BUTT OUT

Welcome news today - from March 1st, it will be illegal to smoke in enclosed train, tram & bus stops here, as well as in the workplace.
Great news for non-smokers, especially after getting puffed on previously while waiting for public transposrt. They have also started putting graphic photos of the damage that smoking can cause on the back of each box of cigarettes on sale. However, the Australian Medical Association feels that more should be done, like extending the ban on smoking to the whole of school compunds. Guess it's a start anyway....maybe they will have smoke-free public places like in our Lion City eventually....
Hooray for cleaner air ! :-)

TROPFEST 2006

Went for the Sony Tropfest just now at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl with Nikolle.
This is an annual short film competition that has contestants making films which must contain the theme for the year. This year's theme was "Bubble" & tonight's event was the screening of the films of the 16 finalists. The best thing was that it was free, which I think is a really good way to get more people to recognise & appreciate the film making talents in their midst.

The main action was actually in Sydney, at The Domain, & we were linked via satellite to the proceedings. There was quite an interesting panel of judges, including well-known Aussie actors like Toni Collette, Guy Pearce & Rose Byrne, as well as the director of last year's sleeper Aussie independent hit film , Wolf Creek.
There was also a simultaneous screening held in Brisbane & I think the combined attendance at all the venues was about 90 000 !

The films were rather varied, including both live action ones, as well as a few animation flicks. It was interesting to see how each film maker tried to incorporate the "bubble" into their films - almost like looking for Hitchcock's famous cameo appearances in each of his films. Some were rather obvious, but others were more unexpected, eg, thought bubbles, as used in the film entitled Silencer. That was quite different as it was integral to the plot of the film as well, although I must say it was truly a blokes-movie.

The funny thing was that halfway through the second half of the film fest, the message that Sydney had had to shut their screens down for safety reasons flashed across the screens. We later found out that due to the bad weather in Sydney ( it had been raining cats & dogs all evening as we could seen on the satellite-relayed pictures ) their satellite had given up & was not able to transmit, or so the Melbournian comperes said.

So while we folks in Melbourne, famous for its temperamental weather changes, actually got to watch all 16 films, the Sydneysiders had to miss the last 2 and a half as they were all sent home. Truly a rare moment - when the weather in Melbourne was actually BETTER than in Sydney! Anyway, as a result, we had to be content to await the final results which would be published in the papers tomorrow. Also, all viwers could take part in the People's Choice poll online or via SMS & vote for their favourite film - which is probably more interesting to know & perhaps more relevant to any budding film maker who is keen to make films which will be commerically viable.

A copy of all 16 films in the finals will be given free with this coming Saturday's The Age newspapers - so those who missed tonite's screening can still watch the films , which is another great way to publicise the work of these film makers.
Altogether a very encouraging way to do things - maybe something we could emulate back in our Lion City ?

GLASS CLASS PART 2

Second day of the workshop was just as interesting & even more colourful. This time we learnt how to do stained glass mosaic, using pieces of coloured glass that we were to cut out ourselves, as opposed to the "smashed glass' type. The glass cutting techniques learnt in the first workshop were put to good use.

This time, I had a new classmate, Tanya, from Pascoe Vale, who is Maltese.
Pam was busy attending the Kilmore Cup races, though she did come in the morning for the "unveiling" of the glass pieces we had made the day before.

Stained glass mosiac can be used on both indoor & outdoor projects - it is thew finish & the type of base use which determines if the item can withstand the elements.

Our project was an indoor piece & we were allowed to choose the shape we wanted for our MDF craft bases. Both Tanya & I decided on the circular base, which was more versatile to use.

After practising the glass cutting techniques & learning about how to make our mosaic design stand out, we got down to choosing the actual designs & the colours we wanted to put on our pieces. Yours truly decided to do a sunflower design (to match the coasters I had made the day before) with a blue border.
This turned out to be rather difficult as the yellow coloured glass I chose to cut out the petals from made it almost impossible to see the score lines I made on it with the glass cutter. I had to experiment a bit & with Marina's advice, I finally managed to get my petals cut out. The last part of filling in the background was also not as simple as I thought, as I had to cut according to the restricted space I had left to fill. I chose a dark green background to make the yellow petals stand out.

