Art a'Peel Open Day 2015

A big thank you to everyone who came to Art a'Peel's Open Day on Sunday, what an amazing day we all had.  

It was wonderful to see so many people who share the same interests and creativity as our group, and its amazing how much you learn and acquire inspiration from days like these.
We had many comments on the high quality of work on display, which is what Art a'Peel is all about.
Our "Masque" theme for this year enabled us to dig deep for ideas and resulted in a splendid variety of work

One of my contributions to the theme was this face mask made of angelina fibres molded to shape and embellished with embroidery threads and beads.  All our members submitted a diverse selection of masques and I'm always stunned by their imagination, every one of  them was incredible.

Along with our theme, there was also a large display of work created throughout the year by all group members, as well as demonstrations on some of the techniques used.

 Elizabeth Morley displayed some of her incredible wearable art,

 as did Dixie Stanford.

My display of Chinese textiles was a great hit, and it was lovely to see how fascinated people were with the history of the pieces, if not a little horrified about the history of foot binding.

And not forgetting the scrumptious food we had available ... warming home made soups, scones with jam and cream, biscuits and cakes ... we always look after our visitors.. 

So for those who couldn't make it this year, make a note in your calendar and don't forget to pop along next year - everybody is welcome!

"Masque" Open Day - Art a'Peel Textile & Mixed Media Group

Sunday 12th July, is Art a'Peel's annual Open Day and 10th anniversary.  This year our theme is "Masqued".  Come along and have a look at our "Masqued" display, along with a showcase of members work throughout the year.

Doors open at 11am until 3pm, and for $5 you get complimentary soups, tea, coffee, cakes as well as demonstrations of techniques and meet lots of like minded people.

I will be displaying a selection of my Asian textiles, so pop in and have a chat, we'd love to see you.

Oops!

You can tell I've not blogged for awhile - I've just realised I've blogged twice about the same thing (see previous post).  Oops!

Although I like to try lots of different techniques I do have some favourites and rusting is one of them.  I've rusted fabric lots of times but never tried paper, so being motivated by the success of the sun dyeing I continued on whilst the creative streak was still alive and kicking, and begged hubby for anything rusty in his shed.

Using rusted tools and implements creates lots of defined shapes but to be honest the steel wool worked the best and gave the quickest results.  

The rusting on paper took longer than the fabric, but still worked well.. 

I've been using my rust dyed fabrics to make artworks and I'm looking forward to incorporating the paper pieces in the next ones I create.

These panels will be on display and available for sale at the "Gifted" country garden and craft fair, hosted by the talented Elizabeth Morley of Unique Expressions.  Mark your calendars for 22nd November 2015, it'll be a great day.

April ATASDA - Sun Dyeing

Time has slipped away from me and I'm going to try and catch up with news on what's been going on with our ATASDA and Art A'peel groups as well as my own stuff.

In April our ATASDA WA group made the most of our sunny weather and had a day experimenting with sun dyeing.

Its amazing how fast it works! 

Within an hour we had amazing effects from the pieces we worked on. I hadn't realised prior to this, that you can do sun dyeing with watered down acrylic paints, but they worked brilliantly. 

I had such a lot of fun that I did more playing at home - there's no point in not making the most of all those stencils and experimental bits and bobs that I'd sourced, before packing them away again.

Anything can be used - twigs, leaves, buttons, stencils - anything works. 

I did experiment with Dyn-a-flow at home, as well as silk paints, and all gave good result. 

Would you believe the one below is created using round paper clips, washers and the smaller dots were made from dried lentils, yep, thats right, lentils. 

I raided the button box for this one, the only down side of this one is that the sun was low down at an angle so one side of the button print is a bit blurry - good lesson learnt - wait till the sun is up high.

I think this is my favourite, its created using a plastic stencil and mottled greens.  Just have to decide what to do with it to do it justice now. 

So don't be afraid to have a go at this technique, its fun and very quick, especially on a hot summers day.  Enjoy!