emma morrison: figments

Speaking of figs, this little exhibition, figments, is just wonderful. Emma Morrison's prints and paintings at Sixtynine Smith Street Gallery, Collingwood. Her fig etchings are really extraordinary, such wonderful small scale lines and tones. It's on until 14th March and is a real treat for the eyes. Queen is right next door if you need another excuse to pop by and then there are all those little Japanese eateries north of Gertrude on Smith that are also so worth stopping in to enjoy.

hanabi print in grey

This time I printed hanabi in grey on a new black light-weight denim skirt I made yesterday. I decided to print the motif down the centre of the skirt and I think it works. I had a few issues with printing yesterday but I'm pretty sure I've sorted it out now. These things are all trial and error :)

I made the skirt a bit loose to allow for the 4% shrinkage when it's heat set. Fingers crossed it will fit more snuggly once that's done.

sento in art

This ukiyoe print (click to view larger size) is an old one by Kunisada and happens to be one of my favourites. It's a quite a wide print so it's hard to see the full view here but I did notice that someone lovely has put it up on flickr in sections (see 2nd row of prints). I bought a copy of this print while living in Japan because it reminded me so much of my daily journey to the local public bathhouse (sento) to bathe as I didn't have a bathroom in my teeny tiny Kyoto apartment. In the full print you can see some of the antics of the local women as they bathe together. The sento is a lively place, that's for sure. Women (and men but not together) gather nightly to catch up on the day's news with each other, gossip a little, relax and wash! And I LOVED it all. Even on the coldest of winter's nights when the last thing I wanted to do is walk 3 mins down the road for a bath, going there and soaking in those tubs was the best way to treat a tired body and was like a big sleep sedative.

soak

Hey it's raining here! That' a big deal for us. Last night on TV they said Melbourne folk are going to be rationed to 150 litres of water per day because of our current drought. Which is fine by me if big water guzzling companies also have the same restrictions placed on them. I am so excited by today's rain that I ate breakfast sitting outside under cover watching it come down on the garden. It smells so good too.

Do you think the design above might work well on a tea towel?

Must sees this weekend include illustrator Kat McLeod's exhibition on at Lamington Drive Gallery in Fitzroy. She's called it 'The Tiniest Spark'. I'm sure this show will be huge as her work has been all over the media recently. Yay for her!

new print and pattern book

This new book (not yet published) just looks incredible for anyone crazy about prints. The lovely print and pattern blog has a great series of images from it if you want to check it out in more detail. You might have to scroll down a bit til you get to the 5th Feb post on it. They also have details about how to pre-order the book from various online shops. I just love it that this kind of work is now available in book form. The lovely Lara from Melbourne-based kirin & co has some of her patterns printed in it too.