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Day Zero - Trip to MONA and upcoming crochet with a friend

So today seems like a good day to start blogging.  My husband and I took our first trip out to MONA (http://www.mona.net.au) which was wonderful and as an added bonus, I went wool shopping with a friend for more arigurumi projects.  I showed her Lan-Anh Bui & Josephine Wan's great book Amigurumi and she was hooked.  She doesn't even crochet yet but let's face it...if anything would get you started it's cute seahorses and ballerina bunnies (see cover pic below).



Coincidentally, or perhaps not really, the friend I am teaching to crochet works out at MONA.  This is the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart, Tasmania and it is amazing.  A private museum full of fantastic art and it's free to visit.  We never had it so good.  Among the favourites were a labyrinthine section with binary numbers on the walls called Kryptome (I think), the most beautiful display of ancient coins ever (arranged like a night sky star burst in a jet black case) and the most unbelievably gorgeous sparkly black gem swirl; apparently I like the black but sparkly stuff!  The space itself was beautiful and the perect housing for Sidney Nolan's Snake, which has virtually never been displayed before as it was too big (see picture from The Mercury below).


Two things struck me when I saw this (aside from it being wonderful).  One was how like fabric art or a quilt it was; and the other, which naturally followed on, was how little other fabric art there was in the collection.  It set me wondering how much old fabric art is preserved (naturally deprecating medium, undervalued due to association with women etc).  Something to research further...

In the meantime, crochet tomorrow and more trips to MONA in the near future...

Sparticles x

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