Hello! Long time, no blog! I have decided to trot on back on here after a lonnnnnng break as I’m feeling inspired and ready to have a “dear diary style” moment. I just got back from America - I did my first USA install in Telluride, Colorado which was just the most wonderful experience! I was invited to come to this far away town by the wonderful people at the AHHA School of the Arts to participate in an installation event alongside a bunch of other artists. The jet lag / altitude knocked me about pretty much as soon as I arrived, and the first few days of adjusting were a bit tough - worth it though! And it was lucky I had a couple of days to recover before I hit the installation process, because once I started it was all go go go!

AHHA was honestly such a dream place! So dreamy that in fact, when I arrived at LAX airport the customs officer asked me if I was making the place up (seriously, I nearly got put back on a plane home)…and in some ways, it felt like I was! Imagine a glorious mountain village with the most stunning views you could lay your eyes on - I’m talkin’ waterfalls! Red rock mountains! Cutie trees! Baby animals! Pastel houses! And then, amongst all that whimsy, imagine an art school filled with glorious, creative souls that teach all the arty disciplines you could imagine… ceramics, painting, book binding, mixed media, screen printing…even the culinary arts…on and on it went. Honestly, I had some pretty solid “what if we all moved to Telluride” fantasies because it was that magical (although YIKES the real estate prices are something else!). This place even made me feel outdoorsy, and believe me when I say….that’s impressive.

But in addition to the splendour of the location and school itself, it was also so amazing to get to meet so many other incredible artists and get to engage with their disciplines. In particular, I so loved getting to experience the work of Niki Dionne, Walker Mettling and Finn Thompson! Please take a moment for NIki’s insanely incredible felt roller blading sculptures!! These sculptures were tall, colourful and hand felted - I got to see her making them in action and honestly my jaw DROPPED! I so adored the divine combinations of colour and pattern that she used in each piece. Throughout the duration of the gallery showing of the works, visitors to the space were able to felt their own roller skate…how cool!

Niki Dionne’s amazing felt roller skating girls.

Walker’s work was hard to put into word because it was so tactile and nostalgic. It made me think of the drippy monsters on the ODDBODZ cards I collected when I was a kid. They glowed, they oozed, they were great - and Walker was an absolute hoot. Every time he introduced himself he would walk his fingers across the air, which I thought was very funny.

And wowee FINN!! 15 years old and an absolute balloon master! He absolutely blew me away with these incredible balloon dresses he would just casually whip up in his hotel room. Just fabulous stuff - and extra points for all his balloons being compost friendly and biodegradable. He also worked with a team to create an insane balloon garden install throughout AHHA and wowee it was the stuff of dreams. I loved seeing them modelled against my install too!

There were so many other incredible artists on site and it was amazing to party away with them. And party we did! My installation felt like it became a small craft-disco one night with people sipping on cocktails, dancing, creating crazy outfit additions - people were literally crawling across the tinsel walls. Honestly it took me back to the shiny times of the tinsel bar!

After Telluride, it was time to say goodbye and (after so many flight delays) head to NYC to meet up with my husband Tom. We couldn’t hardly believe that a) we were actually overseas b) that we were sans toddler c) that we weren’t working (although cheeky me, I did squeeze in a visit to Squarespace HQ)!! We gallery hopped and ate a gazillion different types of burgers and skipped around the city visiting cutie boutiques. A true highlight was seeing Moulin Rouge on Broadway which was absolutely STUNNING. The theatre kid in me was desperate to sing along to all the glorious show tunes, so my NYC pals took us to this amazing bar Marie’s Crisis to have a good, solid sing after and oh my god…i did NOT WANT TO LEAVE.

This was my very first big trip away from my kiddo which, after 3.5 years of immersion, proved to make my heart go WAHHH. With the power of zoom and facetime I was of course still able to tune into wake ups and bed times, but oh boy, it was so great to see him again at the airport. That first cuddle when I returned won’t be one I ever forget! I was really in two minds about bringing Hugo on the journey with us…but given I got so sick with the altitude in Telluride and NYC was INSANELY hot, I actually felt quite relieved that we chose not to bring him in the end - although that parental guilt is really hard to escape!

Home again now though, and extremely grateful for the adventure. It’s been just over a week since I’ve returned home now and now I’ve gotten over the jetlag and a brutal post-travel cold (not even covid!) I am starting to feel recharged. It was good to step out of the studio, disrupt the routine and go on an adventure. Next up: I am about to embark on a big making journey for my Brisbane Fashion Week show, so can’t wait to share some process photos and generally BLOG about the process…because we are bloggers again now haha.

The theme of the show is Trash n’ Treasure Planet Prom, so think: a very frilly space/alien moment with a side of prom nostalgia. The trash n’ treasure element comes into play because I’m doing my very best to upcycle as much as possible to bring the collection and event to life. So, I’ll be creating bags out of cereal boxes and garments out of streamers that people (from literally all over the world!) have sent me! I will also be digging into my craft cupboard and using heaps of deadstock tulle and fabric that has been lying leftover from other collections and projects…desperately waiting for this opportunity to become something new and dreamy!

Anywho, if you made it to the end of this - thanks for reading! That’s quite enough from me for now, can’t wait to post again soon!

Rach xx