Keeping a journal can teach you surprising things about yourself.

Gerry of Workshop It

Fabricate
Wednesday 21 June 2006

Just back from the Embroiderers' Guild Victoria where I helped staff the 'Fabricate' exhibition put on by the Textile Artists' Group. My wool and polymer clay piece at left, Exemplar I, was one of 30 pieces on display. This was a juried exhibition that attracted over 70 entries, so I was thrilled to have a piece selected. There are lots of wall quilts, framed textiles and other artworks. It is on daily till 1st July, Mon-Fri 10am - 3pm and Sat-Sun 10am - 1pm, $5 entry. Located at "Embroidery House" 170 Wattletree Road, Malvern.

Art Tarts and Cup Cakes
Monday 19 June 2006

We had our second and final Paper Arts Tarts event for the year in Mt Waverley (Melbourne, Australia). Besides having a great time crafting and shopping, we raised $300 for Beyond Blue. Woo-hoo! And guess who turned up just before closing? Fifi Hedwigger, Stamping Teacher to the Stars. Oh dahlings!

After the excitement of a big day with the tarts at Paper Arts Tarts, you'd have thunk I'd go and put my feet up for the evening. Nah-uh. I was off to a Fabulous Forty birthday party for my friend Sharon (alias Norbu) and the theme was cupcakes. What a deliciously creative idea!

It was an intimate gathering of frocked-up ladies. We played celebrity heads - what a hoot! I'd show you the photo of the Birthday Girl but she had her eyes closed and was stuffing cupcake into her mouth - looking not very fetching actually. We'll focus our admiration on the dainty cakes instead.

Clever clay
Tuesday 13 June 2006

	On the first weekend of June, the Melbourne Polymer Clay Group had its first weekend retreat. We went to Bacchus Marsh and made delightful things. Shirley Dougan of Image Moulds showed us how to make kaleidoscope canes starting with just two colours of clay. I mostly stamp in clay, so caning was a new adventure.
I brought my cane home and spent some time Sunday turning it into beads and brooch backgrounds and the little triptych you see above.
	At the retreat, Margaret Mueller taught us the transfer techniques that resulted in my bug beads. They burnt when I cured them in my toaster oven, so I distressed them further with brown acrylic paint. I actually like the burn marks now!
Find out more about Melboure Polymer Clay Group here. Also this past weekend I did an introductory class in Metal Clay at Workshop It on Chapel Street. There's my tutor, Gerry at left. And below, the silver pendant I made is resting on the Studio Astarte stamp I used to create it with. Notice the pendant is smaller, due to shrinkage during the firing process.

Metal Clay is similar to polymer clay in the way it is worked. You can cure it on a gas stove burner - even a camping stove will work. I have found a new medium and I love it! (Just what I needed - a new medium.) Hey there Melbourne Readers! Join us at Paper Arts Tarts this Saturday the 17th! Come say hello to me on the Studio Astarte stand.

Naked, looking in the mirror
Thursday 8 June 2006

It has been a sobering exercise this week, phoning papercraft businesses around Australia to ask if they would like to exhibit at Paperific Expos. I am having no trouble selling stands at Melbourne, of course. It is a strong show - Australia's favourite, I'm not embarassed to say.

Sydney is another matter, and too many New South Wales craft businesses have had poor returns on expos of late. In fact, business just plain old sucks for everyone at the moment. Crafters are not spending money on craft. A colleague I spoke with yesterday is one of many who is getting out of the game. "It was vanity that drew me into this business," she said. "I loved stamping and I wanted to do the ultimate - manufacture my own line of stamps. Well, I did it and enjoyed it in spite of the hard slog, but there's no money to be made from it." Vanity. That hit home. She'd just held up a mirror for me to look into. This woman had bravely backed out ot her business, found another job, lifted her income several notches and was more comfortable with her life as a result. The moral of this story: If you are contemplating starting a craft business in this sorry economic climate, please think twice. There is more joy in DOING craft than in SELLING craft.

Worldly Possessions
Tuesday 2 June 2006

Meet the Bead Family, which I created when I was 12 or 13. They lived in a bedroom display cabinet with my doll collection for over thirty years. This is one of the treasures from my parents' home in Indiana, to which I returned last month to help clean out. Mom and Dad have moved to small apartment in a retirement village. They love it there. But they needed their six children to come back and clean the fifty-plus years of accumulated stuff in the old homestead. We worked solidly for a week. We worked like Trojans. We also had a lot of laughs. I wouldn't have missed that week for the world. I have to say in all honesty, that week was a highlight of my life and I feel such privilege to be a part of my wonderful family.
	There's my mom and dad at left. She's holding up her wedding dress and wearing the veil. The garment was disintegrated beyond repair - not worth keeping, and my four older sisters didn't know what to do about it. Mom said, "Just burn it!" My sisters felt more attached to it than she did! I suggested I cut off the bodice and save the headpiece and make everyone a little fabric collage with Mom and Dad's wedding photo in the middle. The sisters reluctantly agreed,

provided I do the cutting-up in another room and dispose of the remains in a sealed black garbage bag. Really! you'd have thought I was putting down a beloved family pet. The whole exercise of cleaning out my family home was a tremendous lesson about how we cling to material goods - whether they have current value, potential value or just plain old sentimental value. In our hearts we know that what really counts is the love and joy in our lives - not the things that represent that love and joy. I returned to Australia with an extra suitcase of "treasures" and there are two boxes making their way here separately. The Bead Family was left behind in Indiana in a flat box of other old dolls. Will someone purchase that box at the auction next month? Will they keep the Bead Family, or chuck it out? Who knows. They are small, true, but I didn't feel like dragging them back. A photo will keep their memory alive.

Art and Soul
Thursday 1 June 2006

Wow! I'm back from the States and did I ever have a ball. Today I'll report about the Dallas Art and Soul Retreat I attended, then in my next blog entry I'll tell you about the second half of my trip which was spent with my family in Indiana. At left I am pictured with the fab glam Claudine Hellmuth, one of five tutors I learned from at the Art and Soul Retreat. At top right of this webpage you can see one of the works I created in her class, and there are more featured on a separate webpage.

My other tutors included Jacqueline Sullivan, who taught us different methods of creating texture on watercolour paper and Tracy Batista who gave a taste of her bold and colourful drawing style. DJ Pettit led a class in which we created a collage on cloth that was turned into a handbag. Lesley Riley took us through the process of creating a fabric altered book, which I've photographed for the Studio Astarte gallery.

There were over a hundred students attending the Art and Soul Retreat - some were local but most came from all over the USA to attend. There were a couple of gals from Canada and Pearl Moon and I from Australia. I really enjoyed getting to know my fellow students. There was a bit of ATC swapping, though not as much as I'd expected. Oh - and we were in a lovely hotel, which made the event all the more special. The event was very well-organised and the tutors were absolutely top-drawer. It is little wonder that so many of the students I met there are regular attendees. Food for the soul - that's what it was.

Check out the photos from two of my classes: The Fabric Altered Book and the Book on a Canvas.

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