Teaching In Whakatane

I went to Whakatane to teach for the weekend . I  left Wellington at about 7.30pm on one of those flying pencil cases. Then the pilot said that the de-icers had broken down on the propeller and the crashing sounds on the side of the plane were bits of ice falling off the prop and hitting the plane as they flicked off. They landed us in Palmerston North and couldn't fix it so stuck us on a bus to Whakatane. It took them ages to find a driver who hadn't gone to the pub so we finally got to Whakatane at 4.30am. I am not sure that the person who billeted me was expecting to have to get up in the middle of the night to let me in (I did tell her just to leave the door unlocked and a note on the bedroom door).

I really enjoy teaching and it was a great class, I really enjoyed it.  It was a terrible weekend for weather though. They had 300mms of rain over the weekend and parts of the town were flooded and some of the people in the class had to leave early because the town went on 'code white' (whatever that means) and they were told to go home to Ohope and Opotiki now or be stuck in Whakatane overnight

All the quilts made in this class - called 'The Next Step' are different. This is one of the quilts made in the class, thanks to Pauline for letting me put it on my blog. She has called it 'Living Outside the Square' and she has quilted and bound it since the class finished on sunday - that is less than 2 days ago! Well done Pauline.

Now back in Wellington and we are gearing up for the workshops with Yoshiko Wada, the author of the book 'Shibori: the art of shaped resist'. She is doing 3 public lectures in New Zealand.

Public Lecture - Yoshiko Wada
2pm on 23rd September, nelson School of Music, $20 per ticket.

Floortalk with Yoshiko Wada
30th September 
Meissen Kimono  11 am Expressions Gallery Upper Hutt


New Texture, new material, New Thinking
Yoshiko Wada
24th September Friday 5pm, Massey University, Buckle st, 10A02

Possum Merino felt

The textile students are working on a commission to test possum/merino wool. At the moment they are trying to felt it and then will dye it in natural dyes and acid dyes. At the moment the sliver (carded wool) is palest beige but I hope to be able to change some of that tomorrow!

The Australian Brushtail possum was introduced to NZ in the 19th century and they have been chomping on our forests ever since.  To get rid of these pests they are shot, trapped, deliberately run over or poisoned. Woolyarns factory devised a way of mixing possum fur (which is a hollow fibre) and merino wool to make the most beautiful knitting wool. It is incredibly warm and soft.

If anyone has anything possum related for the students please get in touch. This could be possum skin offcuts, scientific papers, anecdotes about possums or names of people they could interview.

Photos of possum felt samples tomorrow

C

Quilt Symposium , Queenstown 2011

I haven't made a quilt all year. I probably need to start thinking about quilts for the New Zealand Quilt Symposium exhibitions next year.


I am really looking forward to the Symposium in Queenstown . The last Queenstown Symposium was probably my favourite ever Symposium. It is such a beautiful spot. Dijanne Cevaal and I got very brave and flew down to Milford Sound on a light plane. VERY SCARY but amazing.


The committee have asked me to teach a fabric printing and painting class, a sashiko class, a design class and a class using recycled materials. I don't want to spoil the fun for everyone of seeing the registration book which should be due out fairly soon.

On sunday I helped Sue Wademan pack up her exhibition wall at the New Zealand Art show (used to be the Affordable art show) in Wellington. She reminded me about exhibition opportunities such as the Silk Road Exhibition in Queenstown and the symposium exhibitions.

For details of the Silk Road Exhibition in April 2011, please email Sue Wademan wademan@xtra.co.nz

Clare

Screenprinting

I am not very good at this blogging, I forget to update it for weeks at a time.

Over the last few weeks I have taught 2 screenprinting classes. One was for the public and one for digital design students who had the designs all ready to go and just needed to get them onto a t-shirt. One was very low-tech, the kind of process I use at home where I don't have access to all the fancy equipment. One was high-tech in that we used the vacuum table and special exposure unit.
Both classes were great fun but I was shattered at the end! I didn't even take any photos.
 Over the 8 days I managed to coat about 20 screens with the photo emulsion and help students coat about 20 more, and help about 15 students with their designs which required at least 3 colours per print. Pretty full on.

I have also been making scarves for a shibori exhibition at Barometer Gallery ,13 Gurner St., Paddington, NSW. The exhibition will be opened by Yoshiko Wada who wrote the bible for shibori artists 'Shibori: The art of Shaped resist"

SCARF
- contemporary shaped resist dyed scarves/shawls

Barometer Gallery will open on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday each week from the 8th September to the 3rd October, 10am to 6pm.

