adelaide festival time

each year in february/march adelaide goes crazy with festivals and more festivals.

it is overwhelming, and sometimes i just stay away from it all but this year my good friend tom moore is in the adelaide biennial, and i wanted to share some of his amazing work.

 

at the art gallery sa he has a whole huge room to himself

 

it took him weeks to get this installation complete

 

and it showcases some amazing piece of art.

its way better in person but this gives you the idea

 

then top top this off he also has an exhibition on at the botanic gardens

with some more installations

 

exhibition is "watch glass grow" 

there are some really good pieces

 

and then to top it off even more the art gallery also has had some projections created that cover the whole building

 

they are animated versions of toms artworks

 

it was very successful and made the building come to life

 its been great to see his talent celebrated and his artworks being enjoyed by so many people.

rainbow birthday cake

last month my friend kumi had her birthday. we had a small dinner party at my place. kumi made us dinner, a yummy japanese meal, soba noodle salad, gyoza. 

so my neighbour george and i decided to make her a cake.

 

but not just any cake. a rainbow cake. we followed this recipe.

 

you make the batter, divide it up and add the food colouring, then make 6 mini cakes. this means lots of washing up but the cakes cook in only 12 minutes each, so it went quickly.

 

after the cakes cooled we made a creme fraiche and white chocolate icing.

layering the cakes with the icing

in the order of colours of the rainbow.

until all 6 cakes are stacked up and not falling over. then we iced the whole thing.

 it was a big cake, and i think kumi was surprised

we sang happy birthday

 

 and the candles were blown out

it was nice to see the surprise of the layered coloured cakes when she cuts out the first piece.

everyone enjoying a slice of the rainbow

i think this is my new favorite cake to make. not too sweet, yummy and fun!

random update of life in adelaide

Deb and I have been busy in the studio playing around with mirrors, and looking around corners as part of a new public art project. its early stages yet, but this could be a really exciting project for us. 

i got a few new fabrics the other weekend, all of these will be made into my favorite summer dress, once i actually get some time to sew. lucky so far summer has been more rainy than hot.

 

i also bought this skull sweater on a whim when i saw it on a sale rack. 

 

how do you pack up a branch rack to ship to NSW?

 

  

very carefully, and by making a custom pallet.

and just this weekend our studio held a christmas dinner party

 

with the long table running down the driveway between the 2 buildings.

 

here are borris and i ready to party.

 

and our studio filling up with guests as the party starts.

beer and burgers for breakfast!

you know 2012 is going to be a good year when you get to start the day with beer and burgers for breakfast!

today we went to fancy burger for a late breakfast/early lunch.



the burgers were so good. the wholemeal bun was good, not too big and the chips come with salt and rosemary and 4 dipping sauces!

the twenty minute drive to get the burgers was well worth it and the company was great. i will definitely be going back.

SWIMMING POOL BIRTHDAY CAKE!

my weekend was spent doing some work in my studio and making the swimming pool birthday cake. it was actually pretty easy to do. just lots of simple steps to follow.

first make the cake from scratch.



let it cool for a day.



the next day, make your butter icing and colour a part of it green. colour some coconut green as well and sprinkle this on the green icing to make the grass for the base of the cake.



cut out a 1 inch deep well in the cake, to make the area the water will go into.
Place the cake onto the grass base.



colour the rest of the butter icing with cocoa and ice the top edge and outside of the cake with the icing and press the chocolate biscuits around the side of the cake, creating the fence.

be sure to make the blue jelly for the water a day before you want to fill the pool.



the butter icing is also used as a glue to make a musk stick and licorice ladder, and some pool toys.

the day the cake is to be served the pool can be filled with the mashed up blue jelly. the small dolls with their custom painted bathers can be set into the jelly in their candy floating rings, and some candy balls placed in the water.



the result is a swimming pool cake that looks great, and even apparently tastes good too.

here is the birthday girl with her cake, happy as.

exploding tulips!

last night borris and me and my friend shels went to the mid winter ball.
it is a good excuse to get dressed up and go out in the middle of winter and have some fun.



shels and i decided to head out to the charity shops to find out outfits for the evening. i luckily found this beautiful exploding tulips number for $9. i actually really like the pattern and will probably try and copy the pattern to make a nice plain cotton version. i may even wear it again to an exhibition opening i have with later this year with a garden theme.



shels luckily fit into this retro and fitted purple number. she actually already owned matching daisy earrings to go with the dress. shels looked great!

we got together before the ball to get ready and do our hair. i became a little involved in watching hair demos on you tube and came across this hair bow tutorial that i followed. it is hard to make out in the photos but it took an hour for me to get this hair bow in my hair. really if i am going to sport up dos in the future i need to practice.

this is me and the lovely borris just about to step out for the evening. we made it home by midnight before we turned into pumpkins and had a great time.

now if only spring would explode into action we could stop being so cold and in hibernation mode.

fancy canes for my exhibition

on the weekend i worked with a good friend of mine who is a genius glassblower and very talented at pulling fancy twisted canes. he worked with me, teaching me how he does it as we pulled the canes.



at the end of four hours we had pulled nine canes, three canes for the set up and six fancy twisted canes. i love the way these canes look.



these are the fancy canes we pulled, they are so lovely. they will be used in some blown glass pieces that will be in my exhibition.

hopefully i will be able to recall how to do this myself next time i need to but for now this will hopefully get me through for the work i need to make over the next couple of weeks.