Steph's peace flags

Steph lives nearby Barry and Fiona in Australia, and here are the flags she made this year. You can see her flag from last year here.

This is what she said about her flags this year...

Also have had fun and enjoyment with my little flag today.  My theme for this year for me is "Interdependence and balance give rise to Peace"
It is all biodegradable having painted on 600gsm paper and pegged on the web I made from string indicating the web of life -  and of course I have my little peace dove holding an olive twig (not quite a branch).

Steph

Today the flags fly...

We have had a wonderful International Day of Peace here in Maleny.

We started with hanging our different sets of flags outside our house and then spent a morning with children making peace leaves for a peace tree at the Library. It is school holidays here and the children will keep adding to the tree all week.

Here are some of the flags flying at our house today:

Fabric flags, screenprinted with a golden origami peace crane image.  The flags are flown in the traditional order, with Blue for the sky; White for the clouds; Red for fire; Green for water and Yellow for the earth.

My weathergrams have been added to and there are plenty flying high and getting blown by the breeze, and sometimes buffeted to the ground.  Then they get carried away by the wind; sharing their message of peace.

These are new favourites! A while ago we did a printmaking workshop where we used "baby wipes" to clean the paints off the plates.  They looked so gorgeous at the end of the day we saved them from the rubbish and brought them home to dry.  Then we screenprinted them as well and now they are hanging proudly and looking absolutely beautiful!

And finally for me...my hand-made paper flags with origami peace cranes embedded within. These are slightly more vulnerable to the elements so we have hung them at the front of the house, under the verandah. They make a warm welcome to our home...

We gonged our peace bell this morning and again at midday - this evening as the sun sets, we will gong again for peace.  Every little bit we do, in whatever small ways we can, we can help to amplify and share the message of peace in the world.

Fiona's weathergrams are beginning to fly

I am making weathergrams again this year and have started hanging them in the tree at the top of our driveway.  I have plenty more to go and will be getting up on the ladder later in the week to make sure thee is a good set there for Saturday 21 September.

Barry has helped out by writing messages for peace as well.

Here they are in the making and the early hanging...

And a Hipstamatic late afternoon shot...

I also have some fabric flags I am hoping to screenprint later today - fingers crossed I get them done!

And I also remembered another random set of flags we were hoping to pull together, so the front yard should be ablaze with flags and colours on Saturday I hope, reminding people of peace and to stop for a minute at midday and be silent...

10 days!

mjd - 2013

this year i work in fibers,

exploring thoughts of 

connection 

&

strength in unexpected places.

tying it all

into wishes for peace.

Indoor flags outside...

As Barry mentioned in the previous post, we accidentally found ourselves together out on the bell deck hanging our flags - a totally unscripted performance!

I was testing out my indoor flags - made of hand-made paper embedded with origami peace cranes.  They seem to work and I think they will look good inside.

This is them lying around on our tiles.

And this is them hanging - photographing into the bright setting afternoon sun.

And here they are along with some of Jennifer's from last year (top), mine in the middle and Barry's metal flags along the bottom.

Jennifer's flags live out the back where we see theme very day; ours will migrate to the front of the block during September for folk to see. I hope to start hanging my weathergrams this week as well!

The day draws closer

Weirdly Fiona and I had the same idea-urge this afternoon to finish part of our Flags for Peace 2013 - most likely spurred on by MJ's reminder of 28 days to go (even less now).

We met on the Peace Bell deck with flags in hand to give them a test run and take a few photos for this blog. I think Fiona will be posting on this test run as well later on so readers will have to put up with a bit of overlap and repetition - guess that is ok in the pursuit of peace.

As you can see from the photos mine are outdoor metal ones and Fiona's is one of her indoor ones (hand made paper with imbedded peace cranes). You can see a set of Jennifer Q's flags from last year that still manage to survive and fly on the Peace Bell deck.

28 days

woven leaf - mjd 2013

the flags for peace project grew from those whose work is infused with this intention on a daily basis. it gave us a special 'project' with a goal date - 

but it occurs every day.

i know my project for this year has changed multiple times - before january, it was going to involved colored perspex. 

then baskets.

but now i have fallen for weaving.

i am making pin woven leaves - 

and just got some custom tweaked weaving forms - a card and an arched loom. 

the wonderful jeff from explorations early learning altered the spacing for my needs. i am very thankful to him for the accommodation. 

what have you been thinking about?

do you have ideas to contribute on the international day of peace?

if you are not a contributor but would like to be, please just reach out and you will be happily added. 

thank you for your patience, i know this year the blog has not received the attention it did last year - but it's not for lack of love for the project. 

i hope that if you find some time, you will share a bit about what you might be working on. 

in metta,

mary jane