A Mini Road Trip

Get your motor runnin'
Head out on the highway
Lookin' for adventure
And whatever comes our way....

OK dreams are free - but in all honesty it was more like pack the kids (& all of their gear) into the car & head off on a short trip into the countryside to drop them off at the paternal Grandmothers house for this long weekends family reunion (which their Dad isn't attending).

The mailleman & I had plans of taking a tiki tour into Lord of The Rings territory & heading towards Mount Sunday after performing the obligatory drop off.

We got our motor running & head out on the highway with me driving. So far so good - I love driving on the highway, adore the feeling of leaving the city & the liberating sense exhilaration I feel at the thought of what it would be like to just keep on driving & not go back.
For the first day of a holiday weekend traffic was relatively light until somewhere, about an hour along the way, we seem to have skipped the "Lookin' for adventure" part & instead got lumbered with the 'Whatever comes my way"....

"Hmm must be an accident a wee way up ahead" - I said. Traffic was at a complete standstill. This is not a common occurrence here...at all. So there we sat, mostly not moving for an hour. During this time we heard on the news that there had been an accident on the Rakia bridge ...we were still around 15km ( about 9 miles) back from the bridge.
Oh the joys of only having a two lane bridge on the main south highway!

At least it gave me a chance to test "The Rams" capabilities by trying to capture a shot looking towards the Mountains which were proudly displaying their first fall of snow....this was the direction we were heading in.



After dropping the girls off in Mount Somers, having a coffee & catch up with the girls 'Nana Shirley' & the Uncle, Aunt & cousins from Australia, the mailleman & I hit the road. we decided that there really wasn't enough time to go further inland to Mount Sunday & instead took a slightly more scenic & longer route home.

Sadly we were driving into the sun - so getting good images was a little difficult, but not totally impossible ;o)

Looking Towards Mount Hutt

Venison in the making

Sheep - we have lots of them! Just think of this as NZ Lamb .

Rakaia River at the Ashburton Gorge.

Not the History of a Colour!

This post was going to be about colour - my favourite colour in fact.
Yep ...you know the one.
It was also going to be yesterdays blog post, but glass got in the way. A great start, huh? It's not about the history behind my favourite colour & it's not Wednesdays post.

While thinking about the wonderful colour 'orange' & not only it's history, but also when & where my love of it truly took root I had to take a trip down memory lane....way down into the dark little nooks & crannies of almost half a life time ago.


Those thoughts were triggered by recalling a favourite photo of mine taken during a trip to South East Asia.
It had all started with an early morning escape from the hotel, where my far less adventurous travel companion was still sleeping ,& an encounter on the streets of Bangkok with some wonderful Buddhist monks resplendent in their saffron colour robes.

Something in that moment struck me - the calm serenity of those men. Tranquillity on the normally hectic streets of Bangkok was not a usual occurrence. My search for fresh fruit at 6.00am opened up a whole new world to me..... a world serene & peaceful Bangkok.
Later I made it a mission to take a photograph of a monk - I am not sure that I should have & to be honest it was the only time in my life that I have ever taken a close up photo of a person without asking first.
The calm & gentle look the monk glanced up & gave me afterwards was accompanied by a twinkle in his eye. I took to mean that perhaps I shouldn't have - but he was used to it happening.

So instead of the history of 'orange & saffron' I politely asked the mailleman to scan some old photo's, most of which he had never seen before & I'm sharing some of my favourites from that trip.


I realised in looking back through the photo's that some of the experiences & things, such as the facial expressions & looks that people would give me as I attempted to ask in my very small smattering of Thai if I could take a photo of them, I could recall with perfect clarity...as if they had happened yesterday. It was almost as if I was there again. Yet other photo's I didn't even remember taking them or visiting the place where they were taken. It's amazing what the mind files away as 'important' & what it relegates to the 'not so important' pile.

The Colour of Thai Life

Buddhist Monk at The Grand Palace

Demon & Monkey caryatides at one of the two gilt stupas at The Grand Palace in Bangkok

The intracacies of hand carving furniture.

A Baby Elephant - I can still almost feel it's coarse prickly hairs!

Now this was a dream come true!

As was this!

I can also clearly hear Campbell, a guy we met on the trip saying "you must be mad to even want to hold that thing". Pffft ....men!!

The mailleman also named the actual image files - just sayin' ;o)

Colour in Unexpected Places

Sometimes first impressions can be misleading. The approach to the fishing village of Kukup, in Johor, Malaysia isn't exactly full of colour. In fact parts of it are almost monchromatic...

