goodness ...

Imbi (visit her blog), me and Cleo recently got together to stitch and make and make merry. Imbi was visiting from Darwin. It is always fun to be with other creative souls. We have all done workshops with India. I call us 'the Gondwana Sisters' cos I reckon we're all related through some ancient line, the way we resonate together. The same but still o so different.
I enjoyed Imbi's company and the boys thought she was a hoot. It's interesting to meet others, and especially practicing artists . Her notebook was a testimony of a woman who loves to make marks.
Treasures. Glass from Darwin's beaches, a piece of wool blanket dyed with plants and BULLETS from the beach also, and Imbi's buttons found on our button beach here in the Bay. Having recently seen the movie 'Australia', I was stoked to have a piece of that history on cloth. Do you love epic movies? Then I suggest you get this one out if you haven't seen it already.
I loved how the aboriginal people were portrayed, especially their song/stories and their traditions. We googled her hometown of Darwin and found the shore where all the WWII metal stuff was dumped and has since fused together. It's magical. Thanks so much Imbi. (Although Rich was a amused that the pile of old glass and metal were gifts, lol, he's slowly getting used to us weird birds and our strange ways, lol).
Imbi stitched her found buttons onto her skirt. She looked so colourful in all her thermals and layers. A far cry from singlet tops and the jandals in her 30+ sunshine.

Since then I have been stitching like a mad thing.
I made prayer flags with my buttons, some old woven Asian cloth (Indigo dyed) and my trusty white wool blankets ...
Most buttons were found amidst rocks in the craggy parts, so I sewed this into this little flag ...
White seems to be a theme, it makes me uncomfortable but that's what happened, and so be it.
The act of stitching is meditative. Anything found on the beach with a hole in it is fair game.
I get a bit tight at times, start putting things in straight lines, I hate it, but I do it naturally. I love it when it's more random, but again, it seemed to want to be like this, so be it.
Making hand twined silk string was something we learned with friend India. It's a handy skill when one desires to have all the bits handmade.
I wanted to get more of my own work on the walls around the place. If I had a studio I would put up my works in progress, as it is, everything is stacked up in the garage or in baskets in the corner of the lounge.
I reclaimed this piece from a recent exhibition piece I made. I pulled it all apart because what else was I going to do with it? It was good for that time. That's the problem with non-functional art. It ends up being stored away. But I like bits of it and it now hangs where I will see it everyday.
I made this as a reflection of the shores here in the Bay, the lines left in the sand when the tide recedes. Inspiration abounds when you're looking for it.And these two odd heads are some old stitching I did when I was angsting at art school. I stitched it to the side of an old Trade Aid hessian bag which although falling apart is still my favourite craft bag for projects on the go.
I like heads.
My jewellery, more handspun silk string, some embroidered cloth 'beads', shells, bone and shell buttons, more stitching.
And a few bits by Gondwana sister India.
A wee dress and a felted scarf that I love, love, love. I want to surround myself with things I love, that inspire me, and so be it.
And finally, my latest work in progress. A woolly dress repurposed from an old blanket is slowly coming together and will finally be dyed to tone down all that loud white. lol. White. lol.
Tadaaaah! The back sports my gift from Imbi. I love that those bullets sit over my rib cage, lol.
The stitching coming through from the back, in reverse is the best. What's happening on the other side of a cloth that I'm working on is always the most interesting to me, because that's the unconscious mark making stuff going on.
Shells buttons. A few 'x's.
The original blanket label and owners name. Thank you CC Hough. Imbi donated a few stitches of her own too.
A few thousand more stitches, a pocket for treasure findings and an immersion in a bath of homebrewed organic dye then she'll be right!
Our heartfelt sympathies and prayers go out to the families and friends impacted by the death of two young women here in the Bay last Friday. God be with you all.