dyed tea bags a gift from afar...

This week and to my delight I received an array of natural dyed tea bags in the mail from a fellow blogger Trace of Soewn Earth. Trace is a mixed media artist who lives in Western Australia, she uses all natural materials focusing on sustainability and low impact for our environment her work ethic is very inspiring, her works are beautiful, earthy and emulate a calm warm presence.

How super delicious are these!!!  I might sit with these for a little and absorb all the beauty and deliciousness before I use them....(Thanks Te :-)

Tea Bag Tea Party No.3

Today I hosted my third Tea Bag Tea Party at Rosebed St Gallery.  What is a Tea Bag Tea Party (TBTP) you ask?  Well a TBTP is a chance to have a cuppa, switch off from the daily grind and have some fun and conversation amongst a warm gathering of lovely folk and friends, whilst processing tea bags!  All in aid of my tea bag antics, in this case for my upcoming solo exhibition in January 2014... (here's a link to my website with images of works made with tea bags incase you are unfamilar with what I am up to).

I was blown away and humbled by today's turnout, there was a glitch in the times for the event so I was alittle unsure of what the day might bring.  I was super organised this time with my list on hand and rose with the sparrows this morning to pack everything in the car.... my suitcase brimming with tea bags and my spinning wheel, to which I gave a short demo of spinning with tea bags.

 

The gallery was overflowing with helpers, out the back we filled two tressle tables with happy tea bag processors...

 

and another table set-up on the front verandah J

 

Then another small table inside the gallery.  Seriously, it was sooooo much fun!!!!

 

AND, it was so groovy to see the guys joining in too!

 

 

A close up to show you what we were up to, sorting and deteeing.  You can see a small bundle of emptied tea bags ready for use.

 

 

And if all this activity and fun wasn't enough, a super bonus for the day, two very special friends made a surprise visit to join in, from left; Lidwina, me (centre) and Kaye who came all the way from California!!!

 

What an incredible day, I am so overwhelmed by the response.   A fun day was had by all with talk of wanting me to organise another day - so watch this space peeps!  Come 2014 we may very well see more TBTP's coming your way... J

 

QRAA touring exhibition Brissy launch

This coming Saturday (16 Nov.) see's the Brissy launch for 'The Essential Character of Queensland', Flying Arts touring exhibition for the 2012 Queensland Regional Art Awards and also marks the final leg of the 12 month Queensland tour.  

Throughout 2013, the selected works travelled far and wide to galleries in Roma, Gladstone, Mundubbera, Texas, Chinchilla, and now the tour concludes in the Brisbane exhibition at The State Library of Queensland.

Exhibition festivities kicks off on Saturday (16 Nov) from 1pm with a public forum and a floor talk, then at 3.30pm the exhibition will be officially opened by Chris Saines, Director QAGOMA. With the previous venues being way to far to travel, I am really looking forward in seeing the exhibition.

Exhibition dates: Sat 16 Nov to Sunday 15th December, 2013.

Here's a link to the gallery for more details and gallery hours.

Road Trip, 2012 Printed photographs on acrylic skin adhered to a perspex cube.

I took these four photos when I was about 8 or 9 (amongst 100 others!) on one of our many road trips up north, being a city slicker I was totally marvelled by the country, spanse of the land, the cane fields, the number of bugs hitting the windscreen attracted by the car headlights at night, the air was fresher, crisp and smelt different, the country was a totally different world coming from the city....fond memories etched deep in my psyche of family, fun and a simpler way of life.

To give you a little insight into the photos, the foreground, a man sees me taking the photo and waves as he drives past on his tractor, taken from our car window whilst in motion. Only years later did I notice, there are only two tyres on his tractor, classic! The photograph on the right, cane fields being harvested. The photograph at the back, cane fields littered the landscape and seemed to stretch for miles and miles, and on the left is a giant Fig tree, totally amazed at its scale, I asked to stop so I could take a photograph and saw a landmark noting the biggest Fig Tree in Qld, if only I had thought to photograph the plaque!

Artist Statement:

"In the eyes of a child you will see the world as it should be" - Unknown

This cube encapsulates the essential character of Queensland as seen through the eyes of the artist as a child on a holiday trip to Sarina, North Queensland in 1975.  The Field, the Harvesting and Transporting the Cane along with the towering fig tree.  Hovering in the heart of this cube is a piece of sugar, the defining moment of being a Queenslander in a simpler age where "one of the biggest trees in Queensland" was something to be marvelled at.

Latched with Love

As well as knitting and crocheting works for Expressions of Love II, I have given Latch Hooking a go.   Remebering the rug I made as a child I was quiet excited about the prospect of latch hooking with the tea bags.  Initially, the plan was quiet simple...well, so I thought!  The plan was, to latch hook three different brands of tea bags into a triptych, using one brand for each square. I purchased mesh, three 43cm x 43cm squares and then after counting all the holes to work out how many tea bags it would take to complete the project it hit me. I realised what I had done to myself, I was about to latch hook my way through 4032 holes for each square, totalling 1008 tea bags in each. However it was way to late, my mind was set and I was already committed - looking back on it now though and seeing the end results I am really glad I persevered.

Seeing the completed triptych layed out I was intrigued by the colour variation with each brand of tea, it actually inspired me to explore further.  Once again the initial plan was meant to be simple... create six small latch hook squares of different colours (brands) using 100 tea bags in each. Six soon became thirty six, six of each brand (seen in last image below).

Each piece is entitled, Latched with Love.

Detail, latch hook triptych.

 

 

Exploring different brands and varieties of tea, the berry flavoured teas yielded deliciously pink coloured tea bags.   For latch hooking, each used tea bag was emptied and cut into four strips.

 My signature image for the exhibition, and a detail.

 

 

Last weeks photoshoot, the layout for the 36 piece latch hook.

 

Design No.122...

Continuing on with tradition, and after the success with knitting the recycled tea bags I have tried my hand at crocheting with them. 

I was gifted an old vintage knitting / crochet pattern book (thanks Bruce :-) and decided to crochet up 'Design No.122 Girls Crochet Bag', using a size 6 crochet hook creating the shell pattern.  In some parts I have needed to take a little artistic licence in areas due to the nature of the material, for working with the tea bags is certainly different to working with yarn, there is not alot of give, actually there is none and I am a notorious tight tension crocheter which is very obvious upon looking at the detailed image.

I have finished the bag with tea bag internal lining and is adorned with Southern Ice porcelain handles.  Even though I am presented with many challenges to overcome in each project I am loving the end results.