Backyard Project: Continuing with Scheduled Tasks

Task 4: Ron secured a line to the pontoon in the middle of the pond. Tom attached the end  of the line to his machine and pulled the pontoon to the edge of the pond. Ron is now cutting up the pontoon. I'll tell you more about this project later.

Sorting and Staging Materials

Tom has to always think ahead so as not to box his machine in behind his work, to not have materials in the way of where he needs to work next and to have easy access to the materials he needs.

Here he has sorted into piles transferred plants, decayed wood, a collection of found rocks and logs.

Tom scoops up a plant that has spent the summer in the temporary garden bed after being moved out of the studio footprint.

The large bucket is able to carry so much soil with the plant that I think some of the plants hardly notice the move.

The native plants are transplanted to Gunilla's Garden.

This is the last remnant of the garden bed that made way for the studio. Miraculously these plants survived the construction. Tom scooped them up and put them in Gunilla's Garden too.

While all of this activity is going on I am supposed to be in my studio working but I am fascinated by all that is going on and spend most of the day out on the porch watching and taking photographs.

Backyard Project: Tom arrives with his excavator

Next on the Backyard Project schedule is the earthworks and garden bed building.

Tom Mann, Pioneer Excavating, arrived with his huge excavator.

Ron and I made up a flow chart to synchronise the order the jobs needed to be done. It was a useful exercise for us because we had to make lots of decisions and it clarified what needed to be done. We took Tom around the site to explain each of the tasks and that was all he needed. He knew the task order because he understands the capability and size of his machine so well and he has had a lot of experience with this type of project.

Task 1: Move the piles of wood.

I was amazed when Tom moved the 2 piles in 4 scoops after it had taken Ron and me many hours to collect up and stack the wood.

Task 2: Remove 2 Cryptomeria trees.

These trees would continue to grow much larger causing long shadows across the sunniest areas where we want to grow food. They are a Japanese mountain tree and don't fit within our ecosystem. According to permaculture philosophy, they are not multifunctional enough in this location.

Tom's machine made short work pulling them out and crunching them up (see the above image).

T

Task 3: Getting the logs out of the pile.

Tom's excavator has a hand-like attachment he manoeuvres with great skill and delicacy.

We didn't want compaction around the sensitive root areas of the trees. Tom's huge excavator has a very long reach so he didn't have to go far before he was able to reach in between the tree trunks and carefully pick up a number of logs.

Ron and Tom inspect what is left after the solid logs have been removed. The rotten pieces will be invaluable when added to topsoil to make the new garden beds. Tom went back in and cleared out most of this material as well, leaving some as food for the standing trees.

Embroiderers Guild of Victoria 45th Anniversary Afternoon Tea

Embroiderers Guild of Victoria

45th Anniversary Afternoon Tea

The Tea Wagon/Trolly

Barbara Gilbert's embroidered tea cosies covering teapots

Special tiered cake stands

Fresh scones were served with strawberry jam and clotted cream

Cake Stands

Cake stands made from vintage plates and crystal/cut glass dishes and vases

Silver, porcelain and ceramic teapots with milk jugs and sugar bowls.

The anniversary was celebrated in style.

Jane Davies' 'Big Fat Art' Workshop

I attended a Jane Davies' 'Big Fat Art Workshop, Jane's Blog.

We did many 'technique' exercises working quickly on large sheets of inexpensive paper.

It was all about layers using many different media and working quickly to stop over thinking it.

A sampler recording how to block out large shapes with different edges.

An exercise in breaking all the design rules. Every added element had to be different in shape, colour, placement etc.

I have never been shown how to work properly with acrylics but this didn't stop me.

I made some ugly pieces but learnt a lot doing each exercise.

We all worked hard and fast and it was very freeing.

Thanks Jane for a great workshop.

Backyard Project - Phase 2 - More 'Before' Shots

The mound in the distant left is the top soil that was taken off the backyard area and kept separate. I scattered 10 different types of seeds over the mound and left them to grow as a green mulch to be dug into the soil when it is moved again. They will add nitrogen and organic material making it a richer soil.

To the right of the mound is a garden of transplanted plants waiting to be moved again once the new beds are made. They had to be hand watered over our very dry summer. All of them survived and put on a season of growth.

I marked out the studio beds with plastic tape and started to build up the soil with paper, horse manure, coffee grounds and shredded garden cuttings.

The arcade down the front side of the studio has badly compacted soil after all of the construction activity, but it is not a problem because we don't want anything to grow there. It is a path and will be covered with gravel. The arcade roof will stop a lot of the rain reaching this area so any plantings would have suffered from winter drought. Even with these anti-growth conditions a few tenacious plants have popped up to do their soil repair job.

The bank on the right is all fill and will need a retaining wall. 

We removed the hot tub with the idea of putting the water and power to a better use because this is the sunniest and hottest place in the whole backyard.

A thick layer of shredded garden trimmings has been laid where future raised beds will be built.

We continue to build up the layers in Gunilla's Garden while soil organisms are hard at work doing their job.

We are ready for the excavator to arrive.

Backyard Project - Phase 2 About to Begin

Phase 2 of the Backyard project is about to begin so I took a lot of 'before' photos.

What is left from the studio construction are 2 piles of untreated wood sorted by length. The left hand 'short' pile is firewood for this winter. The 'long' pile will have to be cut before it will fit in the fireplaces.

Also, the rough gravel construction pad for vehicles and materials is left. In some areas, the gravel will be scrapped off and used elsewhere but most of it will be incorporated into the design as is.

