Maria Care(y)s in More Ways Than One

One of the great joys of teaching has been some of the gem students.  There aren’t hundreds of them, but I treasure the few brilliant and funny ones.  Perhaps half the reason I am not a ‘real’ academic is because I actually like teaching and students so much (no, not that way. I’m not casting no first stones thank you very much).  One of those rare gems happened to be on Maria Island over the last few days (and some others were house sitting – thank you Hannah and Holly!).  

Matt, the girls and I were at Maria Island unwinding for three nights in the penitentiary huts.   

 

 
So was Jess, a postmodern Brideshead Revisited vision.  He’s one of those people straddling the divide between theory and art, having done his Honours thesis on colonial men’s waistcoats and he’s just finished first year TAFE fashion design (I’m sure that course has a proper name but I don’t know it).  He gave me lots of scarf/clothes support and THIS WEEK I am ordering. 
 

Anyway, we were talking about the colours on Maria. If I were the Project Runway EP (why aren’t I anyway?), I’d have a special Maria Island episode where the contestants had to spend a week working on a Maria-inspired design.  There was an overwhelming amount of inspiration: all that burnt colonial brick,  English pines and Tassie dark green bush, flat planes of grass, bright blue sea and white sand… So if I were a contestant I’d focus on an outfit based on the weird, ancient looking Cape Barren Geese. Flouro green beaks, light grey bodies, red stocking legs and black ‘shoes’.   

Although I’m not planning to work with colours other than grey, black and white, I’m often pondering various combinations.

God I love Tasmania. I really do. (I’m giddy with east coast sunshine and no tv). There’s always someone with an answer close by.  In my last post I wrote about how tricky it was to sort out the printing of the sword at the front.  The problem is perhaps solved: another art/stitching person Leonie was on the verandah at Maria Island and has given me a name and number to make everything better.  Fingers crossed.