Wednesday 31 December 2014

Best wishes for the New Year

Taking this opportunity to wish all of my readers a very happy, creative and peaceful New Year as 2014 comes to a close. I have been having a lovely time catching up with family and friends in Victoria over Christmas.  I also managed to see the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibition at the NGV, which was amazing, so if you get the chance to see it do so, because it changes the whole way we think about the presentation of fashion and garments in the museum context. Below are a few details of the haute couture costumes.
Feathers

Crocodile skin

Fully beaded

Crocodile scales on hosiery

Meticulous attention to detail.
However,  its back to work at the end of the week.  I will be teaching a workshop at the Sturt Summer School including a free public talk on Thursday 8th January from 5-5.30pm.
I will be posting some images from the week at Sturt next week so until then, best wishes for 2015.
julie

Thursday 11 December 2014

Taste of Textiles

I can't believe how busy the last half of this year has been. Deadlines loom large on every horizon, and I feel like I am chasing my tail just to get everything finished. So, apart from markets and open studios, my exhibition in Sydney and the Bespoke exhibition at MoAD Old Parliament House, I have just finished a huge hand-stitched piece for 'Taste of Textiles' which opens at Timeless Textiles Gallery in Newcastle tomorrow night.

Taste of Textiles brings together work from 20 fibre artists from around the world displaying their passion for textile art, cooking and growing food. The contributing artists have represented a variety of vivid produce in their works, including the humble potato, mushy mulberries, beetroot, saffron and rose petals. Each has created a visual narrative based on and inspired by their love for that particular produce. Inspired by the artists’ passion, local cook Bev Whitehead has created and tested simple recipes to mirror the artworks. These include lemon myrtle spelt sables, chilli jelly, fig affogato, pomegranate with rosewater jelly, cardamom labneh and Persian Fairy Floss. 
 Taste of Textiles - the recipe book
Anne Kempton, owner of Timeless Textiles, has teamed with photographer Garrick Muntz to create a boxed set of recipes, together with reproductions of the artist's work and this can now be ordered online  here.

Those of you who are familiar with my work over the decades will not be at all surprised that my chosen ingredient was......lemons! How could I have chosen anything else?  I am dying to read 'my' recipes and I have ordered some extra copies for presents...such a great gift for Christmas!  Here's a sneak preview of a detail of my work.

'Lemon : Time'  - fruit fermented, naturally dyed, hand stitched