Siteworks 2018: Micro (Little things mean a lot)

September 2018 was busy miniature-wise, as two weeks after my trip to Sydney to see Joshua Smith's Urban Decay exhibition I was off on a road trip to Bundanon Trust in Shoalhaven to be part of their annual Siteworks festival of art and science.

The theme for 2018 was Micro: Little things mean a lot and I felt quite boring in a lineup that included tiny dancing spiders made big, art inspired by microscopic images and conversations with scientists about molecular biology and soil health.

But the opportunity to visit both Bundanon (home of famous artist Arthur Boyd), and also not just visit, but sleep in, the Glenn Murcutt Boyd Education Centre at Riversdale was too good to pass up (especially when my home was becoming more and more overrun by piles of packing boxes for shift that I did not yet know quite when was happening...).

My friend and I arrived at Riversdale as evening set in to a welcome committee of wombats (those are the dots you can see on the lawn below), but didn't have time to explore as we were due at the Bundanon property (which is a 20-minute drive away) for dinner.

The next morning I got up bright and early to explore the building before we had to head back to Bundanon for a day at Siteworks.

It didn't disappoint. This is the main block:

 

which leads to the dormitory block, which is on two levels because of the slope of the hill:

 

Inside, the four-bed dorms can be split by a sliding door into two two-bed dorms (which is what we had). The front wall above one of the beds in each dorm has shutters that open out to the view...

while the other had a framed Arthur Boyd print on the concrete wall above it (all rather posh for what is usually student accommodation, I thought, but liked the touch...) 

The door to the dorm room leads straight onto an outside walkway, so if you opened that door and the shutters at the front you had a bush view in both directions. I took a video to show the set up:

Back over at Bundanon for the day, I managed to make time to duck into Arthur Boyd's studio for a bit of miniature inspiration before my 'conversation'.

Also in conversation was artist Julian Oates, and Jenny Whiting, who curated Stories and Structures – New Connections, an exhibition of works informed by images of microscopic slides.

After the conversations were over I wandered over to the homestead to have a look at the exhibition in person.

 (On the top row, the artworks. On the bottom, the slides).

There were many other works and performances to explore, and another night to spend at the Boyd Education Centre.

And on the way home we stopped off at Kangaroo Valley Woodcrafts so I could buy a miniature wooden pear to add to my collection:

I'd originally seen them 20 years ago on my first, and, until now only visit, but didn't have the cash to buy one then: so was very pleased that they still had them in stock for me to (finally!) buy...

(If you'd like to learn more about the Boyd Education Centre building at Riversdale, watch this series of videos of architect Glenn Murcutt touring the building...)

Monday: make, do and mend

It's been a very long time since I made a miniature, and even longer since I made a miniature for me.

So it is was with some trepidation that I approached the task yesterday, in a new studio, and with my workshop work-space not just down the stairs, but out the door, down the stairs, across the carpark and through the garage.

Which I suspected might mean a couple of quests down there to collect things that I needed up here: and in the long-term possibly collecting doubles of things to prevent that from happening.

I decided to start with a paper kit sent to me in a box of deliciousness that arrived just as I settled on my first home and so got pushed aside in the craziness that followed.

(Thanks again Kat! I look forward to finally having the time and space to explore the possibilities!)

A Chinese carry out kit from PaperMinis sounded like just the thing to blow the rust off, and also to find the basic tools I needed to get back in the saddle.

And, because I'm all about unrealistic expectations, I added a wine bottle kit given to me by friend Sandra around the same time. Because if you've not made miniatures for almost two years, why not double the fun? (*cough cough*).

I started with the easy wins (Yay! I made a receipt! And some placemats!) and realised I seem to own a LOT of cutting knives, and also may need to do a glue stocktake very soon and chuck what's dried up...

Meanwhile in the grog aisle I discovered my new best friend: a drying set up I bodged together with an old shoe box, and Daiso chopsticks and pegs, when I decided that the necks of my wine bottles needed painting to look more authentic:

And so finally, in the spirt of 'done not perfect' (especially as it's only now that I notice that I put the wine label on upside down...), may I present First night in the new home.

