Del Kathryn Barton

Yes indeed, the strangely beautiful world of Del Kathryn Barton will be on show, opening next Weds at Karen Woodbury Gallery. My son will probably spend the whole time pointing out the 'boobies', but I am so keen to scrutinise the way DKB uses colour.

Apparently the kooky fashion label Romance Was Born are also enamoured of DKB's work, she has been designing prints for them for a while now, and there is another show on featuring the aforementioned two at the National Design Centre (Fed Sq) during Loreal Melb Fashion Week.

The show is called Garden of Eden, for details have a look here at the Cultural Program, managed by the awesome Kate Rhodes previously of Craft Vic, now at the NDC. A lot of musical chairs going on at Craft Vic, sad to see Kate go but she's not that far away!

We came, we saw, we conquered

We were told we had an endurance test, no clues, no venue, some of us no sneakers, no breakfast, meeting at 10 am on Sunday in Richmond. Apparently it was meant to take us 25 mins to get to the secret location, in real time with plenty of roadwork detours it took an hour, destination Mt Dandenong, poor Formiginha and Pular Muita squished in the back with my son's carseat!

So the task turned out to be a brisk climb up the 1000 Steps Kokoda Memorial trail, very slippery and steep, too busy concentrating on the steps too look at the beautiful ferns. At the top we jogged uphill and then down, Lorem scampering along in his half jog, half fast walk, like a monkey on a mission. The loop was about 800 mtrs, and we did it 6 times in total. It was worth the uphill to get to the breezy downhill, the wet clear air, fragrant in a way that is incredibly nutritious, and good for the soul.

After some stretching and a strange ear massage/torture session from Arroz, for dessert we had 240 x 2 push ups, 240 x 2 tricep dips, and 240 x 2 situps. All in a days' work! Formiginha then declared that he felt fit, which was endlessly amusing, and at the bottom of the hill we congratulated ourselves with some rousing speeches.

The best part was the tiny Ferntree Gully market on the way home, we stopped off and got delicious apples, raspberries, fresh nori rolls and cakes, the perfect rewards for our efforts.
It took us hours longer then expected but was well worth it, hey we're worth it, and lets hope that there are many more!

I though that my knees would seize up yesterday afternoon, but I pushed through with some late afternoon gardening, and today am surprisingly still able to walk. The hip flexors are a bit twangy, and I'm sure that tomorrow I will be bed ridden.

It's a big week, workshops, hopefully a kick ass music session on Wednesday, last week I finally figured out how to play berimbau and sing, what joy! On Saturday our Batizado is in Brunswick, 12pm at the Playspace on Albert St, so expect to see a lot more pics this week. Energia!

Productive

We are all about the making and doing here at our house, there's always a work in progress. That applies to our garden, which is a big one, but a relatively clean slate. We have two lemon scented gums up the back of the rear garden, (they are destined to be whoppers), and an old avocado tree which has seen better days, but everything else is yet to be determined.

This is a bit daunting to the perfectionist, ie procrastinator that I am, I feel that I need a complete plan and so have not done much at all. However I do love a bit of seasonality, and so we have a few raised beds, old garbage bins with the bottoms cut out, and planter boxes triumphantly gathered from the Nth Coburg tip shop (sheer heaven).

The strawbs are small but perfectly formed, extremely flavoursome if a bit tart. My son is always checking them for readiness, and I seem not to get to eat any, only if I beat him to it.

Summer annuals - I have often thought that annuals are a waste of water, space and time, but as a temporary filler they have won me over this summer. Plus I know that when I do get my immaculate plan off the drawing board, I won't have to rip out anything perennial.
Here we have dahlias, snapdragons and cosmos, I also have a few sunflowers just opening up, and have put in some foxgloves for spring. I'm crossing my fingers that my borage seeds come up soon, and am hoping to try lupins.

