Charlotte Haywood visited the Guild in August on the eve of her new exhibition, Blue/Orange and gave us an extremely interesting presentation of some of her work.

Charlotte told us that she had little formal artistic or craft tuition as a child or teenager - a topic she would touch on later. However she developed an interest in fashion. This led to work in costume in film and television and developed her artistic skills as a designer. Her interest in textiles was a natural evolution from this background and she went on to study tapestry weaving at Warrnambool TAFE.

A visit to Varanassi in India allowed her to explore the possibilities of jacquard weaving techniques. On a holiday in Peru she was seduced by the local weaving and the vibrant colours the weavers used. Charlotte also talked about her role as a facilitator of the hyperbolic crochet reef exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum and showed us examples of the work produced. She also gave us a sneak preview of her exhibition of shaped tapestries and installations which look at polarities of colour and the ideas of opposites as exemplified in her video installation of a Samurai council worker, or the contrasts between digital art and hand knits.

Continue reading "Charlotte Haywood" »

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The first part of the August GM was simulcast to a small group of invited participants. Committee members Ann Jackson and Katherine Henry (with a lot of help from Katherine's daughter Isabella) put a great deal of work into setting up the broadcast and made a lot of adjustments and adaptations throughout the morning so they could get things working in time for this month's Tool Talk. Ann Jackson emphasised that the idea of the simulcast is not to replace the monthly meetings but to provide another place where people can join in. Ann then explained the realities of copyright during simulcasts, anything that is broadcast on the internet (or most other mediums) can legally be copied and consequently reviewed or commented upon by anyone. The problem of copyright control for any speakers or guest artists appearing at the Guild is one that needs to be resolved in the future. Ann suggests that people need to accept that if their work is in the public arena they should be prepared to deal with some people borrowing their ideas or techniques. Any work shown during the simulcast will be acknowledged.

Continue reading "Tool Talk" »

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Both long time Guild members and very experienced teachers of colour design and tapestry weaving, Yvonne and Marie are also involved in a trans-Tasman tapestry group which holds a themed exhibition each year - the AuNZ Tapestry Group Project.

Before telling us about the Project, Marie gave us a brief history of tapestry.

Woven tapestry has been around for at least 3,000 years. Fragments of tapestries from many centuries ago have been found all over Europe, in North Africa and in South America. A variety of ancient pieces of weaving have been discovered in Egypt where the hot, dry environment mean the fibres have been well preserved.

Continue reading "Yvonne Eade and Marie Clews of the AuNZ Tapestry Group Project 2006-2011" »

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This month we were treated to a wonderful array of photos from the new Love Lace exhibition, which opens at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney on 30 July. The winner of this third International Lace Award will be announced at the launch of Sydney Design 2011.

Curator Lindie Ward presented an interesting collection of exhibits, giving us a run through of the techniques and stories behind many of pieces. There are many beautiful entries from an international field of textile and other media artists. It was fascinating to hear how some of the pieces were constructed and set up in the gallery spaces, including how Harris Street was closed to allow a giant truck to be transported into the exhibition site.

Many of the works challenge the traditional understanding of lace as a textile art, as the museum broadened the definition of lace to include any openwork structure whose pattern of spaces is as important as the solid areas. As such, there were many exhibits using metal, natural fibres and paper to wonderful effect.

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Marion Wheatland is Canadian by birth, Australian by heart and has lived in Australia for over 40 years. She has been spinning for more than 20 years and runs a business called Fancy Spinning a Yarn. Marion is passionate about fibre and wool and also history, a trait she inherited from her father. As a child she used to attend agricultural shows in Canada. The Dandenong Show was her introduction to the Australian version of the Ag show. Her interest in fibre motivated her to get her wool classing certificate but she has found her niche as a spinning teacher.

Continue reading "Marion Wheatland's Spin on the Frozen Continent" »

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In 2002 a friend of Carole's put on an exhibition at the Bondi Pavilion which featured a series of photos taken in northern India highlighting the lives of some of the people in this region. Some of the funds raised during the exhibition were used to start a project in this area of India. By chance, the subject of the project was a traditional weaver named Tejsi Dhana Marwada.

