The Owl and the Pussycat

I was looking around the net for some images of The Owl and the Pussycat, for the tapestryweaversoz group's new project,  and came across this wonderful animation.  Just love it.
There are ideas floating around but nothing is gelling for me at present, then I got distracted by the animation.  I just love animations.

Making Silk Paper

After having been asked for about a year, I have eventually got around to showing two friends how I have made silk paper in the past.

We got together on a day that started out sunny and ended up cool and wet - actually pretty cold (for late spring).  But the process was easy and the company was enjoyable.

We laid out the silk sliver, despite the breeze.

Then we wet it with soapy water, both sides (it was sandwiched between two pieces of tulle).

We mopped up the extra water and then rolled textile medium over it, also both sides.  We tried diluted (1:3) textile medium and undiluted, depending on the stiffness we wanted.

We then hung our pieces up to dry, still in the tulle, while we had lunch.

One friend tried laying it over a bowl to get a shaped piece.  Because it was so cool and damp, I haven't seen her finished product, we had to take it with us before it dried.

Now all that has to be done it to peel the tulle off and decide what we want to do with it.  So far we have only made experimental pieces.  Now it is time to look at books and play with some of the ideas.

Two books I have, which give slightly different instructions, are Silk Paper for Textile Artists, by Sarah Lawrence, and Silk 'Paper' Creations for the Fibre Artist by Judith Pinnel.  Both have some fabulous ideas, all I have to do is try them.

Exhibition of work from Turkey.

We pulled down our exhibition of work from Turkey last Friday.  We were lucky to have the show up for two weeks in the foyer.  There were lots of positive comments about the exhibition and quite a few queries about the process of felting.
I took a couple of photos at the official opening but was so busy meeting and greeting people that I forgot to take many.
It was great to see so many people from the trip as well as visitors and staff members.  Thanks to all those who attended and for all the great feedback.

Also thanks to the people who allowed us to include not only their felt from the workshop but other items they had purchased, that were relevant to the textile theme of the trip. Thanks also to Tony Stewart for his photos.

Occupational Health and Safety - NOT

After viewing Deb Herd's pictures of India (make sure you see the electrical connections), I couldn't resist putting up some of my own pictures of OH&S pics I took in Turkey.  None compare with Deb's picture.

This hole was in the footpath for a couple of weeks.  We did not see it repaired or signed.

Worker walking around on high roof with no railing

Climbing over the domes, putting water on the plaster.

There is a man here, in the traffic, selling water.  There were also men washing windscreens when the traffic was slower.

There were steps down to doorways, and inset doorways, all over the place in Istanbul.  No warning.

Sydney Statues Project

I have just heard about the Sydney Statues Project.  Unfortunately, it is over but you can go to Flickr and  see some of the fabulous work.  It looks like it was very hard work, measuring the statues, working out how to make the clothes look like they had been fitted when the arms, legs, etc cannot be moved.  Then the making and the actual fitting. The pictures are great.
My sister heard about it on National Radio, the By Design program and you can download a podcast of the show.

Hot air ballooning

As I was trying to clean up after handing in all my work yesterday, I came across some of my stuff from the trip to Turkey.  I found a certificate verifying that I went on a hot air balloon trip (not that they had time to put my name on it, due to some hitches with the organisation of the event).  I needed this as proof of the trip as all my friends and family know that I do not like heights.
I was assured by several people on our trip that being on a balloon is not the same as being high in a building and that I would be fine.  So I decided it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and booked in.
They were right, it was not the same and I felt quite comfortable, despite the somewhat fraught landing.
We were supposed to leave at dawn but were told that the winds would not be right and to come an hour later - that suited me, not such an early start.

Firing up the balloons

But then we had to wait around for over an hour for the balloons to be ready. Some seemed to have been up already and we had to then drive to our balloon.

setting off to find our balloon

Half the people got out and half of us got in, then the other half of their group got out and the rest of us got in.  All this so it would stay on the ground.

looking up from the basket

The wind blew in an unexpected direction, so we did not get to see all the fairy chimneys of Cappadocia, but we did see some amazing landscape.
We also saw a few foxes running about.  They may have been disturbed by the noise of the balloon (don't let anyone tell you it is silent!) as our dog goes bananas if she is outside when the balloons go over our place, usually in autumn.

When it came time to land there was a slight problem - our captain had not flown in that direction before and was not familiar with a good place to land.

our captain, an Englishman, so we could understand his strict landing instructions

not a lot of places to land!

We eventually landed safely, after bumping up the hill.
Then a celebratory drink (warm) and another wait for the pickup team to find us.

the pickup crew had to find roads that actually came to us

In the meantime, we got to see the balloon let down and folded away, then wandered off to meet the truck.

Although there was quite a bit of time doing nothing, the experience was well worth it.

I'm Done!

In more ways than one.
I have finished the tapestry and the sewing up and the cutting off and the mounting onto foam board.  I haven't decided what I will do with it after it has been assessed and, as I am not graduating and therefore not showing the piece, I have done a temporary mounting.

I am exhausted - I have been enjoying the weaving but the finishing off is nearly as bad as the preparation, the warping up of the loom.  But having a deadline to hand in the work made me do it for concentrated periods, so that was probably a good thing.

Now to start planning the next one, or two.  After the big clean up.