Fire & Water

So now I'm working on new pieces for my exhibitions including a Fire Dress for the Fire Goddess Pele. This will be one of my elemental dresses for 'The Dress' exhibition my Textile group and I are doing at Gallery M in Marion, Adelaide in June. I'm doing a lot of experimentation with Romeo (which is a water soluble stabilizer that is thicker that Solvy). One of the pictures above show some of my embroidery pieces going for a 'swim' in water to wash out the Romeo.

New Free Motion Machine Embroidery work

Because I'm still recovering from my fall that occured in October 2010, (that shattered my right elbow), I wasn't able to work on my machine embroidery until around July 2011. That is why there were no new machine embroidery pieces in my SALA exhibition. I started some new pieces while I was exhibiting for SALA including this one in its unfinished state above. It's called 'Sugar Glider Headdress'. The pieces I had for SALA were my left handed hand embroideries and watercolour paintings that were done very slowly with my right hand. It's been so good getting back into machine embroidery, I have so many ideas which is lucky because I have 3 exhibitions coming up in June, August and November of 2012 and most of my work for that will be in free motion machine embroidery.

Christmas 2011

For Christmas I made this 'tree' for my studio which was made out of Christmas fabric wrapped around wooden sticks. The dove on top I made out of felt, reverse applique and machine embroidery. There was white fabic and fairy lights around the base. A rather fun and textiley way to brighten up my studio for Christmas time.

New Cards!

In November 2011 I printed a whole lot of new cards of my work. My friend Cathryn Marinos (the painter who exhibits at Ethos Gallery as well) helped make this gorgeous card rack so now all these cards are up on display for sale in my studio at Ethos Gallery.

My Cards for SALA 2011

 

My desk as it was for SALA 2011

 

Magenta Thread Studio for SALA 2011

Magenta Thread Studio as it was for SALA 2011 if you looked clockwise around the room.

Palomino Epona

My cousin Binny Watson commissioned me to create a hand embroidery for her. Binny is an amazing fashion designer based in Sydney. You can see her work on her website: http://www.binnywear.com/
With the commission, I asked her two things:
What is her favourite animal?   and
What are her favourite colours?
She answered that horses are her favourite animals, and that her favourite colours were neutral, sandy, beachy colours. So my dog Tiggy and I drove to Aldinga Beach and looked at the beach colours, the patterns in the sand, the different shapes that had washed up on the beach, and took lots of photos. On the way home I saw a Palomino horse and decided that was the perfect kind of horse for this piece. At home in my studio I drew many horses and lots of different shapes I saw from the photos I took at the beach. I sent Binny a series of the drawings I had done and she chose the one that is now completed. I did a watercolour version of it (shown above), and then transferred my horse design onto cotton fabric, painted it with acrylic paint and textile medium and then hand stitched the image filling in the mane, the girl's hair and face.
I also reseached world horse Goddesses like the Roman Goddess Epona and the Welsh Rhiannon.
Horse represents strength, wildness and yet also companionship as horses have been working alongside humans for thousands of years. Horses also represent journeys, both physical and internal. Binny told me this piece will be hung in her bedroom so this horse is also one of protection and nurture for Binny as she goes on her life journey.

Estella

Estella is a hand embroidery on hand painted cotton fabric. There are stitched stars floating above her head so that is why I gave her the starry name of 'Estella'.

Bilby Slumber

Bilby Slumber is a hand embroidery on hand painted cotton calico fabric with a lace detail. She and the girl spirit rest, snuggled and safe. Its impossible to show with a photograph but the gold paint on this piece is a metallic gold so it the right light she shines and shimmers.

Summer Leaves

Summer Leaves is a watercolour painting. I was inspired by the colours of the dried eucalyptus leaves that you see all over the ground here over the summer months. And I imagined a little wombat curled up slumbering amongst them.

Tree Spirit

Tree Spirit is a watercolour painting. She is the Spirit of the Tree that has been cut down, she remains with the memory of the creatures that lived on her and within her, like the Sugar Glider that can be seen in her skirts. Even though the tree has been cut down, there is hope for the future because new leaves can be seen sprouting, growing, finding the light.

Diana

Diana is the Roman version of Artemis and both are often shown with an owl. Owls seem to be everywhere in art and craft right now and that put me off for quite awhile depicting them. But then I decided no, I love owls too and if I want to draw/paint/stitch them I will! ;) So my Artemis and Diana both have my version of owls and I rather love them. :)

Magenta Thread Studio

This photo is of me on my first day in my new studio. We made the room (where I had been exhibiting at Ethos Gallery in Woodside), into my open studio as well as my exhibition space. I have called it Magenta Thread Studio. I've been loving working in there and meeting lots of very nice people, and also having my friends at the gallery to bounce ideas off of. I do some of my drawing and designing (as seen above;) there but mostly I work on my free motion machine embroidery.

SALA 2011 Artemis

My theme for SALA 2011 was 'Artemis', I wrote in my Artist's Statement:

Artemis is the Greek Goddess of the Forest, Wild Animals and the Wilderness. She is also a protector of women at all stages of their lives. Diana is the Roman version of her. In a time of turmoil and grief I looked to a strong feminine icon to give me strength. I wanted to paint and stitch images of strong women; who are in touch with their wild and natural side. Women who are survivors, who see hope and light at the end of a dark tunnel. This last year has been extremely difficult and through my art I have been exploring strength, protection, and connection to animals and the Earth. My art has been like a gentle embrace for me to escape to.

I am very excited to show this new body of work in my new studio at Ethos Gallery - Magenta Thread Studio.

The above watercolour is called 'Artemis'.

More Instagram

Here's more instagram pics starting with one I took of one of the dirt roads on the family sheep station, and finishing with my busy stitching on my sewing machine.

I'm back!

I can't believe it's taken me this long to blog again but here I finally am. It's been a busy 7 months. I thought I'd start off with a few instagram photos I've taken recently. I joined the iPhone club towards the end of last year and I love the instagram photo sharing app. My profile name is: tazstarbilby if you want to follow me and I would love to follow you. Above is the first instagram pic I took of a Summer Rose in my garden.