The service track coming into the backyard area will be reduced in length and width, but will again be used by construction crews.

Ron and I laid out rough lines of where structures will be built, as guides for the earthworks.

I used wool to mark out the shapes of the 3 hugelkultur beds. 

The trees that were cut down to make a clearing for the house and lawn 12 years ago will finally be put to good use.

I have piled up the ornamental river stone in preparation for using it in a more functional way.

I enjoy walking around visualising how it is all going to look in 3 to 5 years.

Studio Design - Pattern Language #159 Light on Two Sides of Every Room

Pattern Language #159 Light on Two Sides of Every Room

Problem - ' When they have a choice, people will always gravitate to those rooms which have light on two sides, and leave the rooms which are lit from only one side unused and empty' p. 747. 'In rooms lit on one side the glare which surrounds people's faces prevents people from understanding one another' p. 748-9.

Solution - 'Locate each room so that it has outdoor space outside it on at least two sides, and then place windows in these outdoor walls so that natural light falls into every room from more than one direction.' p.750.

There is a step down into the sunny room where I go to read, stitch, have tea and contemplate. 

It has windows on 3 sides that look out into the forest.

Stitching Corner

'This pattern, perhaps more than any other single pattern, determines the success or failure of a room.' p. 747

My friend comes and joins me in the room for tea every day or so. Notice how well lit his face is.

'The importance of this pattern lies partly in the social atmosphere it creates in the room. Rooms lit on two sides with natural light, create less glare around people and objects; this lets us see things more intricately; and most important, it allows us to read in detail the minute expressions that flash across people's faces. the motion of their hands.... and thereby understand, more clearly, the meaning they are after. The light on two sides allows people to understand each other.' p.748

The light had been perfect for stitching until the longer winter days. I have now brought in a floor lamp and Ron has put a higher wattage bulb into the overhead ceiling fixture.

Apart from that, the room is working very well and is such a lovely place to be in.

Neutral Territory Workshop with Carol Soderlund

50 Shades of Grey - A Carol Soderlund Workshop at Pacific Northwest Art Centre, Washington

I was fortunate to be able to attend one of Carol Soderlund's workshops- Carol's website.

She taught us her dyeing techniques while guiding our explorations of the colour wheel's neutral territory. With Carol exploring neutrals is like going down a rabbit hole.

Carol applies the dye in her unique way to get an even distribution of colour on the sample.

We cut up all of our samples and shared them with everyone else in the class.

Carol has developed a system for filing samples with their recipes in a binder making it a valuable resource.

Carol is looking very pleased because this is an exciting day in the life of a die-hard dyer.

A package arrived from Rupert and Spider containing a pot of the very first neutral grey in a pure dye powder. Up until now all greys were a mix of other colours and they tended to separate when dyeing.

Carol gave us an exercise in gradation to test the new grey dye.

She gave each of us a pure colour and using her dyeing technique we made controlled samples from the pure colour through to grey.

The results were most pleasing.

Those who wanted to went outside to learn about different discharge methods and the effects on different colours.

We got some exciting results.

Carol is an excellent teacher and I learned so much from her over the 5 days.

I learnt a new dyeing technique and vastly expanded my understanding of where neutral colours come from. 

Every student came away with a binder full of samples and recipes for hundreds of neutral colours and the understanding of how to make even more.

I look forward to taking another class with Carol.

Studio Design - Pattern Language #200 Open Shelves, #201 Waist-high Shelf

'A Pattern Language' by Christopher Alexander is a collection of patterns found in well-designed living spaces. I applied many of these patterns to my studio design.

Pattern #200 Open Shelves

The Problem - 'Cupboards that are too deep waste valuable space, and it always seems that you want what is behind something else'.

The Solution - 'Cover the walls with narrow shelves of varying depth but always shallow enough so that things can be placed on them one deep - nothing hiding behind anything else.'

I measured the depth of some of the books and binders I wanted to have in the studio and used that measurement for the depth of the shelves in this bookcase. Likewise in the rest of the studio the shelves depths and the varying spaces between them match the sizes of the articles stored on them. Things are stored only one item deep, mostly.

Pattern #201 Waist-high Shelf

Problem - 'In every house and every workplace there is a daily "traffic" of objects which are handled most. Unless such things are immediately at hand, the flow of life is awkward, full of mistakes; things are forgotten, misplaced.'

Solution - 'Build waist-high shelves around at least part of the main rooms where people live and work. Make them long, 9 to 15 inches deep, with shelves or cupboard underneath. Interrupt the shelf for seats, windows or doors.'

The 12" top of the bookshelf doubles as the needed waist-high shelf where stuff gets put. It also serves as the protective back for the Drawing Centre. Papers won't blow off the desk when the front door is opened.

Drawing Centre

This is where I put the cork mat I made from leftover floor tiles that didn't work on the cutting table. The area is big enough to hold a portable sloped drawing board that I use when doing design work.

Desk Centre

Attached to the Drawing Centre is the Desk Centre and both share the one chair. Underneath there are 2 basket stacks on wheels stored in otherwise unused space. Art materials are stored here and easily accessed from either work area.

Desk Centre

Each morning after I enter the studio, I start work here with some drawing practice and writing in a journal. These 2 activities slow me down and make me focus on what I plan to do that day. I end a studio session here too. I write in the journal  and plan what I will do next day.

Whenever I need extra horizontal workspace I can easily clear off these few things and temporarily free up a large area.The simple L-shaped design gives a lot of flexibility in how the space can be used.