In 2001 Tejsi Dhana's home and livelihood were destroyed by an earthquake. His family had found refuge in a greener and more hospitable part of the region but were told by the authorities that they could not settle there. With money raised by Carole and her friends, a plot of land was bought to provide space for the weaver to work from which he could not be removed by the local government. Eventually a workshop was built on the land and Tejsi Dhana was able to secure housing nearby which was also close to health, other services and schools for his children. After establishing the weaving workshop more funds were raised so that a permanent water supply could be connected to the property to enable on-site dyeing to be carried out. Mostly natural dyes are used by this traditional weaver: madder, indigo, lac, sappan, etc applied to locally available fibres from sheep, goat, camel and cotton.

Continue reading "Carole Douglas" »

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In 2008 Beth mounted an exhibition with artist Christine James which has toured Australia and is about to open at Fairfield Museum in Sydney. The exhibition explores aspects of the history and geography of the Lake George area near Canberra as interpreted by the two artists, Christine as a painter and Beth as a weaver and sculptor. The exhibition called BASE LINE: Remnant Grassland of Weereewa/Lake George will run until 13 March.

Continue reading "Beth Hatton" »

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Denise was the recipient of the Freda Neale Grant this year, and talked to the Guild at the November meeting about her trip to Albuquerque in New Mexico, USA for the American Tapestry Alliance's Convergence 2010, which the award of the grant assisted.

Continue reading "Denise Stevens" »

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Linda Chee has been a visual arts teacher for more than 30 years and a knitter for more than 20 years. She has travelled the world extensively with her husband who is a professional photographer. Her travels have provided a lot of inspiration for design, colour, texture and other elements of Linda's designs.

Continue reading "Postmodern Knitting and Design Strategies" »

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Pam is a self published author who was approached by Joan to help Joan write her story. Two hundred and fifty people attended their book launch at Narrabeen. Two hundred copies of the book were sold.

Continue reading "June Guest Speaker: Joan Fisher and Pam Bayfield" »

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Barbara Ballantine, our April 2010 guest speaker, shared with us both beautiful examples of the work of and the history of the crochet designer Mary Card.

Continue reading "April Guest Speaker: Barbara Ballantine" »

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Margaret O'Shea is a geography teacher and while she was teaching at Santa Sabina College she learned about the Kopanang project established by a Dominican Sister, Sheila Flynn.

Enabling women is very important in South Africa and in 2000 Sister Sheila and a group of people wondered what they could do to help groups of grannies who have to raise their grandchildren after their parents have died from AIDS related illnesses. Some of the children also have AIDS.

Continue reading "February Guest Speaker: Kopanang Project" »

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After a 30 year career as a graphic designer Marie-Therese morphed into a full time studio artist and promoted her husband Art Patron. She works full time as a studio artist, researcher, author, tutor, casual lecturer at the University of Newcastle and maintains Art Quill Studio at Arcadia Vale. She has written books and her artcloth and works on paper have been widely exhibited nationally and internationally.

Continue reading "January Guest Speaker: Journey in Artcloth" »

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The DVD presentation was introduced by Ann Beatty and Audrey Miller who told the story of her macrogauze hanging. Audrey and Barbara Roper were in a Salvation Army shop one day and noticed a bundle of rolled up threads which they suspected might be a weaving. On closer inspection they found it was indeed a wall hanging with a metal plate attached inscribed Peter Collingwood with a number. Audrey asked the man behind the counter how much he wanted for it and he said Oh, three dollars. What a bargain! It has gone to a good home but imagine how easily it could have gone to the tip. Peter Collingwood sold his macro gauzes by weight, depending on how much metal was in them.

Continue reading "October Guest Speaker: Peter Collingwood" »

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Liz started knitting when she and her family (including 2 small sons) were living on a houseboat in Sydney harbour. They had sold up everything to travel, got as far as Brisbane before deciding it was not the life for them. Liz found that she had lots of time to fill with no housework so, inspired by Jenny Kee, she taught herself to knit from a book with lots of colour. What she knitted she wrote up as books:

• Woolly Jumpers: 21 Easy to Knit Australian Designs
• Jolly Jumpers - 16 Easy Patterns That Anyone Can Knit
• Aussie fair: Simple Fair Isle knitting with Australian motifs
• Creative Collection, Original Australian Handknits
• Knitting for Your Home

Continue reading "August Guest Speaker: Liz Gemmell" »

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Cecilia's training was first in graphic design but she couldn't see herself working in that field so transferred to fine arts study. The graphic design background taught her image making and showed her how to look at imagery. After three years of fine art study she went to Spain and studied Spanish painting, learnt the language, then moved to London to do a masters degree in fine art design. There students have access to the Tate, British and Victoria and Albert museums plus textile shows and there are 5,000 graduates per year. There students study weaving or textiles for four years whereas in Australia we don't have the population to run specialist courses.

