Missed the correct day but still posting.

 Yesterday was 12/2/21. I just have to put that one up.

It was a momentous day for us here in Melbourne, we are back in hard lockdown - but only for 5 days, hopefully.

Not wanting to have to wear a mask while doing my allowed walk outside, I have done a little bit more sewing. I am still playing around with the postcards. The people who get today's effort will be privileged. I will not do this one again! 

It involved tedious cutting, tedious sewing that required lots of stopping and starting while I went around the fiddly edges. I used a variegated cotton that didn't like being twisted when I changed directions. Lots of rethreading required. Thank goodness I had my machine serviced lately and the needle threader was fixed. It has been broken for almost a year, I had it booked in last March but then lockdown happened and shops were shut, the workshop I was intending to attend was cancelled, etc. Luckily I got inspired a few weeks ago and had it done. 

The colours on this piece of sample fabric didn't come out as bright/dark as the previous one, so it is not as successful. But it was challenging and I hope the recipients like them.  

I used some bag stiffener on the back for these two. I hope I can write the address on it, when I get to that point of the process. 

Playing around again

 I have no big ideas going at the moment. 

I am in a group that is going to do postcards to send to each member. I don't have much of a theme going so decided to just try some ideas.

I used the Liquid Radiance paints to colour some samples of drape fabric. I have no idea where I got the book of fabric samples but it has turned out to be useful at the moment. 

I used the white fabrics this time and washed them before use. Then I only used the three primary colours and let them run into each other and make multiple colours. 

One piece of fabric was much darker on one side than the other. 

                                     

This made me think of the Notan positive and negative idea that I tried previously. 

I didn't want to do trees this time, the colours didn't seem to suggest trees to me. I have a book of Japanese Optical Illusions and Geometric designs, so I traced one and then cut out the fabric using that. I put one lot of cutouts onto a piece of the same fabric, other side up though, to give the contrast in brightness. 

I used the base fabric I had cut the shapes out of to place onto yet another piece. 

I sewed them up using variegated fabric. I couldn't actually decide on what colour would work best, the variegated was there, to hand. Decision made. 

If I have to make an artist statement, perhaps I can say something about the shapes reminding me of the ever-present images of the covid virus! But that wasn't really the inspiration, I just like the shape. 

February 1st

 The date just cried out for me to post! 1/2/21.

I went to the NGV today to see the Triennial exhibition, my first venture out on public transport in about 10 months. Of course, my Myki card had expired. That necessitated a walk from one station to another where you can get a new one - fortunately my two nearest stations are not far apart from each other. 

I had to book online for the NGV too. As I had seen that there were delays on the trains, I had decided to go by bus. But by the time I had fixed up my ticket, the trains were back on time and I was able to get there at the time I had said I would be there. 

There were plenty of people there but it was easy to move around and there was no problem with social distancing. It was actually good not to have a big crowd, you could see the works and didn't have to dodge around people taking photos! There were a few (me included) but it was easy to see the works. This social distancing, timed entry thing might not be all bad!

There is so much to see that I decided not to overload myself and to go back. It was exciting enough to go on public transport! And to walk around the city. I didn't want to wear myself out.

Just to prove that I did use my camera, here are a few images. 

These are of shadows on the floor. You could walk through the installation. Most people were looking up, I think I was the only one taking photos of the floor (at that time, anyway).

Installation by Kengo Kuma, Kengo Kuma Associates and Geoffrey Nees' Botanical pavilion 2020.  Here is a link to the exhibition, with reference to this work.

I seem to have been inspired by shapes and illusion again. Maybe I am still influenced by all the calls for entry that had Vision as the theme last year. And I really do like optical illusions.