Soul Doll Making at The Craft Hive

What a wonderful experience I had in facilitating a Soul Doll workshop a few days ago! The experience has remained with me like a warm happy glow. The group was a great mix of women, each with her own story which she wrapped into her doll.

We began with some stories of how dolls are used as part of traditional culture around the world. 

Then we set an intention for our dolls. We wrote this on paper and placed them inside the body of our little created beings.

Next we made the ‘inner core’ from pipe-cleaners.

And filled the body out with coloured wool

I loved getting to know the women who came and to share the practice together in such a beautiful, warm, light space. It felt just like crafting in my lounge room! Kristan, who has set up The Craft Hive, has created a most special space to make in – check out her wonderful blog here: http://thecrafthive.com 

I find the dolls will usually make themselves how they want to come into the world, so you just need to be the hands. Sometimes it takes a few days to keep adding to them until they feel finished…

At the end of the workshop we gave the dolls a little celebration and listened to their stories. 

In gratitude to all who came along.

Basket Weaving with Recycled Materials

Yay, the spring weather has arrived and I am celebrating it through running workshops in Hobart for those of you in the area who like to get creative.

The next one will be Basket Weaving with Recycled Materials at The Craft Hive (upstairs 147 Liverpool St, Hobart.) 2-4.30, Saturday 29 September. I love this venue - spacious, light and warm, like you are crafting in your own lounge room.

All materials provided but you are welcome to bring your own treasures to weave in.

For further information, please give me a call on 0487463365

Hope to see you there!

A starry sky, a pot of tea and some art making

I will start out by saying this has been one of the bumpiest years I have known. But through tears, through gratitude, through courage, through loving, in sparkling moments, there’s been the making…

Winter has been a time to nurture and to be quiet enough to really listen. Making art helps me to listen to what is speaking inside myself and to the sounds around me. There have been many long, starry nights by the open fire place and a hot pot of tea!

These are some images from the winter’s activity. There seem to be a lot of fragments, but somehow I feel they belong together. 

This is where I have been spending time with my family.

‘The King of Dad’s and All His Helpers,’a birthday present for my beautiful Dad.

Experimenting with drawing and meditating at the same time, like dancing slowly with a bottle of ink and some pastels. 

I’ve been making nests to hold just about everything…to hold memories of loved ones, to hold a space where wishes can be nurtured, to hold protection, gratitude, and the kind of nests when you need to hold it all together! 

Outside, Spring has almost arrived; everyday there are more blossoms on the trees. And when I am quiet enough I can hear more life awakening inside too.

Zines From The Heart

 For the last two months I've been facilitating Zine making workshops with two groups of adults from Prahran Mission and Sacred Heart rooming house as part of a workshop series for Where The Heart Is 2012 festival. The festival happens once a year at the Edinburgh Gardens, and is for people experiencing homelessness and social isolation. Last Friday we celebrated the beautiful artwork created by participants which you can see below.

The festival is one of my favorite days in the year and is a true coming together of community hearts, minds and souls. It was an honour to be present to the unfolding of creation that happened in the art room each week. The participants shared thoughts and experiences from their lives full of wisdom and humour, and as one festival goer said, 'these books should be given to our polititians to read!'

There was something special in the making of art that is both personal and small. The big picture contained within something you can hold in your hand. Zine making allowed each participant to self publish what is important within their own lives and to have their voices heard.  Here are some pictures of the Zines in progress.

A fold out coffee table book that the reader can arrange freshly each day. The images and drawings trace the artist's path to the art room from her home.

 Poetry and drawing, offered as a notebook. Each flower has its own personality and sensitivity.

Unbound....

And bound... A tiny book of words that offer wisdom and strength.

For me, the best part of showing the works at the festival was being able to sit inside the space we created with the artists involved in the program. As festival goers entered the installation, they had the opportunity to meet the artists. The artists delighted in seeing people moved by their art, and together we told the story of creating the show.

The installation structure was made from flags hand painted by participants from previous programs, and this inspired an invitation to catch up again with the beautiful souls who made them. I feel immense gratitude to all the participants of this year's program, for their commitment, openess to possibility (and to me entering their space!), the honesty and integrity that they have imbued their works with. Yay for art to bring us all together! 

Exquistely Coming Home

A family...



I recently returned from a trip to spend time with my family in Hawaii and California, where I was born and spent the first years of my childhood.... It takes some time to land after travelling. I'm going to post a more personal blog here, as I'm sure this experience is something I share with many others.

After two weeks it still felt my soul was trailing strings that longed to reconnect with the land, people, experiences and my own childhood left behind.

We arrived in Fryerstown to stormy weather and given that the road to town was washed away in the last rain, it seemed like the perfect time to stay in and try to make something of this experience - to help process, digest, remember, say thank you to, hold close and then let go of.

Any good creative process in my home begins with a big pot of tea. And then a hunt amongst the boxes of materials in the studio.



Using a cut up bicycle inner tube as a base, I began to weave these travel stories together, wrappng coloured wool, shells and beach glass collected on the trip. It began to remind me of layers of earth or the rings on an old tree.



This technique is really easy. You just literally wrap coloured string around anything you can coil into a rope (like bike inner tubes, old rags and cloth, grasses etc). And then you coil the rope you've made by turning it into a spiral and sewing it into place. The stiches you can use are all easy and can be googled. This piece uses a combination of techniques learned from my dear friend and fellow inspirer Trace, a group of lovely women I worked with from Uganda, and sitting with some Pitjantjatjara elders under a tree....as well as my own experimentation. I love learning things from special people in my life! It makes it fun to continue to practice on my own.



making the 'rope'



the finished piece

So I just sat and added coils and drank pots of tea all day until I felt enough was in the work. It feels comforting to have it inside my home. And it now feels good to be home, to feel this earth beneath my feet, to smell the wet forest, and for my ears to be entranced by the calls of the animals here. Like the mole cricket, for example, which is reknowned for creating a chamber inside the earth that resonates its call exquisitely.

Here are some images of the places that inspired me in making the piece, and which I can still hear calling from inside it. I like to think I have made them a nice chamber :)