This is my baby lemon tree, I am looking forward to sharing many years with it and enjoying my own lemons. I do think it sucks having to buy lemons, living in Coburg and Brunswick does mean that you can find the neighbourhood trees easily and swipe a couple on the down low here and there. I have found myself at dusk roaming the back alleys for handy lemons when I'm in the middle of making dinner!
This tree has one lonely fruit that I have been waiting on like the proverbial golden egg, it's starting to yellow up, can't wait! ('Scuse the alignment on these pics)

Blueberries growing in an old rubbish bin with the bottom cut out, claimed from hard rubbish.
I used chook poo in building up the layers, and noticed that a lot of leaves appeared burnt and dropped off soon after planting. My mate Laurel, who does the RRR Dirty Deeds gardening show, suggested that I use pine needles as a mulch, to generate some more acidity in the mix, which blueberries prefer (chook poo tends to be alkaline).
Trimmed a few bits off the Xmas tree to use as mulch, hey presto she's come good! I would recommend growing blueberries to anyone and everyone, they are really easy, they are perennial and they don't cost the fortune that you pay at the greengrocers.
Am thinking of trying raspberries too, they really are my fave, so velvety and soft.

We have had sweet corn already, and recently planted leeks, they take so freaking long! I have a sweet potato project going on, will let you know how that goes in a few months. Hmmm what else? Oh yes, peas that come up from the pea straw mulch, Leo adores eating peas from the shell. What parent doesn't get off on seeing their kids eat foods straight from the garden?!

We also have a truckload of curly parsley, and oregano, and the ubiquitous rosemary bush, love love love.......not so much luck with cucumbers this summer, boo hoo.

How does your garden grow?

Bruised

Lorem, our teacher, guru and fearless leader, Batatinha and Lua Branca on the atabaques.
Sushi, Garoa, Torrada, Cabeca, Babalu and Olho de Mel playing Angola rhythm on the berimbaus.
Arroz, Lua Branca and Boomi, blurred hands working hard.

Another Wednesday class, full of uplifting music and singing, and people concentrating so hard that they make strange faces on the instruments. Some new songs, a tricky one that sounded a bit bogus, but there were a few that we nailed quite well.

This one is getting better -
Tiririca tucum e navalha
Jogo de Santa Maria
A mandinga nao falha
A mandinga nao falha

Then acrobatics, I am always dreading it a bit as I have a few gaps in my acrobatic experience. Never know what to expect, if it's au (cartwheels) then I am OK, but we did some queda de rins exercises; meia lua de compasso into a kind of au queda de rins, flip the legs over one way, and then back the other way. Lots of grunting, falling to the floor with audible thumps, wrists giving way and red faces due to holding of the breath.

Must sound completely confusing, especially as (presumably)not all of you are fluent in Portuguese. At some point I landed extra heavily on the ball of my right foot, which has now resulted in a gnarly bruise all over the inside edge of that foot, tres attractive!

The roda was a real task, Lorem wanted me to play 20 times, to work hard, which meant I had to forget about playing the instruments or leading the singing. I think I ended up playing 10 times, must have played everyone there, Lorem mentioned that my ginga was missing so I played 2 games of straight up ginga, which was quite relaxing and peaceful. A valuable lesson learned.

So many facets to this capoeira, and its hard to work on one when they are all so important. Right now I think my stamina needs a boost, I feel I am lugging around a few extra kilos. I'm blaming it on the recent birthday which involved a lot of cake!

Winter 08

Emerge Design is my footwear and accessories label, I've been selling under this name around Melbourne for the past few years.

Am starting to feel organised enough to put out seasonal ranges, though I'm not sure that all accessories really need to be winter or summer.

This petite offering has been available to order for a few months now, but as some stores are more spontaneous with their budgets, they may like to order anytime now!

The Flower Brooch is crocheted from a lustrous braid, and is available in 22 colours. Backed with a kilt pin, this brooch measures 9cm across and looks fab on a coat, scarf or cardie!

A perennial favourite at Emerge, the Postage Belt is full grain leather, with a panel of hand-selected vintage postage stamps. Available in S M L in a wide range of colours, each belt is unique.

