Saturdays

I sat down to try to catch up on posting some of the things that I have done lately, and I realized that there have been lots of Saturdays filled with special activities, outings, etc. It makes me feel like part of the working masses that gets to take one big day for leisure (Sunday being a day or rest, of course).

Anyway, these are some of the recent Saturdays:

A while ago, David and I rode our bikes over to the Chippendale neighborhood and met Nicole and Aaron at The White Rabbit gallery . This is a super-cool, amazing, pleasant, friendly, place that apparently, everyone knew about except me. I am glad I know now because I will definitely go back. We had fancy rose and lychee tea, dumplings and little almond cookies in the cafe, then we wandered all 4 floors looking at art from contemporary Chinese artists.

A friend of ours was performing in a community theater production out in a suburb called Rockdale, so we took the train and went to see it. It was fun to get out to a new area, and it was entertaining to see their over the top, almost slapstick performances. I really admire people who put themselves out before the scrutiny of the public.

On a larger, and much more famous and polished level, we saw the play - This is Our Youth, starring Michael Cera, Kieran Culkin, and Emily Barclay, at the Sydney Opera House. It was a Saturday Matinee and we went for lunch before hand at Miss Chu where we could eat outside and look out over the Sydney Harbour. What a picturesque and entertaining day. It was fun seeing the actors that we would normally only see in movies, right in front of us. They did a good job of carrying a play that relied almost entirely on dialogue.

There have been other Saturday activities, but the last one I want to write about today is a workshop that I took at The Powerhouse Museum. The Powerhouse is a kind of history, science, culture, design, museum rolled into one. They frequently have classes and programs to attend. I went to the lace symposium back in June and, since that was so fabulous, I thought I would give it another try. This program is called Craft Punk. I am not sure why. I didn't see anything punk about it. Maybe they just wanted to attract young, alternative types. They had several workshops on textile design and I decided to take the Indigo Shibori class. I have done shibori but wanted to take a class to learn more precise techniques.

It was fun to get out on a Saturday morning and get my hands working. There were about 2o women (and 2 men), mostly around my age, I am guessing, everyone seemed to have some experience with dyes and/or shibori, but I am sorry to say, the teachers didn't really seem to be prepared to run the workshop. It was a 2 hour class, and we spent about half an hour actually doing the technique and putting it in the dye bath. After demonstrating the various folds and ties, the teacher stayed behind her table and didn't come around to help. So, in the end, we were guessing and rushing. We had to take our things home and rinse them before we could see them so we really didn't get to see what anyone else did and everyone just wandered off at the end without any conclusion. Too bad, because it could have been so much better with a little organization. I wasn't too happy with my results because the patterns I was working for didn't really turn out. I also wanted more white to remain for contrast. I am going to try doing it again with some natural dye from eucalyptus leaves. I wish we could have gotten more feedback and maybe even gotten to know each other a little bit. It seems like a great way to meet like minded people.

There are seemingly endless things to do in this city - both organized and spontaneous, big and small. I am going to keep trying to get myself out of bed early enough to make the most out of it all.

(These photos are all in reverse order, sorry. Top is me at the shibori workshop, then photos of the powerhouse and my work; me, Mira, and Nicole outside the Opera House, and a picture of the stage; the high street and stuffed toys in Rockdale; and the tea, and art at the White Rabbit.)