Until one gets into the heart of the village on stilts & discovers just how much human nature has a desire to bring colour into every day life.

Then there are the exquisite Batik fabrics they create there.

Oh yeah!

Who doesn't love the arrival of a shipment of new glass?

Gaffer 109 - Chalcedony Lampworking Cane

And who doesn't love it even more when aforementioned new glass plays nicely & the quickly thrown together test beads turn out. Meet the new kid on the block Gaffer Glass G109 - Chalcedony. Yum!!

What do Indian Printing Blocks & Journaling Have in Common??

In a lot of cases 'not very much' would probably be correct. Until recently I would have said 'nothing at all'.

I have a few Indian printing blocks that have purchased over the years. I'm not sure why I purchased the first one about ten years ago .... other than I liked the look of it. Like anything that has a bit of history behind it - they intrigued me. Purchased at the Trade Aid shop at least I was told a little of the history behind them & knew that when they became worn or too damaged to use for printing fabric they were sold.

So there they sat on my shelves, along with an eclectic collection of 'things' from around the world, looking decorative - but serving no other purpose.

My blocks after finally being used

Then along came Lisa Sonora Beam's online workshop that I have just done on PowerFULL Magical Visual Journals. Within the blink of an eye I changed from being possibly the worlds most useless keeper of journals into a maniac who could be found running around the house eyeing anything that had the potential to turn a blank page into an interesting page without actually having to write anything on it first.

Enter stage left; the printing blocks. Soon long forgotten paper that had been created for use in collage work many years ago had been unearthed & a carton that had remained packed since moving full of acrylic paints & various other mediums had had the dust blown off it.

Lisa has many idea's on how to get started. She has fabulous ideas on overcoming that fear of actually writing on a blank page, or committing to writing every day. I have got to say that even if you one have one solitary, lonely 'creative' chromosome in your body then her methods & can't help but appeal to that side of you. After two months of 'avoidance' (she even deals with that) I finally got started.

My first two completed pages

A "No Longer Blank" Page

Of course the more I played, the more I enjoyed, & the more the idea's started flowing. Not only idea's for journalling , but idea's of other things that I could do with the printing blocks ....idea's involving the fabrics for which they were originally intended.

Of course I just had to go & look up what was involved in the process & which types of dyes they used. As you can tell from the first photo of the blocks - they werent intended to be used with fast drying acrylic paints. I pretty much picked that as I was using them...not to mention later when I cleaned them & noticed that they were losing their wonderful 'old dye' patina.

When I saw how these blocks were made I gained a whole new respect for them & realised that although imperfect I had some absolute treasures in my possession!

Just look at this

Here you will find a video that shows how the printing blocks are used to print fabric.

I want....

& "can I?" are words frequently heard around here. Usually when I am busy trying to do something - a little voice will chime in asking "can I learn to do that" or "I want to do that too Mum!". Usually this is said in a with a tone that indicates 'right now would be good, thank you very much.

Not great when you are juggling molten glass in the flame, but not so bad when it's something you can easily put aside & finish later.

Gabriela has come up with an idea that she'd like to try & make a blanket or quilt. Just the sort of project we need to keep a certain 11 year old occupied during the up coming school holidays.

She has been practising sewing straight lines on my sewing machine.....& actually doing extremely well.

Bemoaning the weather & the end of Daylight Savings Time....or not!

Daylight savings ended in the wee small hours of the morning, giving me an extra hour's sleep today. Well it seemed that way anyway!
It was another Nor'west day - but not of the usual kind. There was still that wonderful quality of sound & it was warm, but the sky was brooding, overcast & grey.
From out on the street, if I stood on tip toes & looked to the north between the tree's of the park I could see a distant arc of blue to the north.

Sitting here in the study earlier as the sun was sinking in the sky, I glanced up from what I was working on & looked skyward. I am so pleased I did - the way the last rays of sun were hitting some tree's that show just above the roof line of the neighbours (far to close) garage was a sight to behold.



Of course I had to take a quick trip down the drive to see what the park had to offer.

A Little Bit of Beady Colour

I've been trying to get brighter with my bead colours. While my precious stash of Stripy Coral was willing to come to the party - it's supporting act, 'Magic', was busy acting less magical & more like a spoiled diva refusing to perform.

