Cyanotype printing

When I was in Margaret River in Western Australia last year* I did a cyanotype printing workshop. The photos shows you one of my finished pieces. When it works well it creates a strong blue/white image. It is a great process, and very easy. So my friend Gerry and I had a cyanotype day last Sunday.

This is how it goes….

It is a photographic process that uses chemicals exposed to the sun to create the blue effect. The beautiful sunny days we have had recently are perfect.

The first step is to create the photosensitive paper. The chemicals are mixed together and then painted onto the paper. As it is light sensitive this should be done in a dark(ened) room. At the workshop they had made a black box from a cardboard box and black plastic. I simply created mine in a room with the blinds drawn.

The chemicals are available from art shops and online. You simply mix them in equal quantities ~ only capful of each. It goes a long way.

Then you paint the mixture onto paper and wait for it to dry, which didn’t take long on Sunday. Experiment with any paper. Watercolour paper works well as the paper has to be washed at the end of the exposure. At the workshop they had rigged up a nifty drying box, with back plastic curtains. You can see that the paper before exposure to the light is yellow.

Inside the nifty drying box, Margaret River.

Then the fun begins of designing the print. This also needs to be done in a darkened room.

Gerry and I experimented with various flowers and leaves, bits of lace and other bibs and bobs. The main consideration is that the element needs to be flat(ish). Ferns are great, as was the lace. Some leaves and flowers were interesting as they were semitransparent, which allowed some light to come through. After the laying out you cover it with glass and take it out into the light.

This is Gerry’s arrangement, sitting in the sun. You can see how the paper has changed from yellow to rich blue. This only takes a few minutes. You can also see why the elements need to be flat and under glass. The glass not only stops the wind blowing all your good work away, but weighs down the pieces. The finished image has sharper, cleaner edges if they are in direct contact with the paper.

The closest one is mine. I was experimenting with different textures ~ not nearly as pretty as Gerry’s! The paper turns a bronzy colour when is has had enough exposure. We took them inside and washed the paper. This is to wash off the remaining chemicals and stop the reaction. It’s why watercolour paper, made to take water, is better than a paper made of wood pulp.

This is the time you get to see how your work has turned out. Gerry’s worked really well. Can you see how the pelargonium petals have a delicate transparency?

There is a delightful unpredictability about this process, which adds to the fun! And because it is quick you can do a few in a short time.

And why am I experimenting? Well I am going to create a book about lacy things. More about that another time. At the moment I am having a grand time cleaning out my studio playroom. Then I will get to work. It is so nice to feel like creating again.

*I suspect I haven’t told you about that trip. I must, as I think you will enjoy the wildflowers.

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I respectfully acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land on which I live – the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung People of the Kulin Nation, their spirits, ancestors, elders and community members past and present. The land always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land. While this Sunday is Australia day, I will not be celebrating the colonisation of Country

The Lawsons of Lawson St

I think this will be the last blog looking back. It will be time to write about other doings and adventures.

You may remember that we sold our family home last year, which conjured up so many memories and feelings. I wrote this piece at the time to try to sum up my thoughts about leaving. (It seemed easier to write in the third person.)

The Lawsons of Lawson Street

In 1956 Ivo and Ro Lawson, with their children Judy, Geoff, Anne and new-born Andrew, moved into 2 Lawson St, East Brighton. The land, when Ivo bought it a few years earlier, would not have been very impressive. The unmade nub of a street went by the clumsy name Were St Extension, and Dendy Park, right next door, was the Brighton tip.

By the time they moved in the name had been changed to Lawson St, after Len Lawson, Ivo’s father who had recently died. But the road was still dirt and the tip was still a tip.

2 Lawson St became their forever home and they became the Lawsons of Lawson St.

Ro always wanted her kitchen to be part of the life of the house and family, with a window that looked out onto her garden. So Ivo built her an open room, with a table and built-in seats (which meant that you had to crawl under the table if you wanted to get out before the others had finished). After a while Ivo decided to knock down the wall into the lounge to open it up into one large room. Ro’s kitchen was firmly the heart of the house.

A quirky feature of the house was that the front door was around the side, looking onto the park. The back door, on the opposite side wasn’t at the back either, but became the door that was used for everyday comings and goings. The back door was sort of the front door.

The unmade road lasted quite a while, and the kids played cricket and skippy and hoppy and Lands, making markings in the dirt. The park was still a tip where the kids of the area would come to ride their bikes and play. Bonfire nights were the best; old paint tins, tyre and bits of wood were added to the bonfire and enhanced the excitement of the fire crackers.

