SAlt exhibition- My work on display

As posted earlier, my work will be on display in the Exhibition Buildings in the Carlton Gardens Melbourne from the 18-21st April 2013. 

Below is copy of the artist statements from each of the SAlt group members and our logo.

My artwork on display in Melbourne this week

After two years of working on artworks and not being able to show any of the work (very frustrating) it is finally time for the exhibition to open. I blogged several times over the last 2 years about the group called SAlt that I am part of. South Australian living textiles (SAlt). There are 5 of us in the group, Judi Bushby, Julie Haddrick, Francie Mewett and Suzanne Gummow.

Our exhibition is entitled 'The fabric trail... journeys of five textile artists'. The works all revolve around the themes of journeys. It has been a very challenging 2 years and some of the individual themes on the topic 'jounreys' have been quite challenging.

From the 18th - 21st April you can find my work at the Royal Exhibition Building in the Carlton Gardens in Melbourne.

After Melbourne the work will continue to travel around Australia for approximately the next 18 months. I'll let you know when and where it will be at various times.

Hope you all get to view the works as they travel around Australia.

Below is a closeup photo of one of my works from the individual theme 'journey within'. Each topic was open for each artist to individually interpret.

I''m the guest speaker at an upcoming exhibition

I've been invited by the 2012 Certificate IV students from Marden Senior College to open their upcoming art exhibition called 'Creative Fusion'. 

Below is the invite along with a little blurb about the exhibition. 

      Creative Fusion (Marden Senior College)

     Painting & Textile Art Works by Marden Senior College Graduates

      2 - 26 April 2013

Address: Phone: Fax:

558 Magill Rd, Magill (Corner Pepper St & Magill Rd) (08) 8364 6154 (08) 8332 3164

Email: Open Hours:

pepperstreet@burnside.sa.gov.au Tuesday to Saturday 12 noon - 5pm Find us on Facebook

Handmade Paper Art and Textiles Flickr Group

I recently set up a group on Flickr called 'Handmade Paper Art and Textiles. The aim of the group is for people who use handmade paper in their artwork to post photos of their work. Photos of just handmade paper sheets are not excepted. The photos have to show how you use handmade paper in your art and textiles.

Below is an image of the first page of photos from the flickr group. If you would like to add photos to the group, you will need to hold a flickr account. Flickr is a great website for artists to promote their work and it is a simple site to use. You can upload 6 photos a week to the group.

Here is the address for the flickr group        http://www.flickr.com/groups/handmade_paper_art_textiles/

                              Please feel free to go and check out the groups work.

Crazy about french knots

I was updating some of my photos on flickr this morning and found the two below. I hadn't posted them before. Thought I would put on here for those of you that love french knots as much as I do.

Oh how I love hand embroidery

I cannot even begin to tell you how much I love hand embroidery. I find it so relaxing and therapeutic. I love the fact that I can sit and stitch while my husband is watching tv and I don't get told off for making too much noise with the sewing machine. (not that my sewing machine is meant to venture outside of my studio- sometimes it just happens magically.

Below are just a few of my hand embroidery images I wanted to share with you.

Gorgeous embroidery threads

Oh how I love my embroidery threads. I just bought a new box for storing them and then enjoyed the job of colour coding them. My last thread box was one I bought at a fabric store and it was approximately $15.00 for a smaller one than what is now pictured. This new one is a tackle box that came from a fishing shop and it cost me about $6.00. This one also has moveable partitions, unlike my old one.

I dream of owning lots and lots of boxes like this. Maybe 1 box for each colour. Oh how i love my embroidery threads. Did I already say that???

Southern Textiles Conference- Effie Mitrofanis

Another tutor teaching at the Southern Textiles Conference is Effie Mitrofanis from NSW. Effie is a wonderfully experienced teacher and a really lovely person to work with. She has recently published a book called Threadwork (pictured below). 

Below are some photos of her work. She works with lots of different threads and fabrics and mainly works with hand embroidery.

Outline stitch applique

Well this weeks applique class was learning about outline stitch. Traditionally it is meant to be Broderie Perse which uses motives that are stitched onto a background. My example is a very contemporary take on the idea.

Applique Unit- Teaching starts tomorrow

Well tomorrow is the start of the Applique unit for my Certificate 3 class. We start with a general introduction to applique, where I show them lots of photos and real examples as well. My plan is to complete a new sample of work for each of the techniques as we go.

We are studying
                                Needle/Hand turn
                                Outline stitch
                                Naive
                                Satin stitch
                                Reverse
                                Raw edge
                                Sheers

Tomorrow we are starting with Needle turn or Hand turn. Some people seem to call it different things. My definition it is simply applying shapes to a base piece of fabric using invisible stitches. I use freezer paper when I do my hand turned work, I find it so much easier.

Below is an example of some past pieces of my hand turned work.

This piece above is actually stretched around a canvas frame.

This piece above is all hand turned and I've then used obvious stitching to highlight the design.

Another example of hand turned work using stitching as decoration.

The picture above is hand turned on both the bird and the border and then has decorative stitching.

Oh by the way, all my work in the applique samples revolve around a 'bird' theme.

New work on Flirckr

Whilst cleaning up my studio, I also photographed some work I had hanging around. Its work I made at the end of last year but had never got around to photographing before.

This piece is hand stitched paper (the bottom right corner) onto a black fabric backing. It is stretched around canvas frame.

The 3 pieces above are part of a set. They are all hand stitched paper stretched over canvas frames. I need to photograph them all hanging together so it makes sense how they work together. I think that will have to wait for another day.