In a war someone has to die
Have you heard about this amazing new project? “In a war someone has to die” is an amazing new collaborative embroidery project by Hanne Bang.
From Hanne:
A couple of years ago I happened to zap by a TV program, in which a journalist was interviewing a professional African soldier. To the soldier`s great disappointment he was out of work at the moment – because there was no war in his region.
The interviewer asked the soldier if he was afraid of dying, and the soldier said: “No I am not afraid of dying. Are you afraid of dying?” The interviewer answered: “Yes I am afraid of dying”. Then the soldier said, without any sentimentality: “In a war someone has to die”.
This little dialogue, and the words “In a war someone has to die”, returned to me over and over again. Of course I knew that in wars people die, but suddenly I saw the essence of war and the reality of it very clearly.
These words are the main element in the art project. I use this sentence – these harsh words – in a feminine expression, as handkerchiefs and embroidery are.
You can participate in this project by visiting the website or the facebook page. I can’t wait to see the finished result!
My Motto
Every now and then you stumble across something and think ‘gee, I’d totally tattoo that on myself’. Well, this year I had one of those moments and went with it.
I’ve always thought I’d wait until I was at least 30 before I got a tattoo. I had that gut instinct that if I did something like that before then I’d most probably end up regretting it. I was a fickle young thing.
So for the last couple of years I have seriously contemplated a couple of ideas. I did get very close to a cross stitch design. Figured I needed to stitch it up before embarking on actual ink. And after I had done that, decided it would be a bit big for what I wanted.
I’m a collector of old craft. Either finished pieces or the things people use to make with. I have lots of old needle cases and needle books. Tons of old needles, wool winders, thimbles, you get my drift. A couple of months ago I bought this simply gorgeous antique souvenir sewing kit. It didn’t take long for me to realise that THIS was what was going on me forever.
Click here to see the other images of the box. It is such a delightful object, I am going to treasure it for a very long time!
I’m the kind of person that believes in the importance of signs. It’s crucial to remind yourself of the messages you hold true. Some people hang stuff on the wall, pin things to their office cubicles, embroider samplers, paint on footpaths. I have a small affirmation stuck on the inside of my wardrobe door, I have pictures on my walls, and a vast collection of button badges I can pop out for the right moment.
It’s Never Too Late To Mend, is very much a motto for me. I apply it to craft, politics, our lovely planet, my relationships and communities. And now I proudly wear my motto on my arm to help me keep on track for the rest of my life.
A massive thanks to Matt Gordon who was working out of Down to Earth Tattoos for his beautiful work. He was so much fun to hang out with!
And another massive thanks to Mark Burban for the great pic. I did some really great work with Mark and will be revealing more on that project soon!
Now, get mending!
xxx
rayna
Blitz: One Year On
It’s hard to believe, since it’s been so busy around here, but it’s been a year since a bunch of wonderful people came to our house and blitzed our garden. You can read about that day here and here. I like to tell people that was the day our house became our home, and it truly was.
So one amazing year onwards and our family has been loving the fresh goodness almost every day since. We’ve eaten tomatoes, potatoes, garlic, zucchini, beans, peas, eggplants, spring onions, rhubarb, warrigal greens (bush spinach), figs, chillis, peppers, cabbage, broccoli, broccolini, cauliflower, a big range of herbs and of course, fresh eggs. And we’ve shared all of our bounty with our friends, family and neighbours.
The last month has been super busy as we get the garden ready to pump out the summer goodness. Lots of soil prep, planting seeds and seedlings, building climbing frames and of course weeding!
We’ve put in two more garden beds since the blitz. The corrugated iron one we won from the awesome crew at VEG at this years SLF. Currently growing the last cauli, a broccoli I’m saving for seed, onions, watermelon, pumpkin, cress and some flowers. The wooden one was a great find from Reverse Art Truck and is housing some eggplants, radish and spring onions.
This was the bed we built on blitz day and has just been topped with soil and compost for the summer growth. I planted it out yesterday and today and it contains tomatoes, corn, radish, spring onion, beans, zucchini, cucumber, lettuce and cress. Might pop a couple of strawberry runners in there too if there’s room. I also had the help of my lovely friend Emily to build the climbing frame out of sticks pruned from trees around the garden. Use what you have!
