Maker In Residence

 Here's a little video showing me working with a size 40 thread. It's not the smallest thread I've worked with and I'm still pretty new to this, which is why I'm looking all fingers and thumbs still. but I know I'll get quicker and more confident as I go. This little flower ended up encased in resin... The experiment wasn't a success unfortunately, but these little flowers only take about half an hour to crochet. In the same experiment, I was trying to encase half this piece of lace I made. I like the way it turned out actually and I'll definitely do something like this again... Even though the experiment didn't go as I wanted. I love how the lace hardened and conformed to the shape. I get excited thinking about all the shapes I can mould the lace into.  Here's what they looked like before they were encased. I've always wanted to make fabric pieces that I knew would stand the test of time, not fading or breaking down as is their natural proce...

 So ...my Maker in Residence is all about showing my process of creativity right? Well, here's something you don't always get to see ... This is my work space after a few weeks of working on several projects at once, and not tidying anything up. Yikes!!! My poor husband lives with this. And somehow I manage to keep working in this. But this morning I decided it was time for a bit of a reset and to put some things away and give myself a nicer work space. Much better! I'm still working on about 4 things at once, but I put away things I don't need at the moment. Ahhhhh. I'm off to enjoy my space with some Russian crochet.

 There is nothing like a delivery of new materials to spur you on. So when the package arrived with these ...  I was instantly reinspired. And already today I've done this much... I know it doesn't look like a major amount, but it's several hours of work. I'm sure she will be ready by September for the ReTwined, ReImagined Fibres, Experimental Textiles exhibition at The Hawkesbury Remakery.

 I've been doing a lot of thinking about what I want to explore in my first art work. I'm developing my concept for the art exhibition ReTiwined, ReImagined Fibers, Experimental Textiles, which will take place at The Hawkesbury Remakery in September this year (COVID allowing). I am really driven by the question asked by Graphic Novelist Alan Brooks in his TED talk titled 'When the world is burning, is art a waste of time?' Of course he concludes that art can affect people in ways the artist may never know. So I wanted to explore a topic that is both close to my heart and hotly contested today. Female. What is female? What personal indicators define being female? What are the traditional concepts of female and how are they being pushed at? Is it a biological gender, or a societal concept? Personally I love being female. I am what is considered a traditional female I guess. I have long hair, enjoy dressing up, have a womanly figure with ample bosom, and I pursue tradition...