Lunch out with Friends

                                           Mango and chicken curry with salad. Delicious!

More from the Seaside.

 In some years this stretch of shore is a lovely sandy beach, but in other years like this one, all the sand has gone, exposing the weathered rocks beneath.

  On such an exposed shelf of rock there is very little marine life, just limpets and other tiny shells.

A Day on the Coast.

 This is the wonderful old Point Lonsdale lighthouse, right on the point of Port Phillip Bay where the ocean waves, straight from Bass Strait and the Antarctic meet the waters of the Bay. It's a narrow stretch of water with a low rocky platform stretching a very long way out from the headland where huge numbers of ships have wrecked. Pilots boats are needed to guide international shipping through the gap.

                            No longer manned, the lighthouse light is still vital for shipping.

 The old jetty from which countless generations of children have learned to try their hand at fishing.

I don't know how many times over over 40 odd years I've photographed this view from under the jetty,  but it always seems to look different and such a wonderful perspective to to take a photo from.

The Next Challenge.

Continuing the theme of small pieces based on the textiles of various countries, this month was from India. The small photo shows an embroidery from which I worked my fish themed design.
The original image was probably not really a fish, but it looked like one to me! You would need to click on the image to enlarge the card to show the design properly. See if it looks fishy to you!

No More!

Well, I have been busy all week finishing this piece off and now it's done. Sometimes I'm pleased with it and then the next time I look at it I'm not so sure.  Oh well, I've had fun along the way and as they say, it's the journey and not the destination.

More Carved Stamps for the Project.

I have now carved ammonites in 3 different sizes and 2 different types of trilobites. I'm very happy with how the smaller trilobite came out as it has an accidental bend in the body which I think makes it look less static. I think that will be enough for this particular project.

The Woolly Mammoth Cake.

                                                                Happy 5th Birthday!!       

A Bit of Colour and Stamping.

A Little Bit of Rust!

This was part of an old gate that I was parked along side this afternoon. Maybe they need a new gate?

The Next One.

 

Each of the 3 panels is a slightly different colour.

The Next Stage.

Once again the colour isn't right, but the hand stitching of this piece is done.  Only 2 more to go.

Wonderful World of a Child's Imagination!

Home Grown.

         A good picking of tomatoes today. The dark coloured ones are a variety called Black Russian which I haven't grown before.

A Day of Dyeing.

 Ready to measure the dye powder in a cardboard box lined with damp paper to catch any flyaway dye

                                         All mixed and ready for the soda ash soaked fabric.

          Each container holds a piece of fabric and dye, all sitting in the hot sun for 4 hours to batch.

                                  The results, though not quite as I had hoped unfortunately.

Tawny Frogmouth.

                              A visitor to the garden today, poor thing was panting in the heat.

Stitching Finished.

The colour today looks completely different to yesterday's colour of the same piece of work. Anyway, the hand stitching is finished for the moment, unless I choose to add more at a later date. Just click to see a larger image and hopefully the huge amount of stitching will be visible.

Starting to Stitch.

This is the first of 3 circular panels using the mono prints on fabric that I intend to stitch and then fuse to hand dyed backing fabric. All the stitching will be very simple running stitch with maybe a few French or Colonial knots for emphasis. The colour is very difficult to photograph, a sort of greenish bluish hue.

Reflections.

Although we are in the grip of a drought..............again.............and have only had 2mm of rain so far this year, the dam still has a little water in it. The reeds make lovely patterns in the disturbed water.

Ammonite Work.

Here are an couple of groups of scanned monoprints that I intend using in a new work currently underway.