2 years of Project 365

Today marks 2 years that I have been completing Project 365.

Project 365 is an app that is described as ‘Take a picture every day of the year, become a better photographer and never forget a day in your life.

Taking a photo a day can be a challenge and a commitment but it is now just part of my daily routine.  I find myself thinking about what my photo will be during the day. There are very few days when it comes to 8.30pm, when the alarm reminder goes, and I realise I have not taken a photo. So I whip out and take something in the garden or of my dinner! The best days are when I have taken several and it’s hard to decide.

When the photo is uploaded it appears in a calendar format, I also upload mine to Flickr and place them in sets.

Not surprisingly my life revolves around social gatherings, friends, food and family!!

The sets in order of popularity are Friends, Me, Overseas, Food, Exhibitions, Family, Nature, Cooks Beach, Dyeing and a few more.

It has improved my photography skills and I use it more as a visual diary of what I have been doing.  Some photos have lots of other memories attached to them. It is amazing how many times I have referred back to photos for dates or occasions. And more importantly it reminds me what a full and varied life I have.

Take November for example.

Project 365 November

It began with a weekend in New Plymouth with 11 great friends who have been meeting around Labour weekend for the last 10 years.

1^st We went to an opening at the Kina gallery and I ran into 2 of the 3 people know in New Plymouth.

2^nd I was fascinated with the design of the Te RewaRewa bridge just north of the city and we walked from there back into town on the Coastal Walkway

3^rd  We had a fun purple night to mark our 10^th anniversary

4^th Attended the funeral of an old mate

5^th Shared my great nephews 2^nd birthday on Melbourne Cup day

6^th Had my sister in law and her family stay from Melbourne. This is Toby and Bella feeding the ducks at the Hamilton Lake, but look at those stunning clouds.

7^th  Attended a charity art auction ‘Beads of Courage’, the waitress’s dress matched the beetroot hors d’oeuvres she was serving!

8^th Had lunch in a café with artist friends and met buddy Annabel

9th We are very fortunate to have NZ Dotterels nesting at Lonely Bay

10^th Our son Blair was at the All Blacks v France game in Paris and emailed me this image of the Stade de France

11^th Trying out a new App called Camera Plus

12^th Young Toby got to go on a site visit with my husband to see graders and rollers etc.

13^th Friend Brigid‘s gumboot sunburn line

14^th Art on the wall at the new Chim Choo Ree Restaurant in Hamilton to celebrate a girlfriends birthday

15^th Celebrating my daughters 24th birthday at Cooks Beach while she is in Perth

16^th Scallops for dinner from Opito Bay

17^th Organic Berry Ice cream from Tairua Organic shop

18^th Looking down on Garden Place, Hamilton from Milk and Honey café

19^th Strawberry and Chocolate Tart at Punnet Café

20^th Cut this off an old tee-shirt bought in San Francisco many years ago

21^st Ice Breaker Christmas gift for Blair

22^nd Me and Potter legend Barry Brickell from Coromandel at opening of his exhibition at Waikato Museum

23^rd Gorgeous Ellie visited

24^th Visited a friends Jewellery exhibition ‘Wear’, at Royal Studio at Kingsland

25^th Blair filming Ritchie McCaw after narrowly beating Ireland in Dublin, establishing an unbeaten record for the calendar year in professional rugby

26^th Meeting at this café to discuss a Ceramic exhibition that I am coordinating in 2014

27^th Walked round the Lake twice

28^th Attended Dick Frizzell artist talk at Wallace Gallery, Morrinsville

29^th Tui on Flax at Tairua lookout

30^th Friend Gary at Cooks beach

 

Result of Eucayptus bundle and Dio Day Out

Most natural dyers say ‘time is your friend’ and encourage you to leave bundles soaking for weeks before opening for the colors to deepen.  Normally I can’t wait that long to see the results and don’t leave them for longer than a few days!  So going overseas was an ideal opportunity to leave them soaking.

I had a mordanted (alum and cream of tartar) pre loved cream blanket

that I bundled into a sausage shape with Eucalyptus cinerea.

I boiled it in a brass preserving pan for several hours and left it soaking while we were away.

After 2 months there was some mould on the top

but it did have some deep colorings.

It was exciting opening it and this is the result, washed and dry.

