Happy Easter...

Have a wonderful and safe Easter. 

May you experience the joy of friends and family and I hope the Easter Bunny's are gracious with their bounty of deliciousness. :)

Come to Thread Den Market this Sunday...

Thread Den Market- 10am to 3pm. I hope to see you there. 

Australasian Quilters Convention...

Golden Afternoons by Ruth de Vos

The Australasia Quilters Convention starts today at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre until 17th April.

I like to go every year and check out all the latest fabrics and see the Amazing quilts on display.

Hours and hours of work have gone into these quilts and it is very inspiring indeed. 

A wonderful way to spend a cold Autumn day.

"Ahoy Me Hearty's"...

Today my father would have turned 82 if he was alive.
Bless his old soul.
This exuberant, generous and wonderfully loved father of mine (and my 6 siblings) was a sailor and
in honour of his sea-faring shenanigans, I have made a Pirate doll...

It's Ye Olde Pirate Girl

Arrrrrr Shiver Me Timbers...

When Cat Met Fish...

" They came from different worlds but they liked each others looks..."

"Fish told cat about the water..."

"and cat told fish about the woods."

"cat wasn't so sure [she] liked the ocean."

"They decided to live where the sea and the land met..."

"and rest until their next adventure."

All words written by Joan Grant from the book Cat and Fish, illustrated by Neil Curtis and winner of the Children's Book Council Picture Book of the Year award 2004.

A must read for anyone that loves unusual friendships.

Creative Space...

I have been really busy in my Creative Space this week.

I sent off this little personalised Bird Boy and have lots of other little things to complete

 Such as stuffing these girls.

Worrying about what I'm going to dress them in.

(Sometimes I spend more time 'choosing' fabric than actually sewing!

 Last night I agonised for 45 minutes over 3 types of grey???)

This guy needs a body and some ears. 

Oh and a nightgown because he is going to dress up as Grandma.

Do you think the eyes are too creepy for children? I never know.  Today my son turned down the offer of wearing his Spiderman T shirt to Daycare because he 

"might be scared of it at rest time".

I don't want to make a toy that has to be spirited out of the room at bedtime.

I'm off now to make some clothes for those girls.  I have a girl from Berlin staying with me at the moment and she calls clothes "clothers" (sounds exactly like clovers).  I love it! 

I just cant say it any other way now.

Remember Cat and Fish from last week?

I think they fell in love.

For more creative spaces vist Kirsty at Kootoyoo...

The Art of Australian Picture Books...

The day little Jim wore his Turtle suit

and made mischief at the State Library...

he joined with all the children across Melbourne for the great

Children's Book Festival of 2011,

and had the most Amazing day.

There was the beautiful big old library to explore.

(Without having to be quiet)

Live music and a special production by Drop Bear Theatre of Mem Fox's 'The Magic Hat'

With shadow puppets that were so beautiful they brought tears to my eyes.

Peter Rabbit.

A petting zoo.

And of course the free exhibition which runs until 29th May 2011 featuring the art of Australia's finest illustrators.

The little boy had such a fun day that he hopped into bed in his Turtle suit and went straight to sleep.

And he didn't need 20 books read to him as he had read so many at the festival. :)

Here are some of the books featured in the exhibition:

Stephen Michael King 'Leaf"

Gaye Chapman 'Little Blue'

Glenda Millard & Rebecca Cool 'Isabella's Garden'

Armin Greder 'The Island'

If you have not read this book to your children then you must do so immediately! And I challenge you to do it without crying.  Recommended for ages 8-11.  Sparks insightful conversation and is a great way to open up discussion about cultural differences, tolerance and refugees.

An outstanding picture book.

Visit The Art of Australian Picture Books at the State Library of Victoria website for more details.

Little Red Riding Hood...

My four favourite words. 

Those of you that have visited Nettle and Brier from the beginning would know how enchanted I am by Little Red Riding Hood, how enamoured I am by this tale and indeed how it has inspired me to create that little Maid over and over with glorious affection. She has been purchased by doll collectors, given to children, bought by adults and even now, the very beginnings of her, are again laid out in my sewing room.

It started when I was very young with this tiny porcelain cake topper (above).  Red Riding Hood and the Wolf.  My mother placed it on one of my cakes when I was a small child, just as she had likely done with my four sisters before me, and that is when the love affair began.