After about ten years Ivo and Ro realised that the little den was way too small for two adults, four children and a TV set, so they built the ‘new room’ out the back with two bedrooms upstairs . Now the kids had a bedroom each.

Over the years the house was filled with friends and family, celebrating birthdays and Christmas. People would come for dinner and the good china was brought out. The kids’ friends were always welcomed. Judy and Peter had their engagement party there, and all four 21st were celebrated.

The road was made and the tip became a proper park. That was okay because the kids were growing up and needed different things. Eventually the kids moved out to make their own homes, but really they had two homes. In fact a couple of them returned to live at Lawson St for periods of time ~ because Ro and Ivo were still there, with their warm and generous love.

But they were busy too ~ with the garden, although that was really Ro’s domain, Ivo could only work there under strict supervision; with the bowls club just on the other side of the park; with Ivo’s stained glass work and his learning to use a computer to write the family stories; and with the grandchildren that were coming along. 

There continued to be the family get togethers. Christmas was always celebrated at Lawson St. Birthdays were too. And so many incidental lunches and dinners, and going up to Centre Road for a coffee.

Then came the terrible time when Ivo passed away…but the house was the place where they gathered and comforted each other, enjoying the memory of that generous, wise and loving man. And the house continued to be the gathering place for the Lawsons, including the next generation of great-grandchildren, until Ro too passed away. 

Judy, Geoff, Anne and Andrew have been very honoured and proud to have been the Lawsons of Lawson St, but it is time to let another family have the privilege of living at 2 Lawson St. They only hope that the new family creates many memories, as they have.

Furniture tales, and Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa come to stay

You know how it goes….you have to do something, but you can’t do that before you have done X, Y and probably Z. It’s been like that for me with furniture.

Months ago, when we started to sort out the furniture at Mum’s house, I said I would take the dresser and some chairs. Fine, but, of course, it meant that I had to get rid of a couch and two arm chairs at my place.

The couch and chairs were black and bulky, but sort of retro. There were a few worn patches, but they were solid. I didn’t want to send them to landfill, so I made a couple of half-hearted efforts to give them away, and intended to put them onto a marketplace-type site. It seems no one wanted a well-sat-upon couch and arm chairs. (That includes me; they were never my favourite pieces.) Difficult, so I sat on the problem. (😂)

“Get rid of the couch and chairs” was top of my To Do List for many months. And they kept being on top because I wasn’t doing anything about moving them on.

Come late November and the deadline for emptying Mum’s house was fast approaching. The only option left was to put them out for a council hard rubbish collection. I had a long but amicable conversation with the woman from the Council who organises these things. We talked about where they could be left, preferably on my property and not the nature strip to deter others from just dumping unwanted stuff. Could they go on the front verandah? No. Was there front lawn? No. No room up the path as that created OH&S problems. So, after all the chat, they were to be put on the nature strip. Then there was a discussion about the volume, and whether I would be using up my two council collection in the one pick up. I ended up with instructions to leave the furniture on the nature strip no earlier than Sunday and the truck would come by sometime that week.

The next problem was how to get them outside. Of course my wonderful friend Denise was happy to help, and organised her husband Ron. Between the three of us (well, mainly them!) we wrangled the couch and two chairs out onto the nature strip, then went to the pub for dinner.

On Monday morningI walked up the street for a coffee. As I was coming back I saw two young women heaving the lounge suite into the back of a trailer. They had seen the furniture, raced home and borrowed the trailer and raced back, all the while hoping that no one else had picked them up. They told me the furniture was just what they needed.

I knew that there was someone out there who needed a worn, bulky but solid and retro lounge suite.

And do you see the dining chair in the photo above? You can’t see that it is broken and unfit to sit on. Someone took that too! So by Monday afternoon I was left with an almost bare nature strip. After I put the bolster in the rubbish bin all the hard rubbish workers needed to pick up was a bundle of prunings.

After all that it was a winning situation ~ two happy families and nothing, except a bolster, to landfill. And me, happiest of all.

And Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa coming to stay?

Now that there was room in the lounge the blokes could deliver the dresser from Mum’s. Also, I had put my hand up to take the Grandma and Grandpa chairs, which originally had been in my great-parents’ house.

I wasn’t sure that I really wanted them but knew they had to stay in the family. Now I know that I love them. They are curvy and remarkably comfortable and take up less space than the previous ones. Great-Grandpa has a wobble because one of his castors has fallen out, but they seem happy to be here. I feel that they are chatting away to each other about all the remarkable things they have seen in their lives.

Now I need time to settle into life with these pieces of furniture which carry so many memories.