This garden is humming along! I built a bamboo climbing frame and there’s capsicum, eggplant, beans, tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries, cucumber and broccoli in there now.
This is a wee bed my dad built. It’s my favourite as it’s a little show garden. But it doesn’t get a huge amount of light so it’s tricky. But I have an artichoke, garlic, eggplants and flowers in there. Oh and a rogue dill plant..
Here’s a fun little upcycling experiment I’m trying out. I found an old shopping trolley on the side of the road with no wheels. So I pulled it home and turned it into a spud garden. When you grow potatoes, your supposed to let the shoots come up and then cover them with soil. If you repeat that process a couple of times, the plant sends out more shoots with more spuds. So I’ve been doing this in here, adding about 20cm of soil each time. When the top dies off, I can just tip it all out and let the kids find all the potatoes! It’s working pretty well so far.
The food forest in the chook run is going great. We have bush spinach, rhubarb, strawberries, yukon, caped gooseberry and calendula growing in there. And also a lemon, a lemonade, an olive and a couple of feijoa trees cruising along. Our very own orchard!
I don’t spend much time in the front gardens any more so I’ve aimed to plant stuff that’s as low maintenance as possible. There’s a plum, a fig and an olive tree. As well as sunflowers, zucchini, tomatoes, squash and some flowers and herbs.
The one garden that’s not coming along as well as we would’ve hoped is the nature strip. We probably put in too many grasses and not enough ground cover. So we’re hoping to get some more of them in soon. But with all the rain, the plants that are there and growing nicely and some of the grasses have started spreading from seed. So it should fill up soon. The tree in there is an ornamental pear, and I’m hoping to do some guerilla grafting next year and get it fruiting 
So we are now growing: artichoke, garlic, tomatoes, potatoes, zucchini, chilli, capsicum, cucumber, eggplant, radish, spring onions, onions, lettuce, beans, corn, broccoli, watermelon, pumpkin, strawberries, bush spinach, rhubarb, lemon, lemonade, mandarin, olives, feijoa, fig, plum, lemon balm, rosemary, oregano, lemon thyme, mint, chives, garlic chives, spinach, thai basil, nasturtium, cornflower, sunflowers, cress and chickens and kids!
Oh and I bought the bloke a homebrew kit for his birthday and gocco printed a bunch of labels designed by one of his best friends. So we’ve got that going on too!
Whew.
We’re hosting christmas this year so I’m aiming for a 80% homegrown meal. It’s gonna be a fun one!
We’ve got more plans for next year including building a shade over a courtyard, putting in a swale and planting more fruit trees.
Thanks again to all the amazing people who came to our blitz, and all my friends who’ve been helping through the year. Words can’t explain how much I love my garden.
That’s not a fence, that’s a garden!
Readers of this site will know I’m not a big fan of fences. I do believe they serve mostly unproductive purposes. However the some that are important and useful, like to keep kiddies safe etc needn’t be so darn ugly all the time! And of course the ugliest of fences is a chain link or hurricane fence. They do however make great canvases!
We have a big fence around our community garden where we have our Permaculture Playgroup and it does serve a useful purpose, it keeps the little kids in and almost keeps the big bored night time naughty kids out, almost.. Over the last year and a bit I’ve been coordinating little projects to help beautify our fence and to make it function a bit better.
I started with a moving mural on the south side of the garden to act as a bit of a wind break. We keep adding to it with our scraps and it looks great, especially when you enter the park from the south side and you get the best view of it. We have two main winds, a westerly and a southerly. When it comes form the west, the strips of fabric flap and wave in the wind, looking really pretty. When it comes from the south the fabric gets pushed flat against the fence and helps keep the wind from heading straight at the kids in the sandpit.
All the fabric is attached using a basic latch hook rug style technique. Is there a name for this type of knot, anyone?
