missed photo op

I hate it when you leave the camera on your desk......

Seen on a billboard outside a clap-happy church in Donvale- '"So you think it's hot here." God'.

Made my (hot and bothered) day.

i'm your greatest fan

Another day in the oven.

The last two days were ok, I can deal with dry heat but today was just a little to humid and the studio has become a hot box. As soon as I moved away from the fan, the heat became unbearable.

I was hoping to get more done this week. Haha. There are new tea-cosies in store tomorrow and I was planning to get a few ric-rac tops finished...... well almost...... maybe I'll go into the studio and finish them off before being shop-girl tomorrow.....

On the subject of 'I'm your greatest fan', I've been struggling with a whole spate of being copied and ripped-off lately. There was the newspaper bag issue, the tea-cup candles, a swag of tea towel stuff and, sadly, the doily magnolia tree. Many things I work on have a 'zeitgeist' feel, that there are many people working on similar things or designs of a certain concept at the same time. This is inevitable, and often not a problem, but it's been getting a little sad and depressing lately as so much of it has been close to home and, worst of all, badly done. I, too, sometimes use other people's work as inspiration but I try as hard as possible to make my work individual and to make it to a very high standard. When the Magnolia Collective did the doily tree I was open about the inspiration coming from a piece of work by Janet Morton. Our work took on a life of its own and the tree is very different from Janet's excellent and monumental tree. Sadly the NZ artist who has doilied a magnolia (!) in Wellington has sadly copied some of the things I wrote about our tree in her artist's statement.

This is probably the thing I hate most about the internet and the blogging world, the world is smaller and faster in the dissemination of information. I sometimes feel that there are things that I can not share with the blogverse because I can not trust it to respect my copyright and integrity. Remember that if you have seen or read something on the internet you are not the only one, someone else will recognise the source. To me craft isn't all cupcakes and frilly aprons (let's not go back to the 50s!), it should be about skill and creativity, on-going development and, most of all, the fusing of tradition and innovation.

*And if you think this is snitchy then blame it on the heat.......... I've just eaten a container of ice cream and now feel thoroughly sick.............

maisie

What with all the 'recession/depression' talk, I've been thinking a lot about clothes made from things like flour sacks, the wonderful creations that come out of necessity. I've also been thinking about Charleston, not the dance, not the city- the house, the home of Vanessa Bell (Virginia Woolf's sister) and her entourage. Very 'tween the wars, all art and craft and golden summers. I found, many years ago, a great top made from an embroidered tablecloth, now lost in the piles of stuff I've collected and purged, and I've made 'Maisie' in rememberance. She's a very twenties type of girl.

She's made from embroidered tablecloths, using the finished edge, so sometimes she has a bit of hankerchief hem (not too Stevie Nicks) and she's got an elasticised waist at the back.

I made the first Maisie last week. I hung her on the storeroom door on Saturday and in 1/2 an hour she walked out the door and is now living in Sydney.

wattle i do?

I decided not to go to the studio today.

It's going to be sweltering over the next week but it was too nice today to lock myself away.

Also I've been gallivanting off to the country for the last 2 Sundays (Yarra Glen last sunday and Blackwood yesterday) so I thought a little bit of 'homework', washing and vacuuming was in order. I do have to run out this afternoon to do some stuff but I have been trying to get things a bit sorted- this is not easy. I have a small furry helpmate who has caused severe chaos since waking up this morning. Payback I think for leaving him to his own devices yesterday.

You know I wrote that I love that things just happen on my doorstep...... well today we got the RAAF fly over and a small Aboriginal protest (sadly the person leading the chant just couldn't get a good rhythm up), there were many more people than it looks in the picture. See I don't need to leave my Ivory Tower!

the start of a new project

hot rod

I love the fact that things happen on (just about) my doorstep. 

This weekend it's the Hot Rod Show at the Exhibition Buildings.

You don't have to bother about buying a ticket to get in, just check out the cars parked in the forecourt. 

Mighty fine paint jobs and gleaming chrome.

bunking off part 3

And then finally on to Fryerstown for the Annual Antique Market.

This picture only shows a small area, with tents dotted under the trees. It's kind of like the Camberwell Market in the bush (without all the temporary stallholders). It's always hot and dusty but that's part of its charm. Apparently yesterday, when everyone was setting up, was crazily windy and they are all dreading tomorrow as the forecast is warning more wind.

It is always good for a vintage/trashy/excellent scavenge. I spent too much money........... I could have spent more........