Orange Loses it's Magic

Still I do like every other aspect of this bead ;o)

Pounamu River

Another bead from last month's "Dream" theme.
Pounamu is the Māori name for "Greenstone" or Nephrite Jade. Most often used in jewelry here, it used to be used to carve tools, ornaments & a hand held weapon, called a 'mere'. Mere's are some of the most beautiful (yet lethal) weapons you have ever seen.
Pounamu ranges in colour & translucency from a pale green, through to emerald & on to an almost black green.

A google search will reveal some stunning (& pricey) styles of carved jewelry that are available today. However I chose this image as an example, as I like the way this carved piece has been presented. (Ang, you are influencing me from afar!)

Ponamu Sculpture

"Pounamu River"

Best I get cracking on working some colour into my beads for this months CED theme of "Color"

April 1st - A month of Colour...or Color ;o)

The wonderful Leah over at the Creative Every Day Blog has announced that the optional theme for April is Colour.
Ever since she announced it I've been thinking "Oh yeah - I can do that!".

Actually ever since Leah announced it, my mind has thought of little else other than colours ....appearing to have gone off on wild tangents of it's own accord, revisiting distant memories & dreams.
The brain cells briefly revisited facts learned years ago when I was researching historical costuming in order to acquire the right fabrics & textiles to complete some projects at the time, before taking of in the direction of favourite exotic locations & all that nature has to offer.

The colours that we take for granted these days haven't always been so easily obtainable. Naturally occurring pigments such as the ochres and the iron oxides have been used as colourants since very early times, but the one whose history always fascinated me was Purple – the colour of royalty & wealth.

Have you ever wondered why Purple was the colour of Royalty, associated with power, pomp & ceremony, & often associated with words such as "Imperial"?

Purple was purportedly first produced by the Canaanites (or Phoenicians according to the Greek) in the Land of Canaan, from the mucus of various marine molluscs, but most notably the Murex. Then again later discoveries showed the same shells unearthed on Crete – so it could be perhaps that the Minoans were producing the dye centuries beforehand.
No matter who discovered it first, it took around 12,000 shellfish & an extremely drawn out (& smelly) process to produce a meagre 1.5 grams of the dye they called ‘purpura’…. which would have been enough to dye a single toga. This became known as Tyrian Purple.

Emperors were known to refuse their wives robes dyed with purpura – simply because the dyed silk would cost more than it’s weight in gold.
With the fall of Constantinople in 1453 large scale production of Tyrian Purple ceased.

It was found that a similar colour could be produced from the same species of plant that produces Indigo. Indigo is one of the oldest dyes to be used textile dying & made it’s way from India to Europe & North Africa via the various trade routes. This alone meant it was a luxury item in many civilisations.

Over the years ‘purple’, as a colour, changed. Right through to Elizabethan times there were restrictions as to who could wear purple, essentially it was limited to immediate family of royalty.

Computers are unable to display the true purples – but the closest we can come is this.



In the mid 1800’s William Perkin, an 18 year old chemistry student managed to isolate the first aniline dye – bringing purple to the masses.


Fortunately, Manganese and Manganese Dioxide, the ions used in colouring glass purple are much easier to find. The Egyptians were using this very early on in their history. Then again they were also using ground, powdered Lapis Lazuli as an eye shadow (believing it to improve eyesight). Later, lapis was used as a pigment in paint, but best that I don’t even start on the history of ‘blues’….

Next time you see purple in nature, or in the stores, admire that piece of fabric & think of how fortunate we are to have it so easily available....for wearing, at least, it wasn't always thus ;o)








Disclaimer: I have no personal affiliation with purple what so ever. I've never worn it & never will ....well, apart from purple nail polish.
And, I'll bet you all thought I'd start with orange ;o)

Tuesdays Child is Fair of Face

apparently - but her memory has gone awol! Fancy forgetting to post this beauty.

Whilst bending "The Ram" to do my bidding (read; get my head around what all the settings actually do & constantly consulting the manual) is going well - I am still working on the little details like the best way to capture the wonderful iridescence of the magical silvers glasses that actually decide to perform for me.

I think this just might be my most favourite bead that I have ever made. I want to keep it, yet at the same time want to others to see it as it appears in hand. I'm going to work some more with camera settings & such before deciding.

Restless Spirit

Windsong

Windsong

A Nor'west day here in Christchurch is hot & dry ....& usually very windy. There will be an arch of lenticular clouds across an otherwise cloudless sky creating what is called a "Nor'west Arch'. Often it is quite stunning.



The winds race across the Canterbury Plains causing dust clouds up country & you can feel them buffeting a car if you are driving outside of the city, the planes come into land at the Airport from a different direction.