We’ve also been weaving little hearts a la outdoorknit along one little part of the fence. It’s a spot visible from the playground and the shops across the road and whilst they serve no functional purpose, they make the garden look so friendly and inviting despite the great hunka fence around it!
Not fence related but still lovely was the bunting we made last year with bumble bees gocco’d on some of the flags. Along with the streamers fluttering around the garden it gives the place a truly festive atmosphere!
Next up was the infamous bra bug gardens. They didn’t hold up too well in the weather. You definitely need to use a padded bra! The one I used was black and it’s faded quite a lot, so I recommend if anyone makes any of these you go over board with the decorations. One of the ones I made collapsed and the other one was doing ok but then the potting shed got moved in front of it so I’m not sure how it’s doing now..
But I’ve taken the same theory and expanded on it! I went to Reverse Art Truck aka heaven, a while back and amongst my treasures, Iscored a pile of industrial cardboard cotton spools. We decorated the outsides of them by spray painting a base layer and then sticking some lace on and spraying again with a contrasting colour then peeling the lace off. Instant pretty patterns!
We filled the spools with a layer of toy stuffing (cause I had some dirty stuff lying around) but you could use straw mulch or anything. just something to plug the hole at the bottom of the spool. Then we filled them with dirt and stuck a little baby succulent in each one.
Some of the spools were tied to the fence, some were stuck in the branches of the vine that grows on that part of the fence. We chose to do it there so when the vine covers itself in leaves over the summer months, it’ll provide some shade for the plants, and then they get the sunshine in summer!
The bright colours on the spools also went beautifully with a craft project we did a couple of weeks ago which also ended up on the fence.
Next step is to experiment with what we can grow in them. I started with the easiest but keen to hear any suggestions for food plants that might like minimal amounts of soil and water and plenty of sunlight. Yeah, I know..
Next project plan is to experiment with fence weaving techniques, so til then, happy fence arrrting
xx
pop! goes the weaver
You are cordially invited to the final event of my residency at the awesomely lovely Iramoo Community Centre. As part of the Show Us Your Arts day, I will be presenting the work ‘WE are Wyndham Vale’ to the community centre.
Following the unveiling, I’ll be holding a FREE coiled weaving workshop. Come along and learn the basic technique of the ancient art of coiled weaving with some unusual materials and a few radical applications. The workshop will be held in the community centre kitchen and there will be ample supplies of tea and cake. Naturally. You can RSVP here. Places are very limited so please call the centre or email me to book your spot.
There will be a heap of other artistic activities happening around the centre on the day. The flyer is below. Be sure to call the centre to book any of the events you are interested in.
A big thanks to the Iramoo Community Centre and the Wyndham City Council for supporting this event.
Progressions
It’s been a bit quiet around here as I’ve been very busy stitching!
For those of you who have been following the progress of the WE are Wyndham Vale project, the photos in this post are all progress shots for you to check out. Submissions closed last week and there was some truly visionary ideas contributed to the project. I can just imagine all of the ideas coming to life and Wyndham Vale becoming a truly sustainable and vibrant community!
I am in the throes of stitching now and I invite anyone who wants to join in to come down to Iramoo and get involved. I’ll be there in the kitchen stitching for the following sessions next week:
Monday (25th Jul), Wednesday (27th), Thursday (28th), Monday (1st Aug) from 11.30-2.30.
If you have always wanting to learn embroidery, come along and I will give you a lesson. Or if you’ve been stitching since birth, and everyone in between, come along and stitch your favourite part of the map. All materials are provided. We’ll be hanging in the kitchen stitching, drinking tea, and eating cake! If you haven’t been there before and want to come along the Iramoo community centre is at 84 Honour Avenue, Wyndham Vale.
I have a date for the unveiling too. Stay tuned for news on that another exciting workshop!
WE are Wyndham Vale
On the same day that the Wyndham Weekly reported I was to be the new Artist in Residence at Iramoo, Delfin Lend Lease announced a new $1B property development on the fringes of Wyndham Vale. This yet to be publicly named development will house up to 12,000 people within 4000 dwellings. According to media reports (but surprisingly nothing on Delfin Lend Lease’s website) there are plans for four schools, community, sport and recreation facilities, open space with lakes and waterways, and a shopping centre.