So it was with great excitement that I set off today to see the new film Red Riding Hood by Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight). However the excitement very soon turned to real horror (and occasional laughter) when a few scenes in it was like looking at a B grade Telemovie.

Yes indeed the woman who gave Robert Pattinson to the world has made a seriously bad film!

[image source]

How can a film with such stunning cinematography and a great cast be so bad you ask?  Was it the clunky script? Was it Gary Oldman reprising certain aspects of Bram Stoker's dracula?  Was it Virginia Madsen's incredibly cosmetically enhanced face? (Oh Virginia what big lips you have!) Or was it Shilo Fernandez's vacuous impersonation of Robert Pattinson acting a Vampire that was the final diminishing factor?

(Incedently Shilo Fernandez was passed over for playing the role of Edward Cullen in Twilight and perhaps this was his way of getting a little bit of Edward screen time;)

Visit Andrew Lee's review over at Cinephilia, his summation is superb.

One positive thing I can say- Amanda Seyfried (Big Love, Chloe) is gorgeous to behold.  Her beauty is as enchanting as a Red Riding Hood should be and her ever lengthening Red woollen cape (handmade by Grandma) makes for beautiful imagery as it trails blood red in the snow. 

 This film makes a big departure from the Red Riding Hood stories that have been handed down in print.   The wolf becomes a Werewolf and it is no longer a cautionary tale about straying from the path, such as in Charles Perrault's and the Grimm Brothers version.  But rather it combines horror mixed with romance and the roles of Mother and Grandmother are lost.  Especially in the case of Julie Christie as Grandmother, her role is laugh out loud ridiculous and Virginia Madsen as Mother has none of the true wisdom and intuition that underpin this beloved fable. However it is important to note that the film does explore some of the motifs from the older folk tradition. One oral telling has the bzou (werewolf) feeding Red Riding Hood a stew made from her own dead Grandmother and this is rather grizzly depicted on screen. She also outwits the bzou as she cunningly does in the folk telling of The Grandmothers Tale, however the film incorporates the Grimm Brothers version, so she does not outwit him alone but has substantial help from the Woodcutter (Shilo Fernandez).

This is my copy of Little Red Riding Hood and Other Stories by Charles Perrault.  These stories were first published in 1697. Incidentally it was he who first introduced the red hood to the tale. 

This is now such an enduring motif- Red could be interpreted as a sexual colour, the colour of harlotry or perhaps it symbolises menstruation and the cusp of childhood and adolescence. The wolf is a motif for a predatory man and in the above printed version of the tale Red Riding Hood is commanded into bed with the wolf.  "Little Red Riding Hood took off her clothes, but when she climbed up on the bed she was astonished to see how her grandmother looked in her nightgown". 

You see how "the better to eat you with" originates from a sexually devouring situation not a culinary one.  

"With these words the wicked Wolf leapt upon Little Red Riding Hood and gobbled her up."

The End.

The denouement of The Brothers Grimm is rather different and much more hopeful. The woodcutter saves both Grandma and Little Red and we are left with the strong moral lesson of not wandering off the path when  our mother forbids it.
(Heaven help we stray from the path!)

In Clever Maids, The Secret History of The Grimm's Fairy Tales Valerie Paradiz offers us a third and somewhat obscure version where Little Red Riding hood returns to Grandmother's house and encounters yet another wolf but she sticks to the path this time and so remains unscathed. You see she has learnt her lesson.

I was once told a fabulous joke about Red Riding Hood wherein she takes out a giant bazooka and has her way with the wolf the way she wants it.  I think a modern retelling of this fable would have more of these elements.  At the very least Little Red should be able to distinguish her own Grandmother from a wolf in the bed?? Or perhaps in her infinite wisdom she imbibes her dear old Gran and goes willingly naked into the bed of the wolf-man through sheer natural curiosity.

Please stay tuned for more Red Riding Hood tales when I unveil a new toy very soon. I would like to delve further into the origins and the oral tradition, which appeal much more to my feminist sensibilities.  I am about to read "From the Beast to the Blonde" by Marina Warner and I'm certain she will give me enough insight for a whole other entry.

 

For Further Reading:
Little Red Riding Hood (5 Versions including Grimm Brothers and Charles Perrault)
Little Red Riding Hood: Heidi Anne Heiner, Surlalune Fairy Tales.com
Touch Magic: Jane Yolen, (A short collection of great essays about the importance of Fairy Tales).
Clever Maids, The Secret History of the Grimm Fairy Tales- Valerie Paradis