Cut Flower Bed

After the hyacinths, the next flower to emerge in my cut flower bed is the iris.

The flower heads look as though they will burst.

And they do...at night.

It is such a pleasure to check the bed each morning to see what has happened overnight.

I like looking inside the iris flower to see the complexity, the symmetry and the richness of colour.

I cut the best...

..to enjoy inside. The perfume is heady.

Signs of Spring in Victoria

I have been living in Victoria long enough now to recognise the distinctive signs of spring.
The resident geese arrived back after their winter in the south, somewhere.

The hungry deer snacked on plants that over the winter they forgot they didn't like.

I barely got the irises in the ground before they were sprouting.

The bulby things a friend gave me, saying they were peonies, that I think I planted all up side down last winter, all came up anyway.

Mid March Ron and I had a stroll around Butchart Gardens to see what it looked like in the very early spring. All of the spring plantings were in but we were too early for any spring flowers.

Life Happenings

A new lot of work is boxed up and on its way out to the world.
I spent most of a day wrapping the work, making boxes to fit, printing address labels and sealing them up before taking them down to the Greyhound depot.
They are on their way to Winnipeg for the first Articulated Materials: Bridging Waters showing in Canada. The exhibition will be in Cre8ery Gallery during the Embroideres Association of Canada annual conference in Winnipeg.
The exhibition will include work by Material Girls from the UK.

After the marathon to finish and package up the work was over it was time to go outside to see what had been happening in my abscence.
I discovered we have an area of camas lily - a valuable find because it is not as common as it used to be when the bulbs were a carbohydrate food source for the First Nations peoples.

Then I noticed a new flower in amongst the grass.

But it turned out fallen flowers from the Arbutus tree growing overhead had been stabbed and caught by the spears of grass.
I describe the grass with battle terms because I am experimenting with different ways of getting rid of the allelopathic grass so natives can grow in their place.

Synesthesia #2

I decided to go with low intensity colours.
Next step is sampling. I sample only enough to see if is giving the effect I want.
I really want to use the luscious piece of patterned silk but it is not working.

So I got out fabric paints to darken the value and to make the pattern less dominant.
This is the simple ground I decided to work on.

I sewed loose, wavy lines over the whole ground.
Then I added fabric strips starting in the top quarter of the ground.
 A large open zig zag over each fabric strip gave the dynamic feeling I wanted.

Synesthesia #2
I snapped this image in my studio. It is not a good photo but I think it shows the strong upward movement I was working for.  

Synesthesia #2

Using my trusty Color Tool I sort fabrics and threads for the 2nd work in the Synesthesia series.

The high value threads and fabrics I have in my stash are mostly low in intensity.

The mid value fabrics and threads are also mostly low in intensity.

The low value fabrics and threads are brighter. 

A quick black and white photograph to check the value of the patterned fabric, a lovely silk I really want to use.

Hmm, use high value low intensity...

...or mid to low value with higher intensity?

Steam Punk in New Zealand

'Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s.'
If you are ever in New Zealand I would recommend planning to spend a day in Oamaru, on the east coast of the South Island. One of the many attractions in the city is all of the steampunk action, including this museum.

The museum works with many different arts organisations to hold events throughout the year.

 

Nearby is a steam punk playground...

...for everyone to enjoy.

Steampunk -' tomorrow as it used to be'
www.steampunkoamaru.co.nz

Synesthesia #1 Yellow

Synesthesia is a condition where one mixes up the senses eg seeing a sound as a shape or tasting a colour.
I don't have synesthesia but I do see each colour as having a certain energy or movement.
Starting with yellow - the chameleon with rays of energy - I sorted fabrics and threads.

Using my camera set on black/white I looked through the lens to check values.

Snippets of fabric and yarns built up the ground.

Thread painting by machine.
I had wanted to mount the work over a deep stretched canvas frame but ran into difficulty trying to fold the thick, stiff ground around the corners. I compromised and mounted the work in a thin black frame. I still think the stretched canvas would have been more dynamic for this series. Oh well.

Articulated Materials: Bridging Waters Exhibition by Articulation and Material Girls

The 1st showing in Canada of the Articulated Materials: Bridging Waters exhibition opens in a month, at the Cre8ery Gallery in Winnipeg.

The name of the exhibition explains how the it came about and also it's content.

Articulated Materials - Articulation, a Canadian group of fibre artists teamed up with a similar group called Material Girls, based in London, UK, to produce separate bodies of work to be shown together.

Bridging Waters: Each group chose an iconic waterway in their respective country to research. Articulation chose the Bay of Fundy and Material Girls chose the River Thames.

The resulting bodies of work are both contemporary, personal responses to the water ways and they tell stories of the long history of human interaction with the physical environment.

The 'bridging' part happens when Articulation's work was sent to London and toured galleries over 2012, then was sent back to Canada with the Material Girls' work for a 3-gallery tour across Canada over 2014.

The 'bridging' also happens when the viewer makes connections between the two bodies of work.

Donna Clement designed the poster using an image of Ingrid Lincoln's work.

Both are Articulation members.

More Art Deco In Ranfurly?

The funny thing was only the hotel was promoted in the tourist brochures as being in the Art Deco style. With the Spanish styled tiled roof and metal balconies I didn't see it.

The columns were particularly off putting though the font of the hotel name is 1930s.

But once inside the old part I saw this magnificent Art Deco style ceiling that really played with the 'step' form.

3 inter-locking arched mirrors is so AD.

The light fixtures and female figure ornaments where characteristically in the AD style also.

But as far as the outside of the building, I think this rabbit hutch has more Art Deco features.