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Above: the scarf that I started knitting for my dear friend Bridget about a year ago is finally finished. It was not ready for her birthday last October; I used the impending spring weather as my excuse. Now that it's almost autumn that excuse is no longer valid, so here it is my lovely friend, wrap yourself up! It will be 30 degrees tomorrow on April 1, however. That happens to be my birthday and I can say with some assurance that it has NEVER been 30 degrees on my birthday (in Melbourne) before. No scarves for us tomorrow!I must sheepishly admit that I posted my photo of the scarf on Martha Stewart's website. I heard that her genius craft editor Laura Normandin has left: in my dreams I get to take over...
Above: I have made a flickr set of highlights from my previously mentioned Nas Put (Our Path) series of school primers. Click here to see what Yugoslav kids got up to in the 1970s: not just Pioneer duties, but also grape picking, being readied for school by eight hands of grandparents, telling carefree convertible-driving Dad to heed a stop sign, boys bullying farm animals and in turn being bullied by girls in the school yard then being run over by a car by the third book. No subject is spared. It's lucky then that kids started school at the age of seven in 1970's Yugoslavia, not earlier. Nas Put by Edo Vajnaht. Illustrations by Aleksandar Marks and Pavao Stalter. Published by Skolska Knjiga, Zagreb, 1971.
Above: Queenie is my first wooden (deluxe!) version of my assembled creatures, as seen grouped on the studio wall below. Her body is a sea creature and her arm is a pair of pliers. The blue 'join' is actually a die (as in dice) on the reverse side. The Dear Brother cut out Queenie's parts for me, I sawed out slots in each one and then assembled them. Now I will count on his skill again to help me attach the whole thing to the stand (which I bought in Sydney last year at The Society Inc). My hand can't hold the thing forever.
Above: Queenie's back. I tried to make it look as though she was painted on found bits of wood. Actually she is just made from one big piece of fresh plywood from the nice man at the hardware shop in Victoria Street. A bad habit I have to get out of -- there is plenty of good 'old' wood around that I could use!
Above: at the studio, where part of her inspiration lives. Another part can be found here, in the cut-and-painted-wooden assemblages of the Swedish 'Pop' artist Öyvind Fahlström, who made entire games, walls and rooms of painted wood, metal and vinyl. I have been lucky enough to see some of his large assemblages at both the Pompidou in Paris and the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. Definitely worth seeking out.
Above: yet another babushka, this time for a girls' t-shirt and a matching greetings card. For the t-shirt the babushka was printed onto cotton poplin, turned under neatly and then sewn onto the garment. (Some sequins were added to the flowers for a bit of babushka-bling, but they are not shown on my artwork.) The result can be seen here. Here's a secret: her face is exactly the same as the one I made for this previous t-shirt!
Above: I have been been adding coloured backgrounds in Photoshop to favourites from my cut-paper set (shown here last) to submit them to Luerzer's Archive. I have also posted them on Flickr.
Above: the scarf that I started knitting for my dear friend Bridget about a year ago is finally finished. It was not ready for her birthday last October; I used the impending spring weather as my excuse. Now that it's almost autumn that excuse is no longer valid, so here it is my lovely friend, wrap yourself up! It will be 30 degrees tomorrow on April 1, however. That happens to be my birthday and I can say with some assurance that it has NEVER been 30 degrees on my birthday (in Melbourne) before. No scarves for us tomorrow!
