Doings........

As I am about to head off interstate - this time to Western Australia - for a stint of teaching at an event called FibresWest, I have been busy preparing for my class and for my slide talk presentation........but I've still managed to get some of my own work done as well as completing orders, like this one. This was how they looked nestled in the box of padding before I sent them......cloudbabies!

And here is another mixed-media piece, which I've called "My Back Pages" (yes, I stole that!)

 And with Spring coming on, there is lots to do outside in the garden. At least I am mostly on top of it!

Road Trip!

The time is almost here: next week I'm loading my ute (truck) onto the TT Line ferry and heading over to Melbourne. I'll be driving east to set up my exhibition in Meeniyan in South Gippsland. After the opening, I'll be setting off to Canberra via Bonang and Delegate, where I'll be spending a few days with a friend who has a cattle property in the high country. In Canberra I'm teaching at the Canberra Contemporary Craft Retreat for a few days, before setting off back down south to catch the ferry back home. It's been so long since I've had a ROAD TRIP, I'm excited and really looking forward to it! And the back of my ute is large with a rigid canopy, so I'll be able to take everything I need for a comfortable trip.

Meanwhile, I'm still working away in the studio, kind of waiting for the weather to warm up and dry out, so that I can really get stuck into painting and tidying up around here, because I'm planning to sell my house and five acres in a month's time. In some ways it's a reluctant decision, because Bob and I built this place literally with our own hands, but I'm finding there is too much to do to keep everything in order with such a big property when my priorities are tending to be elsewhere...........of course, when I relocate, I'll need another studio of some kind. I've been spoilt by this one - I know I'll never have another like it, but c'est la vie! Time to move on.

Upcoming Events

October is going to be a busy month for me - I have a number of classes scheduled, beginning with  "The Pensive Child" class at Bear Essence at Tooradin near Melbourne with my lovely hosts, Kim and Josey. This class will be held on 2nd and 3rd October and you can find all the details on their website.

Following that a few days later, on the 6th and 7th of October and still at Bear Essence, I will be teaching a painted cloth animal class. We will be concentrating on making a frog like this, but the skills are transferable to making other animals. This class is so much fun!

After a few days off, during which I hope to visit my son and his partner in Metcalfe, north of Melbourne, I'll be heading down to Geelong to teach (13th and 14th October) for the lovely people at the Trolly Dollies Cloth Doll Club. They will be making a doll like this:

I'll just have time to catch my breath after I get back home and I'll be getting reading to teach a class in my home studio on 27th and 28th of October for the West Tamar Arts Group ArtEntwine event.

This class is called "Personifying Your Muse" and I'm hoping to see some very personal and creative interpretations of this idea. The students will be sculpting heads, making cloth bodies and then letting it rip with mixed media and paint!

Then I might take a few days off!

PS - There might be places available in some of these classes - if you're interested, get in touch via the links.

I'm Back!

After a wonderful ten days or so away in South Australia, I'm back just in time to begin serious preparations for Christmas. I had a great time - fantastic students in my classes, which made for stress-free teaching and my hosts, Sandy and Malcolm made me feel very welcome, even though they were in the throes of moving their whole business from a home office to a new factory - lock, stock and barrel! And Sandy was coming down with the 'flu or something, so the poor thing had plenty on her plate.......what a trouper! Here are a few very bad pics from the "Muse" workshop (forgot to take any for the other workshop - very remiss of me, I know). If you want to see more and better pictures, have a look at Sandy's blog (link above) and also Peta's blog.

Busy gals getting down and dirty!

A being is born.

Putting it all together.

A fine effort!

I saw some great ideas emerging during the class and I'm hoping to see pictures of the finished pieces in the near future.

After I finished teaching, I was picked up by my friends Lynn and Margaret from Tassie and we ambled down to Victor Harbour to spend a few days with Lynn's brother and sister-in-law. We managed trips to Hindmarsh Island, Adelaide galleries and McLaren Vale vineyards. Lovely and relaxing and not even hot!

We'd decided to take two days to get back to Melbourne so that we could poke around the Koorong a little - what a stunning place! I've always wanted to see it. Unfortunately, it is so expansive that my camera just doesn't do it justice - you'll have to take my word for it that it was fabulous. And full of water at the moment after all the upstream rains, so we saw it at it's best. We spent a night at a sweet fishing town called Robe and then another night in Melbourne before heading back home on the ferry on Friday night.

Fine travelling companions!

The hills around Victor.

I'm going to draw my giveaway tomorrow, so there is still a bit of time to enter if you want - all you have to do is leave a comment on the giveaway post - just scroll down a bit to find it.

Farewell (for a short time)

I'm heading off early in the morning to go and teach in Adelaide and then have a week or so R&R (wineries, art galleries, reading, walks, lunches.........it's going to be HARD!)
But I couldn't leave without saying "goodbye"..........and what use is a blog post without a picture or two? Remember the poly tunnel that Bob built in the late winter? Well, it's been producing really well for us. We've already harvested salad greens, bok choy, radishes, carrots and rocket and now the slower growing crops are starting to look very promising - tomatoes, capsicums, chillis, basil - all things that need a little extra warmth here in Tasmania. Here are some pictures:

We've become quite serious about eating what we produce and not really too much else. For instance, tonight our dinner was roast shoulder of veal which had been given to us (delicious!) with roast potatoes from last years' crop, new beetroot, roasted; new carrots and peas and spinach with garlic ginger and sesame oil. Apart from the condiments and the gift of meat, we produced it all!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway - there's still plenty of time, because I won't be drawing it until December 12th after I get back from Adelaide. Just go to the post before this one and leave a message there - it will be a random draw from all the responses I receive.

Hasta la vista , amigos!

Home Again!

Wonderful as it is to travel, there is nothing finer than arriving home after a long trip!

I had a great two months travelling and teaching: met some wonderful new friends, and renewed some friendships of long standing. Thanks to all the great people who took me into their homes, made me welcome and nurtured my body and my soul. Thanks to Stu, Guy and Sandy, David and Rosie, Apple, Gloria, Annie and Michael, Rose and Mike and of course Ted and Georgia in San Diego.

I'm still processing my experiences (and recovering from jet-lag) but here are a few pics - more later.

Update

I just got (gently) roasted by my sister for not updating enough.......so what has happened since my last post?
Well, my 'Discworld' entry won the first place award - I got STUFF! There were some wonderful entries in the challenge, so I feel fairly chuffed that 'Ella Saturday' won.......since I made her, she appears to have a life of her own!
Meeting and staying with Linda Apple in Columbus was a blast, as was meeting Cody, Judy and others I only knew as online presences.
Had a fabulous time at Annie Hesse's teaching a three-day class - what wonderful students - what a great host Annie is! That was in green, green, green Kentucky.
I'm now in Maryland at Rose Gibbon's house in the beautiful Maryland countryside having a few days R&R before a class here at the weekend, and then another one next weekend.

I leave at the end of the month, and due to airline stuff-ups, I can't get home until June 3, so I'll have a couple of nights in Brisbane. Oh well, at least I'll be able to sleep off the jet-lag, if nothing else.

I've got lots of pictures to post when I get home.

All in all, it's been a fabulous trip, but I'm looking forward to getting home now.