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I respectfully acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land on which I live – the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung People of the Kulin Nation, their spirits, ancestors, elders and community members past and present. The land always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.

All good wishes to you

It’s a beautiful Christmas morning. The sun is up, in a cloudless blue sky. No wind. It’s going to be around 30 degrees. Father Christmas has delivered a beauty for us!

Have a joyful celebration. Whether it is a large gathering or a smaller one, I hope you are surrounded by people who love you.

All good wishes to you.

Anne xx

That’s a good idea!

I never rearrange furniture for the fun of it. Once a chair/table/painting/appliance/etc is in a place that works, it stays there.

When I was teaching I would often be in the same room year after year, with the furniture in my same design as the year before. Sometimes I did move classrooms, and was always amazed when I revisited my old room to see how creatively the new teacher had arranged the furniture. I never thought to move the cupboard there, or have my desk over there or create a little nook using that. It wasn’t something I thought about.

I am like that at home. It works there, and so it stays there. Until there is a reason to rethink. And there have been reasons to rethink a lot of systems and placements in my life.

Last time I wrote about my sudden realisation of how to solve the ugly blind problem. I’ve added strings of beads and will add more shapes.

Then there’s the kettle. It had been in the same spot for 25 years. It was a good spot ~ accessible and not in the way. Then I got a new stove. To give access I had to clear the benches of accumulated stuff. With that stuff gone, I realised that the kettle would be better on the other side of the stove. Just as accessible, and frees up more room where it was….more room for a plant! Now that space beside the stove just looks nicer.

I’ve sorted out my earrings too. I am using the clear plastic box that was Mum’s. Now I can see what I have, easily choose which pair to wear and removed the dusty tangle that had lain there before. It was the box that helped me think, “That’s a good idea!”

It was a book case from Mum’s that helped me better showcase my teapot collection.

Last time I mention that I removed my gas appliances, and replaced them with electric ones. This included my gas heater.

Once gone I was left with an ugly space. Fortunately the bookcase was a perfect ~ millimetre perfect ~ fit. It was a dull brown that a lick of blue paint spruced up. Then it was ready for the tea pots, which had lingered on a shelf for far too long, to go in.

My next reorganisation of my space is to throw out a couch and two arm chairs. They have to go because I am getting a dresser and tw0 more chairs from Mum’s. The space is not big enough for them all. And I have to pick the dresser up in November as we need to be out of her house very early December. After a year of procrastinating on my part the clock is almost at midnight!

My barrier with the couch and chairs is just turfing them to landfill. I keep hoping that there will be someone out there who wants some rather worn but solidly made retro furniture. I will make a last ditch effort tomorrow!

And to keep you up-to-date with the painting of the outside of the house…..I have decided about colours. The painter suggested a colour consultant, who was a great help. I am going for a soft green-blue, that should meld well with the garden. I am still thinking about the colour of the front door, but that decision can wait a little while yet. The carpenter has been to replace weatherboards. So things are on track!

And that’s an excellent feeling.

Doing things that make me happy

For ages I have been promising myself to get back into a blogging routine, as I have been very neglectful lately. No promises about being less sporadic, but I will try, because blogging makes me happy.

I had a holiday in Western Australia last month. It was wonderful, and I have come back energised, ready to keep crossing things off my To Do List.

The big one is to get the outside of the house painted.

However, like all renovation/maintenance jobs there were things that needed to be done before the painting could happen.

I wanted to change my gas appliances ~ cooking, heating, hot water ~ over to electricity and there was no point in attaching air conditioners and hot water systems to freshly painted weatherboards. I found a company that was able to organise everything. The tradies all came in on one day and changed all the appliances ~ and cleaned up after themselves! It was a great service.

Then I needed to get rubbish removed. Some of it was cluttering up the side of the house. Much of it was a pile of metal down the back of the garden that Terry has carefully collected over the years. “This will come in handy one day,” he would say, adding another piece of stainless steel to the pile. There are some things of Terry’s I haven’t been able to part with, but not the pile of metal down the back. It’s gone and I feel so much lighter!

Now the house can be painted, and my next dilemma is deciding colours. That’s good dilemma!

There are still more things on the To Do List, but I am proud of myself for chipping away at it.

Then there are the things that aren’t on the List but all of a sudden I am ready to add it to the List and cross it off in one swoop. Like the blind in the lounge room.

It’s a cheap bamboo one that we put up quite a few years ago. It worked okay for a little while, until, as it was cheap, the cord frayed and it wouldn’t go up nor down. It also stuck on an angle.