Which is actually kind of fitting as tomorrow in my first homeversary....

(And in case you're wondering, takeout containers aren't usually printed where I live, so I made mine inside out).

Urban Decay by Joshua Smith

Back in September last year I took a day trip to Sydney to see Urban Decay, an exhibition of Joshua Smith's models of 'overlooked buildings' that was showing at The Australian Design Centre.

(No I didn't suddenly grow a beard for the trip: that's a still from the profile video they were playing in the gallery...)

Created in 2017 and 2018, the models are of buildings in Sydney, Adelaide and New York, and all are beautifully detailed in their age, grunge and signage.

The first model I examined was a 1/24 scale model of the facade of the famous Olympia Milk Bar in Stanmore, Sydney, complete with dropped milkshake out the front....

This model of the Midday Munchies Snack Bar in Port Adelaide is also in 1/24 scale:

While this Bodega in Brooklyn, New York is 1/30 scale:

Back to Sydney, there were 1/24 scale facades of the Chinese Ginsengs & Herbs co building in Chinatown,

and the Karim Building in Surry Hills.

Finally, there was this 1/24 scale dumpster:

 and roller door:

Want to know more? Watch this profile of Joshua that was playing in the gallery:

Learning the light

I spent the weekend mulling over how I was going to approach the tissue box challenge, while doing other things (including, you may be pleased to hear, finding my Filofax paper and passport).

Should I make it completely random: closing my eyes, grabbing a box, and making myself use it somehow in a scene?

Or should I be a bit kinder on myself, and preselect boxes that look like they might be a good jumping-off point?

I went with the latter option, and ended up a good handful of possibilities and initial thoughts to start with a box printed with small pictures of herb plants: easily framed (assuming, of course, I find my saw, mitre box, gluing jig and picture framing strips in time!) and I feel it could build into an interesting scene:

(It was at this point that it dawned on me that, although the light in my new place is quite good, it's different to what I'm used to. In fact, both my studio and the room previously known at The Room of Shame (now retagged 'The Library') face in the opposite direction to my old versions. So in the interests of getting things done for now, I took photos on my bed.)

I was particularly heartened when I found this chair in one of the first boxes of miniatures I unpacked yesterday, as it seemed to fit nicely with the chosen box and suggest a rustic kitchen or dining room.

But then, as I was taking the top photo, these heart-themed designs caught my eye and seemed very fitting for this week.

This one in particular...

Blogiversary and boxes

*Blows into the mic*

Is this thing working?

(And more importantly, can I remember how to use it?)

Today marks the 13th blogiversary of this blog, and I feared that if I didn't post now the whole thing might just fade away into the dusty corners of the internet. Which I thought would be a shame.

So a quick catch up: I finally moved at the beginning of December and have been unpacking boxes ever since. I have two desks set up in my studio, with one more to find room to erect (once I move the mountain of boxes that's in the way...).

Speaking of mountains of boxes, I had a mountain of boxes of dolls' houses in my bath until quite recently: I figured there would be a good spot to keep them safe from the shifters when they moved the rest of my belongings in.

I have no idea where my tools are (or my passport, or my spare Filofax paper, but that's a different subject...). These are the joys of shifting home: along with $300 grill elements (don't ask).

Back to miniatures: I toyed with the thought of trying to do Daily Dolls House December last year but realised that it was an insane idea on top of everything else that was happening. And since I've not made a scene for over a year, I figured I'd be very very rusty.

So when someone on my (newly) local Buy Nothing group offered a collection of tissue boxes for 'artistic types', I took it as a sign that perhaps a miniature challenge was in my near future: especially as the timing seemed quite serendipitous.

So now, to add to my collection of packing boxes both full and empty, I have a collection of tissue boxes (not, thankfully eaten by mice) to kickstart what will hopefully be a challenge to keep me going for the next year (once I find my tools, of course!).