3 warm water
1/2 cup sugar
4 tsp yeast
6 cups flour
pinch salt
1/2 cup icing sugar
3 tins coconut cream
- Mix sugar into warm water.
- Add yeast to water and stir. Leave yeast to fluff up.
- Mix flour and yeasty water into a dough. Leave to rise for 1hr.
- Knead the dough with lot's of extra flour (lightly).
- Roll out thin and cut into strips.
- Roll up the strips into pinwheels and pinch the dough together at the end so they don't come apart.
- Place in 2 baking trays so that they aren't touching.
- Leave to rise for about 1/2 an hour so that they are just touching.
- Mix 3 tins of coconut cream with 1/2 cup of sugar and pour over the coconut buns.
- Bake at 160°c for about 35mins...
EAT!
Last night I went to the opening of Emily Siddell's new show "Inflorescence" at FHE gallery. It was really exciting to see everything up on the wall and displayed in the exhibition as I had helped Emily in the process of making some of it.
During the last holidays I worked with Emily as part of an internship/work experience for uni. To begin with I was a bit nervous about meeting her because we had only emailed each other and talked briefly on the the phone once. But I soon realised that there was no reason to be nervous at all. As I walked down to the studio garage (which she shares with her partner Steve) to meet her I was greeted by three talkative red chooks scratching in the garden, at that moment I felt completely at ease and thought "this is definitely my kind of lifestyle!"
As soon as I arrived Emily got me onto pouring clay slip into plaster moulds of various shapes of leaves, taking them out once they had set and cleaning up all of the bumps and bits that weren't supposed to be there. This was to be my main job while working with Emily but in between all the slip casting there was a lot of fun to be had!
While not in the studio we spent the rest of our time up in the house looking after her four year old son Louis (who was really adorable) while baking coconut buns (pani popo), writing down recipes (hot sauce...mmmm....) crocheting, sponging slip cast leaves to get them ready to be fired and discussing cooking, gardening, fashion and crochet techniques... oh and not to forget a long conversation with her older son Max, on the many different types of metal there are and what metal/rock t-shirts are okay to wear with black jeans.
On the third day we had a change from slip casting leaves. We unloaded the kiln which was full of glass flowers and loaded it back up with the leaves that we had prepared earlier. We then spent the rest of the day cleaning the glass flowers we had just taken out of the kiln. This may all seem like monotonous work but in actual fact it was far from that, I had great company and the thought that I was helping contribute to her upcoming exhibition was a real privilege!
In all, it was a really incredible experience to work with Emily Siddell... I will never forget my time working with her and it was great for me to get an insight on the day to day life of a such a talented and beautiful artist.
The idea of my Prayer Pills began when I was sitting at home with a massive head cold scribbling in my journal trying to figure what I was going to make for my next brief. This brief was our first self-directed brief so we had the freedom to research and
make whatever we wanted. Of course I wanted to incorporate the concept of spirituality into my work as it is something that I hold close to my heart. As I slogged to the cupboard to grab some vitamin C and echinecea pills I started thinking about physical health and how there is always so much emphasis on staying physically healthy and fit (which IS highly important), but hardly ever any talk about spiritual health. I wanted to incorporate the idea that both physical and spiritual health are both as important as the other.
I thought about how one can look after their spiritual health, but I didn't want to impose one specific belief. Prayer is something that is important and practiced by most if not all religions, so I employed the idea of the prayer beads. Prayer beads are used by many different religions such as Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Baha'is, for some they are integral to their religious practice and for others it is optional.
So, I used the concept of prayer beads to convey the idea of Spiritual Health, but still had to think about how i could convey the idea of Physical Health. As I popped one of the oranges vitamin C pills into my mouth a light bulb turned on in my aching head. 36 bevel settings and many broken iron and spirulina tablets later I had created my Prayer Pills.
The silver setting represents Spiritual Health which will last forever but over time the Pills, which represent Physical Health, will fade away and disintegrate leaving only the silver bezel setting that once held them. Without Spiritual Health what use is Physical Health?
Last night Kevin and I went to see one of the most visually stunning films I've seen in a long time. We saw The Painted Veil starring Naomi Watts and Edward Norton as a part of a fundraiser for the Great Parks Society who are trying to save Long Bay from high rise appartments.
Anyways...
The thing that I really wanted to talk about was the opening credits of the movie... Usually the opening credits are the most annoying and boring part of the film because they go on for way to long and everyone just wants the movie to start. But the opening credits were just stunning, with an array of chinese floral patterns and flowers merging and morphing into microbiological cells. I really recommend seeing this film, although it is a bit of a chick flick, it is visually stunning and thought provoking.
After many long hours and annoyances with Photoshop I finally finished my Business Card and Logo. I wanted my logo to combine spirituality and science, so I used a nine pointed star which is the symbol of the Baha'i faith and reshaped it to resemble a lotus flower. I then used a microscopic photo of human cells on a petri dish as a pattern to fill in the nine pointed lotus shape.
Yesterday I spent the whole day dying cotton and silk treads all sorts of multi colours to crochet into little cell like "THINGS". To keep me motivated and inspired I listened to the the most beautiful thing in the world... MUSIC!!! Which reminds me of this wonderful quote:
"The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not mov'd with the conchord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, strategems and spoils."
~The Merchant of Venice (v, i, 83-85)
My Groups
-
New Zealand—Aotearoa Updated: 3 hours ago
Neighborhood
Explore friends, family, friends & family, or entire neighborhood.
Recent Comments
-
Zarah Heathwaite said:
Hi, yeah... that should be fine. I've only just started this blog so it's all very new to me! I'm... read more
on Logo and Business Card -
Baha'i Views on Vox said:
With your permission I would like to respost this on my blog Baha'i Views and link. read more
on Logo and Business Card
Thank you, Zarah. I have reposted: http://www.bahaiviews.net/2008/04/15/on-human-cells-a-lotus-flower-and-a-9-pointed-star-inspired-combination/ http://bahaiviews.blogspot.com/2008/04/on-human-cells-lotus-flower-9-pointed.html George read more
on Logo and Business Card