I recently made up that word – “samplising” to cover the process of making samples, trying out new techniques and materials together, or new materials with old techniques, whatever. Some would call it “playing”, but to me it’s more than that, learning what stuff will do, thinking of other things to do as we go along as flashes of inspiration pop up; and what I have learned so far, in the past few days since recovering from jet lag and gathering my creative wits about me, is that:
- a leather punch can be a tool of fascinatingly creative potential…..and, with house guests who are very easy to have around, punching little dots out of leather is a wonderful thing to do while having drinkies out on the terrace early in the evening, while whoever is cooking does their thing.
- that the black suede printed with shiny dots which I bought in Aus really loves being rubbed over with metallic wax – the dots grab the wax far more strongly than does the suede….
- the grey suede with shiny elongated dots heavily stamped into it really likes the metallic wax too, but the surface of the dots and of the suede grab the wax MOL equally…
- Using a piece of sequin waste as a stencil for dots, using the miracle wax I found great joy in the result on knit-backed vinyl textured to look like a very fine lizard skin
- as a result I love the metallic wax, too …. how come it took me so long to discover this stuff?
Our current visitors are readers, and can go for long spells without feeling the need to fill every minute with talk, as some guests almost seem to feel is their obligation… mind you, we have known them nearly 4 decades. So, I have just finished reading Di Morrissey’s “Barra Creek” (loved it – very light but very strongly related to the northern Queensland setting and lifestyle depicted – took me right back to the Mt Isa days. Some time today I will start Robert Drewe’s “Grace” which was being discussed when I dropped in to visit my old book discussion group while visiting Aus recently. I hadn’t read the book but was so fascinated by their duscussion that, since they meet in a book store/cafe anywaywhere the book was staring down from the shelves at me, I bought it then and there.