Following up on Complex Cloth

One of the techniques that Jane demonstrated was using a flour paste, both on fabric and on silk screens. Linda has printed her screen - I am still to do so. But I have a photo of the sample where we squeegeed the flour paste onto fabric, drew into it, let it dry and then painted it with a thin black paint. This is one of my samples - I love it!


I have carved some more erasers and today I printed all of them on a dyed piece of fabric that I loathed. I also did a positive/negative print of an earring that I bought at the $2 shop.

Maybe I'll be brave enough to screen print tomorrow.

FibresWest Forum Workshops

Friday afternoon we finished early so we could go and look at what other people had been producing. Here are a few of the photos I took. Unfortunately I missed out on taking photos for two workshops - Ken Smith's Embroidering in the Round and Nalda Searles' Expressing Personal Imagery.


This is from Liz Jeneid's printing and books workshop. If I had not got into Jane's workshop I think I would have liked to do this one. Liz is a lovely lady - I drove her down to Bunbury.


My friend Iris was in Christina Newberry's workshop on recycling clothing and had an absolute ball. This is a knitted top that has turned into a skirt.


Here is an example from Shirley's class. Love those emu feathers.


Jacinta Leishman's class was called Alchemy. They did all sorts of things with cloth and paper.




Two of the most interesting workshops were run by a group of Indians - Artisans of Kala Raksha - who produced the most fabulous scarves from their suitcases on the Bizarre Bazaar night and sold almost all of them. They ran two workshops. The top photo is of mud mirror work, the one below is of traditional tie dyeing. I admire the results, but don't think I am prepared to make so much effort.



Glen Skien's boxes are fabulous and his students produced some wonderful stuff.


The felting workshop by Liz Evans also produced wonderful pieces.

I am mortified that I didn't take any of the work that was done in Nalda Searles' workshop - they were next door and two of my friends - Jan and Jenny - were in the group. However, Shirley has some photos, so check out her blog.

And more on FibresWest Forum

One of the quirkier aspects was the installations around the ground. The ones produced by the members of the Stirling Arts Centre (a local arts group) were related to fish and the environment and they sneakily changed from day to day. I failed to photograph the piece in the dining hall, but I do remember the exhausted shark on the back of another shark wearing a broad grin . . . don't ask!

Outside the dining hall was an installation of seashore birds and a row of hanging fish.





And then there was the painted windsurfer with its textile sail.



Along the path that led to most of the workshops were schools of fish - they were not there on Day One, but appeared during the week.





The waterhole stayed all week, but I swear there were more cans and other junk around the edge on Friday than were there on Sunday.



Tanya Spencer's installations didn't move. Here is her description of the pieces.

More on the Forum

The venue for the Forum was Bunbury Cathedral Grammar School. It is about 10km south of Bunbury itself and the buildings are surrounded by bush, so you feel you are in the depths of the country.

Our workshop was in the Art building which is situated on the highest part of the campus and you could hear the traffic on the Bussell Highway and the almost continuous sound of trains taking mineral sands to the port. Once you went down the hill to the other parts of the school the noise faded and birdsong and female chatter were the loudest sounds.

We had lots of laughter. Here is Shirley and her always present camera.

I am glad to have met her - she was the tutor for one of the workshops, is a fabulous weaver and a fun person too. One day I may be able to afford one of her wraps, like the one Shireen is wearing.

I'm Back!

I had a great time, made lots of new friends, didn't have to cook, discovered some fabulous textile tricks and techniques, took lots of photos which I will need to sift through . . . .

The Bunbury Forum was very well organised. I had never been to a residential one before - I certainly plan to go to the next one. There was so much happening that I missed a lot that I shouldn't have, but I found it difficult to stop working on the pieces Jane Dunnewold was helping us to develop to go to a talk. I certainly didn't miss the newspaper or TV. There was computer access - I never found the time to use it.

I have unpacked, done three loads of washing, flipped through the last week's papers (YUK! those headlines!) downloaded my photos and read some of my emails. Kevin cooked dinner - he deserves a medal.

More tomorrow.

PFD fabric all done

I rang the supplier of the cotton PFD fabric this morning. The bolt had arrived and she would get the local courier to pick it up for delivery to me. I should have it by Tuesday.

TUESDAY!! Eeek! I stewed over it for a bit, consulted Kev and rang her back.

We took a trip to Lower Chittering. Quite a pleasant (if rather long) drive. Should have taken the camera - there were a few interesting shots we could have taken. Damn! Will I never learn? Write it out a hundred times - "never leave the house without the camera".

I cut up the fabric this afternoon with Kevin's help. Since it was 150cm wide we couldn't use my 60cm quilting ruler. One of the squares he made from MDF for the Melville Textile Project turned out to be the perfect tool. It's always satisfying that a one-off piece can be used more than once.

By 6pm all the fabric was cut and organised into bags. I have emailed all participants and hope to distribute quite a few tomorrow.

FibresWest approaching fast and some hassles

Fibres West, the regional textile forum at Bunbury, is now just over a week away and there is lots yet to do. I have collected most of my bits, but still have a couple more to find, then I need to pack it all! I am glad I am not travelling by plane and have the luxury of filling up the car boot.

One of the major tasks still looming is the bulk fabric order for the participants in the workshop I am taking. I am still waiting for one of the fabrics to be delivered and am getting a bit worried. Despite frequent phone calls nothing definite seems to be happening.

Yesterday I cut up the two fabrics, silk and rayon, that I had received and organised them into a bag for each participant. I was feeling very smug until I suddenly realised that the silk was not the 10mm weight, but 8.5mm. The supplier had sent the wrong one and of course I had failed to double check the label.

OUCH! It had been cut up so couldn't be returned. So I rang the supplier. Fortunately she had the heavier silk in stock and delivered it today in person. She has given me a good price on the light weight silk and I am hopeful that I will be able to resell the wrong bits, but it is an extra hassle I don't need.