Crocheted from pure Australian merino wool with a hint of lurex, the Helix scarf is available in Black, Chocolate, Wolf Grey, Cherry and Jewel. This piece has lovely movement; the spirals jostle and bounce, catching light in the lurex thread.

These pieces are currently available at Husk, contact me for sales enquiries.

Brand spanking new

Folks you may need a lie down after this, it's quite momentous........



Yes indeed, it is the new Lefflers, at 171 Kensington Rd, West Melb (seems more like Kensington to me).

Gone are the days of musty dark corners, of feeling like the perfect item for you exists in the building but no-one knows where/what it is, no more falling down the stairs from saddlery into shoe repairs, no more touch parking in the miniscule car park.

Yes the old building had character, yes Sth Melb is much more happening than this end of Kensington Rd, yes this new aircraft hangar of a building is going to get the extremes of Melbourne weather,but from a customers perspective, this is heaven. OK it's a bit like Bunnings, there is a bit of a check out corral, but its all there for you to see, in uniform shelves, tubs, rolls, sections, its organised.

I have been three times in two weeks - you can't keep me away. It helps that I have made friends with the wonderfully perky Sue, it always helps to have a friend there. I feel like I can fully understand the entirety of Lefflers, their products and services, of which there are many; I finally get it.

Did you know that they supply to the bookbinding crowd? That they have the most amazing Irish waxed linen thread, saddlery elastic from Lancashire (a place dear to the heart of my Dad), yellow waxy cowhide for making whips, it's a treasure trove. It always was, but now I can see it all clearly.

Go and visit!

Intellectual Property

I'm in contact with an awesome bunch of ladies who meet every second month, like an informal networking group, called Creative Women's Circle. These ladies are from many diverse backgrounds, including fashion, interior design, architecture, community work, DJing, events promotion, publishing, photography - you name it!

The first Creative Women’s Circle gathering for 2008 is this coming Saturday, excuse the short notice, here are the details.

Date: Saturday 9th February
Time: 11am – 1pm
Venue: MARS Gallery Café Space, (rear of gallery), 418 Bay Street, Port Melbourne
RSVP: By Thursday 7th February please to info@dearneherrenberg.com.au

Our topic for this get together is:

“Intellectual Property – What is it and why is it so important?”

Presented by IP lawyer and freelance writer Sharon Givoni. Sharon will bring along one of her clients, leather handbag creator Karin Heller, who owns the KIKKO Brand, to discuss how they worked together to protect her creative business.

She will also discuss trade marks, copyright, protecting ideas, and the limits to protecting ideas. This will be a valuable session for all our creatives, with ample time for interaction and questions.

Look forward to seeing you there, and as always please feel free to bring along some of your creations to “show and tell”!

What the elves did

Well this has been a real process of discovery. I've been commissioned to make two pairs of cowhide women's shoes, and a bikini a la Ursula Andress in Dr No, for a show in Sydney in March. We are talking cowhide with the hair still on.
So for the first time ever I have made my own insoles. Usually for myself I make flats or trainers, so insoles are easy, but when the heel gets higher a bit of reinforcement is needed. In the industry they are made using a lot of pressure, to bend the insole to the bottom curve of the last, plus don't forget there is a steel shank sandwiched between the layers.
Well I don't have a sole press, yet (I'm thinking of making one that doesn't run from an air compressor), but I do have determination, plus the valuable resource of my teacher Tim Skyrme's Shoemaking Book.
To cut to the chase I have used insole and sole leather, wet molded over the last, and for pressure I used a belt with my shoe anvil hanging off it - success!
I must say that this is one of my proudest moments, and I was a bit upset to have to cover them and hide them inside a shoe, but they are perfect. They are probably a bit overboard in the expensive materials category, I could have economised a bit, but they are all quality, and a testament to handmade.


Covered and ready to be lasted, they are a peep toe, very now, so at least you do get to see a bit of them.


So after a late night sneezing with all the cow hair floating around, listening to the abysmal result of the India 20/20 innings, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the elves had assisted in the lasting of these babies!


Now for heel covering and leaf sole making.....