FESTIVAL OF THE WEEK

boo

We know it's not of interest to many but the ladies of HML are united in our love of Halloween. Having small boys helps, they love the chance to dress up, say boo to the neighbours and eating chocolate after bedtime. Thom loved supervising me carve up mr spooky pumpkin and stuff the trick or treat bags. We plan to watch ghostbusters tonight to celebrate. Ramona

ADDICTION OF THE WEEK

a tisket a tasket

my first attempt stuffed full of harvest scraps

So the basket making workshop on the weekend was a heady combination of awesome components including free harvest printed scraps, Maryann's great laugh and skills, a lovely spread of baked goods and discussions of craft, family, materials, food, The Rock and mutually agreed nu-soul hottie Maxwell. (yeah I just said 'hottie')

close up inside view of my very first basket, pretty chuffed with the results

One of the best things about this kind of workshop is getting to know people through making, the walls come down pretty easily when you have a common topic in your hands, and as Maryann noted the tradition of weaving stories and people together in this practice is time old. It was a great luxury to spend a whole day making, and a timely reminder that as with so many hand crafts the sharing of skills and lives during the process is easily as important an the end product - something so often overlooked in the rush to make  'product' for sale. The coiling technique we learnt is completely addictive, the perfect pick up and put down craft for busy mothers and a great way to use up old fabric scraps and upcycle old clothes into useful vessels - pretty much a perfect fit for an old greenie anarcho-feminist like me. 

I'm already stocking up on binding supplies, going through the rag bag, working through ideas for new material options and well into my next project above. It's turning out a treat and definately destined for the Christmas present pile although i'm keeping mum about the recipient for now - in case I love it so much I can't bear to part with it.  So thanks Maryann BUT NOW I'M COMPLETELY ADDICTED! BECK

BOOK OF THE WEEK

minx meet

When the Kelly Doust book The Crafty Minx came out last year I must admit I kind of got my nose outa joint. Who was this woman with pretensions for being the queen of craft? I'd never even heard of her and yet here she was with this lusciously styled book and her name on the cover. So I chose to ignore it, just giving it a cursory glance in the bookstore.  But then kindle was having a special on the ebook version and I thought, well why not just down load it for 10 bucks and see what it's like? Much to my irritation loved it. So I snapped up The Crafty Kid this week at the library and checked it out, again lovely. annoying. I may be buying this one.

the book version on the left, mine on the right.

 Turns out this Kelly Doust is actually a lovely person with a great 'make do and mend' attitude that comes through in her warm writing style. I'm not sure why the plastic bag holder above was in the crafty kid book (Kelly suggested letting small ones crumple up the bags and put them in - turns out Thom LOVED this idea so there you go, small things amuse small boys).

my dodgy one on the left and the good book one on the right

 There are lots of nice simple projects that aren't really up to gift giving status but a certainly sweet enough for your own abode. My oilcloth lunch bag is decidedly dodgy and may end up as a catch all for my washi tape collection instead of a personal picnic bag as intended. So if you see the Crafty Minx or the Crafty Kid books out there, don't dismiss them out of hand like silly old me. They aren't for the highly skilled, it's purely simple and domestic. Have a peek, she seems nice, not royal, but nice. RAMONA

WORKSHOP OF THE WEEK

Dream weaver

This Saturday i'm off to learn the art of fabric basket weaving at Harvest with the incredibly awesome Maryann Talia Pau. To say that i'm pretty excited is probably a HUGE understatement. We're long time fans of her work in all it's forms here at HML, and I've secretly coveted her fibre manipulating finger skills for just as long.  Sophisticated, urban, contemporary renderings of traditional techniques that are fresh and irresistable. Her confident combining of pattern, colour and form are gasp inducing aesthetic signatures that we keep coming back to. Seriously people, we cannot talk her up enough.

Now I might be the textile 'professional' here at HML, but unlike Ramona  - who has had a crack at pretty much everything, the mysterious art of basket weaving has so far eluded me. However now that my fibre fetishism has really taken flight I figure it's time to stop buying up other peoples work and start making my own. If only for the sake of the household bank balance. So time to raffia up and get busy.

A little birdy (or three) have mentioned that there are still a couple of seats free at the workbenches - so if you too have a hankering (apologies bad pun) to create your own modern tribal objet de jour then make a beeline for the harvest website and book yourself in. I'm so excited I've already ordered myself some lime green, natural and hot pink raffia to keep me going once the workshop is over. I expect there's going to be a lot of family members with sideboards like the one above post Christmas this year! BECK

Read more about Maryann here and here, check out her website here, or book in to the workshop here  and apologies to Lucy over at the design files for pinching some of her photos!

SHOW OF THE WEEK

climb every mountain

The ladies of HML have been talking about contemporary ceramics this past month. We've a been a bit overexcited about the state of things. We are seeing lots of boundary pushing, investigation and originality. No more so than in the work of ceramicist and artist Robyn Phelan.

Robyn has been exploring the notion of mountains as metaphor for a while now, and combining that with research into little know histories of women climbers her new show 'ain't no mountain high enough' at MAILBOX 141 is set to blow our minds.

We are hoping to make the opening party this Sunday as apparently icecream will be served 330 -430. the show is already up an running so if you take a walk down flinders lane this week make sure you pop in to see this magical show. Congrats to Robyn whose career is going from strength to strength, what a talent. RAMONA