Geelong

I'm taking 2 precious days out of my residency to give Dougie some assistance to Geelong and Melbourne. I love these sculptures down by the waterfront at Geelong and I was amused by the tourist sign.

Cycling from Braddon to Kingston

The main part of my cycle path between Braddon and Kingston is around Lake Burley Griffin. I love cycling under these trees, can't wait to see them come Autumn.

stick moulds

similar to last year, but taking notes of sizes. Being more scientific!

Cutest seal pics so far

Second seal head

I have been pinning and saving lots of seal images. They really are cute, I find my self gushing over some of the images.....awwwww...and none of them are baby harp seals. Posted are some of the stages of my second clay seal head.

Selkie project

This is the second seal head that I have attempted, improvement I think. One flipper also complete. The flipper I decided to make the plaster silica cast right away, but the head took longer so I made a clay bonnet (see pic...and that is not a technical term) and tried out a silicon pouring mixture.

In Karen's sewlutions jar...yikes!

I have committed myself, via Karen's (of 'didyoumakethat') sewlutions jar to knit myself a cardigan. Whilst glass is my usual medium of choice I do like to make 'soft' things too. I have been able to knit for at least 20 years, but I've never gone beyond hats, scarves or the odd fingerless mitten. Karen's jar seemed to be an ideal way to make sure this happened this year. Her blog has quite a high readership so the pressure is on!

So...progress? Well it is summer right now and quite a hot one at that, but I have decided on a yarn and a pattern (which I have now bought and downloaded)

The yarn is from Tanis Fibre Arts, I think I would go with the poppy, but their colours are so gorgeous I'm having trouble deciding. (edit; I ended up going to a wool fair in Canberra and buying something there)

The pattern is Audrey in Unst by Gudrun Johnston, I was inspired by Tasia of Sewaholic's version.

Graduate in Residence at Canberra Glassworks

Today is the start of a four week residency at the Canberra Glassworks. The Glassworks has 4 GiR's (Graduate in Residence...pronounced as 'grrrrs') this year; Pamela Manning from Monash, Melbourne / Lucy Palmer from Uni S.A, Adelaide, South Australia / Alex Frasersmith from ANU, Canberra, ACT and myself (Spike Deane from SCA, Sydney, NSW).



We each submitted a project proposal, we have access to the glassworks 7 days a week from 8-5.30 and $500 worth of equipment hire a week. and conversations with all the artists coming and going

Today was a bit of a blur of introductions and inductions combined with a growing sense of excitement after seeing all the fabulous facilities available.

I have recently moved to Canberra (no fixed address as yet) and I have, in response to all the cycle paths in this town bought a bicycle. Today I cycled to and from the Glassworks...and even ventured at times on to the road.

Research quote of the day

Transformation

The wonder tale and the fairy tale are, in essence, transformative narratives on transformation. On the one hand, both their narrative patterns and metatextual variations convey dynamics of change rather than a static framework; on the other, their themes hinge on processes of initiation and metamorphosis. thus the form and contents of wonder tales concur in conveying a transformational pattern of thought.


Greenwood encyclopaedia of folk tales & fairy tales edited by Donald Haase
p.982

I had hoped to have access to this wonderful 3 volume resource last year, finally in the National Library I get to see it in the flesh.

Grad show photo's

and I like this one too...

Gradshow photo's

I'm slowly recovering from the aftermath of effort that was getting my installation complete. Dylan Esguerra from the MDA studio took photographs, one of which is... one view from my installation piece "The Wolf I knew, would lead me..." (after Carol Ann Duffy)

I was madly still installing on the day (and evening) of the show, so I was no where as organised as I was last year. So no photo's of my own of the rest of the glass studio...yet. Reminder to self..go take photo's.

All done

Well I suppose I will have to change the focus of this blog, now that 4 years of Uni is over. While I wait for results and photo's...I have bought 3 books today. Margo Lanagan's 'Sea hearts', Fiona McIntosh's 'The scrivner's tale' (ebooks) and 'The Snow Child' by Eowyn Ivey in paper back. Just about to go and mind the gradshow exhibition in the glass studio on a rainy day with a new book. Sounds good!

progress

Writing quote of the day

This rather long quote is most of the last paragraph from J.C.Cooper's 'Fairy Tales: Allegories of Inner Life'.

"The tales meet the deep-seated psychic and spiritual needs of the individual as myth does for the race; both follow traditional lines and obey universal laws of symbolism. Through them runs the constant motif of man’s struggle to find his true worth, his inner self, his place in the universe. The themes deal with creation, paradise lost and regained, the union of the opposites, initiation, the conflict between the powers of good and evil, the meaning of life, a meaning which can vary from the moral and social to the psychological or the mythological and spiritual according to each person’s interpretation and needs.

