Janine's Journey - Jan 23 - Post Holiday Blues
Hi Subscriber
Where do I start?
To say our holiday was fantastic, amazing, and awe inspiring would be
an understatement!!!
We incredibly lucky with both the weather and wildlife encounters.
I could go on for hours about it but I am conscious that this is an art
newsletter so here is a "quick" recap of our cruise with Aurora
Expeditions as requested.
As we have thousands of photos (and it is difficult to take a bad photo
when everything is so spectacular) I have decided to gradually "start"
posting some travel photos on my personal Instagram account (as opposed
to my textile art account) for everyone to enjoy.
If you are on Instagram and want to see more of our travel photos you
can find me here
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South Georgia
South Georgia is wildlife central with some of the greatest
concentrations of wildlife on earth. The beaches are full of activity
over the summer with all the wildlife making the most of the respite in
the weather.
When we were there it was fur seal breeding season. The males took over
the beaches assembling their hareems of females. It is also the time
when the pups are born and they were very cute!
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South Georgia is where you go to see masses of King penguins with some
beaches having up to 250,000 birds!!!! We climbed the hill behind the
Salisbury Plain colony to look down on a sea of birds with rivers of
brown through it where the chicks congregate together.
King penguins have 3 breeding cycles every 2 years, so there were lots
of the fluffy brown chicks around from last season that were starting
to moult.
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The other main type of Penguin we saw were the Gentoo's which are all
through South Georgia and Antarctica.
We saw a couple of tiny chicks but on the whole the breeding season was
late this year because of all the snow.
The males make their nest out of stones and have to wait for the snow
to melt before they can build then. They are so funny waddling around
collecting the perfect stones to impress their mate!
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The other main animal we saw were Elephant Seals. Their breeding season
is earlier in the season so the big adults had already left but there
were adolescents and the cutest newly weaned pups around.
The pups were about 6 weeks old and already as big as us.
They were so curious and inquisitive, and on one particular paddle in
Gold Harbour we were surrounded by a group of them investigating us and
the kayaks!
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South Georgia also has lots of history from the time of the fur sealers
and whalers. The number of animals taken was ridiculous putting some
species in jeopardy but finally most populations are well on the way to
recovery.
In the museum at Grytviken (an old Whaling Station) their was a lovely
quilt with Cyanotype printed images from historical photos.
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We followed along in Shackleton's footsteps. Elephant Islands where
some of the crew spent months under an upturned boat on a "beach" to
his grave in Grytviken. We also did the final stage of his walk in
South Georgia from Fortuna Bay to Stromness Whaling Station.
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Antarctica Peninsula
The two things that stand out from Antarctica are the spectacular
scenery which is so immense and the whale encounters in particular
Minke's. Having swum with Humpbacks and Whale sharks in Exmouth and
seen Orca's in Bremer Bay I wasn't expected whales to be the highlight
but these Minke's were incredible.
Minke's can be shy, but the ones we encountered had obviously been
reading a different script! The first one we encountered spent five
hours circling the ship in Orne Harbour when there was too much ice for
a zodiac landing. The water was so clear we got great views from the
ship and on the zodiacs.
The next day in Neko Harbour while we were kayaking we had five Minkes
swimming around us for 45 minutes. You would be watching one come
towards you and another would spy hop (stick their head out of the
water and look around) behind you!! They were swimming about 1 m below
the kayaks!!!
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Antarctica is full of big scenery. Rugged mountains and glaciers
everywhere. There was more ice around than normal for this time of year
so paddling through it was really special. We generally had blue skies
and no wind so the reflections were fabulous.
We did the polar plunge! If we capsize when sailing I struggle to get
back in the boat, but I had no problem getting back on the pontoon when
the water is 0 degrees (C)!!
Polar
Plunge
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Ice Arch
After such an amazing time it has been a struggle to get back into it -
I am still in denial that it is over, but have so much wonderful
inspiration.
As we sort through the thousands of photos that we took on the holiday
deciding which penguin, albatross, seal and whale photos I want to do I
have opted to start with a landscape.
On this particular paddle we are in Cierva Cove on the Antarctic
Peninsula on a spectacular day with brilliant blue skies and no wind.
What is special about Cierva Cove's is the constant glacier calving,
(shedding of ice from the front of a glacier into the sea). This
creates amazing icebergs and brash ice (fragments of floating ice less
than two meters in diameter). After crunching through lots of ice we
came across this massive ice arch. One of our guides went around the
other side and we got this photo.
On the cruise there were two photo contest, one for South Georgia and
one for Antarctica. Everyone has a vote and this one was the winner for
Antarctica!! There were some comments about the "kayaking mafia" all
voting together but there were several kayaking photos to choose from!
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After last years exhibition I don't have anything planned for this
year, so I am thinking I will enter a few quilt shows. At this stage I
haven't decided which ones but thought I would keep my options open by
making this one larger than I normally do so it will meet most entry
requirements.
It is about 100 x 160 cm (40 x 65 inches).
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As per usual I am starting with the fabric collage (or part of it at
least).
With it being larger than I normally do I am concerned that all the man
handling for the thread painting will fray the fabric collage
excessively.
I generally don't use things like visoflex or Steam a seam as my
temperamental machine doesn't like sewing through them.
For this reason I have decided to do it in sections and finish one area
totally before moving on to the next. Hopefully it will work...
First up is the mountain background leading through to the ice in the
foreground (but nothing to do with the arch including it's reflection).
The local fabric spot didn't have any fabric that inspired me (or was
the perfect colour blue) so I made the rash decision to get a solid
colour that was alright hoping all the stitching would give it some
life.
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By the time I had done the collage I was already regretting my decision
with it looking so monotone so I sun dyed a piece to insert for the sky.
Slowly, slowly I have been adding details to the ice in the foreground
and it is starting to look much better.
I have never used misty fuse before and tried on the long dark strips
for the ripples right at the front. I like how it stops the fraying
soft but it has peeled off with all the man handling as I thread paint.
Not sure if ironing will reactivate the glue but not willing to try yet
as I don't to lose all my markings which are iron away! At this stage
it vindicates to do the quilt in sections, I just hope I wont run into
problems when it comes to adding the next area of collage!
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Art Journal
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Before I left on the trip I had all these great intentions of keeping
an art travel journal. I planned to do it every day, improve my drawing
skills and finish with a wonderful memento of the trip.
I should have known I would be far to busy and this was all I managed
to do in the entire trip!!
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Well that is about it for now, I really must get this sent.
Thank you to everyone who responded to my last email. I really do
appreciate it and I apologise for not responding personally. Internet
was fleeting while we were away and it seemed strange to respond so
long after the fact when we got home.
Kind Regards
Janine
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