Sumptuous Surfaces - Week 1 - Concept Development

Concept Development:

Since moving to Australia I have had to come to terms with how strongly people feel about"feral" wildlife and plants. In England the animal and plant hunters made non-indigenous plants exotic and glamorous. The opposite of this took a bit of coming to terms with. Now I get it.

They are talking about "feral" in the sense of non-native or non-indigenous - things that are not supposed to be here. In a way perhaps earlier on being a new immigrant I took it personally - perhaps I was not supposed to be here. Was I feral? I was relieved to hear an Aboriginal elder tell me that they believe that if you are here, you are supposed to be here - that you have been blown in by the wind spirits for a reason.

So maybe feral is things that are not supposed to be here- that are upsetting the natural balance of this ancient continent. It was separated so long ago that it has a very delicate natural balance and extremely sensitive to change.

Camels in the desert - natural surely? Not here. Wild horses, brumbeys - are causing lots of problems.

Cane toads - the most famous example of biological control gone wrong.

Some of these feral things are so beautiful. When I walk along the coast from Bondi to Bronte the colours of the cannas, blue/purple bindweed and verbena sing against the blue sea and sky and look absolutely stunning. I have to remind myself that they are strangling the native plants and stopping them and the native animals from thriving.

I can understand the early settlers feeling homesick and bringing their songbirds and cottage garden flowers with them. I cried the first time I saw forget-me-nots in a florist here! They are causing chaos and now with global warming and international travel the process is accelerating.

Bush regeneration teams spend their spare time pulling up asparagus fern and nasturtiums along the coast and replace them with natives.

The Indian Mina bird - that I remember in a cage as a child doing impressions in the sweet shop in my grandfather's village - is here too. The local honey eater doesn't stand a chance against this aggressive persistent competitor.

Last week I saw a documentary showing the same problems the world over.

So now my concept association list:

Native, indigenous, feral?

Beautiful but deadly

Cane toad

Bindweed

nasturtiums

asparagus fern

carp in rivers

goodbye to frogs

not where they are supposed to be

Am I feral?

Barrier reef starfish - Crown of thorns - nitrogen run off

Starfish at St Kilda pier, Melbourne - from America

So my concept is "beautiful but deadly" and my design will be based on a starfish.

I have an image of the starfish I saw in Melbourne that I will work with. It was the Northern Pacific Seastar (Asterias amuensis).

"This large sea star has five arms with pointed tips and is mottled yellow and purple in colour. It is native to the northeastern Pacific, around Japan, Korea, Russia and China. The Northern Pacific Seastar was discovered in Tasmania in 1986 and in Port Phillip Bay in 1995. In the Derwent estuary near Hobart it now dominates the sea floor. In Port Phillip Bay it is now widespread. In January 2004 the Northern Pacific Seastar was found to have spread to shallow reefs near Inverloch in southeastern Victoria. Volunteer divers and staff of the Department of Sustainability and Environment are attempting to eradicate this latest outbreak."

Now to work on an image/design...

Sumptuous Surfaces - Week 1 - Materials

I have signed up to do Sharon B's Sumptuous Surfaces course with Joggles. I have wanted to do this course for some time - but there has never been a good time. So I decided that it is now or never and signed up. I am very excited about doing the course and now just need to make some time to make the most of it.

We are starting off with a neutral pallet - so I have been through my stash and found quite a lot of "stuff". What I don't have much of is neutral coloured threads - I have wools and fancy threads, but not the basics - so I may have to shop for those. I don't have many beads either - I prefer buttons and found objects - so again , I may have to look out for some.

So I've started - now to work on a design...

Admiration

Here is my finished piece for January - Admiration.

It is based on a rangoli design from Mandana, Gujarat, India. From the book "Designs and Motifs from India" by Marty Noble.

A rangoli is a colourful design made on the floor near the entrance to a house to welcome guests. At Diwali, Hindus draw bright rangoli to encourage the goddess Lakshmi to enter their houses. Traditionally the floor painting is only done by women. Red sand and chalk powder are used to make the designs. They are also now found on block printed textiles.

This is my homage to the countless, nameless craftswomen in India who embroider our skirts, bags and cushion covers.

I am pleased that I kept to the colour scheme and have used a couple of TAST stitches from last year - pistil and arrowhead, with couching and beads. The background is fern green sheer over purple linen. It is 9x9 cms (3.5x3.5 inches)

I confess that this was to be the centrepiece in a larger piece - but life got in the way this month - and I have also signed up for Sharon B's Sumptuous Surfaces class (more in the next post) so this was as far as I got.

Still I am very pleased with the result and may use it as it is - or add it to the WISP pile - as part of my original design, when time permits!

I am looking forward to the February challenge.

Admiration: Take It Further Challenge

It is month 1 of Sharon B's new challenge: Take It Further. She has given us a choice of a colour pallet and a concept. It is a great combination - and one to make us all think!
The concept is: Who do you look up to and admire? Why? What is it that you admire about them? Interpret your design in fiber or paper.

When I saw the colour pallet I thought that I wouldn't have much. They aren't colours I normally use, but look what I found in my mixed media stash!!

I have interpreted the pallet loosely - purples, olive green, limey-yellow green, soft green and grey/silver.

As I do have all these lovely goodies I will try to use the pallet in my design. The colours to me are earthy and remind me of woodland shade - all mossy and cool, but also the shades in mother-of-pearl from seashell linings too. So I am going to call it woodland-pearl.

Now for the concept:

Who do I look up to and admire - lots of people - Nelson Mandela, Barbara Hepworth, Anita Roddick.... No-one person jumps out that I would like to do a piece of work about. So I am thinking generic - who do people look up to? Idols, gods/godesses. I went to a great art exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney last year about Indian godesses and have wanted to do a piece of work inspired by that for a while. My next leap of logic - is that I greatly admire the work of many nameless and very talented Indian textile artists and would enjoy doing a hommage to them. I admire their talent and skill, which is rarely recognised and often poorly rewarded.

So here is my theme... a mixed media piece using the woodland-pearl colour scheme to celebrate the work of Indian textile artists. Though I have no hope of achieving the quality of their work.

I want to use diverse stitches, varied materials and create patterns. I am not yet sure about size - a postcard doesn't feel big enough; A4 may be a little big. Perhaps a fabric book page, somewhere in between...

Here is a photo of some of my source inspirations:
This feels a huge challenge - but it will be a lot of fun.

Opulent - TAST wrapping up

Horray! Finished them all. Here are the last few...all those stitches I couldn't get the hang of and left until last!!
Cretan, Crested Chain, Lace Border, Chain Braid and Crossed buttonhole. The border is Chained Bar stitch over sari yarn.The background is trapped threads between orange sheer and a mesh for making hats (which I don't know the name of).

Inspired by those opulent hot colours and spices of India.

Now onto this year's challenge...