Sadhana's Mixed Bag: Paper pulp and celebrations

Well we escaped the fires,

however the bush around us has not burnt

for 50+ years so we remain vigilant about

cleaning up our environment.

Disposing of my lovely dry plant materials

which I have been collecting for basketry and

paper needs to be a top priority.

So I have decided that October/November

will be my annual paper making time.

I have had bracken (above) cooking for pulp
and while it lost the intensity of it's colour
in the process it still made a wonderfully soft
cotton like warm brown paper.

I have also been using banana bark.

I collected this from my mums garden

after she had died about 7 years ago.

It is definitely time for this to be used!

It makes a lovely crisp paper

Agapanthus paper has also been in process.

Some of it is bleached and some natural.

Agapanthus is a paper that I can make very
textural (above) or quite soft and smooth (below).

The seeds in the flower heads make a
lovely black speckle.

Here is a selection of all the tones I am
getting from my plant fibre paper.
As you can see in the top sheet I have been
embedding foils into it at times too.

Today I have been making
some recycled paper.

I am using some of my father in-laws shredded
office paper and some of my mother in-laws
used wrapping paper.

Green is the colour for today's batch :)

In the name of clearing up basketry materials
I have been making roped twine.

This rope (above) I have made with the beautiful

yarn of 'wool dancer' - Michelle Snowdon

She made a skein in response to our

Blue Mountains environment.

She used the colours of the gullies and hills

and finished it with the clear skies and soft clouds

that are so much a part of our lives here.

I was really excited when I saw it and had to buy it.

I have been twining plant matter into it from my garden

and I will use it with a

ceramic work I am planing to make next year.

BUT there are other things

that have been going on in my life

outside of the studio this week.

Here is one of the first copies of the book

that my sister, Karin Donaldson,

has been working on for the

past 25 years!!!!

It is an oral history of some of the people that

she has lived / lives with in out back NSW.

It is a really important story to have

documented and Karin's artistic gift in

compiling it really brings it to life.

(I can say this because she is my sister.

There is not much said in the book

about how much she has done in the

making of this book because

it is not about her, it is not her story,

it is about the people.

But I think she is amazing! )

There will be a book launch in Glebe,
Sydney on November 22nd for anyone
who may like to attend.

I will post more info when I get the flyer.

AND….

I continue to have a ball looking after
my grand daughter.

It is a delight to watch these littlies growing up.

Here is our latest collaborative art work.

My son, Gopal his partner Suse and daughter
Lillie have been visiting their German family
and spent some time in the Alps and I can now
tell you that they are expecting another
baby in March 2014 :D
YAY!!!!!! for being a Grand Ma GoGo again!

More news!

This last weekend was the joyous marriage
of my lovely nephew Jed and his delightful
partner Alex.

A perfect day for a perfect couple.

The sweetest grand nieces as flower girls.

The bride arrived on the back of her dads
gorgeous classic car on which he had built a
beautiful wooden Ute-like tray

The grooms sister, Frances,
made hand stitched bunting.

here is a little look at the cross over detail
on the back of her beautiful dress
( just for my textile buddies):)

A chance to have some time with my
step son, daughter and grand daughter :)

Now, these two (below)

are the mother and father of the groom.

My brother Chris and his wife Anne.
Perfect parents who created a most beautiful family.
I am so proud of them all.
Their speeches left everyone in need of very
large handkerchiefs

Chris has a gift for breaking into song on occasions such as this
and we thought he might let us down…
but thankfully he didn't as you can see on the link below ;~D

http://youtu.be/6u3pMvopFnc

Now I need to get back to the studio

to finish their wedding present!

I have something special planned.

Even more news!

It was my lovely husband,Michael's 60th birthday
last January and his wonderful work companions
gave him a dinner for three at Darleys
which is one of the most spectacular
restaurants in the mountains and last night
we managed to go!