VISITING DEBORAH KLEIN IN HER STUDIO

A few weeks ago, I organised a school excursion for my Year 11 Studio Arts class to visit the studio of artist Deborah Klein in Ballarat.  What a fabulous morning it was!  Deborah was incredibly generous and welcoming, and shared so much information about her artistic practice and ideas.  The students had brought along their own visual diaries and were able to get some individual time with Deborah, talking through their ideas for their lino project.  Everyone on the excursion felt enthusiastic and inspired after leaving the studio

Thank you Deborah and also to your lovely husband, Shane Jones for making us feel so welcome and for the lovely cake!

CLAY SCULPTING

Last weekend I attended a workshop at Northcote Pottery in Melbourne.  I loved the day and was totally amazed that by 4pm I had a large, rather ugly looking head to take home with me!  I thought  would share the making photos and the finished head.  I loved this workshop so much that I've decided to make this a task with my Year 11 students next term!  More large, strange heads!       

SHIBORI INDIGO DYEING WORKSHOP

This Saturday I was lucky to be able to attend a fantastic workshop at Melbourne's Kimono House.  The workshop was run by a very charming and knowledgable lady called Colleen Weste who knows many things about fabrics, Japanese shibori methods and indigo dyeing.  

I decided to attend the workshop as I have long loved traditional Japanese dye methods and the fantastic indigo colour.  In particular I was keen to learn about the 'itajime' dye method whereby you use shapes and clamp them onto fabric as the resist.  This year I have been teaching year 9 and 10 students how to make kimonos, including dyeing their own fabric.  I can't wait to try some of these dye methods with the students!

Here are some of my before and after photos from the day.  I loved it all and I will definitely be trying out some more fabric pieces.

Stitching the silk pre-dye...

Clamping with all sorts for 'Itajime'...

Pegs leave interesting marks...

I trialled wrapping a variety of items into this cotton piece of fabric including screws and champagne corks...

Itajime sample one....

Itajime sample two...

 Itajime sample two...

Itajime sample three...

Itajime sample two...Gracie likes it too!

RECENT ETCHINGS

In March I have been attending an etching night course at the Australian Print Workshop in Melbourne as part of a follow up session from an earlier 3 day workshop that I attending in January this year.  The course has really consolidated my understanding of copper etching and I also trialled aquatint for the first time.  One really nice thing about participating in the two courses is that I can really appreciate etching in greater depth now because I can understand some of the processes.  

I am hoping to lead some copper etching in senior art classes at work and hopefully I can play around a bit more myself.  

Oh,  and I also invested in some 'Oriental Blue' printing ink for the last week of class - I love it, well and truly!  That's why all of these prints are in blue.  It is a lovely shade of blue.

This etching is titled 'Melbourne' and the original drawing was created when I was on a school excursion recently at  Skydeck in Melbourne.  

This etching is the same image that I trialled in lino earlier this month for a lino print as part of Art Club, see here for the post.  I was curious to compare the two different printmaking techniques and how they would work with each image.  After trialling both techniques I have decided that I like both etching and lino printmaking but for different reasons.

This was the artwork in lino....

I later applied an aquatint on top of the original copper etching.  I like this image, but it is really just a trial to see how aquatinting worked.  I would like to play around with it some more I think....

Victoria Night Market

Last night I had a 'first'!  I went to the Suzuki Night Market In Melbourne.  I'm a little appalled at myself for only having just made it along.  I've heard so many good things about it - why did I not visit before now?!  Oh Lordy, it was good!  It was a feast for the eyes and ma belly!  Melbourne just has the best markets in my opinion and last night was great.  There was music, cool stalls, the atmosphere was electric and the people were having a great time.  Just perfect!  

In the end I ate Mexican quesidillas and drank the most sublime sangria....pictured below.  Delicious!

Some good looking paella...

The light coming in from the roof was lovely...

I must find a good sangria recipe, this stuff was so good.  Tonnes of cinnamon and orange and just the right amount of red wine goodness!

KINGS OF CONVENIENCE

I love this Norwegian band 'The Kings of Convenience'. I have done since the first time I saw their video clip for 'I'd Rather Dance With You' way back in 2004.  I saw the video on MTV at a friend's boyfriend's house one afternoon and immediately went out and found as much as I could about these two.  I have been a fan ever since.  

A few years ago I was luck to see them play in Barcelona at the Poble Espanyol.  The whole night was completely magical.  It was a warm summer night, we were drinking Spanish beers and as the sun went down the fairy lights came on and these guys played about 3 hours of pure loveliness!  

They are playing at the Laneway Festival in Melbourne next Sunday the 3rd of February which I am going to - whoopee!  I can't wait to see them again!  Frankie magazine did an interview with Eirik here.

Etching Course

This week I was extremely lucky to attend an Etching course at The Australian Print Workshop in Melbourne.  I have been wanting to do an etching course for ages and I had dabbled a little in some dry point etching myself, but without the results I had hoped for.  Two of my friends are avid etchers and they both have taken courses here and recommended the course.  

Here are some photos from the 3 day workshop.  We covered hard and soft ground etching and had the chance to experiment with Chine-Colle and colouring techniques.

I loved it!

This is my hare print which is part of my Art Club submission for this month, which I will post and explain about in a few days time....

Etching the hare onto hard ground...

Adding detail....

I had looked through some old sketchbooks for drawing material on the course.  This particular naked lady was drawn over 6 years ago at a life drawing class...

I used soft ground on this plate originally but didn't get the dark black lines that I had hoped for onthe figure, so I later dry point etched into the copper plate...

Experimenting with Chine-colle and dry point etching....

I also had time to do another hard ground etching on the back of the naked lady copper plate, and I used this sketch which I did in Barcelona a few years ago of the Sangrada Familia...

Different colours and inking applications.  

You can also see some of the other work from the course which was on the drying rack at the same time as mine.  Being on a course like this, you get to see such a wide variety of drawing and working styles and you also learn so much from each other as you make mistakes and have successes...

The copper plate had picked up a range of scratches as it was the back of the naked lady, but this 'noise' was quite a nice effect I thought...

The work space was fantastic, and kept unbelievably clean!