As a prelude to the Ozquilt conference and AGM at the national Wool Museum in Geelong last month, I took a design workshop presented by well known Australian designer and textile artist Jan Mullen  We were asked to take along papers of all kinds plain and printed (but it was only a one-day w/s and I was travelling, so really did limit myself here, which was fine) We took along also our own choice of various kinds of mark makers like pens, crayons, pencils, water colour paints, felt tip pens and more.  I included some gorgeous glitter glue in 6 strong colours, some metallic pencils plus bronze silver and gold marker pens – all stuff I didn’t already have and had never tried – why not!  I added a couple of remaindered magazines for $1 each in case I needed them for cutting and pasting, and I did use bits from one.

Several objects from the Museum’s collection of things associated with the Australian Wool Industry and its history were laid out for us to use as the starting point for Jan’s design approach which formed the basis of this workshop.  We were reminded of the importance of getting to know an object and its characteristics via many ways of recording it – drawing and photographing from various angles, and the value of writing of lists of words and phrases to record our own thoughts and responses to the object – the back story – were all part of the study on how an object can be the starting point for a design.  Some of this approach was familiar to me as being part of the way I work, but other parts of the approach were new and thought provoking.

A spiral of canvas rubber and metal pins described as a carding strap was eye catching ( it was wound round a revolving drum and removed particulate matter from the raw wool fibres)  Photos were one way of recording it – however as we were able to handle these objects, there are lists of words and phrases too of how it felt in my hand.  It wasn’t as heavy as it looked.  To someone interested in line and shape, this was intriguing – 

The other object that really caught my eye was a huge book, essentially a catalogue or scrap book, containing snippets of the fabric samples produced by one woollen manufacturer over many years, revealing change in taste and fashion as they were glued in and annotated each year. These samples separated the pages out, producing some lovely linear patterns –   

The drawing and writing while really looking at these photo images suggest lots of things I could do with each of them. I may or may not use them directly in the future, but the whole exercise of the workshop – observing, recording and thinking about associations these objects suggested, did re-enforce and expand my ideas – such is the value of occasionally attending a design workshop.  Jan’s was fun and relaxing, her material was well organised and well presented – everyone had a great day – so take a workshop with her some time if you can!

Nearing the end of a recent visit to Australia, I had a sunday afternoon to fill in Melbourne before boarding an early morning flight to return to Montevideo UY.  My hotel was right beside Melbourne’s Chinatown district, so after a yummy lunch of duck something, I set off to check out the Chinese Museum nearby.  I confess I really don’t know Melbourne well, and had no idea or had forgotten, that there was a Chinatown or a Chinese museum in the state capital.  It is a nice small museum, set up and sponsored by prominent members of the Chinese community in Melbourne and other centres around Victoria.

I particularly liked the videos of Chinese immigrants and their descendants from several generations sharing memories and views on how they and Chinese people generally have fared in Australia since arriving in big numbers during the Victorian gold rushes of the 1850’s which were repeated around the country over the following 80 years. Immigration is currently a hot topic in Aus, and always has been since the arrival of The First Fleet in 1788.

There was much to see, but early on this beautiful object caught my eye, initially for the gorgeous shapes of the dragons – were they handles? But then the rich colours and touches of gold grabbed me;  and finally I became intrigued by the little open mouthed frogs arranged around the base, and puzzled over what it could all mean! When I found and read the didactic panel about it I was blown away to learn this is a replica of an ancient seismograph invented in the C1st AD, a creative and inventive device to record tremors and earthquakes, and indicate the direction from which the vibrations came. This was the product of a highly educated mind, and the Chinese are well known for their advanced material culture compared with European and Mediterranean civilisations of that era.

It always interests me how at any one time in the known history of  mankind kind there is such disparate development of civilisations between one region/continent and another.  My highschool history courses were very Euro- and Anglo- centered and presented by one of the most boring teachers of the day (early 1960’s, in a conservative church-run girls’ school in Tasmania, the most conservative state in our country)  Miss Rooney, rest her kind soul, never made any mention of the wonders of China, the Indian subcontintent, or the highly advanced pre-Columbian civilisations of the Americas, let alone the fabulous kingdoms of Africa.  And she certainly never suggested how we budding world citizens might find ourselves fitting into the ever-shifting scheme of things.