Forever Blowing Bubbles…

You all know the way that old tune goes.  My song, if ever I have one, goes…I’m forever sorting photos, tra la la la.

In late 2019, I decided that my current photo sorting system (if indeed, it was a system) was not working.  My plan to stick to location as the guiding principle did not work as well as I had hoped and I began to lose track of exactly where I was in this maze of a collection.  So, the realisation that it would be far gentler on the brain cells if it was sorted by year, slowly began to take shape. 

First of course, were many, many sessions at the altar of YouTubers, many of whom had excellent ideas and helped me to picture what my work-around would mean and how it would look.  I did have a few setbacks though, one of which was to try renaming photos (not a good idea for me, it turned out!) and another was to eliminate all those dreadful photos.  Fine if you’re a professional, not so good for me making travel memories.  To know yourself and have goals is important.

Northern New South Wales coast to deliver a birthday quilt

I began sorting with the earliest backups I had (something else I wasn’t good at) from photos taken in 2004 when I went digital (sort of).  I had managed to lose some from trips away that could now sadly, never be recovered.  There were also successes.  This deep dive into old collections allowed me to find photos missing from a London visit with my cousin and his family.  The biggest problem I had was not fully understanding how Picasa stored original files when edits were made.  So, losses of these originals were many and I’m not sure that all have been found, but at least I’ve tried.  What did really help me sort my photos was to keep original file numbers, if I could.  Order (numerical) in chaos, thankfully.

After the demise of Picasa, I moved on to Lightroom – that’s a whole new level of learning experience for you!  I actually do like its capabilities, enabling me to sort by date and time at a minimum.  And of course, another round of YouTubers to help me become familiar with it.  A special mention should go to the whole Covid experience that ensured, during lockdowns, that I moved forward with this project of 48,000 photos.  Last year, I managed easily to assemble all Year 2022 photos and back them up on multiple hard drives that are set aside just for my photo inventory. 

Adelaide's Art Gallery showcased Textiles
including those by Sera Waters

Of course, I’m still not done yet.  There are many files of photos that need double checking, just to be sure I’ve not missed any.  And one should not forget the boxes and albums of old-school photos and slides awaiting my attention. 

One question though, that I have yet to resolve for myself, is whether to shoot raw.  I’m perfectly happy with JPG for now, and my plan is to eventually make travel photo books for my family.  Another task that awaits is to start editing; selecting the very best from each year and to add family detail that will help future family learn how we lived in the 21^st century (if indeed they can access our digital archives!).  So, for now, I guess it’s back to YouTube then!

Loving a visit to Adelaide to break the photo sorting monotony

Learning from Others

Yes, sigh, I know; nothing for ages and then two posts in one day.  I've spent the day consolidating my list of outstanding posts going back now ONLY to 2015.  I will get there, eventually.  Whilst so diligently engaged, I found this post from a visit to the Portimao Museum, Portugal in 2011 and thought it worthwhile revisiting in light of my OTS (quilts-by-me blog) and other artistic endeavours.   

Portimao: Photo Marathon.  The Portimao Museum had organised a Photo Marathon Competition (2011) and on our visit we were fortunate to see the creative results.  Firstly there were 2 categories – Underwater (serious underwater camera work) and Digital.  Each category was then broken down into a series of themes to which the entrants had to produce 3 A4 sized photos.  Digital for example, had 8 themes and therefore needed to produce 24 photos.  These photos were simply mounted on card (no frames) and exhibited in theme order.

Seeing them made me understand why the winner had been chosen.  His work was essentially the tightest – all photos were portrait, all perfect close-ups that complemented each other, of subjects that spoke clearly of each theme yet related well as a whole.  The colours were bold and dramatic subject lighting was well balanced throughout.  In this way the whole worked as a complete presentation, flowing well as a design, almost mosaic like in quality, which fitted the surrounding old city (and its pavings).

Being a quilter I got a little caught up in this project.  A big part of working in textiles is taking the time to stand back, balancing the “pieces” or blocks into a well-balanced whole.  So, I learned quite a lot about the value of working in series; imagining connections between a single work, a series or indeed of a larger body of work – just like an artistic mind map.  Fascinating.

I sadly don’t have any photos of these photographic works at the Museum (no photos allowed) so I’ve included some general ones from their collection instead to add to the watery theme.

(By the way, I hope the new Tag boxes make searching easier...)