Here is a detail of one of my scarves that will be on the sale table. We each have one major piece and up to 5 for sale. This is the first time I have entered a shibori exhibition. It feels funny not entering a quilt which needs a hanging sleeve etc. I don't even know how they display them.

This scarf is made of 100% merino wool jersey and has been clamped and bound and dyed about 6 times in acid dyes. Dyeing wool is also something new for me and I have been experimenting with both acid and fibreactive wool dyes. They react differently to Procion dyes on cotton and I am just learning how they work.

Wool, wool and more wool

I have been dyeing fine merino wool and have been making tubular scarves and shibori dyed shawls and wraps. I am just discovering what the wool dyes can do. If I heat the pot too fast, the dye takes very quickly and unevenly. I really like the effects but some people might see this as a negative and call it 'tie dye' rather than 'shibori'. The wool retains a bit of shape from the resist method (shibori is 3D, rather than flat). I'm also trying to work out a good way to finish the edges of the shawls.
So far I have tried using the overlocker, attaching a binding as for quilting, adding an edging of organza and just leaving the edges to curl. I actually prefer the naturally curled edges but am worried that some potential buyers might think they aren't finished.

I have never really dyed wool before. I have played around with dyeing skeins of my own handspun wool when I lived in Australia but haven't used Acid dyes up to now, but they are terribly easy to use and only need household vinegar as an additive so are a bit safer than cotton dyes which use soda ash. They also 'exhaust' so washing at the end is easier as you don't have to rinse and rinse and rinse as for Fibre reactive dyes on cotton (Procion).

I will put some photos of the finished scarves on here when I find my camera.

Screenprinting class

Hi everyone
I am teaching a  screenprinting (photographic and paper stencils) and dyeing class at Whitireia Polytechnic's Lindale Campus from 19th-23rd of July. It costs $180 per person. For further information please contact Deb Donnelly
Deb.Donnelly@whitireia.ac.nz. Or phone 04 237 3103 ext 3828.

This weekend I am 'timekeeper' at The Costume and Textile Symposium in Lower Hutt. I get to ding the bell to remind people about keeping to their 30mins. So far there have been some interesting talks. One on early explorer clothing in Antarctica was very interesting and another on how families managed in wartime Germany when fabric was in short supply. I also enjoyed Rosemary McLeod's talk about the contents of a leather hassock (we know that kind of footstool as a 'pouffe') which may have been brought back from the middle east flat by a soldier and was filled in New Zealand with the contents of someone's ragbag including old undies, mended socks, ancient stockings and worn out nighties complete with shoe polish stains where they had been used as shoe polishers.

I have been experimenting at Whitireia with trying to make wool fabric shrink. This has not been terribly successful with merino. Ideally I want a wool fabric which shrinks by about 50% (even 30% would do) but most fabric these days is shrink proofed, which is a shame for my purposes. I want to shrink it in some areas but not others using shibori techniques but am having to change my plans. This was for an exhibition of scarves in Sydney in september.

SCARF
- contemporary shaped resist dyed scarves
at
Barometer Gallery
13 Gurner St., Paddington, NSW

from September 8th to October 3rd, 2010
Opened by Yoshiko I. Wada

Sunday 12th September at 4pm

The slow blogger

I am writing my websearch article for New Zealand Quilter and saw someone else call themselves the slow blogger. It applies to me too. I forgot I had a blog.

Since I last posted I have learned a really cool skill. The whole textile class at Whitireia learned how to make a toile to fit their own body using a method outlined in the book 'The Medieval Tailors Assistant'.

Each person took 2 pieces of calico and then someone else pinned them into it, over the shoulders and along the sides.

Then the excess fabric was cut off and further pinning was done.

Yes they are two different people!
After it was as close fitting as possible, it was cut down the dotted line in the middle and made into a pattern. A toile was made from the pattern which was adjusted again, then clothes can be cut using that as the basic pattern.

I made a tunic which fit perfectly (except for the armholes which are a bit tight and which I need to adjust again). I have discovered I have very sloping shoulders. I can also see why commercial patterns don't work for me - darts end up in the wrong place, shoulders too wide etc.

It was good fun and a great 'team building' exercise. Now to make some clothes that fit!

Whilst I am procrastinating about completing the Websearch article, I am going to mention a website I found while looking for wool quilts. Rebekah Farr lives in Carterton. She has made 4 wool quilts which is how the search found her site but she is an animator and painter. Her 4 minute animated movie is called Real World and her paintings are lovely too.