Ali George Artist

The paler side of intense orange and blue transitions in my hand dyes led my to the almost washed out pinkiness of muted oranges. Definitely not my idea of making a statement, yet they carry quite the story for one of my exhibition quilts - tales of trees and log cabins. Enjoying the process, the experiments and the constant learning in this exhibition adventure.  

For years I've been dyeing and hand printing most of the fabrics I use in my practice. Each piece has been unique and, to an extent, difficult to replicate. I wanted to bring my drawings, prints and doodles to life and this is the first. I really like the feel of Spoonflower's Petal Signature Cotton, although the background would have been better as pure white - this piece has a blue-ish tone. I'm going to love putting this piece under the needle.  

Stormy weather nearly every day has kept me inside. This week I went back to paid employment after nearly 5 months away to move house, set up studios and offices, study and generally stay sane. Lots of time to reflect, to be still in the afternoons and listen to the grumble of thunder, or watch rain bursts fall over the mountains.  Now that I'm fully functioning (well almost) in the studio / office space it has made a huge difference to establish my routines and settle into them like falling into an overpadded lounge chair. The last 5-10 minutes of every visit is set aside to put everything back in its place, to tidy, sort, prepare and clean up before the lights go out, the fan slows to stillness and the sliding doors meet in the middle to signal the end of another day.  It's now time to be gentle, and keep the promise to myself of stress free Christmas holiday. We're unplugging, as far as we can, from the digital world and have banned phones at the table during meals, conv...

This week saw some creative repurposing. I returned several old books and a magazine to the trees - an older book on art history, a Steinbeck - Travels with Charley - and a gallery magazine. A few stars yet to be mounted and that is the Christmas / festive decorating effort for 2023. Another book, published in New Zealand (and no surprise given its quality) is The Untamed Thread. Sumptuous and one of the few that hooks into the soul from page one. A joy to flip through a friend's copy and now patiently waiting on my copy to arrive. It's going to be a brilliant and creative holiday.  

My mark making exerciseon fabric produced a delicate set of signs and symbols. I then repeated the exerciseon paper, folding each edge to ensure all marking carried across the page so make a seamless (no punintended) repeat pattern. This was then scanned and cleaned up before uploading to a fabric printing website. I ordered small sample pieces (a must before ordering or offering the fabric for sale). I got the scale wrong. It needs to be a much smaller version of the characters - I feel these have pixelated somewhat. Great learning and  another round of samples being ordered.Once I'm happy with both the fabric type and the pattern scale, anyone will be able to order fabric or made up pieces including doona covers, table mats and table napkins.