Michelle Mischkulnig workshop

As a member of TAAMMI (Textile Art & Mixed Media Inc) we're always looking for new tutors to inspire and guide us in our creative journey, and recently our workshop co-ordinator Penni introduced us to the vibrant textile art of Michelle Mischkulnig.

Luckily for us, Michelle was happy to come over from Victoria and conduct two weekend workshops for our group, and for non members from other textile and embroidery groups.

What a brilliant weekend we had.  Michelle is very open to sharing her vast knowledge and techniques with us all, and is an extremely friendly and warm person.

Michelle showed us how to create a colourful garden theme, using machine embroidery on printed fabric of Michelle's design and layers of fabric and thread to give dimension and depth to the piece, adding 3D pieces to develop texture and volume.

The two days flew by and we all had a ball.  Unfortunately no-one finished their work in the time frame, but they were all about 80% complete by the end of the workshop.

Mine is still sitting in my workroom waiting for more attention - and after a weeks holiday next week I'll be getting down to some serious stitching.  Watch this space .....

Inspiration from the Craft Fair

I was so impressed with this years WA Craft Show at Claremont Showgrounds that I wanted to share some of the highlights with you, like these fabulous quilt creations from "Just One More Stitch".

and the marvellous textile and fibre art from "Designing Women".

Dale Rollerson's work never fails to inspire me.

But for me, the big draw card this year was Alison Cole and her superb stumpwork and goldwork embroidery.  Her work is simply stunning, so fine and well executed, with a wonderful selection of styles and themes to entice you.  Not only that, she's a lovely lady too - we sat and chatted quite a bit together at the end of the day, and I came home all inspired to create a stumpwork design - something I've not done in a number of years.

Each year the fair holds its Art to Wear display and as always the artists imagination is awe inspiring, like this dress made by Minni Karamfiles, all made of ringpulls from aluminium drink cans.  Incredible!! 

and this work of art from Jan Rowe - such an amazing amount of texture created in this piece and the colours were extraordinary.  I couldn't begin to imagine the number of hours work that went into creating this piece.

There was one piece in particular that caught my eye, and that was the eco dyed dress made by Jane Flower.  The colours and patterns in her work really appealed to me and I spent quite a long time chatting with her and went away itching to set a date on the calendar to attend one of her workshops.  Fortunately she lives not too far away from me, so as soon as I get a slot in my calendar I'll be off there in a shot.

 

There's something so appealing about the natural colours and patterns in Jane's work that I kept going back to her stand time and again, just to soak it all in.  She certainly inspired me, and since the show I've spent a lot of time googling eco dyeing, so watch for future posts, I might have something to share with you soon.

Another guest this year was Ro Bruhn, whose work is so colourful and vibrant.  It makes you want to pull out your paint box and have a go. They were such happy bright pieces.

Val Hornibrook is a West Australian artist and her felted pieces were also colourful and enticing.

There were many exhibitions of art quilts and textile and fibre art from leading artists from all over Australia and internationally.  But the one that stood out the most was The Sentinelles, by Dijanne Cevaal.

I couldn't get enough of this wonderful display.  My brain was like a sponge trying to take it all in - so many different approaches to embroidery and colour, and the way the display was set out showing the colours changing as they moved around the colour wheel was incredible.  If you ever get the chance to see this travelling exhibition I thoroughly recommend it.

And last but certainly not least, was the Kimberley Dreaming exhibition run by Dale Rollerson of The Thread Studio.  Unfortunately my photos don't reflect the true colours of some of these masterpieces.  They were the colours of Australia, and were simply beautiful.

There are so many talented people all around us every day who work hard in their creative fields, and I'm always so grateful to these people for sharing their inspiration, ideas and techniques with us all. So a huge thank you.  I had a brilliant day, my mind is spinning with inspiration and I can't wait for next years show.

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!