Winter and early Spring have been very wet here in the
Adelaide Hills, which means I have been getting lots of basketry projects
underway and completed. Starting with a commission of a very large circular light
fitting of grapevine woven
on steel frame.
(W 134cm H 50cm) I’m now waiting to see it fitted once the house
is built.
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| Grapevine Light fitting |
Before
the real wet moved in the winter workshops where very successful in inspiring
students to the possibilities of natural fibre basketry techniques.
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| Happy Basket Makers |
Once
the workshops concluded I was able to start the other major project of creating
works for my exhibition at theHahndorf Academy which will be from February 18th to March 19
2017.This exhibition opportunity was a prize for my work ‘It all starts with a
Seed’ at the 2016 Heysen sculpture Biennial.
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| On top of the World |
As
the exhibition space is large I’ve made some large pieces as well as some to hang as well as
some large platters/baskets. I have also remade my ‘seeds’ as the originals
where firstly exhibited outside for nearly 6 months and then exhibited on my veggie garden fence as this was their designed use.
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| 'It all Starts with a seed 2' |
Working
almost full time on these projects has been an interesting experience. At first
I was overwhelmed by the thought of creating enough pieces but as I sat
weaving away new ideas came rushing out so much so that only materials and time
will limit the flow.What I have learnt is that I really like creating a series
of related objects. A few years ago I set myself the challenge to make as many
different rib baskets as I could in a year – ‘the basket tree’ Then with ‘It all starts with a seed’ I challenged
myself to make a range of seed shapes using a range of techniques and
materials. This I really enjoyed doing so this winter for the exhibition I set
out to make another set of ‘seeds’ some similar and some very different .A set
of leaf forms also have emerged from a mix of sticks and leaves.
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| Storm Basket |
I’ve
also discovered ,out of all the basketry techniques I've used ,rib construction
is by far my favorite .It is extremely versatile , can be manipulated into a wide
variety of forms , it suits the materials that grow here and my desire to
weave rather than stitch.
Now
the sun has come out it’s time to get back to my real job of managing the
orchards and start the big cleanup of fallen trees caused by the storms. Basketry then
gets relegated to a couple of afternoons a week.
With
most projects finished my next challenge is finding places to store them til
the exhibition in February.