I was surprised that some of the background color stayed a creamy/beige color, specially on the inside of the bundle. I am guessing the liquid did not penetrate that far. Maybe I should have rolled it wet?

I have not boiled a whole blanket with eucalyptus like this before so can not comment on whether the results are different, but I was pleased with the variety of markings.

I cut the blanket up and made cushions backed with other natural dyed blanket of a solid color, I even mastered button holes and used recycled buttons. I struggled using the synthetic polyester inner! I had also made other cushions of dyed silk and used a recycled mans shirt as the backing, (no need for buttonholes!!) an idea gleaned from my artist friend Charlotte Giblin of Bouncing Pig.

Half of them sold at the recent ‘Dio Day Out’, a fundraiser for the local Waikato Diocesan School for Girls. My friend David Lloyd has his sub tropical garden, with zany sculptures, studio and gallery open for visitors. There were several other artists exhibiting including David with his recycled wood works, Fiona Tunnicliffe from Putaruru with her signature pottery animals, Travis Taylor, a Graffiti artist and Jennie De Groot a modern impressionist painter. Jennie  is a very productive painter and has an amusing blog  called The Distracted Painter

My display at Dio Day Out

Here are other photos of the gallery taken by Jennie De Groot

Next time I will show some more bundles that were left brewing.

Treasures and Alice Fox

You may remember that when we went overseas I planned to collect leaves and treasures and do a bundle a day and microwave them when I had access to one. This is what I took.

We stayed in Hotels, Guest Houses or Bed and Breakfasts with no microwave, other than once in Edinburgh. So this is all that I achieved.

I was thrilled with the variety of these 6 rectangles, that are enough to sew into a cushion top as a souvenir.

The dark marks were from found metal or bottle tops.

One of my favorite artists and whose blog I follow is English artist Alice Fox who recently had an exhibition called ‘Gifts from the Pavement’.  Her observations, images, marks and discarded objects from around  the streets of Saltaire, West Yorkshire form the basis of this exhibition.

The natural world is her inspiration and she works mainly on paper and cloth. She has some lovely Pinterest boards.

Alice was Artist in Residence at Spurn National Nature Reserve, East Yorkshire during 2012. Over a six-month period she engaged with and responded creatively to the unique landscape of Spurn culminating in an exhibition.

She inspired me to do my residency at the Arboretum, so thanks Alice.

More next time of the bundles that I left brewing while I was away.

 

My portrait in stitch

We are home after a fantastic holiday to UK and Italy and settling into routine again.

I will tell you some of our travel highlights but firstly my favourite textile highlight was having my portrait stitched in the Greenwich Markets, London, by a lovely young artist Harriet Riddell who specialises in observational drawings in stitch. While studying Contemporary Applied Arts at the University of Herefordshire she began machine stitching in her life drawing classes!!

She sets her machine up in random places like cafes pubs, trains, launderettes and narrates her surroundings in stitch.

One project involved her stitching individuals while they pedaled a bike to generate the power for her sewing machine! And stitching in a forest using a generator.

For me this was a unique and memorable experience. For  20 quid I sat for 15 minutes while she stitched and we chatted.

She had a bag of scrap fabric and had an excellent match for my new Scottish scarf and turquoise heart pendant.

And this is the result. What do you think?

Be sure to check out this enterprising young artists website documenting her projects and portraits.

The Comfort of Stitch, by Lee-Ann Newton

Remember this fabulous quilt from the Taupo Quilt Symposium that I featured here on 31 July, well I was thrilled today to be contacted by Lee-Ann thanking me for featuring her quilt on my blog and she kindly gave me this link to share. It shows the original quilt and progress images. I’m sure you’ll enjoy the read. Thanks Lee-Ann.

The Comfort of Stitch – Lee-Ann Newton

A gift to myself

My husband and I are going to London tomorrow and get to catch up with both of our adult children. We will travel Scotland and Ireland together as a family and then we go on to Italy, so it’s countdown now.

I have been in touch with Monika from red2white blog who does amazing natural dyeing and lives in the Western highlands of Scotland. If we are in the area and she is available it would be great to connect.

I was tidying up my dyeing materials and found a bucket of Eucalyptus cinerea that had been soaking for about 3 months, it was a bit slimy and smelly! I also found a pot of Tupelo leaves soaking and another pot of Tanekaha that had been soaking for about the same time and other random collections of foliage.

