The flight over was an act of endurance but I did manage some sleep, note to self - an upgrade would be worth it on these nasty flights.

My accommodation in NY is in 2 apartments, the first was for 2 nights in an old brownstone bedroom only and the rest of the time in a studio apartment. Both are tiny but comfortable. I was sorry not to be able to spend much time in the first as my host a very interesting Ecadorian woman. But it is nice having a place to myself. It is on 81st Street just up from Columbus Ave. Jim is 11 blocks down Columbus, about a 10 to 15 min walk.

Unfortunately my apartment doesn't have wifi so need to go to Jim's or the nearby Starbucks.

The days are warm but not too hot making sight seeing comfortable. Though yesterdayI sprained my ankle but this seems to be getting better.

San Francisco 7th - 9th September 2012

Flying from Melbourne to San Francisco is a long haul! US Immigration & Customs all takes queuing & time & acceptance. Having a window seat on the left side of the plane to SF gave me a great view of the spectacular coast and rugged hills that run parallel. They are folded and pleated giving great texture. The trees are thick on the inland side leaving the tops & seaward side quite sparsely vegetated.

The reason for my diversion through SF was to see Genevivieve, born 3 weeks ago to the daughter of one of my oldest friends. I had great fun making some felt slippers for her.

After lunch we left Emilie to go to our hotel in downtown San Francisco. Fortunately we decided against going by taxi & used a fixed price limosine service. The traffic was unbelievable.

We arrived at the Trton around 5pm, in time to admire its unique decor & plastic duckies.Quirky certainly fits this one. The wallpaper in our rooms is printed with a novel, a copy of which is thoughtfully provided. A hotel that I would recommend as the service is good, rooms clean & bed comfortable.

My room over looked a courtyard, making it very quiet, Myra & Sophie had a street view & some audio to go with it.

After checking in off we went walking, climbing maybe a better description. The streets are so very steep in places. We saw trolley cars but left the riding on one until next tIme.

Saturday saw us searching for a place for breakfast and found a dinner decorayed with memorablia. The food was good.

Our day was one of sight seeing by open topped tour bus, a good way to get a feel for a place in a short time. Fisherman's Wharf is very touristy & busy; it is now one my been there, done that list. We dined at a recommende Italian restuarant which lived up tomexpectations. Then off to the airport for the dreaded red eye to New York.

Getting ready to go

Wednesday evening and the high winds have caused a blackout. All I can do is some packing and finish off these slippers for a new born I am visiting in San Francisco on my way to New York.

Friday 20th July  Play Day with Collective Notions


Today five of us got together to experiment with Gelatine Plate Printing. Having decided last week to meet to try this technique sourcing commercial plates was not an option. So we each made our own gelatine plates from a variety of recipes and in various sizes.

Packing my trolley with all the stuff that I thought I might need made it feel just like a TAFE day!

All neat and tidy before we started

The gelatine plates are very tactile and conducive to creating complex cloth. Resists of all types add shapes and depth to the layers. The shadow prints are often much more interesting than the first prints. We tried a wide variety of fabric and papers, with the papers often giving better results. Though I have some really interesting pieces just asking for more work and embellishment to finish them off.

Resists and tools

 Hand dyed cloth over printed 

First print using leaves and the shadow print both on paper 

Robyn's gelatin plate after printing. Hairy string and plants were used.

Some of our work

This is something worth working with. It does need planning and plenty of items for resists and texture. Having a tray large enough for the brayer would have made my day easier.

Rutherglen July 2012

Early in July I spent a weekend with my mother near Rutherglen. The mornings were Cold, -5, and the frost spectacular. Blue (the dog) did not seem to mind and was all to pleased to walk with me down to the Murray River. 

The ground was white and glistened with the rising sun, the mist hovered a few feet off the ground creating wonderful bands of light and grey. The sun bright against the early morning shadows. Down on the river flats and over the Murray itself the mist floated and threaded through trees and around the snags. One snag rose out of the water and looked like a Bunyip.

Time away from textiles

October 2010 life took over and since then I have had very little time to focus on my creativity. The biggest distraction is the Certificate IV Workplace Training and Assessment which is VERY time consuming. Face to face 1 full day a week and homework in the form of assignments. Our tutor is extremely fond of resubmits which just adds to the stress. Just to add to the joy we have 4 full Satudays, 2 in December and 2 in February for our electives and these too have homework and assignments. aaaaggghhh! This course ends in Mid March and I hope to regain some form of life then.

Then there is work followed by family. Some members have major health issues and supporting them means frequent trips to San Remo or Sorrento.

Just to fill in the spare hours I am part of the committee setting up the Victorian Group of the Australian Textile and Surface Design Association. We now have a meeting place at the Oakleigh Community Hall, 144 Drummond Street, Oakleigh on the 4th Sunday of each month at 11am - 3.30pm. Visitors welcome.

It is now February and I am excited to be returning to TAFE for my final year this Friday. For the rest of the year my Fridays will be a full day of classes and more homework for the rest of the week. But this homework often does not feel like a onerous task and is very satisfying. At the end of this year we have a graduation exhibition in November. More work as in the past each student is required to exhibit at least 6 peices.

Who knows I may keep updating my blog more frequently

Australian Tapestry Workshop

On Friday 3rd September 2010 we visited the Australian Tapestry Workshop in South
Melbourne. It is an inspiring place and the tapestries beautiful.

In early August we had the introductory Victorian meeting for the Australian Textile and Surface Design Association (ATASDA) with over 40 people attending. Felicity Clarke came down from Brisbane to help launch this new ATASDA Group and from this we have a steering committee.

Not only did Felicity display her amazing work, she spoke of her textile journey which I found inspiring and humbling. Many attending the meeting brought samples of their work for show and tell, a great way to be inspired and discover new techniques.

Yesterday, Saturday 28th August 2010, the Steering Committee meet and we will be formally applying to form a Victorian Group. We also hope to meet at the Box Hill Community Arts Centre on the 4th Saturday of each month.

For more information please go to the ATASDA website www.atasda.org.au

Back at TAFE and it looks as if it will be a challenging semester. One of the first homework tasks involves one of my least favourite things - collage. But my results are ok and maybe I have finally found a way to work with this technique. The inspiration given to us was shells and after some fiddling I decided to paint the shell using the paint mixed from the first term painting class. Surprisingly it was still ok. Once painted I glued on white tissue and when dry painted it and the background. The picture on the right is tissue glued over the paint but not yet further painted.

A couple of weekends ago I was down at the beach, the weather was very windy and I tried to get a sense of this with my photos. The first one looks fairly calm but the others show the rough weather better.