Maurri (June) at Marnin Studio
This month Marnin Studio had Ruby Edmeades, dietitian from WA Country Health Service come to run a session with us. The ladies were curious to know more about diabetes and how certain foods impact the body, so Ruby joined us to dive into diabetes education and how we can use food as fuel. The artists then put their new knowledge into action and helped to prepare a healthy tuna pasta for lunch, which was a huge hit!
We were also lucky enough to be involved in Baya Gawiy's Artist in Residence program for two days with Nikki Fletcher and Vicki Hynam. Nikki is a craft specialist at Sophia Mundi Steiner School in Abbotsford, Melbourne, and Vicki works to support local women from the Fitzroy Valley in curating children's language books through Baya Gawiy Children and Family Centre. Together, they introduced our studio artists to the new material process of wet felting. Artists were invited to reflect on the colours of Country and create layers of felt to create a background. Then, they worked at crafting different shapes and textures to form a foreground. Some artists created landscape images, while others created abstract impressions of the Fitzroy Valley. 
Once the fibres were combined, shrunk and dried in the sun, some artists began to cut out earring designs and stitch the edges to create detailed visual interest. We then took this stitching technique and combined it with our established bush dye practice to create small barramundi bush toys for the little ones at the kindergarten. The ladies yarned, shared food and had a sing while we engaged in the repetitive and therapeutic process of stitching threads. 
Each artist had their own ideas and colour preference, so together the collection of toys showcased our varying styles as a collective art group. It was great to expand on our existing practices and dive back in to our artistic relationship with Baya Gawiy- one that we hope will continue to flourish!
Preparing for Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair
In the studio, we have been strongly led by Charline Davis, Ivy Nargoodah, Eva Nargoodah.... in preparing the bush dye components of our DAAF collection. Following plant collection in previous months, the ladies have continued to decide on background colours and patterned designs on silk fabric. This process is slow and steady, pots are often bubbling away in the background, sitting for days or weeks, being stirred and gently handled by the artists every once in a while to ensure the colours adhere properly. We can really see our collection coming together, grounded by this cultural practice and reflections on the mighty Martuwarra Fitzroy River- artists Charline Davis and Ivy Nargoodah use snake skin patterns paired with lumpi lumpi yellow tell the story of the snake's belly. Be sure to come along to Country to Couture (show 2) to see these pieces in action on the runway, or pop in to the market to see what other bush dye products we have been working on.
Wellbeing Trip to Geikie Gorge
We spent the day at Geikie Gorge on Bunuba Danggu Country with the studio artists. It's important that we take the time to check in with each other and have some peaceful time with the Martuwarra, and what better way to do that than throwing in a line and sharing fresh fruit. This time away from town is always a welcome change from our day to day routine, we can move away from our phones and lean into connection with each other and Country. The other benefit to being together in this way is that we can be inspired by textures, colours and sounds, bringing design ideas back to the studio for future projects. 
Screenprinting Professional Development
Marnin Studio staff visited Ciaran Frost at Emama Nguda Aboriginal Corporation in Derby for a screen printing session. Ciaran has been a long time collaborator with the studio, most famously, he has been printing our Fitzroy Crossing tees for the past two years. When it was time for us to scrub up on our screen emulsion and exposing skills, Ciaran generously agreed to host us and spent the day sharing his knowledge. It was a wonderful day exploring the potential for Marnin to expand our material offering- but we've got to start somewhere! 
The design we were practicing with in these images belongs to local artist, Cherry Smiler, a prolific print maker and accomplished Marnin Studio artist.
A huge thank you to Ciaran for being so generous and welcoming, if you haven't yet popped in to Emama Nguda Aboriginal Corporation's printing studio in Derby- we highly recommend!