nest making

Back when I had not long completed and handed in my dissertation last year, I was getting back into the garden after it had suffered through a year of neglect. One of the projects, which ended up as an exercise in therapeutic making, was to create a fence around the sewer manhole in the back corner of the yard. It was accessed by the water board a couple of times in the last few years when they were relining the network of pipes, but had been covered by at least a couple of feet of soil and mulch. I hadn't even realised it was there! We considered different approaches to keep the manhole clear - we were thinking a brick wall at one stage. However, for a long time I have wanted to try Tino's technique for building a herb bed, and it suddenly occurred to me that this could be a great solution.

I had some hardwood stakes leftover from edging the veggie garden beds so I started by hammering these in around the manhole after clearing off the thick covering of rapidly gathered debris. Nearby is a big, old, and very rampant buddleia bush that needed hacking back - again. The long canes were perfect for weaving around the stakes to create the basket-like wall.

This is a beautiful, engrossing, process - I feel the quality of the material (the buddleia canes) as I bend it them the required shape. I listen to its feedback as it responds to my hand. I'm being 'taught' by the material, as it tells me the way it wants to go. I don't always get it right - bits break and pieces need repositioning - but the made form is forgiving and it accepts the messiness of added and re-layered pieces. I thought I was making a giant basket, but as variable making pervades, the more tousled form is unmistakably nest-like, and I realise, I am making a lovely human-sized nest!

More on how this nest has been going later... there have been other nests in the meantime. I've always viewed plant material as valuable - my dad always said to never let anything organic leave your property - but this value goes beyond just chopping up the prunings to become mulch.

A couple of weeks ago at Easter time I made some nests to house eggs for the nieces...

And for the more eggs for the in-laws...

A nest for us with Easter offerings, now nicely mounted on our front door...

And this week, a nest for our gorgeous neighbours to pop their business cards in. This weekend they are embarking on an amazing new business venture - 'pressing provenance' - serving up stylish toasties at local farmer's markets. Best of luck for the opening at Substation Farmer's Market, Newport and looking forward to enjoying a delicious toastie!

dr now!

It's been quite a while since I've been about here properly... so many things, like this little 'bloggy' project, were put on back burners while the PhD got done. And done it did get!

It has been a roller coaster of milestones. The dissertation was handed in on August 15th 2014 ... my exam presentation and exhibition was on October 24th 2014 ...

I received the results (passed, no revisions!) on December 8th 2014 ... and given the word that I may now adopt the title 'Doctor' on February 11th 2015.

The desire to celebrate with rounds of drinks dried up by the end ... I just wanted to rest and it's taken until now to feel something like being more relaxed and a bit more 'normal'.

Now I'm feeling the things that are 'next' are piling up. There seems to be some space now for the 'next piles' to accumulate ... but ... what do I keep? what do I let go?

food growing as practice

This has been niggling at me for a while, and I want to dispel what seems to me a popularly held myth, that growing your own food is easy.  There's enough banter out there about food growing, in book form, on the television and in the online/blogosphere scape, and although there is a lot of instructive info, it often feels like all that is required is some enthusiasm and a simple intent to start and it will be as easy as a wink.  I'm all for talking about the positive benefits of vegie and fruit growing, but it certainly is not always easy, if it was would anyone ever buy food?!

I absolutely adore Costa as the new host of Gardening Australia, but I can't help but wonder at the apparent ease at which his "Verge" garden has sprung up.  Commitment is such an important ingredient for successful gardening, particularly when the initial exciting flush that comes with something newly begun dies down.  What I find difficult to manage is the balance between patient waiting and quick action.  Like anything in life, you get out what you put in, you literally reap what you sow.  Food growing requires consistent effort, but an interesting kind of consistency that must also allow for adaptability.  You have to keep putting in, but keep a close evaluative eye on what's happening to know what steps to take.  How do you develop this eye?  How do you know how to respond?