So I have given myself a gift for when I return at the end of September and done about 12  bundles to leave soaking.

As all natural dyers know, time is your friend. The longer bundles are left the deeper the colour usually. So now they have an enforced 5 week soaking period and I won’t be here to be tempted to open them!

Some were wound on PVC pipe, some on iron pipe, one on a rusty can – see notjustnat blog of 8 August for her great results.

I also rolled a pre mordanted wool blanket (alum and cream of tartar) with eucalyptus cinerea and have it boiling in a brass preserving pan now. It will probably steam as it does not quite fit in.

I am taking 33  zip lock bags, 33 small oblongs of cloth, two wooden dowel rods and string. I plan to collect treasurers each day and do a bundle a day and microwave them when I have access to one. And no I won’t be taking leaves between countries!!

So that’s it from me for 5 weeks or so.  I’ll have some interesting reports when I return.

Around town in Taupo

We struck Taupo at her winters best.

Two lovely galleries sit side by side in Heu Heu street.

Kura Gallery specialises in contemporary ethnic art. They had a tempting  selection of jewelry, NZ prints and much more.

Zea You on the corner, is a larger space that specialises in paintings, sculptures, bronze, jewellery and has a stunning selection of cast and blown glass.

These galleries are right next to a ‘must stop’ cafe and kitchen ware store ‘Replete’.

Also in Heu Heu Street a few blocks down from the galleries is The French Cafe, serving authentic French fare.  Check out the size of my delicious omelette.

Along the Lake front, shining in the sun against a foggy back drop, is a sculpture by my friend, Hamilton cast glass artist Colleen Ryan-Priest.  ‘Swell’ is a wind wave sculpture presented to the people of Taupo by the Taupo Sculpture Trust.

Swell by Colleen Ryan-Priest

The Taupo Museum’s Ora Garden of well-being is a tranquil oasis, with native planting and includes a silica thermal terrace and a hot mineral pool.

Those were some of my highlights in Taupo.

More exhibitions at Taupo

Other exhibitions in conjunction with the  Taupo Symposium 2013 were held at the Taupo Museum.

Aotearoa Quilters 12″ x 12″ Challenge ‘Red’ featured in the foyer.

Click here to see all images on Flickr.

Red Challenge

There were 127 entries and the winner was Sonya Prchal with ‘Gerbra’, showing detail of a gerbra bloom with heavy thread painting. This is the same artist that won with the Schnauzer dog in my last post.

Detail of Gerbra Sonya Prchal

One of my favourite exhibitions was ’37 Sketches: Small Quilt Studies’ by Gwen Marston of Michigan. Gwen is a professional fiber artist, author, and teacher.  She has taught nationally and internationally for over thirty years and has written 26 books. Over the 30 years of experimenting with small quilts as a way to explore various aspects of quilt making she has a pile of over 440  small quilts.

In 2010 she began a new series called ‘Small Studies’ and this exhibition is a result of exploring new techniques, abstract design, colour and composition possibilities. She has also written a book ’37 Sketches : Small Quilt Studies’  where she explains her process for making these small studies using her liberated, improvisational methods, and discusses how the experience of making this series of sketches was like taking a crash course in design.

Another favourite exhibition was ‘My Place’ by Fibres Unlimited, a group that was formed with the aim of encouraging individual expression through their use of an extensive range of fibres.

Barbara McQuarries work ‘Deep in the Hills’ references the Pike River Mining Disaster in 2010. A simple but powerful work showed 29 crosses of rusted fabric on a stark black back ground. You could not help but pause and remember the miners and their families.

‘Deep in the Hills’ Barbara McQuarrie

Another stunning work was ‘Red Crater’ by Coralie Skinner, the dyed and woven harakeke was inspired by the amazing colours in the red crater on Mt Tongariro.

Red Crater Coralie Skinner

This was a  strong exhibition that showed a variety of techniques, excellent workmanship and complimented the other exhibitions well.

Taupo Quilt Symposium 2013

I recently went to Taupo to see the Exhibitions and Merchants associated with the  Taupo Symposium 2013 Fabric Art Festival.

The main Symposium exhibition was held at the Great Lake Centre and featured several small challenges including the USA SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) 2011-2013 Trunk Show and the tutors exhibition.

