Mermaids

I am been musing on mermaids today because I have been creating a mask for an event I am going to. The mask is based on a mermaid and is quilted, beaded, drawn on and painted and I am very pleased with the effects I've created. I'd add a picture but I haven't wrapped my head around the Hello BloggerBot as yet and don't feel like being technical this avo. Mermaids still fascinate us and are considered dangerous, luring men (mostly) travelling in ships to their deaths on rocks and into whirlpools - you cannot resist a mermaid's siren song it would seem, some must have, or there would be no tales to tell .

I've also been thinking about singing. I love singing, it fills my soul and also makes my brain work very hard. I'm not a brilliant sight reader, never learnt music as a young child, took it up as an adult and never seriously worked to get beyond the beginner's sight reading ability, too many other things in life to be creative in and my voice is standard, nothing to write home about, but choral singing allows it to become part of a whole and that whole is fabulous! I have sung in choirs for many years - concert in small chapels, in the Sydney Opera House, with small no-name conductors and big name giants, old works, new works written for the choir, I love the challenge of late 20th and 21st century music, it is really good for the brain! My current choir has had a change of musicical director and the process of voicing and auditions begins anew. This makes me ponder, do I want to put myself through this process again, it is very hard and I may fail - I always fear that I may fail (and I have at auditions before now). Musical director are usually professional muscians and don't really understand the amateur choristor, we are a weird mob, we aren't making a living from making music, we do it for love or fun or some other motive and pay for the priviledge as well! Choristors are strange beasties.

Yesterday I spent the day with members of my online quilting group - Southern Cross Quilters http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scquilters/ - we are planning the annual GTG in real space and Sydney is hosting it this year. The mermaid mask is for this event BTW. I am constantly inspired by the creative abilities of this group of quilters! For instance, Jenny Bowker, she has moved to the middle east and is a SCQuilter and a famous quilter, it was her blog http://jennybowker.blogspot.com/ that finally pushed me to create one.