My Northern Territory Holiday - Souvenirs

The penultimate post about my Northern Territory holiday is a relatively short one (yes, can you believe it, a short post from me!) highlighting some of the amazing artists who created some of the lovely souvenirs we brought home with us.

 "On Walkabout (Blue)" fabric by Karen Taylor

When I asked Malcolm what he was interested in bringing home as a reminder of our trip, he replied that he was interested in the many paintings by Aboriginal artists he had seen in the local galleries and stores.  Since these were out of our budget range,  I came up with a solution which made him happy and which also gave me an excuse to add to my fabric stash (he he).  I had noticed the tantalising Australian Aboriginal Fabrics store on our second day in Alice Springs and had been dying to pop in for a browse.  When I did, I was blown away by the beautiful fabric available!  I had to choose the blue "On Walkabout fabric" since blue is Malcolm's favourite colour and dot paintings are the traditional form of painting created by the local Arrernte people.  For those of you who can't visit Alice Springs, you will be glad to know that Australian Aboriginal Fabrics ship worldwide (was it naughty of me to tell you that?)

Beautifully coloured earrings created by Julie Millerick of Desert Silk

Another place full of amazing art by local artists was the small studio and gallery, Central Craft.  This little gem is a part of the Araluen Cultural Precinct and was full of a variety of handcrafts including pottery, felted and woven fabric art, jewellery and paintings.  My parents even found a delicious-looking range of gourmet jams and marmalades!  We had so much fun looking through all the beautiful handiwork and we were a little disappointed that none of the artists were working in the studio on the day we visited.

Bookmarks of paintings created by local artists

This last picture doesn't really constitute a "souvenir" we brought home with us, but it did give us some giggles after the initial tears.  As I mentioned in a previous holiday post, we found many of the walks to be rather arduous with two small children.  As a consequence, by the last day of our trip, each of us sported at least one graze or bruise on our knees (except for my parents who, being more "mature" and sensible, picked their way carefully through each walk and didn't fall once).  It hurt quite a bit at the time, but it was pretty funny looking at all of our knees while we sat in the departure lounge of the airport awaiting our flight home!