Two Month Catch Up

We have just had another experimentation day with our Creative textile group and I managed to remember the camera, so this post will be a catch up for September as well.

Our September meeting was experimenting with stamping on pellon. Here are some gorgeous rich samples:

We also tried out some foiling on panne velvet:

 In our October workshop we all managed some fantastic results using felt or panne and cotton velvet, gesso, UTEE, embossing powders and stamps. This technique was very popular and I can see these motifs finding their way onto book covers, bags and other pieces of art.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our second technique this month was fusing chiffon onto stitched watercolour paper and stencilling xpandaprint.

These are samples before painting and gilding (I just love this effect!)

And after adding some colour:

These projects were all guided by Beryl Taylor’s great techniques book ‘Mixed Media Explorations’

And finally some wonderful cutwork applique that was brought for show and tell:

Just a reminder that the Golden Plains Art Trail is on the weekend of 24th/25th October. If you go to the link you can download the program. There is a group of fantastic textile artists displaying on the Saturday in Bannockburn. I will be going in the afternoon, so email me if you want to meet for a coffee.

Our November meeting will be playing with Tyvek and stitching metal. You should have the requirements as they were emailed last month. (Just email if you need another copy)

Cheers

 

 

 

August Interpolation

Just a fancy name for sandwiching, which is what a select group did during this month’s meeting.

Following the instructions in Beryl Taylor’s fantastic book we embedded and layered using copious amounts of vliesofix.

Carmel and Gillian did some lovely rich coloured pieces, Jenny and I experimented with various combinations, Jacqui gave her sewing machine a workout and Claudia made little “cm’s” for everyone (we are metric in Oz so we can’t call them inchies).

Claudia’s embedding experiments:

Pauleen was away but has caught up quickly since arriving home. Here is one of her pieces and her technique.

This is my sandwiching experiment. I know it is very like some of my other work.  I ironed my wonder under on before I put the fabric snippets and threads on.I didn’t like the chiffon over the top, so I burnt a lot of it away. I have done some foiling which I haven’t done much of before and then stuck jewels (from the scrapbooking shop)  onto the fabric instead of the shisha mirrors which I didn’t have. I think sequins would be good too. I then stitched over the top.

I’m still awaiting photos of some of the lovely pieces as they are completed, mine still needs some hand stitching and beading.

Many of our group have flitted off to places near and far, generally somewhere warmer than wintering here in the south of Australia! We hope to catch up with them all at the September meeting when we will be using pellon (Note: I think that means pelmet vilene) and etching velvet. Email me if you have lost the materials listing. Don’t forget to check out my blog for my wonderful trip to Perth for a workshop with the ‘in’famous textile artist, Maggie Grey from the UK.

Hope to see you in September.

WSP and Paperclay

For July we again brought along equipment for for making impressions, this time in paper clay and water soluble paper (WSP). Six ladies braved the winter weather (many have gone north to warmer climes) and enthusiastically experimented with the two mediums.

Carmel had a lovely book cover she had made some time ago with the WSP pressed on to the lid of a wooden carved box. (I didn’t get a photo, I’ll post it next time). I can remember these boxes being very much the the rage when I was a teenager, I’ll have to ask Mum if mine is at home somewhere!! I’ll also be keeping a lookout in the Op Shops for some.

Firstly these are some WSP (on the right): from a meat tray, rubber stamp and rubbing plate.

On the left are paperclay: a rubber stamp which still had ink on it, a rubbing plate and the lid of the wooden box.

and here are some lovely ones by Pauline done previously and painted:

The August meeting (Saturday 8th at 12.30pm) is entitled ‘Embedding and Sandwiching’ and will definitely not be edible.

Jenny will email the details shortly.

Shiva-ing all over

This post is all about June’s meeting of the group. As I was not there I will have to rely on others for the input, but I’m sure it was a fun session. Pauleen described the action:

We had a very busy 2-3 hours on Saturday afternoon with 9 of us braving the cold. We were very cosy as the group before us had left the room warm. We started with rubbings, shiva paint sticks with pieces of silk over wood blocks and rubber stamps and other textured surfaces.  Some beautiful patterns were achieved. We decided to finish early so not many started the machine grid on the dissolvable fabric, but were going home to continue.

