Gail Grunske, Diane Symes and Carol Oyston; Out of the Box in Crows Nest

Although I spend a bit of time at the CNRAG, I obviously don't pay that much attention to the upcoming events as it was with surprise that I greeted the new textiles-based exhibition that is up for the month of April.

I really like it! My bias is obvious but the sheer mass of handcrafting that has gone into this work, the functionality of most of the pieces and the diversity of techniques on display...simply stunning.

Grunske, Orange Wool Shoulder Cape, stitched and layered, with beaded clasp.

Oyston, What! Lettuce Again, Dyed paper, organza, snail shells, bead, threads

Grunske, Silk scarf with wool, stitching and beads & Pink/purple hand-dyed necklace

Left to right: Grunske, Chunky Wool Neckwarmer, handknitted, felted, embellished. Grunske, Black Wool Neck Piece, wool, vintage buttons. Symes, Around the Shoulder, Kid mohair, cotton, acrylic.

Grunske, Black wool scarf, Black wool handbag, Black wool cuff, Black wool neckpiece. Needle embellished with wool and roses.

Grunske, Black Wool Cuff, Black Wool Neckpiece detail.

Gruske, Aqua Wool Neckwarmer, embellished with leaves, flowers, jewellery

Symes, Caisson, Wrapped in silk 1, Wrapped in silk 2, No. 1 & No. 2, Hand felted wool, beads, thread, polyester, silk

Symes, Hat, velvet, cotton, polyester

Symes, Hat, velvet, cotton, polyester

Oyston, Feelings, Fabric, lace, over-stitched, embellished painted acrylic

Feelings detail.

Oyston, Summertime 1, Silk hand-painted tunic

Available for viewing until April 29th. Well worth the journey if you're in the region.

I used to draw once....

Oh those many years ago! But here I sit, hoary, decrepit, bathing in the glow of nostalgia.

Results of a collaborative project in my first year of uni. My partner dropped out shortly after. Coincidence? Probably.

Drawing project semester one, year two:

Painting project: Make 25 artworks in 3 hours.

Brush + ink over waterpaint splashing.

Embraced the random paint splatter with ink and nib, and out came a rattish skull shape.

Cleaning excess blue and purple paint off my brush turned into an excercise in complimentary blending and experiements in lines....afterwards, out came in ink and nib again.

Appropriation of an advertising image, one of those creepy ones where women selling shoes/perfume are portrayed as murder victims or something equally dark.

Yeah, like that.

This was meant to loosen us up, learn about expressive and gestural techniques. Totally failed on the timeframe, passed overall because I'd done the work, a lot of work.


Drawing classes, semester one year two:

Drawing class: I think this model was drunk.

Drawing project: I know this model was drunk. Total waster.

Drawing class

Drawing project

Trying my hand at feet.

Trying my hand at morbidly adorable. I think I missed the mark.

A how-to on making jam, pt. 2.

All that fruit, boiling long into the night....end result.

First things first, the recipe:

Ingredients:
Guavas
Lemons
Sugar

Cover fruit with water, bring to boil, simmer for two hours. Pectin test as needed. Strain liquid, add to pot with sugar in a ratio of .75:1 sugar to liquid. Add the juice of half a lemon per 2 cups (or 50mL) of liquid, boil rapidly, stirring often, until jam begins to set. Bottle and seal.

Nasturtiums, me, and a lemon tree.

Measure ingredients reasonably accurately.

Add sugar, then lemon. The order may not even matter. Ask your gran.

It is recommended to cook fruit slowly, boil jam quickly. I find it hard to do that, being so fidgety I will put the ingredients on, get tired of standing at the stove waiting for 2L of liquid to reach temperature, promise myself I'll come back every two minutes, and then trim bonsais/start crocheting/write a letter/clean something until the smell of burning fruit and sugar brings me running back to the kitchen.

About 1/2 hour on the boil - turning a richer, deep red.

This time, I was able to meet this dilemma in the middle. Jam on simmer, not boil, and I set alarms intermittently throughout the night as a reminder. Easy!

Pectin testing. Captain Obvious says: "Throw out metho/juice mixture to avoid accidental poisonings!"

Boiling the jars.

Boil the jars. When I am re-using old Kan Tong jars, I like to give them a first wash and a long soak in hot soapy water to both clean and soak the old labels off. Metho can be used for a second time in the jam-making process by removing the extra adhesive from unwanted labels.

Boil for at least three minutes. This sterilizes the inside and outside of your jars but you need to remember that the second oily, bacteria-coated skin touches the inside of the glass, it is now un-sterilized. If you bottle like that, whatever was transferred onto the glass has the perfect conditions (food, shelter & exclusivity) to potentially turn the jar into a petri-dish. This will horrify your friends and relatives.

