morioka teapot

Covet: Morioka southern iron kettle teapot.

ii ne kore reminded me of keibunsha, a treasure trove of goodness in Kyoto. I especially love the way the old floor boards in the gallery squeak as you walk on them. And now I'm contemplating how to carry back an iron teapot in my luggage when I visit Kyoto later this year. I've carried some heavy and not-very-portable things between Japan and Australia over the years. A rice cooker was one. Also delicate pottery (in my carry-on) and rolls of washi paper. So I'm not particularly phased by this potential new challenge. The real question is how many red teapots can a girl own? I have one already. It's not iron though!

unaccustomed earth

Please. Just go read this now. You won't be disappointed. Jhumpa Lahiri's most recent collection of short stories: Unaccustomed Earth. It's brilliant. Fiction writing at its best. Read a review here first if you need to be convinced. The woman is so gifted as a writer it's ridiculous.

Have you been reading anything good worth sharing?

paper & ink

The white paper dress fixation continues.....
I'm trying out some different compositions with my sumi ink drawings and woodblock prints. Do you ever struggle with composition when you're designing something?

The sumi ink drawings started in this somewhat messy spot. Oooh just realised the mess is hiding in this pic. Consider yourself lucky.

25 seconds in my work room

abundance

white paper dresses

rough edges

produce

abundance
mixed media collage
washi paper and sumi ink on Japanese ho-sho paper

I'm surrounded by many pregnant women and women with small babies. They are everywhere it seems these days. I was interested to see that my choice not to be is shared by Elizabeth Gilbert in her new book Committed. A thoroughly excellent read by the way. I wasn't expecting it to be with a title like that, but just goes to show that titles and covers can sometimes be misleading. She is one switched on, smart cookie.

layer, lamina

I have this thick, white, textural washi paper I purchased a while ago in Japan. It's been staring at me for too long and so this morning I pulled it out. I would really love a shirt or a dress made from this paper. I have always loved full sized paper clothing but I think this is as close as I'll get to having any. There's another here too.

billie julien

Billie Julien
Autumn 2008
from The Seasons series
synthetic polymer paint, linoprint, watercolour
81.0 x 50.2 cm
Presentation College, Windsor

If you want to be inspired by very talented year 12 students have a look at this year's Top Arts exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria (Ian Potter). The lovely thing about this year's show is they seemed to have caught the lino cutting bug :) as there are quite a few very gorgeous prints on display. Like the one pictured here by Billie Julien, who has 2 prints in the exhibition. If in Melbourne it's worth a look. Or just click on the NGV website here to get a taste of the work on display.