. It was a great way to foster conversation and sharing of information, and we thank the Australian High Commission for hosting us.

Australian Designers with High Commissioner Ewen McDonald, and Esmé Palliser

Ali, Erica, me, Phillipa

Jenny Caldwell and groovy dudes from Wellington College, I believe.

I was also thrilled to meet up with Lyndal and Pam Thorne, from Paper on Skin in Burnie - and they'd even brought my 'Winner' sign along - yahoo!! Now safely installed in the studio - thanks gals!

We then, very sensibly, went back to the hotel to rest, in preparation for another round at the Foxglove before the Big Night!

with Vicky Robertson, Lynn Christiansen and Kate MacKenzie.

I was thrilled to unexpectedly receive third place in the Under the Microscope Section. I loved the way Coccinelle looked on the stage, and the way it was choreographed - my only complaint was that none of the garments in this section came out to the revolves at the ends of the stage, so I was unable to see details of any of them. Detail images were projected onto the stage screens, but I was looking at the garments on stage, not the screen!

 Celebrations and dancing till 2am were at Dockside..... although Lynn Christiansen's Party Animal Mum, Wilma, - an absolute delight - outlasted us and was amongst those to get booted out nearer 3:30am!

Fondling the latex clad, chip eating, award winning Adam McAlavey!

New friend, Section Winner, and Supreme Award Runner Up recipient Nika Danielska, whose work it turns out I have been admiring for years, and old friend the fabulously 'outrrraaaaageous' Beatrice Carlson!

With the handsome boys Jubinav Pratinav and Shantanu Singh

 ...then it was up and off to Hot Sauce at the Museum Hotel for brunch, where there were a few pale faces.... Delicious though it was, it was all a bit loud and overwhelming for some of us, who sloped off to our usual haunt, Mac's Brewery, to debrief at a lower volume.

We also met up with young Australian designer Teddy McRitchie, whom I had only met on Facebook before he recognised me, desperately following my tongue to the bar at Mac's!! The starstruck young man met many heroes that day, from Susan Holmes, David Walker, Dylan Mulder, Kate MacKenzie, Jessica Thompson, Erica Gray, Lynn Christiansen, Vicky Robertson, Fifi Colston, Adam McAlavey, to new star Nika Danielska....!!

Dylan Mulder, Teddy McRitchie, Lynn Christiansen.

We stayed until everyone had gone, then headed home, and as we were about to head wearily into the lift, ran into fellow designer Loretta Sloan in the lobby, and so it was another few drinks.....

Sore-throat boy snored like a chainsaw all night, so very few zzzz's were to be had, and it was off to the chemist on the way to our lunch at Beach Babylon with Janet and Peter on their way to the airport. It was a very windy walk around to Oriental Bay, and the café was buzzing. After fare-welling the two, I was allowed to play on the beach amongst some rather lovely seaweed!

Our final day in Wellington dawned rainy, but we were getting picked up by Vicky Robertson to have a visit to her house, a brunch at iconic Café L'Affare, and a stop in at Fifi Colston's house on our way to the airport - a fabulous end to a wonderful week. Now I can picture these two so much better as we work and chat on-line!
We returned to a burst water line, which luckily was shut off by Jenelle on discovery on Saturday afternoon, as well as a half-defrosted freezer! In order to save things, I began cooking.... and cooking... I finished today with a well-earned beer in this glorious stubbie-holder created for me by fellow designer Jessica Thompson - get yours here at Out of My Mind Crochet! I absolutely adore it - thank you Jess! On that happy note - ciao for now!

WOW 2018 begins!

It's WOW 2018 week, amongst other events. We'll be in Wellington for Matt's very special birthday on Thursday, so seeing as I couldn't really take my present for him over to give him, I decided to cook him a nice meal and present it to him this weekend. I'm not sure what made me decide on this idea - but what else do you give a man who has everything he needs? And how best to show your  love for someone? By spending time making a special gift. I chose this photo taken (by ButterCream Portaiture)  at our wedding (three years ago this week) as I thought it was already a good strong composition to work from. After several attempts of gridding up, I finally worked out how to begin.....

I was so glad it was a surprise - I thought he might have twigged. It was a struggle sometimes to come up with something when he asked me what I'd done with my day...

It's been a really interesting experience. 

He also gets this very blingy, very low-cut shirt to wear!

Right now, I should be packing for WOW, so I'll make this brief. Here is my outfit of 2-way sequins on velvet for awards night - with matching hair clips in my braided mohawk, and below, behold the pink velvet coat with matching thigh high boots. This was a dressing gown from an op-shop I just found the other day in my mending basket - the exact same colour as the boots. I added a collar in Chinese-style brocade, and found a frog closure in the stash - also the exact same colour! This is going to be one incredible outfit!

 OK, gotta go pack! See you soon, my WOW family!

A Seaside Holiday

Don't fret, my fabric friends - I will not divert too much from my textile theme here, as all my holidays photos, as usual, are plant life and the odd critter - inspirational material. I enjoyed some brisk walks, and some absolute dawdles around the rock-pools discovering and admiring these treasures.

