Back from The Big City....

Temple Bar in Dublin, near my lodgings

Dublin was wonderful!  The class at the NCAD was very good and gave me lots of new ideas.  Our instructor was very experimental and showed us how to use the machines and away we went.  The heat transfer press and Bondina (used for bonding fabrics) were interesting and we got to use a fancy embroidery machine, which I now know I do not need and definitely do not want!  Fussy things and so automated that if one thing goes wrong then the whole thing shuts down.  It would do my head in. I loved the free machine embroidery and I am going to try and get a Bernina like they had in the lab as there is great freedom in stitching in any direction.  I liked stitching paper and plastic and combining all that with fabric.  Lots of multimedia ideas...

Paper stitched and fabric added.

Dublin itself was so nice.  I have been living in the country so long that I forgot the pleasures of all that a city has to offer: great food, access to supplies, interesting people, cultural variety, and public transportation.  Add to that great weather and the fact that Dublin is a good walking city and I was all over the place!  I have been to Dublin many times, but I don't think I have really got my bearings until this trip.  I would end up in one section of the city and couldn't find my way around.  Now, I can go from O'Connell St to Grafton and I know the LUAS line and Temple Bar.  The next time I go I will be flying around the city.

St. Audoen's, Church of Ireland

And then, smack in the middle of Dublin, I found St Audoen's Church (pronounced Odd-wins), a medieval church located in the heart of Dublin.  It was built around 1181-1212 and is still an open and active parish!  Its was just beautiful and I went inside and had to look around.  I seem to be drawn to old stonework lately, so I snapped pics of the patterns that they made and had a nose around.  With the wildflowers out the front, it easily looked like it might have 800 years ago.  I did a few sketches and will see what I come up with...Strangely, there is ANOTHER St. Audoen's right next door: the medieval one is Church of Ireland and the "newer" one is Catholic.  Hate to say it, but the older one was far more interesting and in far better repair.  The newer St. Audoen's was a grand old church in need of repair for water damage, but you could tell she was a proud old girl.  A base for the many Polish that relocated to Ireland as many of the Masses were read in Polish.  The stonework in the older church was just beautiful the way it was weathered and eroded over time.  I took some pics of the gravestones on the main chapel floor that were worn quite smooth, but the light wasn't good that day and they didn't turn out well.  I think the picture below is one of the old stations of the cross that would have been chiseled in stone. 

Stonework at medieval St. Audoen's

I have  completed work in the studio that I didn't have time to photograph, so I will try to get that done tomorrow and have a go.  There seem to be so many good workshops around right now.  The lovely Stephanie of The Yarn Room in Wicklow is having her 1st year anniversary for the shop and lots of good classes on board.  I would love to do the improvers crochet and the Tunisian crochet, but I can only imagine that time will be getting away from me.  Monday I start an internship and Fionn is in camp again, so we will be go, Go, GO for the rest of the week.

Transfer printing using disperse dyes.