Continue reading "August Guest Speaker: Cecilia Heffer: Textile Designer" »

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Gillian Green visited Cambodia (after studying as a beginner weaver at the Guild in the 80s) and fell in love with the country and its weaving tradition. Apart from the textiles themselves, she collected the components of antique looms which are highly decorated with animal motifs and are nowadays very sought after as collectibles.

Continue reading "April Guest Speaker: Gillian Green" »

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Anne's book has been recently published in French and in German. She told us that she dreamed last week that she arrived to give her talk and no one was there to listen. In reality that was not the case, there was a large gathering interested to hear about how she came to write her book.

Anne has a son who lives in London and while visiting him she was asked to write a book on weaving by a representative of a French publishing company. Her immediate response was to say no. Then, on the plane flying home she started to think about simple forms of weaving which don't require expensive equipment and thought that perhaps she could write a book.

Continue reading "February Guest Speaker: Anne Miller" »

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The January guest speaker was Elody Bilanycz from the International School of Colour and Design.

Elody told us about the International School of Colour and Design, North Sydney which has been in existence for 25 years. They release sets of trends or themes in colour and design and also run courses for designers, artists, decorators and colourists. We were shown a presentation of design trends.

Continue reading "Elody Bilanycz: International School of Colour and Design" »

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Liz took us on a journey through her life as a fibre artist at the October 2008 meeting.

Continue reading "Elizabeth Calnan: Designer, Weaver and Tutor" »

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Some of you may remember one of our guest speakers in 2004, Elizabeth Wright. The soft furnishing project for refurbishing old Government House, Parramatta was in it's early days and Elizabeth talked about the project and what they hoped to achieve. Gwen Hanna was encouraged to volunteer by her friend Judy Bayles and Sue Rogers joined the project at a later date.

Between them they took us through the project with slides, words and many samples explaining how they progressed through the house. They told us how James Broadbent and Elizabeth Wright searched letters and reports to gain an insight into the fashions of the day and, in particular, the colour preferences and taste of Elizabeth Macquarie.

Continue reading "Judy Bayles, Gwen Hanna and Sue Rogers: Old Government House Soft Furnishing Project" »

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A few weeks ago when Jenny Dunn asked if I would like to be guest speaker at the August Guild meeting my instant reaction was "what could I talk about?" But as I mulled over my life and more particularly the last ten or so years one thought led to another (as they do) and like a light going on "journeys" came into my head.

Anyone who has had a child, or grandchild, doing their HSC in the past four or five years will know all about Journeys as that they have been a major topic of study throughout the English syllabus. From this initial thought my mind wandered to thinking about the Journey felt making has taken and ultimately my own journey in felting.

Continue reading "Janet Page: Journeys" »

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Gay Hendriksen is the curator of the Women Transported exhibition that will open in August at the Cultural Heritage Centre in Parramatta. She spoke at the May Guild meeting.

The women transported to Australia between 1804 and 1850 brought with them over 200 trades. Sometimes we are taken on journeys we don't plan. One in five Australians are related to these women who supported each other. They came through difficult times.

Continue reading "Gay Hendriksen: Women Transported Curator" »

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The guest speaker at the April meeting was Kommaly Chanthavong. Her daughter Bobby acted as her interpreter.

Kommaly learned the traditional techniques of Lao weaving and the use of natural dyes in her home town in the north of Laos which is known for its weft ikat, warp ikat, complex continuous supplementary weft, tapestry weaving, plain weaving and discontinuous supplementary weft. The Vietnam war forced her to move from her home in 1960 and she later trained in Thailand as a nurse. But in 1976 she started a weaving group in her home in Vientiane with 10 desperately poor women who had been displaced by the war. Thereafter she became director of a handicrafts cooperative and in 1993 established a model farm in silk production and cattle raising on 40 hectares of land in her mountainous northern province.

