Other Studio Work

Last Friday I was fortunate to attend a local Chillingham Community Centre, art class with a visiting guest Water Colour Painter Lorraine Rogers, http://www.sidewalk-gallery.com.au/ it was great to learn from her skill, and simple tricks of the trade.

Much easier, than from the 'How to' collection of newsagent lessons I inherited from a woman living in an Alice Springs Caravan park a few years ago,along with two sets of water colours and a bag to carry it all in, that doubles as an excellent travelling 'Beanie Making Bag'.

I have been using wax water soluble crayons for about 25 years and have often felt that a watercolour wash for the first few layers would make life easier. And it is ! Now I just need to practice my new skills.......Here are my first two attempts...


But first, a deadline........ Monday 19th,........ must have the 'Old Chai Tent Table Curtain' spruced up somehow,????......for the Rainbow Chai Tent's 4th visit, to the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in the Gardens in front of Old Parliament House, Canberra, for Sovereignty Day 26th January 2009, and the Action for Climate Change at New Parliament House on 3rd February.

I have made a new table curtain for the regular market set up, but for longer set ups, with extra marques and preparation and servery counters, we always need more table curtains to screen off and hide the under bench area for storage etc.

This old one I originally painted back in the late 80's or early 90's, and is looking quite seedy, especially when wet. It's old and faded, and has some bad areas of mold spotting. But at 6 metres long it is still redeemable with some more paint and I did think for a while, I might sew a backing layer and do the revamp with some applicque-ing! Maybe that'll be the go the next time round.
When I was making the new one I did a tiny bit of over painting to try and keep it going and disguise the worst spots,( see the first 5 pictures )







Decided to just add some more fabric paint (Silver, gold and light silvery blue, with a pink red heart that darkened to more red than pink). That done I nearly finished there, late Sunday afternoon. Then at 4pm Geradus suggests it needs some words ! So we set about working out what words describe the Chai Tent, we came up with quite a few, and I had just enough time to paint thru 3 DVD's til late night, and till 1pm Monday to get 47 words painted in, before Liffy, my Very Active 78 year old mother, headed off to rendezvous with my brother, for the long 2 week trip south.

Geradus kindly cooks the dinner while I work !
I used my wax water soluble crayons to write the words and colour in , then used Fabric Medium to make it colourfast, Much easier, than trying to paint letters with fabric paint, and achieving clear straight edges
And the colours are super bright
Unity, Clarity, Hope, Service, Community, Freedom, All One, Harmony, Equality, Communication, Creation, Acceptance, Music, Friendship, Happiness, No War, Caring, Sharing,
Dance, Wisdom, Listen, Communal, Culture, Sing, One Mob, Tolerance, Inclusion, Education, Integrity, Peace, Love, Charity, No Nukes, Joy, Justice, Serenity, Loyalty, Family, Truth, Growth, Fun,Honesty, Awareness, Heal, Birth, Flow,
Such a change from a tired old curtain, it is earning it's status as a Chai Tent Heirloom!
There's still room for more, that I'm sure folks down there will come up with some, when they read all of these.
That will be for painting on in the next round of revamp, when I'll probably start on the applicqueing and strengthening with a backing cloth.

A Bit About Etsy.com

Found this and thought what a good thing for people who don't live in the US, to see. To learn a bit about Etsy.

Nimbin's Hippyfest'08'09

Old Years Day '08, a very hot humid day, became a beautiful balmy evening, without a hint of thunderstorms, of the preceding and following nights ! The main street of Nimbin was very quiet, the young had gone elsewhere for excitement, the older folk stayed out of town, except for a perfect quantity of happy smiling people, gathered in the Mingle Park behind The Nimbin Museum.



The Rainbow Chai Tent was set up by Michael, and created the colourful atmosphere to brighten up the area and cleanse the area of a brutal attack in the lane two nights earlier.


The evening began with a didge welcome by Robert Corowa and friend

followed by two young men from Tuntable Community, with a clever rap,


Next up were Al and Nerida the Patriarch and Matriarch of 'Earth Reggae',
currently without a band behind them, (Correction :"Tonight without a band behind/beside them", They actually have their three eldest kids as members of the band along with Ren Waterfall on Brass), as they have been and are, extremely busy with their seven kids, and all the extras, (friends of kids) , that like to call Al and Nerries place 'Home' too ! Nerida says they're thinking of offering workshops and music jams and events at their home, centrally located in the village of Nimbin , beside the community centres market stage.
See http://www.earthreggae.com for purchasing wonderful CD's of 'Earth Reggae's excellent Australian Reggae
They got up and did an acoustic version of 'Aboriginal Land' and other Earth Reggae songs,with their youngest kids, plus friends eager to join in. After their set finished, Nerida told me that the music playing during the space between sets was actually their older kids, now playing the accompaniment !

Won't be long til we see the 'Earth Reggae Family Band' , playing alongside the 'Perch Creek Family Jug Band' another local family with seven kids, plus partners of the older ones. The tribe starts to grow bigger!

See http://www.earthreggae.com for purchasing wonderful CD's of 'Earth Reggae's excellent Australian Reggae, with songs about caring, and conserving our precious planet and sovereignty for Indigenous Australians !

Next up were the inspiring duo Marcella and Chris, from 'Monkey and The Fish',

with their exceptional songs, that I just love to dance out the stories of, in mime. They nearly had some 'guest singers', until 'stagefright' over took one, instead they played some percussion, and changed places with two others mid way thru the song 'For the Children'
The evening carried on with a new band ' New', who got all the others up for a good dance

All, ably mixed by Bo Kaan, in the Kombi sound van, he worked all thru the heat of the humid day getting everything set up and ready for the evening
The New Year was heralded in by a small drumming circle, a few fireworks in the main street and a guided meditation, and we all drank lots of chai both hot and iced, and iced Turkish mint drink, and ate luscious cakes, made by Michael, the gluten free Chocolate Hazelnut Meal, and the Orange Almond Meal, and the vegan Orange Poppyseed and the Decadent Chocolate with Everything !

A wonderfully Good night was had by all with donations gathered, to pay the musicians and Sound man and contribute to the Chai set up. Even the local Police Woman came down to congratulate organisers, on such a Peaceful, and Good Event !!