About 5 minutes (max) before pouring the jam, use tongs to handle jars and place them on a clean tea-towel with the lids facing up. Pour the jam into the jars and as quick as you can, grab the lids from the underside and place them on top of the jars. Use a cloth to protect your hands from the hot glass, seal the jars. As the jar cools, the air inside will contract, creating a vacuum and pulling the pop-top seal in.

Daybreak, and there's 5 jelled jams! Science is golden.

Pectin test.

I thought I might add my two cents to conversations on the internet about pectin - particularly since the first one I found was atrocious:

Windygales, you obviously didn't know what you were talking about in your initial post, but thanks for the quick turnaround via BBC food. Her question actually wasn't 'what is pectin?' though, so your second answer is just as useless as your first.

The rest of the conversation has a similar confused, incorrect or speaking-just-for-the-sake-of-it tone.

Who doesn't have methylated spirits around their house? And why are they referred to as meths?

Pectin is a naturally occuring gelling agent in fruit. You can extract it by cooking beforehand. It is assisted by natural acids in the fruit, and you can increase the gelling process by adding lemon juice or tartaric acid. Over-ripe or stale fruit, as well as whole fruit cooked into a preserve, will have less pectin also. Do the pectin test before adding the sugar to determine how much you will need.

Fruits high in pectin and acid:

Currants (red, black and white)

Loganberries

Firm raspberries

Mulberries

Firm, ripe plums  (teehee)

Green apples

Quinces

Citrus

Fruits low in pectin or acid (little to none.)

Pears

Peaches

Sweet cherries

Very ripe grapes

Apricots

Strawberries

Melon

Overripe figs

How I pectin test (alcohol method):
Requires: methylated spirits, boiled fruit, a jar and a lid.

Cover fruit with water and cook between 15-45 minutes (depends on the type), and add 1 tablespoon of that liquid to a jar. Add 3 tablespoons of metho to the jar and shake thoroughly for a minute. Allow to stand for two minutes and pour from one container to another, or stir with a fork. If the mixture has clotted, there's plenty of pectin present and I will add 3/4 of a cup of sugar to one cup liquid, and about 50mLs of citrus juice per 2 cups of liquid.

If there is not, I will cook for another half hour, then re-test. If needed I will increase the sugar/liquid ratio to 1:1 and add an extra 25mls acid per cup, or purchase pectin from a store (absolutely last option, and I still haven't needed to buy any yet...)

For further reading, here's a page whose author knows how to make a jam or two. Maybe even jellies, curds and compotes. It's got good images of how to test for pectin, and gives you a few more choices than I have (jelmeter test, spoon sheet test, refractometer test).

A how-to on making jam

.... very cheaply. I think that's the most important part. Preserves are traditionally made from excess fruit.

Cherry guava fruit.

Don't think I didn't see you there hipsters, spending $20 on enough out-of-season strawberries to make one pot of jam. I am writing this to tell you, enough of that rubbish! Time to use your noggin.


Local knowledge is important (as is opportunistic scrumping). How well do you know your edible fruiting plants? They're out there, in your space right now, and everyone seems too time-poor (or embarrassed?) to do anything with them. Make your preserves when the fruit is available, in such abundance that it is literally rotting on the ground, and they will keep for the next gift-giving event.

A favourite tree, very prolific for the last couple of years.

Are there any forgotten trees in your local area? Here is a cherry guava, in season right now. Note the rubbish around the tree. Lots more rubbish around the back, too.

There was so much fruit. Which was good, because I was planning to make a lot of jam.

Still ripening.

While I was picking fruit, I was forcibly reminded of an important point when my hand brushed against some cold poo.

I am not the only creature that has a right to this tree! So, I left heaps of fruits for the birds, bugs and worms, as well as any others persons that might also want to eat some guavas. And before I left, I picked up the rubbish.

Guavas don't float. This is a sink filled with cherry guavas.

And before I put any in my mouth, I washed them. This brings us to the fun part: top, tail, slice in half. I find this activity is best to do with friends and family members, it goes quicker and you have people to drink and complain with about how it takes so long.



Setting myself up in front of the tv for an hour or two.

Dull, dull times. And stained fingers the next day.

Add water to the pot enough to cover the fruit and simmer.

Boiling the fruit in shifts; two hours apiece.

Next lot to cut while the first lot is boiling.

Another thing to consider is the type of jam you're making. Guavas have tough skins and very hard seeds, so the recipe asks me to use the juice only.

After an hour an a half.

Strain the liquid, squeeze as much as you can out of the pulp and then compost it.

Guava liquid. It is currently on the stove boiling, join me for making jam pt. 2, in which I disclose my recipe and talk about boiling jars.

Jars! That's what I'm doing on a Friday night.