Australian Tapestry Workshop

On Friday 3rd September 2010 we visited the Australian Tapestry Workshop in South
Melbourne. It is an inspiring place and the tapestries beautiful.

In early August we had the introductory Victorian meeting for the Australian Textile and Surface Design Association (ATASDA) with over 40 people attending. Felicity Clarke came down from Brisbane to help launch this new ATASDA Group and from this we have a steering committee.

Not only did Felicity display her amazing work, she spoke of her textile journey which I found inspiring and humbling. Many attending the meeting brought samples of their work for show and tell, a great way to be inspired and discover new techniques.

Yesterday, Saturday 28th August 2010, the Steering Committee meet and we will be formally applying to form a Victorian Group. We also hope to meet at the Box Hill Community Arts Centre on the 4th Saturday of each month.

For more information please go to the ATASDA website www.atasda.org.au

Back at TAFE and it looks as if it will be a challenging semester. One of the first homework tasks involves one of my least favourite things - collage. But my results are ok and maybe I have finally found a way to work with this technique. The inspiration given to us was shells and after some fiddling I decided to paint the shell using the paint mixed from the first term painting class. Surprisingly it was still ok. Once painted I glued on white tissue and when dry painted it and the background. The picture on the right is tissue glued over the paint but not yet further painted.

A couple of weekends ago I was down at the beach, the weather was very windy and I tried to get a sense of this with my photos. The first one looks fairly calm but the others show the rough weather better.

Last weekend Alex and Mimi were down and requested that we visit Marysville. I have been to Kinglake many times over the last 18 months and Healesville a couple of times but not further on. It is the old thing that until I see it with my own eyes the reality & extent of the fires doesn't really sink in. The areas where there is no regrowth contrasting with those which were untouched are particularly stark reminders. It is good to see the rebuilding but it must be so hard.
The ridges are a vivid reminder with the light showing through the bare trees. The ground cover is starting to return and the surprise is the way the tree ferns are recovering and unfurling their fronds. In fact this is one of the first green things I saw when I first visited Kinglake soon after the fires. Bright green fronds in among all the black.
With the higher rainfall over the last few months I hope that the bush will have a boost to its regrowth.

After a long break it is time to update this blog. Second year of the Diploma of Textile Arts is having its challenges and while there is less pressure to produce work we are learning many techniques.

My piece for the first term assessment explores the idea that flowers in bud hide their potential until their petals open to reveal their inner beauty. Just as I finished this piece the subject for our exhibition was decided!
Just to make sure that we don't forget what real pressure is we are taking our "Plan a Small Exhibition" subject out of the virtual realm and developing an exhibition on the theme of Swaddle. We hope that it will be held at the C3 space at the Abbottsford Convent, Abbottsford, Victoria.

On first pass Swaddle is an old fashioned term lodged firmly in the realm of mothers and babies. I was not sure how I could work with it until I started thinking that we swaddle babies to keep them safe and as they grow we loosen the bonds. This is the start of the lifelong cycle of exploring our boundaries and while exploring the new there is often a part (or many parts) of us which cling to that which we are leaving. This forms the basis for my interpretation of this word.

The images are my progression from early sketches to a pen and ink drawing and the last a lino cut print.