The Travelling Journal, a story about six Australian artists

The Travelling Journal was a project I collaboratively worked on with a number of interesting artist types. In no order, my partners were:

Joeli Eastell

Kathryn Shewring
barek
Cherie Strong
Little Detour

And it spent six to eight weeks being passed aound the Eastern coast of Australia. I got it first, my contribution is the four anatomically-themed textile panels in the centre. I gave them the working title of Eyes, Brain, Heart & Hands, and I've never thought of anything more fitting. Eyes, Brain, Heart & Hands, 2012 it is then. A work within a work, was this Travelling Journal.

I really enjoyed stretching myself artistically - using threads to complete a line drawing was out of my comfort zone enough to be pleased what I'd accomplished in the timeframe, and close enough to it that I was confident I would not overreach. I refer to this artistic mind space as THE SAFETY ZONE.

Eyes, Brain

Heart, Hands

And I'm doing something new today! Here's my first video post (worked out how to do it, yaaay).



This was put together at the end by Barek, who is pretty clever at making short films about art. There's the travelling journal, as well as others, here.

Woollenings about The Town

Preparations in the drawer at theGRID

Here's a brief retrospect on my activities about The Town in the last six months or so. I would have put them out before, and should have, but making works is a lot more fun then putting thoughts and feelings into words and visual aids.

And remembering to take the photos, or have someone take them during the making process? Groan. In a completed related note, does someone want to do this in exchange for high fives and good vibes?

Working on the beanbag cover

 

Teaching a peep how to crochet

 

Made a headband for a coooool lady

Received these via post...I believe the expression may be...coals to Newcastle?

Feet, knitting and Grace

Bunting preparations

Some blurry shot

Let this be a lesson to all of you: don't be in a relationship with someone who knows how to make any kind of apparel.

 

Back into a crochet. A blur of hooks and wools.

 

Didn't think I was a huge fan of bombing growing things, but whatever. Happened once so now I know for sure.



Twisting horizontal stripes creates a candy cane effect...nice!

I really liked this one, until someone cut all the mushrooms off. Then, not so much.



This one disappeared the weekend it was put up.

Interstate woollenings in UK1

Had a bunch made up, and this grey old day helped me decide which ones would go where

Bunting!

theSPACE

So, theGRID's residency is over for me, and the new artists have moved in. I thought it would be nice to have a wee retrospect of what Danish and I (along with Dale Mundi, and Ben Tupas of Oh Darling Downs) did with the space at the end of the day.

 

It's been a gradual process, and I've added the photos haphazardly. The only way to best capture the madness might be stop-motion, over a period of weeks. But, here's a break down of what we've done.

 

Drawing on butcher's paper, hanging up collages and bunting

....so there you go then

 

[Desk.workspace] - Kelly's space

After about a month, I had a couple of desks and what not in the space that I was using infrequently. In part, that was because they were being used for extra height when painting murals (wall drawings?).

I eventually got tired of that and carved out an L-shaped deskspace, into which I piled paint, plastic, snacks, wools, matryoshkas, all manner of junk. That was then my space, but from it I could access/view the room's many wonderful features;

Flooring:

Loved that astroturf

Fireplace/vent (with helpful fire diagram above):

A corner of Ben's space (shelf + plants), example of Dale's work

                                     

 

Olive green velveteen couches (cranky old muppets not included): 

Some nice n' shitty couches - they are even worse in person

A role model for organisational skills (good feng shui?):


Ben's ultra-organised space
 

Eye-candy:

Dale & Danish's hellspace. Every piece of paper for itself in there.

No room is complete without one of these: 

Dale, again

Or one of these:

uni-CORNY ahaha!

 

Dale's latest plan: Genetically modifying snakes that shoot tears/upsidedown hearts at intruders to lull them into a state of confusion

This actually worked really well. Thanks, [flat-pack assembly furniture company]

 

Every week, there'd be some other thing on the walls - hard to see in this photo but they've really pulled the room together

Then, it was over. I packed everything in a number of boxes, pulled down the bunting, and left.

[End residency].

Beanbag bomba

Paper storage facilities also work for textiles!

Something I have started to run with recently is freeform crochet. I haven't done much research into freeform crocheting artists yet, but what I have seen I have really liked.



 

I wouldn't say you were making it up as you go along but...

I think that to freeform you have to be coming from a place of intermediate to advanced crochet knowledge, as you have to have an understanding of a variety of stitches and their effects, as well as the effect increasing and decreasing stitches will have, needle sizes, and plys. At least, you should have this to really be able to run with it, to foresee events and plan your stitches to pre-empt any issues.

 

 

....I also would. You have something in mind, and you make it up as you go along because you are boss at crochet.

What are these issues? Bubbling, sagging, too tight in places, too small in general. Too large. No longer machine washable. Tension too tight when changing needles. Tension too loose. Ugly ripples. The curse of the Dreaded Flutter. Button holes are sucky. Buttons don't fit. Sagging button holes (heh).

There's a few.

A tip is to go mad with colour, but not too mad. If you're gonna contrast, contrast, and if you want to compliment, compliment but don't compliment AND contrast colours nimbly-bimbly throughout the work. Hold the next planned wool against the completed piece. Does the colour work? Does it not work in an interesting way? How much should be used before it overpowers all the other colours?

Lastly, say NO to browns, ochres, mauves, mustards, khakis, beiges, greys, off-whites, taupes, ivories or creams.

Textures are good provided you can work with the wool (I'm looking at you, Flutter).

Two-thirds done.

 

At the start I had crocheted an opening for the beanbag to be removed from (machine washable, delicate cycle). This meant that at some point I had to stuff the beanbag into the opening and crochet around it, reducing the stitches to make sure everything fit snugly. Next beanbag, I may try it another way. Freeform! There's no rules here but the ones you have to follow.

 

Finally, that happy moment of completion:



 



As this was the 'top' of the bag, I went texture-happy. Lots of soft fluffy ones.

Then we take the glamour shots:

Top.

Sides.

..bottom? Beanbags are so undefined.

This was a really good project for using up those last few metres of wools. It's also kind of cool to look at it sometimes from the perspective of uniqueness. Only one with exactly this design on the planet, although this is not the only one ever made.

I took this to a festival recently and so many people were nostalgic of the similar thing they created in the seventies (and only that decade, for some reason) and I love that forty years is not long enough to forget a handmade thing.

Where are they all now?

All around The Town.

Some recent woolenings:

Out of season magnolias - catch them while they last

Experimental cuff - disappeared within a week

An old rainbow from when I hadn't properly figured out tension

Swallows

Liked the cuff so much I went back for more

Another angle

Cannot get enough of this one