Susan Zela's Sustainable Services | Public figure
Susan Zela's Sustainable Services
Reviews
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24.01.2022 Open your eyes Australia!
23.01.2022 Learning to make paper from botanical fibres and decorate with nature's elegant petals, tendrils and fronds.
23.01.2022 About a woman I am proud to have as a friend!
23.01.2022 Better get prepared for launching my 2 childrens books.
23.01.2022 Add your voice!
21.01.2022 Melly's bilby Trella went to live there!
21.01.2022 Hope to see you at the opening October 10
20.01.2022 One of the most effective things we can do to help our planet is preserve chunks of land with significant biodiversity values.
20.01.2022 Biodiversity needs your help!
18.01.2022 Good ecosystem rule!
18.01.2022 Please support this very worthwhile local group.
14.01.2022 Gympie Permaculture
14.01.2022 Greens candidate Lauren Granger Brown recently held a forum on water security in Gympie. After the huge grassroots campaign to preserve the integrity of the Mary River, it seems there are still plans afoot to remove large amounts of water from this catchment! You can watch the speakers at Tony Kishawi's What's on in Gympie page.
13.01.2022 First Nations position
13.01.2022 This will be a special ending to a special exhibition!
13.01.2022 Positions vacant
11.01.2022 My happy place seems to be playing with pulp.... Turmeric paper a promising experiment. Turmeric that golden root we all know is good for our health. Closely related to the other members of the ginger family, turmeric (Curcuma longa) is a perennial herb native to India. The herb itself is derived from the rhizome of the plant, which is dried to produce the familiar culinary powder. It needs a rather specific temperature and environment to thrive, so it is not widely cult...ivated throughout the world but is exported due to its desirability. Here in the sub-tropics I am lucky enough to be able to successfully grow turmeric, and this year I had a bumper crop. Turmeric has a long list of health benefits because of its medicinal properties and nutritional value. It has anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties and can be used in many forms. Artists also know turmeric as a useful source of vibrant golden colour transferring willingly onto silk, wool and paper fibres. What I set out to discover is whether the stalks would be suitable for papermaking. After harvesting the rhizomes, I set aside the stalks and tough bases and chopped them into roughly 2cm pieces. These were placed in a large pot with 2 tablespoons of washing soda and boiled for 2 hours. This mixture was drained and rinsed. After three changes of rinse water, the resulting softened stalks were placed in my trusty 1200 V café strength blender in small batches with fresh water. Once in the vat, the pulp felt smooth and remained in suspension, so no formation aid was needed. A tiny amount (less than 5%) of acid free card was soaked and blended with the final batch. The pulp drained freely and couched neatly although a few hairy edges protruded. A few lumps of coarsely chopped turmeric root remained and formed some lumps but overall the pulp behaved very well and I was able to form a post of 25 A4 sheets in one hour. Some were couched onto plastic, and after that onto cotton sheet squares. The sheets on the plastic had lower shrinkage and displayed a pearly sheen. After drying, the sheets had a fine crackle and translucent appearance. Eight sheets pearly sheets couched on plastic and 19 others couched onto cotton cloth are now sitting in the press. Those couched onto cloth had greater shrinkage and warping but I trust the press to sort that out. I recommend trying turmeric stalks if you can grow it. And I may add we are eating lots of golden dishes at present, a timely boost to our immune systems! See more
11.01.2022 My friend Nai Nai Bird shares some knowledge. Don't miss it!
10.01.2022 Some may be interested to support this?
10.01.2022 Walking by the Mary River a random stranger drew my attention to this fruiting cluster fig.
07.01.2022 Position vacant
06.01.2022 Contributed some of my papers for botanical exploration yesterday.
06.01.2022 For all those interested in Education for Sustainability- a virtual one-day conference
06.01.2022 Science meets art with kombucha pellicle!
04.01.2022 Totally recommend the Hinterhub! A good place which treats its suppliers fairly and honestly!
04.01.2022 The copies of the new version of my children's story, Melly and the Bilby, arrived today. Like many of my stories, Melly and the Bilby has its origins in a unit of work with an upper primary class on endangered animals. In the course of research, I learned a lot about the bilby and the work being done to create a bilby-safe enclosure in Currawinya National Park. At that time, Frank Manthey and his scientist colleague Peter McRae were still very much alive, working hard to est...ablish a breeding program at Charleville and map the location of the surviving bilbies at Estrella Downs in outback Queensland. Frank was very keen to support the publication of Melly and the Bilby. He put me in touch with Stephen Hagan of the Kullilli people, who helped me to add Kullilli language words and perspectives to the story. Frank also visited Two Mile and Chatsowrth Schools where I was working. Stephen formed a publishing company, Ngalga Wurrulu, (Talking with Strangers) to initially publish the story. The book now being released is the second edition, this time with a more durable cover and updated with more information. See more
02.01.2022 Yoshio and the Magic Bowl Although I have worked as an educator for over 25 years, my first tertiary studies were as a student of fine art at the old George St campus of the Queensland College of Art! Maintaining an arts practice ever since has at times been a challenge! Majoring in high-fired ceramics at Queensland College of Art, I had a small pottery studio where I fired high-fired stoneware in a wood kiln at Coondoo, past Wolvi. I loved the work of Shoji Hamada who maste...red both western and eastern ceramic traditions in his work with Bernard Leach at St Ives, Cornwall, and in 1994 I was able to travel to Japan and visit the pottery town of Mashiko, and see with my own eyes the ancient pottery villages and anagama kilns. After hosting a Japanese Exchange student in 1999, I drew upon those photographs, sketches and my knowledge of ceramics to write the story of Yoshio and the Magic Bowl, and illustrate it with back ink drawings. It is now available from my website zela.com.au Gympie residents can buy it at the local Gympie Regional Gallery and Hervey Bay residents from Lewis Gallery, Luizzi Street, Piabla. See more
02.01.2022 You can help support research into the endangered Mary rRver Turtle by buying chocolate turtles from Tiaro Land Care at https://mary-river-turtle-public-fund.giveeasy.org/help-pun
02.01.2022 Any philanthropists willing to help?
01.01.2022 My forthcoming children's book is Yoshio and the Magic Bowl Here is a taster: After defiantly eating from the family heirloom bowl, Yoshio finds himself in ancient Kyoto during the eleventh century. Taken in by a kindly old woman, he learns his way around the old city. It is on the street of the potters that one fateful day he sees the very bowl he knows so well first unpacked from its fiery furnace...
01.01.2022 Opportunity for a school leaver