Like all master planned developments, this estate will be designed and branded with a specific theme(s) of housing and will be sold in staged releases of house and land packages.
Since then yet another large development has been announced for the area. Raising even more questions about the pressures all this rapid development is going to place on already stressed infrastructure.
Far too often the values and long term goals of existing communities are left out of the design and planning processes. While councils may develop long term goals for their area, in areas of rapid growth it seems clear to me that corporate developers have much more power and control over the social and environmental development than the community or local government. Add on top the differing levels of decision making responsibilities between local and state government, it does all get a bit confusing for local people who do want to participate in planning processes. I can’t speak for the Wyndham Vale community because I don’t know the specific history of the relationships between the council/state government and the developers operating in the area. But I do know that of the many conversations I’ve had with locals about the history of the evolution of Wyndham Vale, these issues seem to be very much at play here.
Reflecting on these issues, I would like to present the major project for my residency, “WE are Wyndham Vale”.
I invite all residents of Wyndham Vale to contribute their future visions and exciting ideas for the area. All of the submissions are to be incorporated into a large visual wall map of the area. The map will then be embroidered for exhibition, alongside the submissions. Participation is easy, simply download the submission form, print it out, fill it in and email or post it in or drop it off at one of the drop boxes around Wyndham by the end of 8th of July (details on the form).
Once all the submissions are collected and the design is collated, I will be holding public stitching sessions for people to get involved in the making of the map. You can indicate if you want to be involved in this part of the project on the contribution form.
My hope is for a community vision of the priorities local residents hold important for the future of this area. The map will be framed and kept on display in the Iramoo Community Centre.
So please download the contribution form by clicking the get involved button below and get thinking about what YOU see Wyndham Vale’s future looking like.
Finally a special big thanks to the Iramoo Community Centre and Wyndham Council for getting behind this unique project.
Looking forward to seeing your ideas!
xox
Rayna
click the button above to download the submission form (.pdf 61kb)
Hoopdaloopdahoop: A Radical Cross Stitch invention!
I don’t know about you mob, but whilst this portrait of Madame de Pompadour sitting upright at her Tambour frame is fabulous, it’s not quite what you would see if you bowled into my house and caught me stitching. Rather, you’re more likely to find me slouching on the couch or hanging on a seat outside watching the kids run around. And I don’t ever get much time to stitch, I just grab 10 minute sessions here and there between nappies, feeding kids, tidying up the never ending mess and keeping the garden ticking along.
So I have recently begun a pretty major project which involves a piece of cloth which is 1.2 x 1.4 metres in size. I have a table tapestry frame, beautifully hacked by my dad and it’s over a metre wide so I can get a massive bit of fabric on it. But it’s not terribly easy to move around and it really does need a table which is not terribly convenient in our lounge. So I’ve been humming and aahing over a little solution, asked around the interwebs a bit and I think I’ve invented something! If anyone has seen anything like this let me know! If I haven’t invented it, at least I gave it a great name
The problem with working a large piece of fabric on a hoop is that you have to put the fabric somewhere. I know people fold up the edges and clip it but it still means a lot of handling of the fabric and that’s always something to minimise. I thought to myself, what about stuffing it in a bag? That could work, but then hanging onto the bag as well as the hoop could get annoying. Then Valerie mentioned on our Facebook Page that she knew a lady who put it in a pillowcase. Ooh that’s clever! Nice and soft too.
Then a little spark kicked in my brain of a tiny little hack you could make to a pillowcase to make it work just ace. So here’s a tutorial!
How to make a Hoopdaloopdahoop!
Materials:
One pillowcase
Four 15cm strips of ribbon or leftover fabric, anything will do so long as it’s thin and not too wide. Go through your scraps, something will pop out.
Four press studs/domes/whatever you call them where you live. Or buttons, or maybe velcro, whatever you have lying around. Something to attach with, it’ll be clear in the tutorial.
