Ali George Artist

Our get-together saw us heading to Ikea for some additional storage space and  ideas for our fabric design. Aside from the list (always a Kalax with inserts) we found great plastic sheets that are textured on one side, smooth on the reverse and perfect for a lot of our printing. Take two please! We work with our own fabrics, our own designs and it's great to walk around the textiles area and look at the shapes, the scale, colourways of different fabrics. No time for coffee just a quick trip with a list and lots of "oh wow" before we headed back to Forest Lake. My putting-it-together skills with Ikea are such that the new storage cabinet was put together in under 30 minutes. The final boxes are unpacked and now I just need to sort everything into logical spaces and places. Another day ...

  Life is falling into place. We're finally back home. The home studio is still being tweaked and the office area is now distinct  from the sewing area which is separated from the reading / handstitching chair and the storage/bookshelves/resources area. It's been worth the wait and over the coming months we'll remember what we've put in which drawer or cupboard and wear the space as our own.

Moving fortnight, rather than a day. We've loaded the vehicles and made the round trip each morning until only the heavy things were left for those with younger backs a.k.a the removalists.  The advantage seemed to be in unpacking each box each trip so that when the "big day" arrived, everything was in its place except the studio. Not sure how the majority of boxes, crates and cases were labelled "studio" and it felt like the Sorcerer's Apprentice - never ending boxes from seemingly nowhere. Unpacking is a chance to renew an old acquaintance with materials and objects not seen since they were stored 2+ years ago. It begs the question about whether I need any of it given I've managed to create in a confined space while we waited for the build. Everything is being reviewed for the joy it brings, why it is in the box, what I will do with it, or can I thank it for its service and find a new home? A long, hard and muscle-wearying experience, but one that the ...

  Another catchup with Rebecca and some serious planning for our end of 2024 exhibition. apart from creating gallery worthy pieces, we need to consider the exhibition space, and how we can use it to its best advantage. We have been considering our general theme, the things that unite us in style, size, colour, scale and shape, and what will bring the exhibition gravitas, what will our "wow factor" be? We're also considering related activities, workshops, artist talks, the "shop", how we best involve visitors and give them the best experience we can.  Hard work, that we both enjoy in the planning stage, as much as the independent making phase.  I can't wait to move into the new house and get the indoor studio established - then the work and magic will really begin.

  The annual benefit auction is nearly upon us - it's SAQA's major fundraiser for the year. Member artists create a 30cm x 30cm (12" x 12") art piece and donate to the annual auction. My piece (see below) is well on its way to the US and I can't wait to see the other 380+ pieces. I've been a member, on and off, for more than a decade including some time as the Oceania rep. I learned so much from the organisation, from other artists and attended the 2012 joint conference with the Surface Design Association in Philadelphia. A life- and art-changing trip for me and the friendships made all those years ago, endure to this day. Still inspired, still loving being a textile and mixed media artist. The auction starts September 14 through October 8  at saqa.com/auction

 It's not often we get to design a room "from scratch". Aside from the necessity to have clean clothes and bed linen, there's a lot of textile and fabric design that happens across the hall in the main studio area. So the tub had to be stainless steel, and large enough to take 4-5 metres of fabric at a time. I needed hanging space immediately above the sink which also is neat for hanging wet shirts and human-worn textiles. White-ish stone benchtop - so I see what I'm doing, and long enough to do all the folding and sorting of fabrics (and clothing). Overhead cupboards to store dyes, paints, printing supplies, chemicals, and everything else required in a wet studio. Lots of light - splashback tiles that reflected as much natural light as possible into the space (same deal for the kitchen). Tall  (aka broom) cupboards to take all manner of equipment including a recharging station and power points for operating the Elna press and another iron when the dyeing is done....

  Each week, I get together with Rebecca and we do "something" related to our art. This week we walked the lake at Forest Lake, looking for texture, line, scale and just being present in the space. I love the imagery of walking, and also the smells, sounds and general traffic around the walking tracks.  We seemed to walk for ages and talked for longer. I always come away inspired and recharged after a visit. This week we discussed exhibition spaces and contemplated the merits of and differences between the more common way of exhibiting quilts at craft and quilt shows, with seeing textile art as an integral part of the fine arts and deserving of gallery space in its own right.