Sunday, August 30, 2009

Hand/Eye magazine

I found a fantastic magazine on sale at Minerva Gallery in Wellington (New Zealand). It is called hand/eye magazine and the first issue was all about crafts from Africa. Lots of textile crafts, beading and baskets. The photography is amazing.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Aotearoa Textiles

Aotearoa Textiles grew out of the Australian Textile Forums. It is held at Lindale Campus of Whitireia Polytech near Parparaumu. This year the dates are 5th-9th of October 2009.

There are still spaces in some workshops, I have signed up for a course in basket making with Deb Price. I've always wanted to make baskets and I seem to have accumulated quite a few over the years. I still have the ones I bought with my pocket money when I was a kid in Kenya in the late 60's and they have survived insect attack and damp (Wellington is damp). The class list for the basket course says bring a basket for show and tell, I am going to have a hard time choosing which one to take.

If anyone wants to do a course you can get details from Kapiti Campus
Whitiriea Community Polytechnic
Email: mary.wilson@whitireia.ac.nz
04 2980205

there is space in
LESLEY HANSARD – Workshop - Discover The 3-D Life Of Felt
.
CATHERINE O’LEARY – Workshop - It’s A Wrap
Expand your design ideas with wool fibre and silk fabrics, working with nuno prefelts. We will be developing an individual pattern for a wrap skirt or wrap vest, focusing on ornamentation, decoration and unusual piecing together.



JAE MARIES - Workshop – Contrasting Elements
The workshop’s purpose is to broaden students’ horizons within the field of textile art by encouraging them to explore the dynamic effect that “Contrasting Elements” can bring to their work through the selective use of colour, design, materials and contrasting techniques. All levels of experience are welcome and as the week progresses each person will work individually from their own resource material. This can be in the form of sketches, photographs or ideas. Each student will create unique personal pieces of experimental hand and machine stitched textiles within the theme of ‘Contrasting Elements’.


DEB PRICE – Workshop - Baskets And Beyond
Be inspired by world-wide weaving methods to create unique baskets, vessels and sculptural forms. Coiling, twining, plying, braiding and noodling (random needle darning) are some of the techniques that will be demonstrated and that can be applied to a variety of materials. This course will focus mainly on the use of Harakeke (NZ flax), a plant endemic to New Zealand and renowned for its long, strong, sweet smelling fibres.
Explore, experiment. Enjoy...

ADRIENNE SLOANE – Workshop - Artful Knit
A sculptural approach to knitting. This class will help students develop a personal language of forms, by experimenting with knitting fundamentals, to uncover the enormous possibilities of three dimensional knit. By manipulating stitches and solving knitting geometry, participants will learn to think knit. The class will explore the use of non-traditional materials and cover a range of dimensional techniques to help create shape and stability. There will be opportunity to work on specific sculptural projects to innovatively incorporate these ideas. For inspiration, we will view a slide show of artists who use knitting techniques as a means of creative expression. Participants must be proficient in knitting basics. Knowledge of crochet is also helpful.


NEKE MOA – Workshop - Textile Connections
The objective of the class is to introduce students to jewellery techniques and develop skills to further enhance and extend their own art practice. Students will have the opportunity to design and make jewellery items, brooches, earrings using various low tech techniques. There will also be a demonstration of soldering and other jewellery techniques that students may have an opportunity to do.
These techniques will include: cold connections;– brooch backs; Ear hooks; Jump rings.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Shopping

I took a quilting friend around Wellington to look for silk fabrics and she spent up large. She bought 10cm minimum of lots of very beautiful silks including one that was $250 a metre. Thank goodness I don't work in silk.

If anyone is in Wellington, New Zealand, Asia Gallery in Kilbirnie is bursting with silk kimonos, silk lengths and scraps at the moment. Well worth a visit.