The brief was to experiment with rubbings using the Shiva oilsticks:

These rubbings incorporated a variety of mediums including wooden printing blocks, crochet doilies, plastic doilies, rubbing plates and other stamps.

I also experimented (in another time and space) and added a little foiling. The silver foil actually came from an unfortunate New Year’s Eve when oldest daughter ended up in an ambulance and they gave her the foil wrap around to warm her up.

Here now are some of the experiments using solvy and FME ing a grid to display the techniques.

See the next entry for what we got up to in July!!!

New Magazine

For our local Geelong members, I thought I would just share a newly subscribed magazine that arrived in the Ocean Grove library this week.

This is a beautifully presented, great reading magazine but quite expensive. It’s from the UK but bills itself as an international magazine. The first issue includes interesting articles on The lady and the unicorn tapestries, How to bind a simple book, Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant and the Bloomsbury Group and many inspiring design and textile photos and articles. Check out the website as there is a free digital trial issue on offer.

I have the first copy of the library’s subscription at the moment but will be returning it later this week. Geelong library members can get on-line and reserve the mag if they have organised a pin number at the library.

Some people may be interested in one of the events advertised in this edition. An exhibition at our own National Gallery in Melbourne entitled “Persuasion: Fashion in the Age of Jane Austen”

Beginning on 22 May and continuing until 8 November.

Don’t forget you can also get the latest issues of Quilting Arts and Cloth Paper Scissors at the library too.

May Melange

A medley of fabrics came in for the bleach treatment at our May meeting of the creative textilers. We experimented with a variety of cotton and synthetic fabrics, some of which showed a great colour reaction to the the bleach. Some of the fabrics resulted in a very subtle embossed pattern where the bleach removed the nap of the fabric without changing the colour.

Bleach prints by Gillian on well washed velour

And on cotton velvet

Pauleen’s samples; with FME

Motifs using various stamps

Claudia and I experimented stamping our names

And I tried a rubber stamp on a leather scrap

 

Pauline’s beautifully finished sampler.

Some recommendations:

If possible wash sizing out of fabric before bleaching

Fresh bleach is more effective

A thicker, more gel like bleach, may give stronger impressions

Fabricate 09

 

Today Pauleen and I made the trek up the Melbourne/Geelong Rd to the opening of the Fabricate 09 exhibition by the TAG (Textile Art @ the Guild) group.

There was a wonderfully diverse range of textile art by invited artists from Australia and internationally, including art dolls, indigo dyeing, felting, weaving, free machine embroidery and printing. The exhibition is beautifully hung, with the ‘luminous’ indigo dyed panels of Rowland Ricketts 111 dividing the space.

 

The photos below are taken from the catalogue, which is designed to allow them to be used as postcards. Funds from the sale of the catalogues will support the TAG group activities (there are more photos on the TAG site).

 

All art pieces at the exhibition are for sale as well as the patterns for Jennifer Gould’s exquisite dolls. Well worth a visit.

Select group powers on

The latest get together of our group was held on Easter Saturday and so numbers were reduced.

Those who did attend however, achieved much, in planning the schedule for the rest of the year. Here is a report from Pauleen outlining plans for the next meeting:

 

At our Saturday gathering we agreed to start a project.

A textile art book. This will be gradually built up and when we have enough pages we will bind them into a book.

Each page will be a different project – the idea – to learn new tecniques.

 

The first one  (May 9th) will be – a stamp tecnique – bleaching velvet.

 

If you wish to participate please bring the following:

 

1. For stamps “found objects” eg. corks, foam spnges. cotton reels etc.

2. Thick rubber gloves.

3. Plastic apron or covering for clothes.

 

Fabric and bleach will be supplied at a nominal cost.

 

Please e-mail me IF YOU ARE PARTICIPATING in this activity so we have sufficient supplies.

