in all the world

one of my most favourite things IN ALL THE WORLD is when you spend so long in the bath your finger tips turn into wrinkly raisins x

life is chaos!

Everything is happening all at once. Life usually does that. Ebbs and flows...

Hannah and I (mostly Hannah, but I took the photos so totally claiming it too!) have just been featured on a fashion blog about our project with NZ Eco Fashion Exposed. Pretty cool!

Here's the link!

a little project

Me and my dear friend Hannah have been working on a little project and getting involved with NZ Eco Fashion Week Exposed. It's just a TINY bit exciting!

Over the next few weeks... we are making simple garments with sublimate printing, natural dye, and shibori patterning. Hopefully!

At the moment... we are sorting out garment patterns (mostly Hannahs job thankfully!) and testing colour with natural dyes. Here are a few of my initial experiments x

Dye colour test swatches with a lovely pink from madder root 

Collecting onion skin from generous Mr. Wilson

Onion skins create a warm golden yellow 

Silver dollar eucalyptus from Mt Victoria

Soft orange and pink colours from the eucalyptus dyebath 

 And even softer colours with mordants

Have a look at us on Facebook!

Winning!

I just won the Australiasian Graduate of the Year Award - 1st prize!!!! BOOM! So excited! Hurrah!

There are so so so many amazing people that have helped me over the last couple of years and I'm just so grateful x

a handful of radishes

I'm a big fan of radishes. They're just so yummy and healthy. I think of them as beautiful winter strawberries.

Campbell Street at 9.06pm

Last night I was walking home and I stopped to look a few white roses growing behind an old white picket fence. I love breathing in the sweet smell of roses, taking a step out of the world around you, and letting the petals tickle the end of your nose just as if you are five years old. When I stepped away and continued walking a beautiful thing happened... the couple walking behind me paused, and stopped to smell the roses too.

on april 24th

i am soooo excited about this film! it's by the writer/director of The Science of Sleep and has the same surreal and strange 'no idea what's going on' quality. i can't wait for Mood Indigo. eeek!

indigo, i love you.

here's a visual update on just what I've been getting up to while living at Uni. and a few words i wrote very quickly late at night to be put in print somewhere on something but i can't remember what x

 Lillian Baker, Wind, arashi shibori and natural indigo dye on silk, 2012.

words words words

Using the resist dyeing technique of arashi shibori, creates a three-dimensional surface that opens out to act as a sail in the wind. I have dyed the cloth with natural indigo dye as indigo embodies many aspects of wind as a concept. It is mysterious, unpredictable, difficult to control and somewhat magical. This piece explores the idea that wind can reveal something in the cloth and plays with the idea of invisibility.

strange exotic strangeness

earlier in the year a good friend of mine went on holiday to Bali and came back with two little parcels of coffee for me. one was organic coffee and the other had a few spices mixed in. after only a very little while i came to the conclusion that Balinese coffee is rather strange. it sort of doesn't quite mix together with water and the fine grounds form a thick mud in the bottom of your cup, if your not vigilant this can be accidentally consumed too. Even more strangely... I became very fond of it's unusual flavor. I was just brewing local Peoples coffee in the plunger (and i love Peoples coffee because it is super delicious) but i still felt a bit sad and missed my strange spicy coffee.

page one hundred and twenty seven

'So you do love me, little thing?' he murmured.

from A Room with a View by E.M. Forster

wallpaper

 the flocked wallpaper co-ordinate design in the 'my dear arthur' collection

i wrote...

An energetic pattern inspired by 1950s vintage print design.

Offset and elongated abstract shapes create a dynamic and lively design. A sense of the theatrical is explored with a play between the static shapes and the movement created through layering. The rich olive flock contrasts to the soft reddened navy and a tinted metallic pearl offers a subtle sophistication.

Add a sense of nostalgia, that’s rich, playful and warm!

my dear arthur

this has been my entire world all year. a lovely fabric inspired by arthur street in wellingtons central city. there have been many tears but i love it.

a screen-printed linen fabric with an all over complex repeat design (not that i will never forget those words).

to dance

i found this on a very beautiful blog. i needed to keep it somewhere. to put it in a safe place. so i can return to it again and again.

 
it is choreographed by bret easterling. the music is die alone by ingrid michaelson. the dancers are from julliard. i found it here http://or-so-i-feel.blogspot.com/

flight

 

i miss your face next to mine. drawing with my fingers on your skin. listening to the sound of you. breathing. mumbling. my legs all tangled around yours as you fall asleep first. and the warmth of you making me always a little too warm.

grief

i am mourning. an entire city is suffering. there is an emptiness in the fallen bricks. missing people. quiet. and those found that will not share the hope still left. i know it is selfish for me to feel isolated in what has been endured. i wish i could help boil the water, sweep up the ceiling from the floor, light the lamps, comfort my little brother and find the cat. i can only give my love and a hug. over the telephone. i was not there. and i feel that.

here are some words.

I did not know what to say to him. I felt awkward and blundering. I did not how I could reach him, where I could overtake him and go hand in hand with him once more.

It is such a secret place, the land of tears.

from The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery

sharing

i would like to share one of my favorite short stories with you. i love short stories. and this one... i've read over and over again. the story is mournful, lonely, and an illustration of overwhelming sadness. and i find it moving, hopeful and beautiful.

This Is How Good the Coffee  by Denise Sammons

It's a grey day, raining and cold, yet I'm sitting, under shelter, outside. Happy. I am loving the  feeling of the clambering stopping. Then a tram full of American tourists pulls up outside the cafe and empties its cargo onto the footpath. A woman dressed in pink is telling another - who looks like a baseball on legs, all round and striped - about her problem. 'Oh,' her friend says, 'there's a product on the market for that.'

     I sit in the noise and feel a kindness, a warmth, maybe even some kind of love for these loud people. This is how good the coffee is.

     I am thinking of the French doors at home and how they will be leaking now (don't tell the real estate agent). Or do tell the real estate agent and maybe our house will never sell. Yes. I am imagining the soft plop, plop of the drops on the inside of the glass. I know you are at home with the open-mouthed boxes that are waiting to swallow our life together. You will be sitting with the cats, reassuring the ones you are taking and saying goodbye to the ones staying with me. In this moment I can almost see how it could all work out for the best. This is how good the coffee is.

     Sparrows ring the table where I am sitting. They skid towards my plate, aiming for the muffin, but then they get frightened and slide back to the edge of the table. They have no staying power. Their claws have no traction. Up close their bland commonness is transformed into beauty. The striking marking on their wings making a pleasing contrast to the soft, downy bodies. I want to hold one in my hand so some of that softness could seep into me, into my heart. I know that's impossible. I think of her. I do not smile. No coffee is that good.

from This Is How Good the Coffee Is by Denise Sammons. i found it a book given to me by my Nana. One hundred New Zealand short short stories, edited by Stephen Stratford, 2000.