VCA Lower Studio In Action

Have you ever seen such focus and awareness in a group studio?
Visitors often comment on the lovely atmosphere in the room?
The feeling is generated by the students who focus and work hard on each assignment while at the same time they are aware of others and respond with co-operation and support.

The central tables are where the students work and talk together. Each student can choose a marked off space when they want to work a the big tables.
We gather around the central table for Circle Time ( demos, group critiques, going through assignments, sharing of information).
Around the perimeter of the room each student has a table, which is their quiet place. They can work quietly on their own knowing they will will only occasionally be politely interrupted by others.
To the bottom right I have a table where I do one-on-one critiques. This is a most enjoyable part of the day because I make the time to see each student's work close up and they can talk to me about it.
Outside the room is the ironing table, light table, and spray area. The wet room is off to the right as is the bathroom and storage.
So this is where it all happens.

My New Quilt

My friend Carol made me a quilt!
It is a very special quilt because usually Carol makes her quilts for babies who have to spend time in hospital and she makes them for her family.
They are made from previously worn cotton velour clothing she finds all over the city.
She cuts them up and with her painterly eye she transforms them into works of art.
My quilt was inspired by a Mark Rothko painting, a painter whose work Carol knows I admire.

There is a surprise on the back - a Marimekko fabric to make a perfect match.
I feel honoured Carol gave me a piece of her treasured Finnish fabric from her collection.

A close up to show the elegant simplicity and genius of a Marimekko design.

Oops! This a poor image of the Rothko painting that inspired the quilt - and I have posted it lying on its side.
Mark would not be happy. In fact he was not happy with the way the original owners of the painting planned to display it either. This is just a 'sketch' of the real thing but he never made the painting because the owners of the hotel were going to hang it in a dinning room. Mark couldn't bare the thought of people eating in the presence of his work so he withdrew from the commission.
What would he think of it as a cosy quilt?

Thank you Carol.

More Portraits and Flowers

Here are some more of the portraits and flower drawings my Mark Making With Machine students did last week.
Each drawing is full of character -both the sitter and the sewer's personality comes through the quality of the marks made.

Drawing With Sewing Machine

At the beginning of my Mark Making with Machine course a number of students said wanted to learn how to draw with their machines. Last lesson we spent the afternoon drawing.

First they traced a flower to get the feel for making a line.

Next they made several drawings of the flower they each brought to class.

Then they turned their sewing tables to face each other in pairs and spent the rest of the afternoon drawing portraits.

Didn't they all do such a great job!!

ravenmade's books | LibraryThing

ravenmade's books | LibraryThing

Here is something to do in your spare time - catalogue all of your books.

A friend who is moving her library to her new studio put me onto this web-base program that actually does make a quick job of a mammoth task (if you have as many books as I have).

Of course it is a no-brain thing to do when one doesn't have the energy to do anything else or when one should be doing something else.

I made a random start on entering my library but now I have to think through as to how such a catalogue would be useful for my work.

One thought is it may perhaps stop me from buying duplicates of the same book - known to happen occasionally.

I do like the pretty list of covers it assembles.

More Student Work at Victoria College of Art

More Strip Piecing

Each person started with white fabric they then dyed and stamped before cutting into strips.

Once they had made the ground they embellished it with hand and machine stitched dots, lines and shapes.

Strip Piecing Project

My Mark Making With Machine class at Victoria College of Art had a great showing of their work in the studio this week.
The project was to use their dyed and printed fabrics to make a ground in their own colour palette.

It was called, 'The Project of One Thousand Decisions' because every step of the way they had to stop and make a conscious decision about how they would proceed.

It was so interesting to see how each textile was so different and reflected each owner's style when working with textile and stitch.

It was a rewarding project when class members were able to learn from others' results as well as their own.

Driving in Maui

Driving in Maui is an adventure. Many of the roads follow the King's Pathway - a pre-European-contact foot path that circumnavigated the island with trails off it leading up to important sites. As a result, the narrow paved roads follow the line of least resistance rather than being engineered for safe vehicular travel.
However, there are lots and lots of helpful road signs, that even the cattle obey.

Traffic coming the other way is instructed to sound their horns as they come around this tight corner.
Those nets really do work.

We got caught in a downpour and the road became a river. We had heard stories of flash floods and cars being washed down into valleys and out to sea and we could see how that could happen.

After the down pour of rain we appreciated what 'Dip' could transform into - a river across the road!
There are lots of one lane bridges, narrow sections of road and no shoulders. When 2 cars are approaching 1 pulls over if possible to let the other pass. Where there is no space to pull off the road a little, 1 car backs up to the next scrap of a pull out.
People who love driving find this all very exciting. Nervous passengers are a wreck at the end of the trip.

Hiking Maui

Our journey through the bamboo forest was en route to the highest waterfall we had ever visited.
The signs had dire warnings....

...but the views were spectacular. This is the lower waterfall.

The original trail was established early in Maui's human settlement history then smoothed, widened and kept clear by the US National Parks system.
A banyan tree on the trail.

Our destination. It was too high for my point 'n' shoot camera to capture in one shot.
The air was full of calming hydrogen ions released by the falling water so it was a real 'feel good' place.

Bamboo Forest

Another adventure we had on Maui was walking through a bamboo forest.
The towering stalks had the effect of making me feel the size of an ant. It was dark and damp. The leaves rustled and the stalks clacked when the wind blew overhead but no breeze reached ground level to disturb the still humid air.

The stalks were so close together I was sure there would be no ninjas fighting amongst them.

I had wanted to walk in a bamboo forest after seeing the 'Flying Daggers' movie.
On the rainy north side of Maui (wettest place in the world getting 400 inches of rain a year) the bamboo forests are vast.

Frolicking on Volcanoes

While on Maui we took a boat tour of volcanic formations along the shoreline where lava had flowed from craters and vents to the sea shore.

The nimble pontoon rafts on a calm day were able to get close enough to the basalt were we could have reached out and touched it. We ventured inside compression chambers and wave built caves.
The most recent lava flow was 200 years ago and the area is overdue for another.
A bonus on the trip was seeing dolphins and whales close by and snorkeling with turtles. It was an exciting day on the water and made up for having to get up at 5:30 in the morning.

We moved from our apartment on the beach up to a B 'n' B in the mountain area, known as Up Country. We drove up to 10,000 feet to the top of the crater then went hiking. It felt like we were on top of the world. I must admit I had a headache which was probably caused by the altitude.

The weather changed every few minutes with clouds coming and going, adding to the special atmosphere of the place. It felt like the place where I was born, the volcanic area in the centre of the North Island of New Zealand.
I loved the whole experience.