Hollowware: Learning to fabricate

Our second project in Hollowware was to learn to solder joints, and make a 5 sided cube.

5 sided brass cube being held together with wire before soldering

 Although it looks relatively straight forward, the project is incredibly tricky, trying to get all angles at 90 degrees is more difficult than it looks!

And then there are the hours (literally) of sanding and polishing and elbow grease to get it to look like this....

Phew!

After learning how to make cubes we were given a project to design something that would hold an egg.

Starting with the basic concept of a cone, I explored many variations before coming up with this one.

Copper finished with green patina, and highly polished tentacles

The green patina then turned the most amazing purple from a couple of hours soaking in ammonia fumes.

Fun stuff and the purple was the most wonderful iridescent colour... and not even a colour our teacher had seen before either!

In the studio: making clay and casting moulds

I have been learning to make my own clays from scratch. This is a very exciting development because I generally buy my clays in big blocks that are ready to use. So far I have made a white porcelain clay for throwing and a white porcelain slip that both fire to cone 6.

Mixing the clay bodies

 I have also been creating complex (for me anyway!) four piece moulds of food tins.

Four piece mould of a small tin of tuna.

Four piece mould of a larger tin that contained ravioli - I think. 

The tins are a confutation of my exploration of the themes of pioneers. I am particularly interested in the notions of isolation, communication and what the first settlers were reduced to eat in new and inhospitable countries.

Watch this space as my ideas progress. Exciting! :)

Hello Beautiful

Hello beautiful!

Thats what I say every time I see Melbourne.

The streets of Melbourne

Everything is done so stylishly and effortlessly, from the graffiti in Hosier Lane in the CBD, woven wicker sculpture in Federation Square by Patrick Dougherty and a spot of tasteful yarn bombing just up the road, a project that was supported by the City Council.

Graffiti in Hosier Lane in the CBD

Wicker work in Federation Sqaure

Views of the City from inside the sculpture

Yarn bombing

And talking of tasteful, we indulged in a delicious slice of Chocolate Fig tart from the charming 19th Century Hopetoun Tea Rooms -  a real treat and a must if you are in the area. 

Chocolate Fig Tart

We spied some beautifully presented macaroons ...

Macaroons

and found some non homogenised milk by Jonesy's Dairy Fresh - and enjoyed scooping the cream floating in the top of the carton. Yum! Decadent top quality milk at regular prices (only $4 for 2 litres. I refuse to buy the cheap milk from Coles or Woolies)

Jonesy's non homogenised milk

By this stage we were travelling through the countryside and found a charming some charming scenes

and a fabulous shop that sold local produce and delicious home made cakes, including an intriguing Persian cake that was flavoured with cardamom. Unfortunately I was too full from lunch to indulge, but Ive found a similar recipe here.

Inside Cliffy's Emporium

Love letter from the resident jam maker - cute!

 And to top it off a National Trust plaque that reads:

"On this spot on the first day of March 1755 nothing much happened. It was a very, very peaceful day".

Craft-a-noon High Tea

 A letter arrived in the post late last year.....

It was an invitation to Craft-a-noon tea along with craft instructions and we were advised to bring along an old t-shirt (this was to cut up and shape into chrysanthemum flowers)

When I arrived the table was set with Gran's best crockery. (styling by Leah)

Followed by some flowers artfully arranged in an old jam jar (flowers styled by Sheridan)

Quickly followed by baked treats (there were also freshly cooked scones but they were eaten too quickly to get a photo)

And along came some more delicious goodies, on the left are greek delicacies, right Summer delight peach bites.

After we sampled all the goodies, followed by a good yarn about all things art, craft and design we got stuck into our craft project. 

The above is the result of a fun afternoon shared by all :) Im thinking I will turn my flower into a brooch.

Have a go!
- if you click on the instruction image it will be large enough to read, and you can see they are quite simple. All you need is an old t-shirt, scissors, needle and thread, delicious baked goodies and a group of lovely friends.

oh, and dont forget the champagne.

Kx

Keeping Cool

Happy New Year!

Well, the new year has arrived along with summer. After a few 'English' summers in a row (where the temp stays around a perfect 25 degrees with lots of rain i.e my sort of weather) a fair dinkum Aussie summer is here.

Cicadas chrip, the days heat up to about 40 degrees whilst the nights stay warm and balmy. Weather like this makes me think the Spanish got it right with their siestas during the hottest part of the day, which then gives them the energy to stay up all night enjoying the cooler air.

