True Colours Exhibition

After visiting the Ellenbrook Gallery yesterday I went to see an exhibition of textiles and paintings by Rowena Walsh at the Tresillian Centre, 21 Tyrell Street, Nedlands. The centre has various classes running during school terms. There were also works by Robin Bray. Works were displayed mainly in one large room, along corridors and some works were in rooms where classes were being held (it is understood that it is ok for visitors to interrupt classes to look at works). Lighting is adequate. Rowena had a lot of work on display - about an equal mix of paintings and textiles. Although quite an eclectic mix overall there were several series-style works where Rowena had explored one particular stitch technique or various colour paint combinations on a similar size canvas. Rowena had sold some work, and at the time I visited there were some works still for sale which I am sure will have found a new home before the end of the exhibiiton.

True Colours runs from 19-28 August 2011 at The Tresillian Centre, 21 Tyrell St, Nedlands, WA and is open from 10-4 daily. Phone 08 9389 1977. On weekdays there is a cafe on the premises open 9am-2pm during term time and I enjoyed my lunch there in the very pleasant courtyard.

Presence Exhibition, Ellenbrook Gallery

Today I visited the exhibition "Presence" comprising textile works by Elsje van Keppel (1947-2001). I never met Elsje but I had heard about her from other textile artists here in WA. Elsje was head of textiles at Edith Cowan University in 1989 and I imagine ECU is where many local artists came into contact with her. The works are well presented and there is a dvd of Elsje describing her work, her philosophy and her inspirations. I spent quite a bit of time there on my own absorbing the essence of Elsje's work and I would recommend taking the time to watch the dvd while you're there as it adds greatly to the meaning of some of the works on display. I would describe this as a "must see" exhibition.

Presence runs from 7 August to 11 September 2011 at The Gallery, 34 Main Street, Ellenbrook, Western Australia. Gallery hours are 10am-2pm Mon-Fri and 1pm-5pm weekends.

Do go, it will be well worth the trip - and Dome is just across the road from the Gallery if you forget your cut lunch and water bag - grin.

Carole Redlich "Shadowlands" Workshop

My friend Margaret was unable to attend a workshop on Sunday with textile artist Carole Redlich which had been organised by the 84 Group so suggested I go in her stead. I had a ball. Carole had created some 3D pieces using fabric, yarns, plastics, stitched acetate, transfers and various other transparent or semi transparent "stuff". The "stuff" was trapped in a laminating pouch which was cut into shapes and then machine-stitched with loops of various weights of fishing line. The loops and shapes were manipulated into pleasing 3D shapes and then joined together on the sewing machine. We also did some free-style weaving of the fishing lines to create some structure to attach the laminated loopy bits to. I thoroughly enjoyed myself even if I was slow and didn't actually produce much on the day.

The images are of trapped invisible sewing thread with white polyester and rayon sewing threads, trapped feathers with large-bubble packaging plastic, the one loop I created during class using small bubble wrap, and the free weaving of the heavy weight fishing line. Not having done any woven basketry before I concentrated on learning the technique for this on the basis that I could stitch on plastic anytime at home alone. It was a great class - thank you Carole (and Margaret of course).

InTension Exhibition

This is the invite for the WAFTA InTension Exhibition which I'm planning to visit today.

T-Shirt Rejuvenated

I spent around 6 hours stamping bleach onto this t-shirt on Wednesday. It was an op-shop find originally that had a slight but large fade (maybe from the sun) mark on one arm - it was only visible if you really looked but because the fabric was a solid brown once I knew it was there it sort of jumped out at me. So I thought I'd try fading it deliberately. I assembled an assortment of plastic lids of various sizes (vegemite jar, coffee jar, mouthwash bottle, toothpaste tube etc) and sanded the edges on a sheet of sandpaper so they were smooth, level and had a bit of "tooth" for the bleach to cling to. I opened several windows in case the bleach fumes got too much for me. I put some old sheeting on the ironing board and between the back/front of the t-shirt. I poured a small amount of neat bleach onto a sponge sitting on a plate so I had a stamping pad. Then I smoothed a small area of the t-shirt and stamped a few circles. I waited a minute or two until they were the colour I wanted and then dried the bleach with the iron. I did small areas at a time.

The bleach fumes weren't a problem - I used a lot less bleach than would be used to clean benches, floors etc so the fumes were minimal. Once I had finished I rinsed the t-shirt by hand in cold water, then rinsed in water to which I had added a product intended to remove chlorine from tap water to use in fish aquariums as this was a tip I had read somewhere and I thought it sounded "sensible". Then I washed the t-shirt in the normal way with the next load of clothes. The circles aren't visible on the inside of the t-shirt so I doubt very much that the entire thickness of the fabric has been affected by the bleach - I'll let you know if the whole thing falls apart while I'm in the middle of the supermarket or something :-)

WAFTA "Naturally" Exhibition

The WAFTA "Naturally" exhibition is wonderful, with a huge variety of work presented as either a 3.6m hanging banner or as a sculptural work. The exhibition is at the Moores Building Contemporary Art Gallery, 46 Henry St, Fremantle, Western Australia. It is on from 8-16th August 2009 and open 10am to 5pm every day.

I’ve got 2 pieces in it which I only finished by the skin of my teeth (2.30am!) because I also did the invite, the catalogue and the floor sheet (with lots of input from Kate, Louise and Alison). The exhibition is well worth the trip to Freo - that's a cut lunch and a water bag from here! The opening was last Friday night and I had no idea that so many people went to exhibition openings. The catalogue is a gold coin donation but other than that entry is free.

You can download the invitation and floor sheet for the exhibition, and read more about it here

http://www.wafta.com.au/exhibition.html

All of these photos were taken by Louise Snook, President of WAFTA. The "Hanging Committee" are... L to R Front: Louise Snook, Mandy Harwood, Rosie Whitehead and Tanya Peters. L to R Back: Wendy Lugg, Liz Arnold, Anne Williams, Kate Weedon-Jones and Trudi Pollard. The middle photo is of Mandy and Mark hanging works using cherry picker. The last photo is a sneak preview of the exhibition.

The thank you section of the catalogue reads: Thanks go to the exhibition organising sub-committee: Liz Arnold, Alison Barrett, Mandy Harwood, Kate Weedon-Jones, Lia Overman, Tanya Peters, Helena Pollard, Trudi Pollard, Louise Snook (Chairperson), and Anne Williams. Thanks also to the WAFTA general committee for all their support, especially Heather Morton and Lisa Repsevicius. Additional thanks go to Brian Thompson of Snap Printing.

Inchie Challenge

The Designing Women challenge was to produce something that would display our inchies from the swap at our retreat. There were 13 inchie swap participants and this is the set I received.

I didn't meet the deadline but I wasn't alone - only 4 of us had challenge pieces finished. Helen had created a great cuff (in 10 minutes she claimed!) which appealed to everyone. I had thought I would make a necklet but, after seeing the cuff, I decided to make a bracelet. Joan had framed hers in a spiral layout, Delys had made a cube with inchies on each face (which meant she had to add some ring-ins as she 4 on each side - a total of 16), and someone? had made a needle case and appliqued the inchies to the cover.

I wrapped a ring from a Vegemite (Aussie staple diet item) jar with acrylic yarn and then stitched with bright coloured cottons all over it. This was to hide the big stitches I just knew I was going to make when attaching the inchies.