24 | May | 2018 | Rhonda Bracey: At Random

Smoky sunsets

24 05 2018

We’ve had the warmest and driest May almost on record. It’s been an ideal time for the fire services to do burn-offs and reduce the fire fuel before the winter rains set in. As a result, we’ve had some stunning sunsets the past few weeks because the smoke has created all sorts of weird light filtering.

Here are some photos of the sunset over the estuary that I took on the way back from the shops a week or so ago. Unfortunately, the camera doesn’t seem to capture the blood red of the sun that the human eye sees, but no matter — I thought some of these shots turned out pretty well. And the one where it looks like rain? That was smoke particulates dropping out of the sky! I’d never seen that before, and the black swans didn’t seem too perturbed by it (yes, those black dots on the water are our native black swans).

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Categories : Australia, Life stuff

Iggy Marley: Susan Carlson workshop

24 05 2018

The lovely Susan Carlson was in Perth a couple of weeks ago to run a 4-day workshop at Handcrafters House. There were 120 people on the ‘expressions of interest’ list for only 20 places, and I was lucky enough to get a spot! I’d first come across Susan’s unique style of fabric collage some years ago in Quilting Arts magazine and had used her techniques to make a fish. That fish now lives in Alaska! Then in 2014, Susan was one of the teachers at Empty Spools, Asilomar; she was my second choice after Pam Holland (I got into Pam’s class, so they didn’t need to go to my second choice).

For this class, we had to use a photo or drawing, blow it up nice and big, then start cutting out scraps of fabric and gluing them on to create our fabric collage art quilt. In 4 days we made a real mess and had a lot of laughs! There were bits of fabric EVERYWHERE, but I think we had had a lot of fun and pushed our boundaries. Most people went wild with their colour choices, and their subjects ranged from patterns Susan had, through to favourite pets and people. Even a set of work boots and a hard hat!

I love lizards of all varieties, so chose to do an iguana. I found a copyright-free picture in the British Library’s archive of old books and illustrations. The artist had listed the Latin name of the species, which had the common name of ‘Jamaican Iguana’, so I named him ‘Iggy Marley’ — ‘Iggy’ for iguana, and ‘Marley’ because of the Jamaican connection to Bob Marley and his son Ziggy Marley (no, I don’t know if my iguana was a male, but he is now). These Jamaican Iguanas are typically in shades of greens and browns to blend in with the vegetation where they live, but I chose to go wild and do him in oranges and purples — I want him to stand out against the background, once I choose it.

Some of the photos of my process and progress are below. Iggy’s not finished yet, and it might be a while before I get back to him. Deciding on the background (realistic or stylistic) is my hardest issue with him right now. But for the moment, I’m pretty pleased with how he looks, though I might change the green on his ‘crop’ and instead do an orange folded piece…. decisions, decisions….

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