Dyeing....

Scraps and rags dyed with brown onion skins.  An old pair of jeans with such an enormous rip in the backside, they were irredeemable as clothing.  Some silk snippets...a beautiful cream piece with delicate embroidered bees, some recycled torn sari, and an old scarf that fell apart in the wash.  The things I might have once put in the bin, but am rethinking now, rediscovering their tattered beauty.  A piece of pale apricot silk...left over from my wedding dress...with a 'shibori' style experiment in resist stitching.  The poor onion skins had dyed everything else by this time, so the colour is quite delicate, but it worked well enough for me to see the potential.  I will be trying it again.

I had plans for these, but I think I've changed my mind.  I think I am going to just start, and see where it takes me, see what I end up with.  Something just for me.  I won't be selling this piece, it will be large I think, and take a long time.  Too much to put a price on, and it will spoil the pleasure of making it if I worry about that.  It might become a gift...but I think it might just stay with me.  There will be memories stitched into it.

A little stitched choker I made for a lunch with some old friends.

And I've added a Facebook widget in the right column...so you can 'like' me...if you like.  :)

Music that moves me....

NIgra Sum©KMazzella/Peermusic by Kavisha

Kavisha Mazzella is one of my favourite artists.  A wonderful singer/songwriter, originally from Fremantle, now based in Melbourne.  Not only is she a stunning solo performer (and she tells the most wonderful stories), she is also a community choir teacher extraordinaire.  I've had the privilege of being in a couple of workshops run by her, she has the most amazing ability to get a group of people singing together.  I learnt this particular song, 'Nigra Sum' (about The Black Madonna) in one of them, and it is still so powerful when I hear it, just something about those harmonies!  The latin chorus "Nigra sum sed formosa" simply means "I am black but I am beautiful."

Unfortunately, there's not a lot of Kavisha's work on Youtube, but you can get a taste at amazon.com or amazon.co.uk.  Her voice is gorgeous.

And here's a snippet I did find on YouTube.  Her song for the 100th Anniversary of Woman's Suffrage in Victoria, in 2008, and the choir she directed singing it.  She's the little bundle of energy in the red scarf conducting down the front.  If you ever get a chance to see her, or buy her music, do it!




Lyrics HERE if you want to read them.

Phew! I think they're sort of finished...

Finished at about 2pm this afternoon, photos taken and emailed off at 3pm, so hopefully they were received alright.  There will, no doubt, be some final tweaking and twiddling and embellishing...and of course, some varnishing, but that's a job for next week...or maybe the week after, if my work is selected, as they don't want the actual paintings till the end of September.  I won't know till next Wednesday, so fingers crossed!

This is Shipwreck Coast - Tethys gathers them in

(I hope she doesn't look too much like Sideshow Bob's sister!)

I wrote the Seafarer's Prayer at about 1pm this afternoon (last-minute-mermaid, that's me), and the text along the bottom are quotes about shipwrecks along the 'Shipwreck Coast' from a book very conveniently co-authored by my clever mum, which is why I got a free copy!

And this is my little Ocean Heart, with more mermaid scribbles.  I don't think this is quite finished, but it had to do.