Once in a while you will get a nor'west day where there is no, or at least very little ground wind in the city - those days are spectacular. If you are looking, often the first sign is the tell tale Nor'west arch in the sky - but if you don't have a clear view of the sky because of buildings & such the first sign maybe the sound of a plane flying into land.

We had two such days last week. To to me they are even better than Spring after a long winter. There is such a special quality about them, if one stops & takes notice. The air feels different, sound carries differently & even in the busy city there is an indefinable stillness. It's that quality that reaches inside of me & provokes a feeling of utter peace. I'll step outside, turn my face skyward & just stand there & absorb the quiet stillness.....it seems to blanket & suppress the little everyday noises.

I suspect that those feelings were still with me when I started editing & naming the latest lot of photographed beads last Thursday night ;o)

Sunday - Skydancer

I'm quite partial to the way this bead turned out. The colours of the silver glass" Triton" are softer & slightly more ethereal than usual.
I've been browsing images of butterflies lately & in an abstract way this bead reminded me of butterflies.....

Skydancer

Earth Hour 2009

Our Earth Hour Results & some numbers to ponder upon.

First of all I have to say that taking part in last nights Earth Hour was enlightening. It totally eliminates that whole "I am just one person, or one household - what difference is what I do going to make" excuse, if I were of that mindset to begin with.

Our little households 'Earth Hour' results are in.

There were just 3 of us at home, & in the hour preceding the official start we ran on as usual.
We used 2 units of power.... a cost of about 54 cents.

At 8.30pm everything in the house was turned off at the wall - radio alarm clocks, computers, water heating etc & all lights. What we did leave on was the TV, because we were snuggling up & watching it for an hour, & also the microwave & fridge because we couldn't get to the switches without moving them first.

In the hour that 'almost' everything was off we used 1/10th of a unit - or 2.7 cents.
Ok relatively 'small stuff'.

But think on this:
New Zealand has a population of just 4,302,754. There are approximately 1,600,000 homes/dwellings. If we average out the numbers for the sake of ease - that is 3,000,040 units of power, or a monetary amount of $776,000.00 if every household turned 'almost' everything off for just one hour.
Imagine if all of the offices, businesses & huge buildings turned off all their lights & appliances as well.

For the sake of carbon emissions in New Zealand we probably haven't saved a whole heap during that hour - most of our power is hydro generated.
In the grand scheme of things though, that would be astounding savings.
It has certainly made me more aware .

Of course there is the fact that I just plain old don't like giving the greedy, sneaksy power companies money.

The Weekend - Yay!

I have a project planned for this weekend....one that doesn't involve glass, beads or (for the most part) the internet. It's the stuff of colour, magic & dreams....more about that later!

Tonight at 8.30pm until 9.30pm is Earth Hour.
Homes & businesses taking part will turn off all of their lights & non essential appliances to support the worldwide action on climate change. Nearly 3000 towns and cities and a billion people around the world take part in this.

It is an event to increase peoples awareness & designed to illustrate the power of collective action to reduce energy use and carbon emissions. Just knowing the fact that this wee country alone could save a potential $500,000. in energy consumption in that hour is an indication of just how much energy is consumed overall, especially when you take into account that only 63% of population of the cities that had committed themselves to the project last year took part.

It's a Kind Of Magic

“It is important to remember that we all have magic inside us.” JK Rowling

Even the most uninspiring glass in rod form can surprise us, it too can have a little magic hidden inside of it.
I'd heard this one was tricky, that it was disappointing & not worth the effort... all after buying it of course ;o)
I let that dissuade me from trying it & on the storage shelf it has resided for months.

How self defeating & silly! Stopping any dreams of making it work before even starting, not even attempting to explore the magic of Reichenbach's 6210 aka "Magic" myself.

Inspired to make some thicker twisties by the recent help offered on Seraphim Flameworks blog - I picked up a rod of this glass to use along with my nice safe favorite "Black".

"It's a Kind Of Magic"

(and of course now I have Queens wonderful song playing over in my head!)

One dream, one soul, one prize, one goal
One golden glance of what should be......

I Dream....

and daydream often! I dream of the past & lands far from here, heat & warmth, old cultures & ancient civilizations.
Often I forget that New Zealand has a rich heritage of it's own, which started way before the white man landed & when the first fleet of canoes arrived to discover a land rich in forests & food around 1350 AD.
The Māori were, for the large part, transient. They would move to where the food & good hunting was & let the land they had occupied replenish itself . Because of the very nature of their buildings & villages there are no ancient dwellings steeped in history, no great metropolis & no grand temples. There are ancient & sacred burial grounds though.