A Rainbow on Every Corner

Venice, Italy

4-17^th July 2015

Bird's Eye View from the Campanile di San Marco

Riding the Grand Canal in a Vaporetto

Beguiling Venice!  It’s so easy to be overwhelmed in Venice, especially in July – the heat intensified by huge crowds, many in holiday mode.  It’s a frenetic pace, and an island repository of visually stunning beauty housing amazing art & history in every corner, not to mention wondrous structures, old and new.  So, I quite forgot my textile challenge and, as nothing especially reminded me until we stepped off the vaporetto on Burano, I felt quite chastened.

Of course, when I say few textiles, I’m not counting rows of Italian designer boutiques, mansions crammed with all things evocative of wealth and power, religious vestments or art festivals aplenty.  It’s just that it fits in, a hand and glove story if you will, becoming part of Venice’s bold statement about itself, and you don’t want to unravel the strands.

Luxurious Velvet & Textiles on Ceremonial Gondola_Naval Museum

Only the Best Furnishings_Querini Stampalia Museum & Gallery

Mansions are full of great tapestries, lush curtains, upholstery and bedding, complimented by the sheen of silk wallpapers.  Soaring cathedrals and modest basilicas alike are adorned with humble cloth transformed into resplendent precious pieces, heavy in embroidered gold and silver threads. Have I mentioned glass?  Famous Murano is just across the lagoon and its Glass Museum (Museo del Vetro) positively drips with crystalline decadence.  I think I’ve found the modern-day home of Odysseus’s Sirens!

 

Another take on a self-guided tour of traditional fabrics of Venice can be found on this VeneziaSi site.  Yet another site (link) has a brief summary of textile history that I really wish I had read when planning my trip.  This way I might have at least discovered Cà Mocenigo and the Museum of Textiles and Costume.  Grrrr!

Punting the Inner Canals in a Gondola

A Brush with Fame

I was fortunate to see a travelling exhibition of Spanish Surrealist, Salvador Dali’s works in Dubrovnik.  It was quite refreshing to be allowed to take photos; thankfully someone’s realized the marketing potential of blogs and social media!

Speaking of marketing, Dali’s eccentric behaviour was another golden arrow in his quiver of talents.  In brief, Salvador Dali’s (1904-1989) life story makes for interesting reading.  He was a consummate showman and a great technical artist with a vivid imagination.  One famous quote that resonates for me when viewing his work is simply put: “Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.” 

 

Dali’s best known work is perhaps, “Persistence of Memory”, those melting clocks that at once captivate then frighten.  We though, were lucky enough to see the fabulous Mae West lips, translating sexy into functional and, at the exhibition, a range of his captivating prints.  Some were for sale!  My quick talking however failed to make an impression on my “man with the wallet”.  I obviously need to learn more from Dali.

You might enjoy this fabulous site WikiArt.

Captivated by the Dali Exhibition

Reminiscing

Corfu
12^th August 2014

Various pot-shots are seen on the façade to the right

While exploring the narrow cobbled streets of Corfu Town, we walked into an exhibition of Asian artefacts in the Palace of SS Michael & George. It was a stunning collection with a huge photo of my favourite building, the Taj Mahal. This was also an instant reminder of how much we were missing home. 

We moved through the exhibition halls and watched a young local lad absorbed in photographing everything in the museum, curtains and fireplaces included.  He’s either a budding Nat Geo photographer or a very cool cat burglar!.  Included in the display were a couple of very fine Uzbeki silk ikat coats and some small, hand-woven carpets.

Another hall held some delightful drawings of Corfu from the 1800’s.  Particularly interesting were the drawn versions of today’s panoramic photographs.  The artists' take on perspective was inspiring to say the least.  (Sadly, no photos were allowed.)  The building itself is being restored and the grandeur, both internally and externally of the Venetian building is evident.  At the front though, it is possible to see the damage done from cannon and rifle fire during turbulent times.   Its setting between the fort and town with a wonderful green park to the front allow us some understanding of how life must have been for those fortunate to be Corfu nobility.

Whilst Shopping in Gosford

Caroline Bay Quilters

I'm not sure how I found out about it but the Gosford Regional Art Gallery (in itself a wonderful place to visit) had a showing of quilts in early April this year.  Of course, I should have been getting ready for Sunday's lunch - I had the Randwick Girls up for a little Island time.  But I remembered I had to do a bit of "shopping" on Saturday and skived off early to catch this lovely exhibition by the Caroline Bay Quilters.

I'm going to try to get a place at Quiltsmith to do Linda Butcher's fabulous Tea Caddy Parade Quilt.  Just perfect for my Indian friendship blocks (waiting patiently in the UFO box).  Lovely show, lots of hard work!