Scissors
Needle & thread
Step one:
Sew your four strips of fabric/ribbon to the top of the opening of the pillowcase at evenly spaced intervals. It’s not necessary to measure, just use your eye. You could machine sew this on but I just handsewed them on, didn’t take long, less time than getting the sewing machine out. And it didn’t use any electricity!
Step two:
Attach your press studs/buttons/velcro whatever to the top of the strips of fabric and a couple of centimetres from the edge of the pilowcase. There needs to be enough strip there to wrap around an embroidery hoop. If you’re using buttons you’ll need a sewing machine to make button holes. Sorry, no idea how you do that The picture below shows how it needs to work.
Step three:
Figure out which part of the fabric you want to be working on and stuff the rest of the fabric into the pillowcase, leaving the bit you want sticking out the top. You may want to mark the centre with an embroidery pen or some such. If you are working far from the edge you will still need to fold or roll the fabric back to the point where you will be working and secure somehow, with a clip or something. But you’ll only need to do one side so you have access to the back of the fabric. Stuff, stuff!
Step four:
Clip or button or stick your straps over the part of the embroidery hoop you have on the top of the fabric. Some people use the bit with the screw on top, some use the other bit. However you roll.. Then secure the other part of the embroidery hoop underneath and tighten onto your fabric. You will notice in the picture I only have two strips attached. Firstly I only had three sets of press studs and secondly I broke one while attaching. It’s possible to only have two, but I recommend at least three so the fabric is well secured within the case. The objective is to not have to deal with the fabric so the straps act as a fence.
Step five:
Tuck any excess fabric into the pillowcase and get stitching!
That only took me about 20 minutes to make, including photographing and toddler interruptions, so pretty darn easy! Hopefully this is helpful for some of you out there. Please let me know if you come up with any different/easier ways of doing it. Maybe someone out there has a good idea on how to close it off at the top for when you need to put your project away?
Now I’m off to keep working on my epic project and see how this baby works. Will keep you posted.
xox
rayna
Art and politics: Gettin it on!
Hi folks
How’s your autumn/spring going? It’s all brrrrrrrrr here in Melbourne! But the leaves are just divine on my street so it makes it all worthwhile. Almost..
I’d like to take a moment to invite you to a really interesting forum that I’ll be speaking at next week. There’s a great line up of speakers so it’ll be a very interesting night with some rigorous debate. Hope to see you there!
Arena Project Space asks the question – where do art and politics meet?
It is our pleasure to invite you to the Arena Project Space arts program launch and fundraising event on
Tuesday 17 May, 6 pm,
2 Kerr Street Fitzroy (between Nicholson and Brunswick streets).
Arena Project Space is a new exhibition and forum space, which has grown out of the work of Arena Publications, a broad left political and cultural project that has been running for over 30 years in Melbourne.
This space aims to widen Arena’s critical sphere and to facilitate and create dialogue about political and cultural interpretation through arts practice. Arena Project Space has the potential to provide a focus for politics as a context for creative practice. In an age of managerialism, it offers a space beyond the business plan for alternative world views
To launch the arts program planned for this space, the Arena Project Space arts board is organising a forum to consider the relation between art and politics today.
Forum participants are Simon Cooper, Rayna Fahey, Lyndal Jones, Robert Nelson and Tom Nicholson. The session will be chaired by Kevin Murray.
Speakers will give a brief response to the questions:
How might artists respond to the social transformations occurring today?
Can artists take on a political agenda without compromising their creativity?
Bookings are NOT required. Entry will be $5 at the door. Refreshments will be available.
We look forward to seeing you on 17 May at 6pm!
Zoe Hatten and Jessie Boylan (coordinators)
For further information: 9416 0232 or 0437 960 510, or go to .
Simon Cooper teaches cultural theory at Monash University and is an Arena Publications editor and author of the ‘Cooper’s Last’ column in Arena Magazine. He is a regular commentator on cultural issues on radio.
Rayna Fahey is editor of radicalcrossstitch.com, and co-founding producer of the Melbourne Craft Cartel.
Lyndal Jones is an artist with an interest in context, place and empowerment, involving performance and video installation. Her ‘Avoca Project’ addresses climate change action from the perspective of a small country town.