The most intriguing quilt in the exhibition for me was ‘The Comfort of Stitch’ by Lee-Ann Newton. This won Best Non Traditional Quilt and not surprisingly Viewers Choice.

The exhibition catalogue statement said “The simple act of stitching gives comfort to those grieving, lonely, depressed, sick or just needing to relax. Comforting items made, we get comfort in giving away, passing down, teaching or sharing with others. Hand painted whole art quilt on recycled charity shop top.”

The Comfort of Stitch

The Comfort of Stitch detail

On the back Lee-Ann had attached a printed explanation of her quilt, including an image of the original quilt and her reflections on the simple act of stitch that gives comfort.

She bought the quilt from a Hospice Charity Shop, as a plain cream and strangely appliquéd quilt top, originally as a drop cloth for a bathroom painting job but felt it cried out to be used as a textured canvas for a whole painted cloth art quilt. Her research in to the provenance of the top lead her to believe it was Hmong appliqué.

The quilt includes many symbolic images representing hope, future, faith, eternity, karma and sewing related paraphernalia.

The quilt top was not square when purchased and to retain the history of the cloth Lee-Ann left it this way.

The quilt took well over a year to complete and Lee-Ann worked on the quilt while she was pregnant with her second child.

Another wall quilt that I liked was ‘Set Adrift’ by Sonya Prchal. This won a Judges Award. Sonya’s statement says ” My husband set our Schnauzer adrift. He looked so perplexed, I took his photo. I loved capturing his expression with thread painting, I really enjoyed using free motion quilting to enhance the details.’

Set Adrift by Sonya Prchal

Check out the detail.  Isn’t that just the saddest face you’ve seen!

Set Adrift detail

Another favourite was ‘Hot Crosses (With deliberate leakage)’  by Catherine Croucher. She had used retro fabrics, probably pre loved, and chose the fabrics by throwing a dice, editing as she went. Cut with scissors and measuring only by eye, not bothered by bias.

‘Hot Crosses (With deliberate leakage)’

An interesting series of wall quilts were ‘I am from’ by Wendy Ward based on a poem where she is from, her family and the place she grew up in.

‘I am from I’ shows street names where she has lived.

‘I am from II’ is her as a two year old with street maps where she grew up in printed on the fabric and words of the poem embroidered on the background.

I am from I. II, III and IV

‘I am from III’ (my fave) uses the South island as the woman’s dress. This won an award for Amateur Innovative.

I am from III detail

‘I am from IV’ loosely depicts the streets of the town where Wendy grew up.

One fascinating small wall quilt in the tutors exhibition that caught my eye was ‘The Face’ by Pam Holland of Australia. This portrait of an aboriginal woman was stitched with Cheesecloth on a black background. This is part of a series featuring women ‘ripped from reality’.

The Face by Pam Holland

More about the other exhibitions in the next post.

Auckland Botanic Gardens

After countless years of driving past the gardens sign I finally paid a visit. Just off the Southern Motorway at Manurewa, it is very easy to find. Covering 64 hectares, development began in 1973 and it opened to the public in 1982. It has an impressive Visitor Centre and Cafe and it is free – thanks Auckland City.

A Fred Graham stainless steel bird sculpture ‘Manu Torino’ welcomes you at the entrance and highlights the association of birds and gardens.

I enjoyed the Threatened Native Plant area and their Flax Weaving collection that contains 40 named varieties of Harakeke. There was disappointingly no mention of its natural dyeing properties!

Other impressive areas were the African, Camellia, and the Rose area, that had a NZ Rose garden where they had mixed roses with native plants including  grasses, ground covers and flowering shrubs.

The Palm Garden contains New Zealand’s largest public collection of palms.

My favourite area was the Potter Children’s Garden! It features a bog, a desert, a jungle garden and a cool maze. I loved the sundial though there was not enough sun to cast a shadow.

The gardens feature a permanent sculpture collection, some which are not that obvious or labelled. I did pick up a brochure on the way out and realized I had missed half of them! This stone mosaic in the children’s garden is ‘Frangipani’ by John Bottica.

The next biennial sculpture event, Sculpture in the Gardens, will run from 9 November to 16 February 2014, so I’ll certainly be visiting then to see 23 art works from well-known NZ artists including my friend Mia Hamilton of Wellington.

So the Auckland Botanic Gardens are well worth a visit if you are passing.