The required skills and knowledge can be learned in part through books/television/internet (which, I'll say it again, overwhelmingly make it seem so easy!), but there's a level of know-how needed that can only be cultivated by doing.  I've been thinking about this for a long time since I saw an episode of Gardening Australia back in April (see "Gardening for Life" on 14/4/12), that showed a segment about a retired market gardener in Coburg who was turning over the lease for his cultivated land to CERES.  He had a knowledge of the land that he had tended all his life which seemed to defy logic.  At one point he says that a patch over there "looks" good for growing broadbeans, and I wonder about what is going on here.  Is it the development of a localised wisdom that comes through experience?  Perhaps coupled with repetition, careful observation and above all practice?  So food growing is a practice?!  Of course, it demands the consistent effort and commitment that developing a practice requires.  When expertise of a practitioner is demonstrated it dazzles and implies effortlessness, and perhaps that's what is happening on shows like Gardening Australia.

As my ripped up corn stalks (due to dog vs rat battles) from last season testify, food growing is not easy!  In actual fact, it was easier when I went more by my instinct and less by instruction from books.  So like the market gardener, I'm going into the next season with the intent to listen to my own intuition and discover the lore of my land.

solstice greetings!

Winter solstice here today and it's a suitably cold, miserable and wet day.  But I'm happy as the house is toasty and warm (I blocked some holes in the yet to be renovated skirting boards with some junk mail :P).  See how great a salutation "solstice greetings" is?  Now I get to say it twice a year :o)

now I know where time went...

@ berg publishers

I'm reading "When Clothes become Fashion: Design and Innovation Systems" by Ingrid Loschek...while still working on some writing for the PopCAANZ conference next week...all writing/reading for me at the moment and only a little bit of sock knitting in the evening while watching prerequisite telly.
Anyhow, Ingrid has finally explained to me why I always feel so time poor: "sensory monotony explains why the impression arises of time passing faster and faster" (p. 142)
This is part of a discussion about why fashion is perceived to be so fast - and explains why fast fashion is so boring, but also explains why I feel like I never have enough time while I wear away these monotonous PhDing days...
The first sock is nearly done!

thread and drawn

Last week at the drawing salon, the lovely miss Angie brought in some thread for all us to glean from...part of the stuff from a former incarnation that she was hanging on to...just in case...you know, that old chestnut!  I did end up with the lion share and I think that I must have a life time supply here now...

Luckily I managed to find a placcy container to store most in and I do feel quite inspired to get into some more varied sewing projects to use them too :o)


Speaking of drawing salons, time also to show some more of my drawings.  I like grouping them together here as I'm struggling to find my style...that was always my biggest drawing challenge.  Reflecting back on these later, with help of the drawing tag in the cloud might just help!

Some faces from a couple of weeks ago...and don't you know it...some hands too...

sunshiny day

It's the kind of day that I never want to end...it has been a day with the most perfect Melbourne weather and I've been pottering about doing lovely research things at home.  I've been trialling some photography of my gleaned __________ garments and catching up on some reading.  Enjoy what might be the last day before winter sets in y'll!

garden windfall

I've been starting a series of workshops in the studio to unpack what is happening in this space...privileging making is the focus and I'm experimenting with what this means in various ways in the garden and the workroom and hopefully making some more tangible links between the two.  So far I've been thinking about dressing the garden and the workroom and objects within the space...

 It has been a windfall of sorts with a bit of rejuvenation being injected into my work...but I also had a very suprising garden windfall on the weekend...I was weeding and tidying up the garden edging under the apple trees and what I thought was a bit of rubbish (maybe something pulled out of the bin by the doggles or blown into the garden), was a cripsy $20 note!  It might just have been washed and fallen out of a hung on the line garment pocket, but I like to think that like the said rubbish sometimes does, it blew into the garden in a happy accident :o)

Gem and Hugs also got blessed and dressed by the garden on the weekend...pretty pups!

mannequin mania and some gleaned cloth

After years of thinking about it I finally got a dressmakers mannequin for the workroom...I so often get stuck or don't do things because I don't have one, so I'm hoping that this will transform my work.
I purchased a full body form from tinnafashion, a place which pen put me onto (ta ducks!)...it came last week, with an unfortunately broken base, but their service was fantastic and they personally delivered a new one that night.

