Singer

It's amazing where in the world you can find an old Singer sewing machine. Valued for their beautiful iron bases and made into a table. This one I saw on the streets of Hanoi ,Vietnam outside a street coffee shop.

I have one that belonged to my Great Grandmother. It has a marble top on it.

Embroidery in Vietnam

If you find a comfy seat and a quiet moment it's time to embroider! Traditional embroidery of the Hmong people in Cat Cat village again in SaPa Vietnam.

Such fine detailed work. Time and patience . Made into beautiful clothes or textile pieces for the wall.

Seen behind glass in the Fine Arts of Vietnam museum in Hanoi. Finely stitched and embroiderers textiles and clothing. Panels for jackets. Indigo dye, hemp, silk and cotton.

Vietnam

Today in the hillside village of Sapa in northern Vietnam we went for a walk to the Hmong village of Cat Cat.
Here are images of women working on textile traditional work. Batik, Indigo dying, Hemp preparation by beating the fibres to soften, weaving the hemp, embroidery on hemp and cotton.

This elderly lady is applying bees wax in a pattern to a square of cotton. It will then be dipped in the indigo pot.

A young Hmong woman spends time embroidering the traditional stitches. Black cross stitch to outline , which is then filled in with colour

Pounding the hemp fibres to make them soft for weaving into cloth to be batiked , or stitched or for other purposes

Harbour Bridge

Another Margaret Olley inspired piece in the planning. On the floor amongst stuff that was lying there of course.

This is just laying in pieces to get an idea. Might be best up vertical on a design wall , but there's other stuff there so the floor it is. Everything is just randomly added but some thing is emerging. My Dads  family home in Sydney had views of the Harbour Bridge and this was where I spent my early years. So this image done in embroidery and a little fabric paint that I found in an op shop was special. With Margaret in mind as she also, as an art student would wander home from the harbour and look back at the bridge. Very much an image of Sydney which is where she spent her later years. In the Hat Factory. Vintage lace, doiley and bias binding tape. The background is a sample of deconstructed screen printing done years ago. Not sure if it fits here I wanted the bridge and the flowers to be the focus. The flowers in the vase are some flower bashing I did with Nasturtiums. Fun process