Monday 14 March 2016

Halls Gap / Grampians Texture 2016

The girls and I arrived in Halls Gap to attend the Grampians Texture week, located in the centre of the Grampians National Park is an event that offers a creative vacation for textile artists, with workshops led by professional Australian and International tutors.

For our stay we stayed in the Pinnacle Holiday Lodge, Marilyn and I stayed in the room to the right and Dawne and Sue stayed in the room behind Sue's car, with Ruth across the other side of the grounds. A perfect location close to the hall, shops, restaurants etc for the Texture week.


In the morning I was greeted by the native Kangaroos and even a Deer.


After the 2 day weekend workshop with my tutor Velma Bolyard from the USA, of Paper Manipulations: Birthing a Sample Book. I created a Meander book, a Origami Book and a Concentia Book shown below made from papers we dyed with Ink Stone pigments, also mark making with walnut ink and persimmon.



The Artist in Residence @ Grampians Texture is Western Australian felter Martien van Zuilen who transformed the courtyard to the Halls Gap Community Centre, featuring a handmade full-scale Mongolian style Yurt. The entire wall felts measure some 21 meters.

The Australian National Yurt Project was founded in 1998 by Martien van Zuilen, an anthropologist and textile artist specializing in handmade wool felt. The yurt was built by feltmakers from across Australia. Since its completion, the Yurt Project has traveled in true nomadic style throughout Australia, along the way attending numerous arts festivals, schools, and conferences.






At the end of the weekend workshops all participants exhibit their work in the town hall for viewing. This is some of my classes work here.


Another tutor of the week is Bryant Holsenbeck with Wrapping Wild using wire skeletons to create four legged animal sculptures out of recycled materials.


Another tutor was Philomena Hali with Flower Power creating flowers using both and and machine methods, using recycled frabrics and remnants to use as embellishments.


Liz Maidment offered Stitched Collage Landscapes working with spray painted backgrounds to compose a landscape with fused fabric and hand stitching.


Fiona Duthie offered Felt Illuminated creating striking interior design pieces such a light shades etc using felting.



Katia Mokeyeva and her Goddess Shawls was one of my favourite displays when viewing the other class works. She taught how to combine different ways of processing felt to create soft and strong felted fabric to yield a complete, harmonious, unique wearable art piece.



My girlfriend Ruth created this Dingo in her wire sculpture class.


Pam Hovel explored Wild Fibre for Felted Fashion using raw, untreated natural wool fibre to create different textures making felted capes and wraps.


The teachers all on stage.


Most mornings I walked to my class about 2 1/2 km out of town to the Brambuk Cultural Centre and here is a sample of the view of the Grampians along the way.


The Brambuk Cultural Centre main building.


I attended the same tutor for my 4 day workshop again in the Brambuk Centre. Here we are outside the building creating Botanic Pressure Prints folding paper with leaves, twigs, bark, rusty objects and rose petals etc, and wrapping around branches and placing in boiling water for 45 minutes then removing and opening to discover the different prints created.



Just out of the pot too hot to handle as yet, mine is the second from the left.


One of the girls papers revealing orange and yellow prints upon the paper.


These are my samples, I used red and yellow rose petals, leaves, and a couple of rusty metal lengths to find these prints. I was very surprised just what a dramatic effect the red dried rose petals made to the paper.


This is a slot and tab book I made using papers I printed myself.


Here is a sample of the Japanese Shifu Paper Yarn I hand spun after cutting, distressing from the original sheet of Mitsumata paper from Batan on the left. I then weaved it into a sample piece of cloth, the Japanese actually make clothing from this process.


My major book completed at the end of the four day workshop was using the Stationers Binding Technique. Again the signatures with the book are made from papers that I made throughout the workshop.





Here is a sample of the paper cut into threads before being spun into thread on the spindle.


Some examples of other students from my class at the exhibition at the end of the four day workshop.


Here I fell in love with the wire sculptured emu.


More wire wild animals from the Wrapping Wild workshops.


My friend Ruth attended the Barbara Mullan - Tribal Inspired Embroidery from Northern Africa workshop and exhibited the following two pieces.



Katia Mokeyeva taught Felt in Fashion creating gorgeous comfortable, hooded seamless jackets in her felting workshop.





Pam Hovel taught Eco Printed and Textured Nuno Felted Tops creating free flowing tops and tunics.



Fiona Duthie - Tactile Metaphors explored storytelling in felt using surface design and composition, combining elements using design theory, focal points, balance, form and scale.



My friend Sue attended Philomena Hali's Fabric Manipulation - creating surface textures using machine and hand stitching to manipulate cloth for surface embellishments.





My other friend Marilyn attended to master class taken over 6 days with Sandy Webster - Marking Places and Making Spaces, using the students own ideas etc Sandy guides to bring together all the elements needed to create masterpieces for showcasing collections, stories of peoples lives.


This treehouse design is my favourite piece with so many delicate sections, draws, books etc




And so my time at Grampians Textures comes to a close, so much inspiration, collective thoughts and ideas that I will not know where to start when I get home after my time away.

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