This is my mosiac piece after I had painstakingly glued down all the pieces. Marina's advice rang true : " You must commit yourself, & stick down the glass piece, otherwise you can be spending the whole day & not have achieved anything". Good advice for other areas in life too, I thought. :-)

After all the glass pieces of the design were painstakingly "buttered" & stuck down with glue, the next step was the grouting. I chose a dark green grout so that it would merge my background, and have the effect of making my flower design stand out. As the workshop was only for 1 day & the aim was to finish the project to bring home, we also used a special hot air gun to help dry the grout. The best moment had to be when we used a towel to polish off the excess grout & the coloured mosiac started showing & shining through - absolutely magical & beautiful !
This is the final product - my very own stained glass mosaic trivet ! I was very pleased that the colours came together very well & my flower looked like it was bursting out of the picture....

Have been greatly inspired & now aim to do a larger project in the form of a lazy-susan....watch this space....

GLASS CLASS PART 1

Had a great weekend in country Victoria - attended a couple of beginner's workshops on Glass Slumping & Stained Glass Mosaic in Kilmore, just slightly over an hour's drive from Melbourne.

Marina Villani, the artist and teacher, has her own studio on the grounds of her lovely property. Her home-based business in hand made glassware as well as stained glass mosaic, goes by the name of Myriad Glass Designs. I met her at the Flemington market, and was impressed by the lovely things she had made, which included glass tableware, jewellery, as well as other decorative as well as functional items. When I found out that I could learn how to make some of these items in 1-day clases, I decided to check it out. The fees for the classes were $120 for each class, which covered tuition, tools and materials and notes, as well as a simple 3 course lunch. However, if you choose to attend both classes, you only need pay $185. Being the kiasu Singaporean that I am, I decided to "pow ka liao" & do both classes.

Saturday was the 1st workshop on Slumping, which is a technique of creating patterned glassware by melting glass over a design or stencil. We had to start off first learning how to cut glass using an oil cutter, which was rather fun, though yours truly managed to poke my palm with the end of a piece of glass and sustained a superficial cut.

No blood was shed thankfully, and the rest of the class went on without much incident. Our projects for the day were a set of 4 coasters and a small dish.


That's Marina in the bright orangey yellow top, with Pam (her neighbour & my fellow student for the day) and moi. We are standing next to one of the 3 kilns that Marina has in her studio. A kiln like that costs a few thousand & each kiln has its own characteristic temperatures & cycles for each technique of treating the glass.



This is the "before" shot of my glass ware in the kiln, waiting to be "baked".
The designs for the coasters were drawn directly onto the kiln powder with the end of a stick, like drawing in sand ! The dish at the top part of the picture uses a stencil over a frame. The glass sheets are laid over the top of the designs/stencil and the kiln closed & "fired up". The glass is then slumped over the designs/stencil thus creating the impression onto it. The glass in left in the kiln to complete its cycles of slumping and then allowed to cool overnight.


This is the "after" shot of my first glass ware creations - it was like Christmas all over again, such anticipation on opening the kiln after the process was completed. All that remained after that was to remove the glass ware, brush off the kiln powder, wash & dry them & stick little silicon "feet" onto the corners of each glass coaster. It had been a very rewarding day indeed, but there was more to come.

Is It Still Summer ?

After a relatively warm Tuesday & Wednesday, the temperature dropped abruptly today. There was quite heavy rain this morning, and it continued to rain on & off through the day. Max temp was only 19 deg C or so, with a predicted minimum of only 9 deg, compared to Tuesday night's temp of 27 deg C.

Currently, my Melbourne weather widget ( really cool stuff, these widgets that come with Mac OS 10.4, otherwise know as the Tiger ) informs me that the temperature is only 15 deg C and my body tells me that that is probably accurate. Had to put on my coat today while outside to keep myself warm.

Am going to switch on the heater ( still set at 20 deg C ! ) for a while to warm things up slightly. Boy am I glad I haven't given away my little portable heater in the bathroom - that will be useful today.

Just saw the advert for the new Nissan Tiida car on tv & in the newspapers - it's my car back home ( known as the Latio in Singapore).
They got Samantha from SATC ( eeks, I am getting senile, I forgot her real name ) to do the ad - very cheeky, as she describes the wonderful ride she's had....in the Tiida !

Wah, not bad, I got a sexy car. It's even the same colour as the one in the ad !
I must be cooler than I think. ;-)