Ermintrudes Tree Cosy

There have been a lot of interesting developments in our lives since I posted My Truth the last time.  Quite enormously huge in fact.  All good of course, and rather miraculous.  But I'll tell you about that another time.  

Because I've had a realisation.  

A big part of my creative explosion for many years was having an audience.  When I started to crochet, we were starting a market, and every kooky thing I made had an audience every sunday, where people would come to see what I'd made this week, and I worked hard to impress.  An audience is a huge motivation.  And my audience has dwindled these last years, relegated to the unsuspecting visitor, who I'd drag to my studio to unpack box after box of pretties for to dazzle.  But the ethers connected just the other week, and I realised that I have YOU dear reader!  You who faithfully come to my blog to see what's happening over here, and it may not be in person, but with the wonders of digital technology, I can show you what I'm making over here!  I get to start showing off again.  And to honour that fact, I thought I'd tell you a story.

Ermintrudes Tree Cosy

In late pregnancy with my twins, I entered a group exhibition at a local gallery called Red Poles in Willunga.  It was called 'Unraveled', and part of the criteria, was to get a jumper, pull it apart, and then knit or crochet it into a tea cosy.  I went down to the local op shop, and found a green and white striped jumper, and pulled it apart.  I wish I could find the photo of the original jumper, but for the life of me I can't, so you'll just have to imagine it.  I was thinking of making something fairly ordinary, but not long after it was all pulled apart and neatly in balls........the idea of making a tree struck me.  It almost formed itself, using crochet and wrapped wire, and I just enjoyed the ride.  And when it was done, I thought it was a masterpiece.  And it reminded me very much of the trees that littered the landscape of the 'Magic Roundabout', an animated cartoon I watched as a kid. I had a bit left over, so I made some flowers.  And finished it with barely any yarn left over, as often happens.  And called it Ermintrude's Tree Cosy.  Because Ermintrude was a Friesian cow who ate flowers in the "Magic Roundabout".

And the women running the exhibition were awesome, and they told me to bring everything I had, and had racks for my clothes, and my work looked very gorgeous and professional there.  I had belly dancing outfits, and skirts or ponchos on wrapped wire and wood, and crocheted teddy bears spun from the same fleece as stuffed with, and hats on tripods, and all sorts of stuff that I'd put hours and energy and creativity into.

And it all looked pretty swoosh.  And you know the funniest thing?  See those three wool bags on the wall, stuffed with coloured and raw fleece?  That took me about the least amount of time and creativity of everything I brought there?  That I made initially to use as bags for holding my stash, and then used as stage props.  Guess what.

Those wool bags were the only thing I sold.  For more than I'd ever sold anything, and more than I'd ever asked for a piece of clothing.  And I only had a high price on them, cause I loved them hanging round the house, and didn't really want to part with them.  The irony just cracked me up.  And poor old Ermintrudes Tree Cosy went largely unnoticed.  Hanging out on various surfaces in the houses we lived, and then stuffed on top of my mothers bookshelf.  We liberated it on our recent visit to S.A., and brought it home.  

Till a day not very long ago, when it was sitting primly on our table, minding its own business, when Currawongs drum beats drew two darling women up the hill to our house.  One of them, stunning Yollana, noticed it straight away, on her way out to the drumming, and when I told her it was a tea cosy, she said, "No it's not, it's a hat!" And proceeded to laugh, and twirl, and giggle, and chortle her way out to the drummer and our other guests.......wearing it on her head.  Also happening to be in the completely perfect outfit to compliment the colours of Ermintrudes Tree Cosy.  

Where another beautiful woman had been dragged by the beats, and made busy bringing flowers to adorn the gloriously laughing tree fairy that Yollana had seemed to become.  Wanda is a hero round these parts, for her dedication to our mother the earth, and the complete heart that she puts into actions to defend her from miners in particular.  Wanda puts the sexy into protest.  And these two gorgeous women were dancing in our garden, playing with my creation, and moving to the rhythms of Currawongs beating drums.  And yet another wonderful woman Lauren Fisher was already here with us, and all this beauty filling up our space was just totally infectious!

Of course Spiral-Moon had to be a part of it too.......  And this gorgeous little photo shoot kinda just happened, and it was all just so, and I felt all Hugh Heffner again, gushing bout how gorgeous it all looked, and how PERFECTLY stunning Yollana was, and how like a regal tree fairy, with her priestesses Wanda and Spiral devoting their worship to strewing flowers......and yes it can all sound very airy fairy, but the funny thing was, that it almost really felt like that.

We conjured all kinds of magics for what we could do with the photos, but the funnest idea was to make a calendar of the women of Billen.  Cause they're gorgeous.  And we seem to keep colliding with me and a camera, and them wearing my creations, around the dam near our house.......