My Paris Balcony print on linen

One way I have been keeping cool is wearing summer shift dresses - I have made some more in fabrics designed and printed by yours truly.

Ive worn the Paris Balcony dress a number of times already and love it. Its received plenty of compliments, including random people on the streets :)

My Red knit print on cotton

The Red Knit dress is almost finished. Im looking forward to wearing it to see what sort of reaction I get from people since the design and colour is quite bold.

Some other great tips to keep cool this summer include:

- soak your feet in a bucket of cold water (this is also a great opportunity to give yourself a pedicure)
- eat some of Jamie Oliver's 1 minute berry icecream - not only cooling, it tastes good and is good for you too!
- get up early and enjoy the cool summer mornings in the garden before the day gets too hot.
- cool down in the evenings by watering the garden and water yourself at the same time :)
- enjoy a movie and air conditioning at the cinema

My week in images

Monday: Scenic views

Tuesday: At work

Wednesday: glaze testing

Thursday: designing 

Friday: trying out new recipes

Saturday: champagne, coffee, cake and knitting with friends

Sunday: coffee in the sunshine

Its Delightful, Its Delicious, Its Delovely

The theme for today's post is inspired by Woody Allen's movie 'Midnight in Paris'. A delightful and magical tale where present day characters step back in time to 1920s Paris. Cole Porter and his music feature (along with many prominent artists and authors) which prompted me to go out and get some of his music. Its catchy, and ever since I have been humming his songs.

Its delightful ......

In desperate need of a coffee and cake fix - Mum and I escaped to Benedict House for a slice of quince and almond tart and passionfruit cheese cake in the delightful outside courtyard which had a very Provence feel about it.

Its delicious ......

I finished making the ginger beer that I started last week. Its hard to tell in this photo, but it had bubbles and everything. And it tasted just like the real thing. This kept us going all weekend whilst we renovated a little cottage.

Its delovely ......

Some of you know about my house addiction. These are some before and after photos of my latest house project. Its old (of course) and cute, although it needed a little TLC.

Before: the hall. 

 Everything needed a serious clean from smoke stains on the walls and ceiling. Gross!

Before: the bedroom 

The renovation team (aka Mum and my sister Sim) hard at work.

 

Because I am the tallest I get all the fun jobs, like cleaning and painting the ceilings!

Before: the lounge room

After: the bedroom. No more blue walls

After: the hall way. 

 The pine paneling was painted which made such a difference and made the house feel much 'lighter'.

After: the Kitchen. 

After: the lounge room. Freshly painted everything!

This is the view from the kitchen window. Cute!

Sketches on Ceramics

This week I have been:

Sketching scenes of my house onto ceramics for my upcoming solo show at the Brunswick Street Gallery in Melbourne at the end of the March.

Kitchen Series

These are scenes painted in underglaze - the next step is to glaze them with a clear porcelain glaze. Im a little nervous about this next step as the blue underglaze can run if the gloss is too thick... they're in the kiln as we speak. Fingers crossed they turn out ok

Window scene of my kitchen

Sewing some of my fabrics into bags ...

Pink Bitsa Bag www.madeit.com.au/kateward

 Experimenting making my own ginger beer from scratch. The recipe is really easy its:

1tsp sugar
1 tsp dried ginger
1 sachet dried yeast
1 cup warm water.

combine in a large jar and cover with muslin (in my case chux - new and unused)

for the next 8 days add 1 tsp sugar and 1 tsp dried ginger.
(Im still at this stage)

After 8 days you divide the liquid into 2 (its now called a ginger beer plant) and you can give one to a friend or use one part to continue feeding the ginger beer plant and with the other half turn it into drinkable ginger beer.

Ginger beer plant 

To make up the ginger beer this is what you do:

Mix together:

4 cups water

24 cups warm water (this is probably about 5-6 litres)

1/2 cup strained lemon juice

then add the ginger beer plant. Bottle and seal. It should be ready to drink in about a week.

I'll let you know how it tastes!

green tomatoes 

 Ive given up hoping that my green tomatoes will ripen this year. With the continuing wet weather I was afraid they would rot on the vine. So Ive just turned them into green tomato pickle using this recipe from the ABC. As is my way of cooking, Ive 'kate-ified' it by adding some stewed crab apples and my own homemade version of curry powder.

This is what it looks like......yum. I love all the tomato seeds scattered throughout the chutney.
I plan to eat this with chunks of cheese and bread.