And that’s the way it stayed while life swept us along. Once I tried to take it down, but the ladder wasn’t long enough to reach and the blind seemed to be very securely attached at the top.

The inspiration came in the shower, as all good ideas do. “Why don’t I cut it?” So I did!

The outlook isn’t good, as you can see from the photo. The fence, and then the neighbour’s house. Another dose of inspiration was to sew shapes to hang from the blind. I cut the shapes from old watercolour papers, from a time when I was playing with colour charts. (Like Terry and his metal, I knew they would come in handy some time!)

It’s probably a temporary fix (which may well end up as a permanent one!) and it makes me happy. And that’s where I am at at the moment….doing things that make me happy…..as well as crossing things off my List.

‘Footscray 1867’

I have been working on my embroidered map of Footscray from 1867, the very early days of Footscray. To find out why read my last post

This is where I am now.

I have been thinking about what embroidery the women of the area would have been doing at that time. Even back then it was a very working class area, with tanning and tallow works, blue stone quarries, and the beginnings of the manufacturing industry….all things that could be dumped onto the western side of Melbourne.

I wonder whether some women, especially the unmarried ones, would be working in some of these growing industries. Whether they were in paid employment or not their lives were full of hard manual labour around the house. Sewing would have been a necessity. All the clothing and linen for the household would have been hand sewn, and mended many times.

So while most of the sewing would have been very pragmatic I like to think that there was also a little time, and some money, to add a lace trim or an embroidered flower or a colourful ribbon. Maybe they found time to sew something to put on the wall, to add colour and homeliness.

That sent me off to find an embroidery pattern that may have been used. The daisy I have added to the work is from a slightly later magazine, but it is simple enough to be timeless.

There is another flower to add, almost where the red blob is. It’s turned so we see the flower side on.

I also like the daisy as it references the yam daisy, the murnong, that grew abundantly in the area. Some were probably still growing in 1867, but most of the land had become pasture, with hard hoofed sheep and cattle. The vast grasslands of the west were quickly disappearing.

I am not sure about the lighter green leaves but they are easy enough to remove. They are a little darker than in the photo, but not by much. So I will play with some darker greens. Do you think they work? Let me know!

Stitching the Maribyrnong

Okay, time for something different, time to reflect on creativity.

I now go to a weekly sewing group, an informal get-together where we bring along whatever we are working on. Some knit, some crochet, some quilt, some embroider and we all natter and enjoy each other’s company. Going to the group encourages me to have something to stitch. It’s kept me on track.

For quite a while I have been thinking about how to show the Maribyrnong River in stitching. I found my way through using maps as my reference.

Let me back up a little.The Maribyrnong River is the second Melbourne river, after the Yarra. The Maribyrnong, which flows north to south, is rather a forgotten river, which makes its charms hidden and special.

I live about a kilometre away, and the part of the river close to me is manicured, with bluestone banks, sports fields and bicycle tracks. However further upstream are some wonderfully less constrained areas, where the trees reach into the water and the paths meander through. I found some delightful spots when I was building up my legs for the Memory Walk.

Volcanic activity 1.2m years to 820,000 years ago in the west of what would become the state of Victoria created extensive lava plains. There was little to stop the flow of lava and it created sheets of basalt rock at least 60 metres thick under the Keilor/Werribee Plains and all western Melbourne. The Maribrynong cut a deep valley through the basalt quite early on, so in parts marks the eastern edge of the lava plain.

I mention this geology as it was something I wanted to stitch. That lead to Geological time #1. (Ignore the fabric beyond the hoop.)

Geological Time #1

The red stitching is a bend in the river, the blue represents the bluestone/ basalt and the green is the more alluvial areas. It is based on a geological map created in 1959. For those of you who know the area the top right hand blue part is where Essendon/Moonee Ponds now is, to the left Avondale Heights.

Geological Time #2 was more adventurous, and, to my mind, more interesting.

Geological Time #2

If you look closely you can see that it is the same set up as #1 ~ bluestone areas, green alluvial around the river. However the stitching adds texture and interest. The tufty stitch is velvet stitch, a favourite of mine.

The idea behind this is the vegetation that grew on the basalt plains was vast grasslands, often kangaroo grass. In fact when when early white colonists came in the early 1800s their eyes lit up, as they saw this as perfect pasture for sheep and cattle. They never saw or acknowledged that this land had been managed and cared for for millennia by Aboriginal peoples. The colonists grabbed the land, warred with and killed any First Nations peoples who dared to fight back or steal sheep or cattle. The hard hoofed animals were disastrous for the grasslands, compacting soil and allowing for the introduction of invasive weeds.

