Sunday Link Post

* Article about the amazing Holterman photo collection and it's rediscovery in a Sydney Shed"Discovered by chance in a garden shed in suburban Sydney after being lost for more than half a century, the Holtermann collection is Australia's most internationally significant historical photographic archive. Taken between 1870 and 1875, the collection of 3,500 glass plate negatives has recently been digitised by the State Library of NSW, unlocking fascinating stories hitherto hidden in the blurry background. Capturing nineteenth century Australia with extraordinary precision, the photos document life in gold rush towns such as Ballarat, Victoria and Hill End, NSW. Spectacular promotional shots of Sydney and Melbourne also feature alongside portraits of Australian citizens. Viewing the collection you are taken into their world."
These are fantastic. When you look at them on the computer you can see so much detail. Loads of photos of Hill End in the collection. Including one of our cottage.

* Pin up girl clothing. I can't afford this stuff but it's reasonably priced and I love the look. Wish I could try some stuff on. I don't like dresses and skirts and all but I'd love to see what these look like on. They are gorgeous.

* The High Cost Of Cheap Food. Great article about food security, ethical food and how the big supermarkets are screwing people over. Often ethical food is placed too far down the list of spending priorities. I'd rather eat free range and chemical free than go to see a movie. I prioritize my health an animal welfare above expensive clothes and the newest electronics. We get very little money a week between us but we buy local, ethical and as chemical free as we can.

* The Mudgee Project Mudgee is a town near(ish) to us. They are known for wine and honey. We shop their occasionally but with our doctors, hydo, more gluten free options and later shop opening hours, we tend to go to Bathurst much more often. This project is a photographer taking a photo of Mudgee once a week for a year. It's a stunning collection of photos. I couldn't make it to the exhibition as I had pneumonia but you can still look at the photos online.

* Easy Chain Stitch post on Sublime Stitching "The "chain stitch" is the one everyone has heard of, but hates to do. Why? Because it's laborious. It doesn't always come out nicely and it uses up a lot of floss. But, chain stitches create a nice thick, textured line. It's one of the most embroidery-ish embroidery stitches there is. This technique will guarantee they always come out perfectly."
I'd actually started doing them this way myself because I couldn't get the other way to look right. It's good information to have.

* How Fast Is The NBN This page shows in real time the difference between what Labor are going to implement (fibre to premises) and what the Liberals want to do (Fibre to the node and copper to premises). Liberals plan is ridiculous and we wouldn't be any better off than we are now, possibly worse as we wont get subsidised satellite. The further from the node the more the signal is degraded. We're a long fucking way from anywhere.
How are Australian businesses located anywhere other than the middle of the capital cities meant to compete with the rest of the world? Optic fibre all the way would allow rural and isolated schools and students to connect with other schools for projects it would allow people in rural and isolated areas to use skype services to consult with specialists in the city without having to drive for a day or more.

* Visual Art Resources From Accessible Arts NSW (disability and arts but useful for anyone starting out) Developing your exhibition plan, Presenting your exhibition, Documenting artworks, Photographing live performance.
Except I still don't understand them and can't really do them myself.

* Sandra Dieckmann's illustrations She draws fantastic animals

* Pipecleaner sculptures Using nothing but pipecleaner. Animals. How??

* Cake Wrecks: Sunday Sweets - 80's Movie Night theme. I love them.

* Bathurst photos from the Vault The Western Advocate has combined with the National Archives of Australia and Bathurst Library to bring you these hidden treasures.

Sunday Link Spam

* Novelist David Mitchell looks back on the heartbreak – and joy – of learning that his son had autism. And an extract from the book 'The Reason I Jump' by Naoki Higashida, translated by David.

* Meet Thelma... and Louise, the Baby Two-headed Texas River Cooter Adorable turtle that seems to be doing well.

* Fibre Art Specimens a look at some gorgeous science based fibre art compiled by Magpie & Whiskeyjack.

* Five must see tutorials for getting started in Machine Embroidery I'd love to be able to get an embroidery machine. I'd like to digitize my own art but I also love the designs you can get at Urban Threads. I don't have the space or the money though so for now I dream.
I'd love to stitch these gorgeous butterflies on the back of a hoodie

* These Photoshop and Illustrator tips on Threadless are really useful

* I wish I could afford a blog/webpage designed by Bakercourt

* The needle felted art by ex-soldier Kiyoshi Mino is amazing.