Blue & White Heaven

Arimatsu Shibori: Heritage Dyes

Our trip to visit Arimatsu of course came with many pleasures.  One was another ride on the Shinkansen to Nagoya (1 hour) before hopping on a local train to Arimatsu, blue & white heaven.

On the road again....

Arimatsu is a small former post town on the Tokaido, the old trade route connecting Tokyo and Kyoto.  Settled as early as 1608 by order of the Owari (a samurai clan), it was the 42^nd station; one of the government sanctioned stops between the two cities.  Hiroshige made a number of prints of this famous town.  Takeda Shokuro pioneered the craft of shibori as way for the small town to make an income from the many travellers. 

The main street of the old quarter has glimpses of its celebrated past.  Lined with dark timber houses typical of its Edo era beginnings, the area is most worthy of its cultural heritage endorsements. Fine preserved merchant houses accommodate a museum, kimono stores and fabric shops, including a Japanese patchwork shop.  We visited as many as we could, starting with the Arimatsu Narumi Shibori Kaikan.

This was a streetscape scene

Arimatsu is celebrated as a centre for shibori, a tie dye (resist) technique perfected to a fine art over many years of practice. Fabrics are folded, wrapped, tied, stitched and twisted to make amazing patterns.  Traditionally indigo (blue) was used but now it is not unusual to see many colours.   The process involves a number of steps, traditionally divided into male and female tasks.  Designs are prepared, templates cut and then carefully printed onto cotton cloth. 

Generally, a kimono piece is a narrow 14” wide
by 13 yards (12m) as shown 

These patterns are then tied – a process that can take up to several months.  Once ready for dyeing, the fabrics are dunked into vats of dye. Then the process of undoing all those knots – another 3 to 4 days of work in some cases, reveals beautiful patterns. Some special pieces are submitted to a number of dye baths to produce subtle yet stunning pieces. 

I found an interesting web site, ohmyhandmade with links that explain the process of shibori and offer tutorials.  Hmm, well, I’ll just add that to the “Things to Do List” for Ron (much later ron!). 

Of course, our obsessive fabric shopping did not stop with Arimatsu.  We backtracked to Nagoya to hit a few contemporary fabric stores.  Sadly our budget had been blown and a tempting large department store would only take cash.  We were nearly out of money!  So, after returning to Kyoto on late train and in order to preserve our dwindling funds for any unexpected treasures in the two tour days we had remaining, we had soup and rolls for dinner.  Very noble indeed!

Home at Last

Across the Bowling Green

It’s nice to be home again!  Especially as we have completed the worst of our renovations and can (almost) start to live in our entire house.  For some years now it’s been 1/3 living, 1/3 storage and 1/3 renovation.  A moving feast over 5 or 6 years and we are both just about over it!  One of this year’s tasks for me is soft covers, cushions and curtains so I’m looking forward to a bit of sewing time.  The garden shed, with its new timber floor, timber blinds and paint job is ready for action since its makeover (and cleanout) before we left earlier this year.

Kookie knows we're home

This time of year is so wonderful and the island is resplendent with its fresh lavender coat.  The jacarandas are flowering madly.  We’ve had a few bush visitors already and were especially pleased to welcome a large blue tongue lizard and a scratching bush turkey into our yard.  Even the possum is still bumbling and crashing his way across our rooftop in the early evenings.  The Cap’n is now driving a mulcher instead of a boat and the kookaburras couldn’t be happier.  Easy snacks reveal themselves in the leaf compost.  All in a day’s work!  Add to this the squawk of the channel billed cuckoo in the tree tops and we’ve quite a menagerie to host.

Our Bush Turkey's cousin who has a cushie job at Australia Zoo 

This month the Café is hosting an exhibition of aprons.  I did manage to get one finished in time but made it into a quilt.  Of course!  Some years ago friend Yvonne had given us a challenge “stash buster” and since then I’d added a few similar pieces to the collection. Its “I’d rather be quilting” theme seemed just right for an apron-shaped wall hanging. When it came time to quilt the apron, I remembered back to the days of feeding hungry boys.  Bottomless pits.  “What’s for dinner, Mum”, a regular refrain, is now stitched in with lots of menu ideas too.  A reminder of fun times & their favourite meals!....

Go Wild for Museums

Casablanca: Villa des Arts is a converted art deco (1930's) building and well worth the trip to see for the building alone.  Currently used as an exhibition space.