Māori were 'of the land'. Their heritage wasn't documented, rather it was passed down through generations - & it still is.

At any Māori gathering, meeting, multi cultural event (including the beginning of a school year) a person will stand up to give a Mihimihi/introductory speech & part of this involves establishing links with others present. During the Mihimihi they will recite their Whakapapa/geneology. Quite simply it can't fail to move you I sit there totally absorbed, even though I understand very little of what is being said.... & then promptly switch off when the other speeches begin in English......

As a person of European descent, having grown up with this culturally rich heritage it becomes second nature - you are aware of all that it entails, but you are not 'of' it.

Still, it seeps in & becomes a part of who you are..... you almost take it for granted. That is until you realise that the scroll work you are trying to put on a bead has suddenly become less 'scroll' & more symbolic of some the wonderful Maori designs.

Fossilised Fronds

Kia mau koe ki nga kupu o ou tupuna.

Hold fast to the words of your ancestors.

New Growth

Whaia e koe ki te iti kahurangi;

ki te tuohu koe, me maunga teitei

Seek the treasure you value most dearly:

if you bow your head, let it be to a lofty mountain

A Certain Young Lady

got a very special honour last week. Sophie was awarded the "Insignia of a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit" in the New Zealand honours List.

The Order is "for those persons who in any field of endeavour, have rendered meritorious service to the Crown and nation or who have become distinguished by their eminence, talents, contributions or other merits."

An already talented 16 year old gets to add to her already impressive (VERY) collection of medals.

The Official Photo

My Favourite

Sweet Release

Bead release that is!!

One of the numerous things that I have been working on is formulating a bead release that works for me.
What can I say - I'm a tight wad! Whilst spending money on glass isn't too much of an issue, I get really grumpy at having to pay high shipping for 'wet' bead release. Essentially I'm paying for the water content.

The first lot of bead release I ever bought was a powdered release from Australia. Whilst it coated the mandrels beautifully & was as smooth as silk, I found that when working on bigger beads it would flake or break. Of course in one of life's little quirks it was often extremely stubborn in releasing. It cleaned out of the beads easily enough, seemingly due to a high graphite content, but this also made it a messy release to clean.
The draw card was that it was supplied in dry powder form. This meant that the weight difference between premixed & dry, for the amount I was buying was approximately 650gms (almost 1 1/2 lbs).

Next was 'Alices' which I loved, it was tough & durable (I even made a 5" bead using this stuff) & I never lost a single bead to it. It released perfectly - all the release stayed right inside the bead holes, where it remained a stubborn attempt to resist most forms of removal.
It didn't matter what consistency I mixed it to before dipping the mandrels - it still seemed to run down the dipped mandrels.

What I was after was a smooth release that held it's shape when wet, dried quickly, was relatively smooth, cleaned easily & withstood the punishment I like to inflict at times at the torch.

A bit of research, some trial & error & I'm almost there. I've been using it for a while myself & I've noticed that it even holds up well when the mandrels have been dipped for some time before using them.

The real test, so I was informed, was whether it would hold up over the time & marvering it took to create a bead over 3 inches long. It was put to the test & passed quite nicely!

Consistency

Deeply Dippy - or rather 'dipped'

I lost the tip in the mesh at the back of the kiln - oops!

Showing the thickness of the coating.

The Proof......

I don't have a photo of my extremely happy bead cleaner, who swears that this is the easiest release that he's ever had the pleasure of cleaning - but I think the fact that he doesn't even bother to get the rotary tool out & does it all by hand speaks volumes ;o)

To Dream

"If a little dreaming is dangerous, the cure for it is not to dream less but to dream more, to dream all the time." Marcel Proust

A while ago I saw a house that was for sale, with an expanse of undeveloped land around it. Not the home of my dreams (my tastes run in the opposite direction in fact) - but I love the verandah, the fact that it is a light colour brick, & most of all I liked the situation of the house. It fuelled my dreams of space & no 6" high fences.... not to mention no shared driveways & no disturbed or disturbing neighbours ;o)

Of course I love nothing more than a blank palette & the possibilities of what I could do with the garden started crowding in immediately.

How is that for a front yard....even room for the horse of Gabriela's dreams (& a dog...each!)

Yep I can imagine sitting here with my morning coffee & planning my garden!

There would even be room around the side or back for one of these to use as my studio!
Now that I have refuelled that dream somewhat - I'm off to the garage studio to play with my camera & torch!