Special moments that include all of us, and enrich our souls and our love for each other and our broader community.  That drip lacy bubbles of art and beauty around us.  

So this is a little story about a yarn that started very far away, and came through my hands to be turned into a tree cosy, and then visited an exhibition, and travelled around, before coming up here to live with us and be in the right time, and the right place, to nestle on the head of the beautiful Yollana.

And prepare itself for the next leg of the journey, the next spin of the yarn, the next turn of a tale.  

There's something in that for all of us.  

I think.  

The left out bits......

Surprisingly.........ha........with the event of twins in my life, not to mention leaving the community we were living on and witnessing our crushed dreams laying in the mud..........I've neglected to mention some things that have happened in the last year or so.  And I figure that now that I'm pregnant again, and we're about to set off into the wild blue yonder with who knows what adventures on the way, I should tell you about some of those left out bits before I create too much of a backlog.  

The first and most impressive (I think) is that I'm going to be part of a book called Positive Birth Journeys, edited by a really groovy woman with huge dedication and integrity, Leonie MacDonald.  If I'd had the twins before I got accepted in this book, I bet she would have wanted that story, but as it was, she wanted the story of my caesarean with Balthazar....which by all accounts is a pretty groovy one.  Not many people talk about how good their caesarean was.  If you want to know more about the book, you can visit  http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/birthjourneys  I'm really looking forward to seeing my name in a real book that people can buy in a bookshop!  Bit of a lifelong dream thata one. 

Another thing that happened about 2 months or so before the babies were born, was that I was part of an exhibition called 'Unravelled' at Red Poles in McLaren Vale.  The trip was that we had to find a jumper in an op shop or somewhere, pull it apart, and make a tea cosy out of it.  I wish I could find the picture of the jumper I bought and pulled apart, but for the life of me I can't!  And of course, me being me, the tea cosy ended up being rather sculptural, and you'd definitely be excused for wondering what the hell it really was, but I liked it:) 

As I made it I thought it looked a lot like one of the trees in The Magic Roundabout - ever watched that as a kid?  So I made 7 flowers to hang around the base of it, and called it Ermintrude's (she was the Friesian cow) Trea Cosy.  I thought I was very clever.  The staff at Red Poles were awesome, and there was one woman who'd had twins herself, and she was incredibly sweet and understanding with me.  And she asked me to just bring everything I'd made and all my clothes along too, and made room for it all, and it looked really groovy. 

And you wanna know the funny thing?  The big irony??  I had a teddy bear that was stuffed with the same fleece it was spun and crocheted from, and a hat on a triangular stand, and another hat called the Tree Hat on a magic puddingesque stand (they're all on the stand on the left), and a big 7 ft stand with sleeves on it that folk call The Uterus, with a big spray of emu feathers off finger like appendages on the top (that one's on the right), and a bird cape with raw fleece needle felted on the bottom, and belly dancing outfits and skirts, and hugs, and all sorts of other designer innovations....all things that I'd put a huge amount of work and inspiration and creativity into......and those three hanging wool bags in the middle on the wall, that I'd made for decorations for Tribal Fibres, that had as much inspiration as...well.....as a decoration that I'd just run off because there was a gap on the stage that needed to be filled......and guess what I sold?  Of all my designer creations, and sculptures, and not to mention the trea cosy.......I sold the wool bags.  I'd thrown them on in with everything else as a last minute thought, called them 'Pendulous', and they did look great, but it made me laugh.  A kinda almost sad wry laugh, but laugh I did.  I think I'll just have to be content with being ahead of my time, and stop expecting so much from my woolly creations from now on:)

And meanwhile, back on the community, the kids were having all sorts of fun, roaming around the gorgeous red gum treed acres, swimming in the dam, playing with the chooks.....

  

Running all sorts of experiments about what happens when you chip rocks and crystals apart, and what happens when you rub mud all over yourself, and what different colours of mud look like dried, and a million other things that I can't remember now, but I'm always suprised and amazed with what they come up with for fun......

And then there were our excursions out and about.....

 



We went on lots of trips to the botanic gardens and spent hours upon hours upon hours wandering round with our nature delighted kids.  They took a lot of these photos.  We spent almost a day just in the cactus garden, and then another whole day sniffing the roses in their huge rose garden. 

If we're ever stuck for something to do, the Museum, Art Gallery, State Library or the Botanic Gardens are alway sure to please everyone.  It's such a blissfull thing to walk amongst such huge, eccentric and amazing living creatures as the plants that reside there.....

And onetime we found an amazing tree that was an awesome backdrop for my incredibly photogenic family... 