The absolute standout for me was this fabulous sea slug - I have never seen anything more fabulous! In the same pool we saw a cuttlefish which had been trapped by the tide - another first. It was a magnificent morning! 

It's been very hard to come home and leave this. Sigh.......

The Svenja Bus

For those of you who remember the ‘90’s, you may remember this catchy number, which became a bit of a theme song for the Svenja Bus! One of my favourite memories is of leaving Eagle Farm Tafe (or whatever they were calling it then – TAFE like a good name change) pulling up to my classmates at the bustop, opening the door, and asking who wanted a lift to the pub! Those were the days! Here's a couple of pics with both Storm and I in our original condition - leaving home to go and live on Mt Tambourine, down at Byron Bay with my TAFE mates April and Heidi - where are you now, girls? - and in the line-up at Stokers Siding.

Storm is finally getting his makeover, and having him move up here and into Matt’s shed after losing the off-site storage has been a real bonus for getting me motivated – he’s right there! Last month I got the bumpers, wheels and roof painted, then it has taken me most of this week to mask it in reverse – I’ve never been good at wrapping presents, and this is the trickiest one yet! I bought a new 50m roll tape yesterday and finished it off this morning.

 As I was doing a final sand on a door, a small chunk of bog lifted out! GAH! I’d been out there since 5:30 getting prepared, and this threatened to stuff up the whole job – I only had my awesome assistant Matt for a few hours, and had to worry about the wind picking up as well. At first I was tragic – it was all over – but then realised I could just leave that door out, as I would have plenty of paint left for another session. Back to plan A, and finished by 10.  Not too bad – a little ‘orange peel’ – and a few repairs highlighted by the fresh coat – it’s all a learning experience. Luckily, I had planned for my inexperience by creating this design, which should hide most of the flaws.

I can't wait to be back out in this beast!! Watch out!

August Shenanigans!

Yes, yes indeed, I finished embroidering Matt's ice-dyed silk shirt in time for the opening of the embroidery exhibition at artisan (not that anyone noticed...) Slip of the Tongue, by Sarah Bottomley, seen at the Stitch Cult exhibition 'captures moments of physical tension between two bodies'. Honestly, the best, and most engaging piece I saw there.......

The fabulous shirt was also worn at the event it was made for, Peter Wojciechowski's birthday celebrations, on the weekend just past.

The gathering was themed 'Mad Shirts and Mu-Mu's,' so I not only made Matt's shirt, but embroidered and beaded a yoke for a kaftan type dress made from beautiful digital print silk bought at the TAFE fabric sales for myself. Janet warned me she was bringing out the legendary false eyelashes, so I dug up a pair from my own collection - oh my goodness - such a bizarre feeling!! She was wearing her Mickey Mouse ears - I have no idea what we were talking about here!!

Work continues on the kombi, as it does on the 2019 Wearable Art Mandurah entry for the movement section - I finally get to play with my fighting fish design idea! Only 6 weeks now until WOW - stay tuned to my StudioSvenja facebook and Instagram pages for the decade of design throwback images.

Goodbye July!

Anthozoa, my Wearable Art Mandurah (WAM) entry from 2017, continues to live an interesting life in Perth - currently she is on display until the end of August at Lakelands Library as part of the WAM retrospective exhibition. Recently, she was used in a photo shoot with Katie Witt Photography, modelled by Kiana Lee and organised by Michelle Murphy. It's so amazing waking up and finding images like this of your work in your inbox!

Lichen Morphology has also spent the last month on exhibition at Burnie Regional Art Gallery.

Last week I was fortunate enough to host both Barb Thoms, the driving force behind WAM, and Janet de Boer for lunch. Hours and hours of wearable art discussion - so good! It must have stirred up something in me, as on the weekend inspiration hit, and I entered WAM 2019! This was also driven by having a tidy studio to work in, and time to revisit partially developed concepts buried within it! That gave me two solid designs to begin work on - one for WAM, one just because it needs to happen.

Also last week, this arrived - Down Under Textiles -  containing a lovely 4 page spread on my recent work, as well as many other interesting articles - I particularly liked the one on Irene Manion's beautiful long stitch free motion embroidery, and of course, the one on WAM. My article features the photography of Asiara Media and Chantal Brennan Photography, and models Heidi Sun and Edwina Tait.

July also brought the welcome news that my World of WearableArt entry has made it through another round of judging and will be shown in the performance in September. Thank goodness, as accommodation and flights were all booked! I'm using the 10 weeks until the show to do a little retrospective of my own 'Decade of Design', posting pictures of my WOW works on Instagram and Facebook each week.

This week I am off to the Artforce Awards at Brisbane City Hall to celebrate the work of myself and other artists on Brisbane traffic signal boxes. I've been shortlisted for the Overall Award, but there are many fabulous works - see them all here.

The week finishes with the opening of an exhibition at artisan at their new premises in Bowen Hills in the newly developed Brisbane Showgrounds Precinct. Stitch Cult is an exhibition that investigates the social significance of embroidery and its practice. Perhaps I'll finish this embroidered yoke for Matt's shirt in time and he can wear it there?! Now there's some motivation!!