Kevin Murray is a writer and curator with an interest in south-south dialogue. He is convenor of Southern Perspectives and on-line editor of the Journal of Modern Craft He is an adjunct professor at RMIT, where he coordinates the Ethical Design Laboratory.
Robert Nelson discusses cultural values in education at Monash University and is the Age art critic. His most recent book is The VIsual Language of Painting: An Aesthetic Analysis of Representational Painting.
Tom Nicholson is an artist who lives in Melbourne and teaches Drawing at Monash University. One of his recent collaborative projects was Camp Pell Lecture, with Tony Birch. He is represented by Anna Schwartz Gallery.
Iramoo Explorations
Another day of exploring and this time instead of staying on the freeway the whole way down, I jumped off at Laverton and took the back roads down to Wyndham Vale. I really wanted to check out the fringes of the city and see if it was all different or similar to around Wyndham Vale. What really struck me was the total saturation of franchise stores. Aside from a medical centre and a vet, I didn’t see a single independent store. No milk bars, nothing.
This made me really quite sad. Partly because it demonstrated just how intensely packaged and contrived corporate property developments are. But mostly because it means that there are no locals who can or want to start their own local independent business. Whether this is a result of corporate plans, council regulations or lack of economic incentive, I think it is one of the side effects of urban sprawl that should be discussed more.
xxxxx
I dropped into the studio to drop off some stuff and to say Hi! to Harry. Harry is awesome, I’ll introduce you to him sometime soon.
And then I went for a wander along the creek. Aside from taking advantage of the studio space I have been given, I really want to take advantage of the natural space. As a mother of three young children it’s very rare for me to have time to myself, especially during daylight hours. And as an only child, it has been quite a struggle to get used to. So as one of the aims of my residency I want to try and walk along Lollipop Creek or the Werribee River at least once a week.
I staunchly believe that an essential part of the creative process, no matter what you do, is rambly thinking time. It’s like doodling with your brain.
Well it sounds nice in theory. When you have small kids this sort of time doesn’t happen very often. Especially when one of your children is four. And NEVER stops talking. Ever.
Virginia Woolf spoke about a woman having a room of her own. And it is absolutely true. However, I have discovered with my own craft practice that my room is often in my mind. I can have a physical space to make no problems, it’s creating the mental space that is the tricky part. So making space for a walk along the creek might seem like a trivial use of time.
After my walk today I went for a bit more of an explore of the fringes of town and I checked out the great BMX track the local kids have built. It’s clearly been used for a while and I just adored the old chair that was lovingly (don’t tell them I said that) dragged to the top of the hill. I could totally imagine the tricks you had to pull to get to sit in it.
It was a blimmin great spot to check out the plains from. Dunno if you know this but Wyndham Vale has minor cult status due to it being the set for the first of the Mad Max films. Wyndham Vale is apparently known as Mad Max Country (although I’m yet to find someone who actually calls it that). I’m sad to think this BMX track, and these gorgeous plains will be the victim of a massive new development. Hopefully the track at least lasts a while longer.
Next step was the local Salvos where I found a fantastic piece of needlework. It’s an illustrated alphabet stitched with wool on a rug canvas. It’s going to look great in the kids room. Although I reckon it might even get a stint in the lounge. I also popped in to check out the Cultural Centre and it was brilliant to meet the staff in there. I totally fell in love with these birds!
They’re peregrine falcons, a male and a female and I did ask who made them but neglected to write it down. I’ll find out. They were originally made as puppets and if you attach poles to them they can ‘fly’. Just brilliant. I love clever people.
Last stop was a detour to the Craft Circle on the off chance that it might be open and it was! I’ve heard so much about this fabulous shop from friends who frequent it. And I’ve been meaning to drop in for ages.
It was simply lovely to have some quiet time admiring all the handmade and hand dyed yarns and felts and the gorgeous range of handmade fabric and wooden toys. I had a great chat with the woman who runs the store and picked up a couple of sweet felted treats for the kids. Visiting a gorgeous local independent store, what a great antidote to the franchise fantasy I started my journey with!