* This tutorial on making a screen print from an embroidery hoop and water proof glue by Reasonably Gumi has given me loads of ideas I want to try out.

* This Peacock Dragon art by David Revoy is amazing

* A gorgeous crochet Mario Bros blanket

* A Toy Maker Makes A Toy Maker by Doktor A. "It is glorious! Just look at the intricate detail of this robot toy maker making more toys at his trusty workbench with a plethora of spectacles. The tiny details, from the miniature glass dome to the tiny bench clamp are absolutely fantastic." Gorgeously steampunk as usual from Doktor A. I love his stuff.

* Cake Wrecks: Sunday Sweets - Video Games theme Not sure I've played all of these but the cakes are amazing.

Moo card sale

I spent yesterday ordering some more business cards. We have just run out of the first lot of mini cards we ordered from Moo.com. Two sided business cards at half the size of a normal card so you get twice as many.

On one side is our business information and on the other is my photographs. A different picture on each card.

It was the printfinity option that made me choose Moo in the first place. It really makes the cards stand out. Each one a tiny piece of art.

I was really happy with the quality of the printing. The cards are lovely and the price isn't bad even with postage from the UK.
At the moment Moo have a sale on. 30% off all printing.
the MOO sale is ending at 11.59pm BST on 13th July so you'd need to get in quickly.

I have a referral code that if you use it and sign up, I get $4 credit and you get 15% off. I'm not sure if that works while the sale is on. Check it out first.

http://www.moo.com/share/6xjtmx

Sorting out all the pictures to fit the templates was a bit fiddly and my really slow internet didn't play that well with the flash website but it was defintely worth it. Moo have a fairly comprehensive FAQ and get back to questions pretty quickly.

They also have a fantastic range of pre designed cards you can choose from if you don't want to do it yourself.

We also got our postcard photography prints done with Moo and they are gorgeous. Hoping to get some nifty round stickers and some greeting cards done soon too.

If you've been thinking about getting some cards done take this oppertunity to get in on the sale and if you could use my referrer code that would be fantastic.

Win a print

A little competition today as a thank you to followers on my new Facebook page.
When my Facebook page reaches 50 likes I will randomly choose a follower to win a postcard sized print of my cover photo right now.
Clarke St, Hill End in the snow.
http://www.facebook.com/WallflowerArts

Please share with your friends.

If you don't have a Facebook account and would still like to enter then leave a comment on this post and make sure I have a way to contact you and you will be entered into the draw too.

Art, my connection to where I live, the dissonance between that and my cultural heritage.

Widdershins - an exhibition of Moorland Mythic Art I so, so want to go to this gorgeous exhibition in Devon. Artist involved include Alan Lee and Brian Froud. So much gorgeous art that makes me cry. Oh god I wish I could see it in person.

"Dartmoor’s landscape is steeped in magic and mystery and it is home to many artists whose work is inspired by mythic themes. Widdershins showcases the work of those who live on Dartmoor (or have local connections) Widdershins explores local legends, world myth, folklore and faery tales in diverse, surprising ways... and although it all starts ‘Once Upon a Time’, it is definitely not for children only."

This is the sort of stuff I'd love to draw and sculpt and bring in to my work but I am so far removed from the landscape that is linked with British Folk Law.
I feel a real connection with the land out here but the myths and legends out here are either still set in European landscapes or they are Aboriginal law and to create with those is appropriation.

How do I work with Myth, Legend and the spirit of the land I live in without being disrespectful to the people that were here long before? How do I work with my cultural heritage when living and connecting with a land that is so vastly removed?

I can make up new stuff on my own, I know, but there is something about working with legends and myth that goes back thousands of years, that other people connect with and have connected with.

I sit here in this ghost town of a gold village and I spin yarn from wool straight off a sheep. I embroider artworks with needle and cloth. I light my fire and sit by it's warmth. These things were done by women in this spot since the 1850s. These slow ways of being, of creating, of living are something that connects me to the history of this place but I want to create art based on the spirits of this place, on the mix of landscape and imagination that brings the place to life.