Villa des Arts Casablanca

Rabat: Oudaias Museum is a little gem, situated in the larger complex of Mouley Ishmail's 17^th lodge and gardens.  The most interesting exhibit was the jewellery collection arranged in styles typical to various areas in Morocco.  (Sadly, no photos allowed). 

Oudaias Museum Rabat

Marrakesh: Private museum, Maison Tiskiwin (Bert Flint collection). A textile lover's heaven with some stunning examples.

Maison Tiskiwin Marrakesh

Marrakesh: Jardin Marjorelle, the former studio of French artist Jacques Marjorelle is a combination of sensory gardens, vividly painted buildings and a museum of textiles and clothing. 

Jardin Marjorelle Marrakesh

Chefchaouen: Small but interesting collection housed inside the Kasbah.  We found some rather nice samples of embroidery and costume.

Kasbah Chefchaouen

El Khorbat: Located in the Todra Valley, this amazing ksah (fortress) at Tinejdad houses an extensive Berber Museum.  It is well worth investigating if only to get lost in the maze of rooms inside the complex.  (We had lunch here and agreed that it would be a wonderful place to have stayed  - maybe next time! Info link for gite and museum.)

El Khorbat

A short but reasonable summary of Moroccan Museums that I found useful when planning our visit can be found here. 

Designing Matters in Portugal

Terciera Museum

Azores: Azulejos.  Blue and white tiles – what more can I say?  Introduced by the Moors in the 15^th c this popular form of decorating both internal and external walls is still popular today.  Rather than explain the history of azulejos, you best check out wiki.   These are just a few of the ones we saw during our stay in the Azores.  I would have happily replaced tonnes of lead ballast with tile, but sadly the captain reneged on this plan. 

Cascais: Paving.  We were taken by traditional pavings of basalt and limestone pieces meticulously set by craftsmen in amazing designs.  Of course, these artistic pavements are not limited to the narrow streets of old town Cascais. We first made their acquaintance in the Azores.  Ships and sea motifs are quite common in this art that has been practised long before Greek and Roman times.

This is Horta in the Azores.  Cascais had similar pavings

Lisbon: Manueline Architecture (1490-1520).  Who could not be attracted to the excesses of Manueline style?  Elaborate, rich, excessive are terms that slip easily off the tongue when describing this mix of Renaissance & Gothic motifs.  Lisbon of course, is the centre of excellence when it comes to definitive examples of this fine style.

Sines: Roman Ruins.  Although more famous as the birthplace of Vasco da Gama, one of the first to make incredible and slow voyage to India, Sines has hidden treasures inside the medieval district that predate this event.  We’re talking fragments of nearby Roman settlements.  These pieces, 2000 years old, can be found in their compact Archaeological Museum of course.  Romans were the wanderlusts of their time and they build fine cities with many functional and beautiful features.  Nearby, an excavated Mirobriga stands as a testament to these skills.  Interestingly, Sines claims even earlier Iron Age settlements.  As we sat on the beach near our anchorage, sipping our evening “sundowners” and contemplating the meaning of life, we wondered how many others before us had walked on the sand and sailed its seas.  A quiet moment for some almost mind-bending reflection…. 

Old Portimao

Portimao: Photo Marathon.  

The Portimao Museum had organised a Photo Marathon Competition (2011) and on our visit we were fortunate to see the creative results.  Firstly there were 2 categories – Underwater (serious underwater camera work) and Digital.  Each category was then broken down into a series of themes to which the entrants had to produce 3 A4 sized photos.  Digital for example, had 8 themes and therefore needed to produce 24 photos.  These photos were simply mounted on card (no frames) and exhibited in theme order. 

Ceramics on exhibition at
the Portimao Museum 2011

Seeing them made me understand why the winner had been chosen.  His work was essentially the tightest – all photos were portrait, all perfect close-ups that complemented each other, of subjects that spoke clearly of each theme yet related well as a whole.  The colours were bold and dramatic subject lighting was well balanced throughout.  In this way the whole worked as a complete presentation, flowing well as a design, almost mosaic like in quality, which fitted the surrounding old city (and its pavings).

Being a quilter I got a little caught up in this project.  A big part of working in textiles is taking the time to stand back, balancing the “pieces” or blocks into a well-balanced whole.  

So, I learned quite a lot about the value of working in series; imagining connections between a single work, a series or indeed of a larger body of work – just like an artistic mind map.  Fascinating. I sadly don’t have any photos of these photographic works at the Museum so I’ve included some general ones around Portimao instead.

Could that be a fishing boat?  Arade River, Portimao