Here she is alongside Claudette who I introduced a while back...I was already calling the new girl manny, so I thought I would officially name her Manuella Santos, Manny for short after this degrassi character!

I started trying some things on Manny...I was developing a garment shape from the apron panels when I last utilised Claudette, and a few different forms emerged, one being a dress using four apron panels (two for the front, two for the back)...

This is made from the poly backing cloth with the print strike-through that I showed when I was taking stock of some of my remnants...

I've created a series of garments which experiment with variations on this technique - this is a top version using the same print of gemma hunting bees which pen made an apron from :o)  I've been trying to work out how to photograph my gathering of garments and where I might go next...

I'm always photographing views of the garden from the workroom, but today I felt like doing the opposite and snapped pics of this years parsley and glimpses of last years in garment form...I've been  getting in the habit of pulling focus more and more - this is evocative of something which I was playing with here...

apple tiser

My six apple trees have been developing nicely in the garden...all of them are getting fruit except for the snow apple which insists on only growing bushy foliage at the moment.  This is their 3rd year and I've only had fruit off my summer strawberry and sturmer before, so this is exciting!
What I'm enjoying is seeing how the fruit all looks the same then as they grow their individual characteristics start to show...a celebration of difference!

Sugarloaf pippin is an early apple with a long shape...starting to become just a bit more bulbous at the top...

Esopus spitzenburg is an old variety of a classic round shape...is said to be brilliant red and is looking that way!

Caville blanc d'hiver is an old french apple, particularly good for cider.  It has a knobbly shape which is quickly becoming evident here!

And just for fun...a flash back to last years summer strawberry apple as featured on a gleaning apron :o)

back to tessellations

My teaching duties are finished for the year...I've had a lovely semester leading a studio about heavy materials...check out this fantastic students work!
It's been time for a serious do-over of my work plan to try to fit everything into the day and to get some balance in my life...I've now timetabled exercise alongside reading, writing, gardening and making.  Hopefully there will be some fruitful and sane times ahead!
A while back I revisited some old tessellation techniques when reflecting on the potential of my newer bits...

I spoke about these remnants a while back...

And utilised the tessellation technique to create something similar to the broadbean apron

I also revisited a tessellated dress which emerged from early tests back in May last year to think about the potential of merging the aesthetics of the pieced leather with the gathered garden images.  With one side leather, one side garden, this apron represents the reflective window space where these worlds merge and converse.  Garment as map.

head down, bottom up

Hiya...it's been a while!  I've had my head down busily working towards the GRC...the conference where all of us research candidates have to present our work twice a year.  Done and dusted for this semester - yay!  There's been lots of new bits n bobs I've been working on which I'll be sharing as I reflect back on my feverish doings.  This pic of gemma is a nice metaphor for how I've been...gnawing at a bone, oblivious to all else!

sunlight and blossom

Beautiful day today with a real hint of spring in the air.  The damson plum is blossoming and it brings some other sunlight and blossoms to mind...

apron parts...to glean or not to glean?

 





The aim of the summer gleaning workshop was to glean and cut the cloth into to parts and sew these parts into aprons.  The apron pattern was the starting point for the design of the print for the cloth.  This pattern acts literally and metaphorically as the building blocks for the design.

Each apron skirt is a brick, and the waistband/tie panels look like the weather boards of the summer gleaning 'house'.  Reflecting back on this process makes me wonder whether this is really gleaning if this intentional use of the cloth actually partly shaped its design.  It is the leftovers from another use of the cloth, but it was one that I intended and embedded into it, although not at the inception of the project.  The initial idea was to create a canopy of cloth that would evoke to the viewer/occupant an experience of a bygone summer.  The canopy is like a harvesting machine that I knew was going to be imperfect in gathering the entire crop, so knowing that this would be the case, I thought about how the gleaning after the canopy could take place.  This projected action shaped the gleaning cloth.  Notions of harvesting and gleaning get rather slippery here, the cloth in some ways harvests, and in other ways gleans.  I feel that the obvious is a harvest, and the peripheral, less tangible aspects are gleanings.