Water here is precious. Sun is plentiful and in summer it is dangerous. Summer is not the warm, pleasant, plentiful time of joy that it often is in England where I was born. Winter isn't ice and snow and a baron land.
This village, at 850m above sea level and the other side of the Great Dividing Range from the coast is the closest I come to the weather and plant life I was born in to in Easbourne, Sussex, England.

We have milder summers and much colder winters than the coast. We have lots of European trees planted in the village. We actually get a proper Autumn here where all the leaves change.

Within a short walking distance though it's back to Gum trees and Wattle, which I love, but it is green all year round, or at least our version of green witch is really fairly grey. Summer is drought and heat and storms. It's fire and floods and sun that burns everything brown and grey and brittle. It's full of flies and mosquitoes, snakes and spiders. It's certainly not a green and plentiful time.

We get a few days a year of 40c. Much less than we did on the coast but still awful. We get some winter nights at -6c. Much colder than the coast but we've only had one decent snow fall where it stuck. And even that was gone by morning.

We get less water and more floods. This land is a harsh and dangerous paradise. It's hard work and red dust and wide open spaces. It's coal and steel and gold. It's sheep and cattle and kangaroos that well outnumber the people. It is beautiful and harsh and so very, very old but at the same time it's brand new.

I want to make art to reflect that, to connect to this land that lives and breaths with me. To show others the savage beauty and the things you can't always see. The things that were and the things that weren't and the things that are.

I have been considering paintings that show European myths and legends in an Australian landscape and how out of place they look.
I want to go and sit out in the bush and take photos and draw the things I don't see. I want to needle felt creatures that fit within our landscape but don't exist and the ones that do.
In a less literal sense I want to spin wool dyed with the plants and ochres of where I live.

Now to find the time, space and money to make a start on this. Not sure I have enough of any of those to get much done any time soon though. I have only the space of my arm chair and the small amount of time when my health lets me think and do at the same time. Money is even more scarce at the moment.

Our Facebook Page is Live

Finally got fast enough internet that I could finish building our Facebook page.
It's a bit bare at the moment but it will fill up soon. The header for this month is an old but appropriate photo of Hill End in the snow in 2011. No snow yet this year but this morning was the coldest morning of the year.

https://www.facebook.com/WallflowerArts

You can also find us other places on the internet.
Etsy Shop
Flickr
Twitter
Blog
Email: wallflowerarts@gmail.com

The Etsy shop only has some embroidery and needle felted earrings right now but there will be a big update this week with lots of knitted hats and hopefully some embroidered clothing coming soon

Not quite Sunday link spam

 

ART

* I love this painting of the Hulk cooking.

* The Boy and Girl Who Waited by The Gorgonist is gorgeous Doctor Who fan art

* This Hobbit themed birthday party is gorgeous. I want one.

* Cake Wrecks: Sunday Sweets. I always love the amazing art in cake form that you get to see on Sunday Sweets. This theme is Monsters and they are just adorable.

* These vinyl wall decals are gorgeous. I want lots of them. Not that we have any wall space that isn't covered with bookcases or paintings.

* The unveiling of a commemorative artwork in Tasmania’s busiest market centre is a “deeply moving occasion” for those who were arrested on that spot in 1988 for standing up for gay rights.

* The Lost Thing by Shaun Tan is just amazing art. I adore it.

* Scrap metal dinosaur comes to life in Outback Queensland

* Art Everywhere. This charitable art project will transform tens of thousands of billboards into great British masterpieces this summer. Help choose the artworks and donate here to make it happen.

DISABILITY

* ABC agrees to make app accessible to all

* A beautifully simple comic book for the blind

OTHER

* 25 Alpacas with the most amazing hair ever and Goat looks like a friendly wizard.

* Patrick Stewart is the most amazing man.

* Vanilla Rooibos Fig Newtons I am so making these. Gluten Free-ish if you can handle the wheat free oats and low carb. I have everything in my kitchen to make these. Just need the time.

* Ruff justice for jail program. Known as Dogs for Diggers, the program takes dogs that have been abandoned – and are often destined for death row – and puts them in the care of inmates who look after them and train them back to full health and obedience.Once the dogs are ready, they are given to injured soldiers to help them with their rehabilitation.

* Scientists amazed by fossilized fish with abdominal muscles

* Outback Qld dinosaur dig unearths bones bonanza near Winton. A two-week dinosaur dig in outback Queensland has unearthed what has been described as a "treasure trove" of massive fossils.