 

If you are unsure about the activity please e-mail me.  

 

 ATC’s will be ongoing and can be swapped at any meeting. A few of us swapped on Saturday.

 

Here are a couple of the ATC’s that were swapped on Saturday. 

The one on the left was made by Gillian and the butterflies by Pauline. They are both fantastic.

I can’t wait to swap at the next meeting.

I couldn’t get there Easter Saturday as I was busy elsewhere! Here is a picture of the camp site by the river in beautiful Gellibrand where our families all had a wonderful relaxing weekend, even those who fell in and had to dry socks and boots on the fire!!

For those who are interested, I visited a fascinating exhibition at the Geelong Art Gallery today. Called ‘The garden of Forking Paths” it was a collection of sculpted books by artist Nicholas Jones. I have blogged about it on my Carlseapatch blog. It finishes on Sunday so you will need to get in quick. Here is a picture of one of his amazing pieces of book art.

Cheers until next month

A multitude of creative activity

This post of our March Creative textile arts group day is a little delayed. My computer and phone refuse to communicate via bluetooth, so I will have to physically connect the phone via a lead (which I haven’t yet purchased). Update: No lead available. Son no 2 has bluetoothed photos from my phone to his mobile then to computer. It seems that samsung and apple do not get along.

Our March get together was a little down on numbers from the enthusiasm of the inaugural meeting however there was no shortage of beautiful work to inspire us.

Firstly there was Pauline’s amazing tactile piece entitled ‘the seven deadly sins’ completely made from cotton and destined for entry in an exhibition (so no photo). 

There was a wonderfully diverse range of lovely pieces to see, but unfortunately I forgot to take a camera. The photos following are taken afterwards.

Glen brought along her Janome embellisher for us to play with as well as a variety of fibres and fabrics to embellish. Claudia (and others) had a wonderful time on this machine.

 

Claudia's felting

 

 

As quite a few of us are wishing to purchase an embellisher, we are looking at getting a discounted price for a group order. Any members wishing to join in please email me for details or let us know at the April meeting.

Our meeting this month was to continue working on atc’s to swap with the group. This is Pauleen’s work in progress, with her favourite colours:

Glen brought along her machine embroidery sample book, which she began at the Embroiderer’s guild conference workshops last year. Glen accidently left this behind when she left the meeting so I took it home and photographed before returning it to her. As a bonus I got to see her beautiful heritage home overlooking the bay and her wonderful playroom. I have asked if I can go back and take photographs of her room so hopefully they will be on the blog for April.

Next get together will be Easter Saturday for ATC swaps.

Don’t forget to bring some of your stitching to show and tell (and I’ll try to remember the camera!).

Last weekend some of us attended a workshop organised by the Guild with Jan Preston, a multi-talented textile artist from Torquay. The workshop was entitled Free Stitch with Nature and we had a wonderful time stitching over natural materials collected from the bush or gardens.

Some still need to have the solvy washed off (excuse the photos, most were taken with my mobile):

 

This final one, I stomped on a dried agapantha flower head before stitching and also stitched over some bamboo wool fibres. Great fun!!

Cheers till April.

A new group, a new blog

Welcome to the first post of the newly created Geelong Creative Fibre Arts Group, a protegy of the Geelong Embroiderer’s Guild.

Our inaugural meeting was held today and attended by twenty very enthusiastic members of the guild, ranging in age from 8 years to …..

Some of the lovely ladies who attended.

Congratulations and Thank you to Pauleen, above on the left, for all her hard work in bringing this group to fruition.

Many brought wonderful pieces of creative textile arts to show and Claudia and I demonstrated wet and dry silk paper making.

Glen’s beautiful silk paper covered journal was a very apt example following the demo.

Our first project, for those that wish to join in, will be the making of ATC’s to swap. Next meeting will be Saturday 14th March, 12.30pm for a show and tell, followed by hand finishing our ATC’s.

Cheers

Jo

P.S. If you are interested in joining our group click on the Contact tab above