Sunday, July 26, 2009

A nightmare and a dream of a workshop.

Yesterday started very badly. I woke up around two thirty chanting this catchy little number, ''crack crack sore head, crack crack brain dead"! The immediate image in my head before I awoke, was looking for someone and finding a whole bunch of bloodied people hanging from the wall in a freezer room. This really freaked me out and  it is still visually very strong in my mind. It's been a long time since I had a nightmare, and I can usually track back my dreams to some sort of influence during the preceding day. I hate to think what inner depths  this came from!!

Anyway, things rapidly improved, as we, SisterArts, had our first day of workshops with Keith Lo Bue. The workshop focuses on techniques for using re-bar wire for jewellery and to embellish small sculptural pieces. We had 11 students apart from Kathy and me, and all of us got a lot from the class. Keith is a great teacher and I learned so much, even if, as an organiser I didn't have quite as much time to practice all the techniques.

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The great thing about using this wire is that it is very cheap so one can really be adventurous without worrying about messing up. As I am not taking any regular classes or doing any regular committee work this term, I intend to spend lots of time playing with things I have learned today and in a number of workshops over the past year or so

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Working on Workshop

The last week or so I have been trying to get together the supplies Kathy and I need for our Keith Lo Bue workshops. It's taken quite some time and many visits to various hardware stores, craft shops and jewellers' supplies. I sure it will be worth every mile, hour and cent.

Now it's time to get together the supplies needed to run the workshop, so no art or photography has even been attempted. However I have uploaded some more pics of our trip to Facebook.

Even if you aren't a member you can still view the pics on the following public links-

The magical Istanbul

Album 2

It looks like I will have to buy a new computer. I have been having trouble with the graphics crashing for a time, and no tech has managed to fix it, but now the picture frequently loses colour-leaving me with two shades of purple and yellow! Not ideal when my major use of the computer is art. I have put this off for so long because I'd rather spend the money elsewhere- travelling mainly! I am considering a Dell Studio 15 notebook which has had pretty good writeups. Any comments very, very welcome.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Next stop Jet lag Junction!

It seems like forever since I last posted. In the meantime I have been on the move in Turkey and Greece. I had intended to send the occasional post from O/S but getting access to the internet was not easy. It seems more and more hotels are providing hotspots rather than actual computers, so I am thinking that before I go away again, I will have to investigate an iphone or netbook or something of the kind. I'd like some opinion on this, if anyone has had experience of one or t'other or both.

This trip to Turkey was with the same tour group (Turkish Magic) and several of the people from my first tour in 2007. As Margaret, one of the first timers, said to me, it was like meeting up with family again. We did have to explain to our guide, Metin, that we do have a range of first names in Australia , even if on this tour we had four Margarets (though one has never been know as this) two Denises, two Helens and two Johns!

I have had a massive dose of jet lag since I got home. Seems getting upgraded on the final leg from Dubai, and having my first ever real sleep on a plane, was to be paid for by days and days of not being able to get to sleep before 3am at the earliest.

Still it was all worth it. I left Turkey loving it even more and feeling more than a little sad that I would probably be there again. Then I decided that this is too final and maybe someday I will have to make Istanbul a stopover on the way to somewhere else. It really is a magical city, and the Turkish people are regarded by all I have met, who have visited Turkey, as the warmest, most hospitable people in the world.

I will be posting albums of photos on my Facebook Page page so I'll only put a few here.

On our first day we went looking for, and found a former medresse which had been turned into craft studios. It was still there, but the small restaurant was gone and was replaced by a much posher affair in the hotel next door. The outdoor area was gorgeous.

lunch first day backlamp at hotel My travelling companion Denise is carefully cut out of the first photo as she likes her privacy and doesn't believe we need to reveal our lives on the net. So you won't see her in any of the pics. Shame really.

crazy hats A small part of the hat display in a store in a shopping lane behind the Blue Mosque.

The contrasts are quite amazing-modern hotels and shopping lanes, minutes from derelict Ottoman buildings,

derelect buildingreflections

and the obelisk in the Hippodrome (with the Blue Mosque partially visible in the background.

obelisque

And then there's the Spice Bazaar!

spices

On another note entirely, I am very pleased to announce that SisterArts' Keith Lo Bue workshops will go ahead on July 25th and 26th

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