visit to the highcountry

Wow what an amazing long weekend retreat we have just had. My friend Sally Harvey opened her artist retreat cottage to a group of us textile artists to play and catch-up. Situated in Mansfield, the cottage is designed as a self contained apartment with the twist of having a large full equipped artists studio that accommodates 15 people easily for workshops. From the windows one can view Mt Bulla and Feathertop Mountain, which as you can see in the photos were covered with late winter drifts of snow (apparently there was 5cm on Saturday night).



The garden is situated so that one can wander in and out of the workspace to sit and draw, pick herbs or plants for inspiration, or have a relaxing sit and meditate. I have lots of photos to share, but for now need to unpack, document and organise my skeins of yarn and shibori pieces, before I scoot off to the other side of Victoria to visit a Homestead outside Yarrawonga. More on that later. In the meantime if you are looking for somewhere to go and refresh that jaded soul, check out the link attached.

Strange colours

I am not sure what happened to the dye pot today. I was looking forward to creating some gorgeous warm browns from the eucalyptus tree which had fallen down in the winds last week. Somehow what I got was a variety of purplish greys. Not so sure what I will do with them yet, as it isn't quite what I was wanting. A friend suggested that it may be the water supply. The drought has meant our water supplies are low, leading to possible increase in mineral content. Could be an explanation. Any suggestions???