More for the exhibition...

As promised in the last post I finally finished my felted wrap for the NSCG exhibition which have some distinct similarites to my 'fishy' bag..

The silk georgette was hand dyed to match the felt and holes were made in the felted ruffles to tie in with the embroidered bubbles around the lace fish.

The exhibition has still 3 days to run and there are some amazing pieces from textile, glass, wood and ceramic artiists.   As they say "come on down!" and see for yourself.

Too many artists spoil the sewing machine!

Our house has been a flurry of activity recently with my daughter's major Art and Design work for HSC due today and the North Shore Craft Group exhibition and sale coming up this week.

I had hoped to put up some photos of Lorna's work but she's keeping it under wraps until her school's exhibition on Monday.  She is majoring in printing - screen and lino - and her presentation is a mixture of wall prints and a wearable sculpture in the form of a hand printed coat made from white denim paper that she made herself.  It's inspired by the work of Munch who was often photographed in a gabardine trenchcoat hence the connection.  I also like to think that I inspired the lacework and embroidery she prepared throughout the material to link her prints symbolize the connection she feels with Munch, but Lorna is her own artist on that and makes her own choices!

So while the machine was free (albeit covered in black ink and powder and required constant oiling, you sense my slight frustration!) I was allowed to use it and work on my pieces for my exhibition.

Suffice to say I'm still working on my second challenge piece - so photos will be following.   Hey, this is turning into a very boring post, so here's some colour - details of the exhibition at least, for those in the area.

The challenge this year has a Zodiac theme.  Since I'm a Piscean I selected fish as my embellishing theme and created a bag (of course) with lace embelllishment.  The bag fabric (under the lace overlay) is felted with sheers embellished into it and ebroidered.  This first piece was finished quite a while ago as I entered it into the Royal Easter Show in Sydney this Easter and was chuffed to win 1st prize.

Feeling slightly guilty that I was re-using the bag in this June exhibition I decided to make a coordinating felted shawl / wrap with the same fish embellishments in lace cutwork.  But as I say it still needs finishing this weekend.  Despite my planning I always seem to work up to the last minute...but I'm sure I'm not alone there.....

"A Bag for all Seasons"

Just finished a really fun weekend teaching a 2 day bag making workshop for ATASDA NSW at Epping Creative Centre at Dence Park in Epping.  I had 8 ladies, all very enthusiastic to learn how to turn their textile creations into structured bags.  The pattern I used is very flexible as you can produce a bag with or without an internal tubular frame and create bags with very different looks and uses.

This photo shows some of the bags 'almost' completed. some of the ladies previously appliqued and decorated their material, or created beautiful woven pieces of cloth that they pieced together.

The bags all had structured bottoms with purse feet which gave them a very stylish professional look and
we looked at many variations of pockets with zips, elastic flaps etc.

More ATASDA workshops and tasters if you're interested can be found here.