And then there was the day when they were all fighting and yelling at each other, and there were heaps of people around on the community, and I was aware that one of the community members thought that the amount of noise they made meant they had no 'internal furniture'.....still can't work out what that meant...so they had no internal lounges and wardrobes??  Do they need them??  Anyway, I wanted them to be a bit quieter, so I called them all to me and asked them what we could make on the property, from things that we could find on the ground........it took them a bit of conjecture to work out what they wanted to do, which was another part of the collective problem solving to yelling at each other, and before they all knew it, they'd hatched a plan, and we spent a blissfull day in the sun creating a village.

First off, the ever pragmatic Lilly made a garden right in the centre, and Griff started making roads and creating dwellings, while Spiral-Moon got a plastic plant pot and sunk it in the ground for the water tank.  Then she made a composting toilet, while Lilly moved onto making tee pee like structures from bark.

There's a bit of Spiral-Moon near one of them......



And Griff behind the same one.  I was so incredibly impressed with their creativity, and the sensibleness of their village plan!  Garden, then water, then a toilet, THEN the houses....love it.  And it was so groovy for all of us to be involved in the creativity.....Griff in particular took a big part in creating awesome buildings.  And the challenge of making it from what we could find on the ground was awesome. 

Here's Griff making a roof on sticks, a house without walls, and off to the right was a big half circle of stone that he'd used to make the front of a house for the elders and the magicians to live in.

And I know it's not showing a house or anything, but I loved this photo of Lilly, in her inimitable Lilly style of skirt wearing.....

Here's an overview of the town, with the garden in the middle, two tee pees on either side, and the stone is the elders house, and above the garden and to the left is a sunken house with a bark roof that Griff created, and actually became a real idea for a design of building a house into a hill....he was so wrapped that an idea he'd had was picked up by us adults as a 'legitimate' idea for a dwelling.

Here's a clearer picture of that elders house I was telling you about....on the right....

And here's the bay that was made later, and a little boat that Griff made and sailed on the dam, resting on the plank....bit hard to see.....and it's a shame we didn't get a proper photo of it, but way over behind the village was a bush with a small hole at the bottom, and we decided a bunyip lived there, and Griff made a sign that said 'Please respect the Bunyip', and we also built it a pool......
 

 And here's me sitting in the general site, with twins in my belly, in love with my beautiful creative children, and generally pleased with myself that I'd turned yelling into such an amazingly productive and learning filled day:)

So that's just a snippet of some of the things that were happening around my twin pregnancy, and that didn't quite make it to my blog.  Next up I'm gonna try and make a video to put on here and give you all a tour of the van that I've been busily redecorating.  And the swags that I've made.  Or something like that anyway.......



 Oh!  And I just remembered!  I also played cello on a cd that was produced by a friend of mine!!   Got my name on that one too:)  Might start getting addicted to this sort of thing......

Tribal Fibres

So I didn't take many photos - 3 in fact were all I managed, because there were so many gorgeous people to talk to, women to help dress, and things I wanted to do all while holding Balthazar, who by the time the event finally came, was well and truly over the whole thing. He'd been there since about 11.30 in the morning helping me pfaff the hall though, so he's excused. I was thrilled to see Red Catherine, and Sandy Soul, and my fairy godmother Catherine Christie, as well as so many other folk I didn't expect and was glad to set eyes on. As well, the beautiful Sienna was taking photo's, as well as other folk, and some videos were being taken, so I figured Sienna's photos would be heaps better than mine so I let my trigger finger rest!

You wanna know the very best thing about Tribal Fibres?? When the people who've bought my wares in the past heard I was doing it, and it would be an exhibition kind of thing, every single one of them who came along brought thier wearable art with them, sure that if I was displaying my art I'd want thier particular artwork as well!! I got to see all my old friends again, brought in bags and baskets to revisit the creatrix..... I'm so glad that the folk who have bought my 'yarns' love them so much that they take them visiting!! And expect that they belong in my exhibitions.... Just wish I'd had more room! Ha! I could fill a couple of halls with the creations that have gone to other homes...

What can I say to truly describe what a wonder and joy it was, to finally see such a long held dream come true - to see my creations moving and swaying and being danced in! By such gorgeous women no less... With all the luscious tribal accoutrements to add to the overall visual splendour. I was buzzing the whole night...

And there was a sweet little ole lady who nearly everybody I've talked to had a story about. She sure got around. She was introduced to me as Alison's mother, and she was a hoot! Had a lot to say about a lot of things.

Grasshopper was spectacular as usual, and the guests just rounded out their general brilliance beautifully. I especially loved those flutes. The Faerie Queen and Lizard Queen were generally splendid, and it was wonderful to see them strut their stuff and their beautiful creations again. It struck me in the wee sleepy hours that the core of the event was the Maccy Market crew, and we are so bonded and committed and used to each other and working together, that the whole thing just slid along in the flow without a hitch. And we all did well!! Everyone had a great result in their particular passion....

I wonder if we could and would and should do it again...with a few different items and dancers and flavours added in.....

Stay tuned for more photo's when Sienna's come online.....