Tuesday, October 29, 2019

OZ Blog # 21, Return to Cairns, InkMasters and Kuranda Birds and Butterflies.


I am now back in Cairns for a few days to attend the InkMasters Workshop on Itaglio Printing.
But first another foray back to the Cairns Art Gallery. Every time I visit they have a new impressive exhibition on!
This one however was quite for me disturbing. This is Patricia Piccinini’s take on what could happen to the animals, the environment and society in the future because of today’s major world issues around global warming and pollution etc!







I certainly brought up in me allot of thoughts around what we are doing to the planet now and its not good!


Back to the Ink Masters workshop held just across the road from the Cairns Botanical Gardens 

The tutor Carme Dapena, from Barcelona, was very friendly and definately hands on!
This type of Reduction Intaglio is a very old process and is a three colour process patented back in 1719.

A copper plate is etched and then burnished and etched.
I wasn’t aware that the copper plate had a plastic film on it, so I had to revisit the etching process!

Taking the first print, starting with yellow!


This is the inking and rubbing off process, which in itself is a major skill set taking months if not even years to master! 

I took this photo in Malanda, and very ambitiously this was my project. 

We made 5 prints always changing things as we progressed, This one I think was for me the most successful. 
The three colours build on each other and therefore the other colours are possible!

Here is some of the other students work.

An after workshop relaxing sunset bike ride around the Botanical Gardens.

Heading back to the Atherton Tablelands I stopped in Kuranda to visit Bird World.










I also visited the Australian Butterfly Sanctuary. I much preferred this as we were in an enclosure with hundreds of butterfly’s.

It was so easy to photograph them.



They are constantly releasing fresh butterflies every day!







Here is one laying her eggs
Back at the Caravan I notice another new (for me) insect.

Apparently I’m told this is a common wasp, not at all like our NZ Wasps!

Preparing for our return next year I line the floor of the Canopy with rubber and some artificial grass



 A few days cooler and wetter weather created these little fungi!


I had volunteered to help out at the Tablelands Folk Festival, held in Yungaburra only 30klms away.
On the Friday before I helped setting up some of the tents and lugging heavy speakers around to the various venues.

As a volunteer I could go to any of the concerts and workshops for the whole of the Festival

This Folk Festival’s theme this year was a focus on the International Year of Indigenous Languages.
A local man made this 8meter Puppet called Memetica a giant Aboriginal Elder.

I took the Chris Matthews workshop. He’s from WA is totally self taught, and an absolutely masterfull musician and performer.

It’s not every day you see a harp balanced on the chin, ...well it was Irish music!

After the Festival on little walk around town I noticed this old timber mill.
Only recently (a few years ago) a cyclone came though and put its restoration in the too hard basket.



Here I am catching the bus down to Cairns and soon my flight back to NZ

That’s enough photos for this OZ Blog, the next one will by the final OZ blog heading across the Tasman for 2019. And picking up the vibe of New Zealand.

Till then, stay safe, be creative and have fun.
Jimu & Christine.











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