Very little of that native grassland is left. I wanted to show how amazing that vegetation would have been, and how the land was cared for so well by the Wurundjeri people and others. I also wanted to show how it was intrinsic to the geology of the area.

I am in the early stages of another.

It is further down stream, at the confluence of the Maribyrnong and Yarra Rivers. It’s based on an 1867 map of Footscray, a very working class suburb on the west side the Maribyrnong.

If you look closely you will see that it is called the Salt Water River, an early name as it is tidal, and therefor salty, for quite a way up. Apparently Maribyrnong comes from an Aboriginal phrase meaning ‘I can hear a ringtail possum’. Unsurprisingly the area was an important meeting place for the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and Bunurong peoples.

So, lots more stitching to come! And I have much more research to do, and would love to find out more about the indigenous history of the area.

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I respectfully acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land on which I live, stitch and walk – the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung People of the Kulin Nation, their spirits, ancestors, elders and community members past and present. The land always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.

I also acknowledge that this week is National Reconciliation Week, and the theme ~ Now More Than Ever ~ is a reminder to all of us that no matter what, the fight for justice and the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders will ~ and must ~ continue. To find out more go to Reconciliation Australia.

I did it!

Yes I walked the two laps of Princes Park in memory of my loved Terry. I walked with my good friends in Team Terry, and their support buoyed me up and along. (Also, I watched kids and dogs go past and thought “If they can do it, then so can I”!)

This was taken under the finish banner, and I don’t look too exhausted, do I?! (I am second from the left.)

There were a couple of thousand people jogging and walking, which shows how many people are touched by dementia in some way. The event raised over $450,000 to go to research and support. My wonderful donors helped me raise $3,448 of that. So a big thank you to everyone who generously donated.

As is the way with these events many individuals and teams dressed up or wore T-shirts with their loved one’s photo and name. However, no other team had sparkly headbands like ours! We created a little bit of a stir, and attracted the photographer who took the photo above.

Each participant was given a sticky labels that said “I am walking for…” and we filled in the space, and put them on our backs. It was moving to read about the people we were walking for. And there was this lovely tribute. A girl of about 11 had “I am walking for my Nanna” on her sticker. Beside her was another young girl whose sticker read “I am walking for my friend’s Nanna.” So sweet.

If you should happen to be in the awful situation of living with dementia, either your own or someone you know, you will probably find some useful information at the Dementia Australia website I found their information sheets, about a range of topics, really useful. They also have a number to ring if things get desperate (and I have been there too). Alzheimer’s Society in the UK also has a very useful website, and I am sure there are similar organisations in many other countries.

Remember, you are not alone with this terrible disease. Reach out (and that includes to me too if you like.)

The Memory Walk is almost here

Yep, and didn’t that come about quickly! Two more sleeps and Team Terry and I will be walking around Princes Park with everyone else.

It seems like it was only last week that I signed up to walk the 6 km to raise money for Dementia Australia in memory of my loved Terry. But I signed up way back in December, and I had a grand plan to add a kilometre to my walk each month.

Well, that didn’t quite happen. Health issues, a very sore back and then a cough that makes me sound like a pack-a-day smoker all contributed to slowing down my walking plan. So I am still not sure whether I will manage the two laps of the Park. However far I walk (and I will give it my best shot) I know that I have the support of so many people.

There are the wonderful people who have donated to my page to raise money for Dementia Australia. And big thank you to Alys and Sue, who donated from reading this blog. You can check it out by following this link.

Anne’s Memory Walk

As well I will be walking with the fabulous friends who are part of Team Terry and have helped raise money too. We needed something to identify us as Team Terry, so I came up with this idea.

Sparkly headbands onto which I have attached a photo of Terry. The back says ‘Team Terry’.

We will be the glamour team on Sunday!!

The weather is looking good, the company will be great and the cause is worthy. It should be a fun morning.

On a slightly different note….I have often mentioned about the wonderful support I get from so many people. I was so touched when I opened a package a couple of weeks ago.

Many of you know Tierney who blogs at Tierney creates. If you don’t know of her blog and her amazing quilts you should pop over there right now. She has also been through the trauma of loosing her partner, who, coincidentally, was called Terry.

So she sent me a gift of a bag and a whole lot of love and support. The message in her card, which has the image of a quilt she made to honour her father, was so beautiful. The part that really resonated with me was the advice to “Give myself grace”. A beautiful message from a beautiful woman. Many thanks Tierney.

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I respectfully acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land on which I live and walk – the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung People of the Kulin Nation, their spirits, ancestors, elders and community members past and present. The land always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.