Elizabeth Morley workshop

I had a brilliant time at this months Art A'peel meeting, it was one of the most enjoyable days I've had in a long time.  We spent a day with Textile Artist Elizabeth Morley at her studio on her property at Coolup, just south of Pinjarra. 

 She and her husband only moved to the new property a year ago and they've worked hard and created a wonderful place to visit.  

Its on 5 acres of land, so there's plenty of parking, and lots of room for groups of students.  Elizabeth gave us a tour of the property, showing us where the chickens are, and the vegetable patch, the dam, the fruit trees ... so much to see, we were happy just wandering around taking it all in for the first hour.

The gardens were beautiful and gave us lots of inspiration for drawing and design

and the wildlife was so cute too.  I fell in love with these little goslings, I just wanted to take them home.

Elizabeth has a HUGE workshop, as you can see below.

It's separate to the house, and within offers views of the gardens and the swimming pool and patio area, where we sat and had our lunch.  I honestly felt like I was away at a resort, it was so relaxing and peaceful in the countryside.

Once inside the studio we were like kids in a sweet shop, there was so much to see.  Elizabeth has displayed all her supplies in glass jars or on shelves around the studio and its a visual delight.

Then of course, there's her textile art - a feast of colour and texture, much of which was influenced by her time in Africa, as seen in her wonderful cape that hangs on the wall, and the indigenous portraits. 

Elizabeth's studio is split into two sections, one half is the workroom where we all had loads of room to set up and work, with samples of her work all around to inspire us, as well as tea/coffee making facilities with home made muffins, all in air conditioned comfort, which was a blessing considering it was a 38 degree day.

There's lots of good lighting and comfortable seating and we had lots of space to spread out and work without cramping each others style. 

We even had four legged friends to keep us company, and help us eat the delicious muffins - not that we needed much help, they were yummy.

The other half is a storage room filled to the brim with colourful fabrics, trims, paints - everything you could want, as well as the ironing boards and a large work surface in the middle where Elizabeth could demonstrate the techniques.  There was so much to see my head was spinning, and we all went home feeling very envious!!

We eventually snapped out of our awestruck dumbness and got down to business, which was learning to make fabric flowers for a  brooch or necklace.  These are some of Elizabeths' work ....

We didn't manage to finish our pieces, but did get lots of flowers and leaves created.

 and Elizabeth showed us how to complete them in our own time.

Not only was Elizabeth a wonderful tutor but a very generous host too, as she cooled us all down with a refreshing bowl of home made mulberry icecream before we all hit the road and headed home.

I went home with a renewed vigour and have already cut out and prepared a jar full of more flowers and leaves to be creative with, and I hope it won't be long before I go back and do another workshop with Elizabeth.

If anyone is interested in workshops, please feel free to contact Elizabeth via the following:

Elizabeth Morley

Textile Artist

P: +61 8 9530 3902

M: +61 415 272 341

email:  uniqueexpressions@iinet.net.au

Web:  uniqueexpressions.net.au

and lastly .... a big thank you to Elizabeth from all the Art A'peel ladies.