But, psychological or spiritual, the chief motif is that of initiation and integration, the transformation of man himself by himself with supernatural aid, the transition from the mortal to the immortal in the ever-recurring cycle of birth, death and rebirth until that, too, is transcended and he can live happily ever after."





Cooper, J. C. Fairy tales: Allegories of the Inner Life. (Wellingborough: Aquarian Press, 1983) 154.

Writing quote of the day

In his chapter "The Utopian Function of Fairy tales and fantasy" Jack Zipes explains to us through Ernst Bloch's theories on hope...

"these intrepid heroes show the holes in systems of domination through which small people can slip to liberate themselves and gain their ends. Their goals are socialist and utopian in nature in that they assert the potential for humanity to be on it's own, nor dependent on a system, on phantom gods. The individual moves into his or her own, undergoing metamorphosis while gaining strength from the gifts of other beings. The building of the self and the other world is essentially a communal project."

Jack Zipes. Breaking the Magic Spell: Radical Theories of Folk and Fairy Tales (rev. ed.). New York: Routledge, 2002, 169.

 


I feel like shouting hurrah at the end of that...so HURRAH!

Writing quote of the day

This is the quote I am using to set the scene for my paper...woe betide you examiners who think fairy tales are nonsense!

"The scholarly world discovered the folktale in the 19^th century. Before that time there was little serious interest in the phenomenon of oral tales, which were generally viewed by learned persons as a form of amusement proper to simple or uneducated persons, or to children, none of whom had much to teach the rest of us. Accordingly no one thought long about the nature of such stories, no one wondered about how old they were or where they came from, no one asked what they meant to their tellers and listeners."


William Hansen. Ariadne’s Thread: A Guide to International Tales Found in Classical Literature. (Ithaca and London: Cornell University press, 2002) xi.

Fairy Tales Re-imagined Symposium

Fairy Tales Re-imagined Symposium

I will have to write this up later, I had a wonderful day. I talked to people as wrapped up in the study of fairy tales as I am, I met one of my favourite author's Kate Forsyth...and lots more. But I must not digress at the moment...too much work to do.
Just in case, I ran off a few 'calling cards'.

My research paper needs....a map!

Yes, I have decided that my research paper needs a map. Like the ones you see at the front of many fantasy novels. Though they aren't as easy as they look... for some inspiration and 'research' I pulled off a few title of the shelves

Writing quote of the day

“The fairy tale, which to this day is the first tutor of children because it was once the first tutor of mankind, secretly lives on in the story. The first true storyteller is, and will continue to be, the teller of fairy tales. Whenever good counsel was at a premium, the fairy tale had it, and where the need was greatest, its aid was nearest. This need was created by myth. The fairy tale tells us of the earliest arrangements that mankind made to shake off the nightmare which myth had placed upon its chest.”

Walter Benjamin. The Story Teller. p11.

Writing quote of the day

I had real trouble finding the correct source for this one. Usually you will find it attributed to G.K Chesterton, but this one is Neil Gaiman paraphrasing Chesterton, and because Neil does it so well it has become the 'real' quote.

“Fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”

Awesomesauce!*

 This is the end product that I had in mind when I started making the rubber mould of the branch in these photo's. I wanted something blown, hollow and light. This method of blow moulding means you get really fine detail. I de-moulded the 2 that I trialled on Thursday night with Erica's help (I knew one was going to better than the other). I was really chuffed with the result...but the studio was really quiet this morning so my joy had to wait to be shared. I also stuck my self with a piece of glass, not so clever. Have to remember to sloooow down.

*This is a new word I have come across recently

Writing quote of the day

“Inevitably they find their way into the forest. It is there that they lose and find themselves. It is there that they gain a sense of what is to be done. The forest is always large, immense, great and mysterious. No one ever gains power over the forest, but the forest posses the power to change lives and alter destinies.”

Jack Zipes. The Brothers Grimm: From Enchanted Forests to the Modern World. (2^nd ed.) New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2002, 65.

Writing quote of the day

"The more one knows fairy tales the less fantastical they appear; they can be vehicles of the grimmest realism, expressing hope against all the odds with gritted teeth."


Marina Warner. From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and their Tellers. London: Random House, 1994, 225.

Writing quote of the day

"If there is one ‘constant’ in the structure and theme of the wonder tale, it is transformation."

Zipes, Jack (ed.). The Oxford companion to fairy tales: The Western Fairy Tale Tradition from Medieval to Modern. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002, xvii.

the growing pile

Branch and wax branch, the result of all that mould making

Lend me your fingers

I lent my fingers to Tim to take a cast in alginate. Very squidgy minty stuff. Tim is casting a bed of fingers (all women's).

Last part of the branch 2 part mould

At last, the plaster support mould for the other side. It broke as I was prising it off, but it still works.