Continue reading "Kommaly Chanthavong: Mulberries: Lao Sericulture" »

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The February guest speaker was Kelly Leonard.

I feel incredibly privileged to be the recipient of the first Freda Neale Grant awarded by the NSW Spinners and Weavers Guild to promote weaving. Growing up in Mudgee in the 1970's I first became interested in learning to spin from the local Spinners and Weavers Guild. This interest in natural fibres and sustainable ways of art making has stayed with me, laying a foundation for my artwork today.

Continue reading "Kelly Leonard: Two Months in Laos" »

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The January guest speaker was Rod Byatt.

The first international braiding conference was held over five days last November at Kyoto Institute of Technology, Kyoto. It attracted 120 participants from Japan and ten other countries. The next conference will be held in the UK in 2012.

Continue reading "Rod Byatt: Japanese Textiles" »

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The November guest speaker was Cecily Grey.

Cecily Grey is a member of the Burwood Historical Society and came to talk about the early history of Burwood. Before coming to our meeting she and her mother did some research on the history of spinning and weaving and told us that an archaeological site containing relics of a Turko-Mongolian population had revealed remnants of tartan fabrics almost identical to the ones woven in Scotland. The 4000 year old fabric was used to wrap a mummy.

Continue reading "Cecily Grey: Burwood Historical Society" »

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The March guest speaker was Barbara Schey.

You would think that after all the tours that Barbara has led to south-east Asia and South America that there wouldn't be much left for her to learn about the pitfalls. Travelling in India taught her several. And, I think, she learned something about herself and her ability to get what she had organised.

Continue reading "Barbara Schey: UNESCO Natural Dyeing Symposium" »

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The October guest speaker was Lisa Waller from Alice Springs Beanie Festival.

This was the 10th year of the Alice Springs Beanie Festival. An old university friend of Lisa's is the artistic director and invited her to help run it. Lisa ran workshops and helped to write a book.

Continue reading "Lisa Waller: Alice Springs Beanie Festival" »

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The September guest speaker was Jane Goodes from Wrap with Love.

Jane is a volunteer working for Wrap with Love. This organisation was started in late 1992 by Sonia Gidley-King OAM who was recuperating from breast cancer surgery and saw a TV program about people in Africa who had no blankets. She started knitting squares and joining them in to rugs. Over the years it has grown to 25,000 volunteers all over Australia making rugs which are then distributed through a network of aid agencies to 75 countries including Australia. Every year the ABC breakfast show hosts a knit-in with all the NSW regional stations taking part.

Continue reading "Jane Goodes: Wrap with Love" »

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The August guest speaker was Joseph Harb, MDes(Hon), bookbinder and artist.

Following the meeting, Joseph Harb, gave an interesting talk about his training as a bookbinder, developing his artist books and the pleasure of teaching bookbinding. Joseph utilises traditional bookbinding techniques to produce his intricate and often confronting artist books. Members were able to see some examples of his books — small books (some the size of chocolates) and also a selection of interesting artworks. The covers of Joseph's books were made out of fine leather, beautifully made and well presented.

Joseph has worked with the book arts for many years, and teaches at COFA and The National Art School.

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The July guest speaker was Barbara Schey.

Barbara spoke about her textile tours and how she started. She lived in Tamworth and taught spinning and weaving at TAFEs in the area. During that time she organised tours to Sydney to buy supplies and tours from Sydney to see the cotton harvest, calling in on spinners and weavers along the way. When she moved back to Sydney from Tamworth she decided to travel and went to China in 1989. She enjoyed the tour but was disappointed not to go to a silk factory or other textile factories.

Continue reading "Barbara Schey: Textile Tours" »

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The June guest speaker was Jim Masselos, retired Honorary Reader in History at the University of Sydney.

As an historian Jim spent a lot of time in India doing research in libraries and was looking for an activity which would take him outdoors and be a means of meeting local people. This was the beginning of a beautiful and varied collection of Indian textiles. We only saw part of his collection but by the end of the talk there were three tables covered in bags, scarves, shawls, bedspreads, saris and pieces of fabric.

Continue reading "Jim Masselos: Indian Textiles" »

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The March guest speaker was James Brown from New Guinea Craft.

James went to PNG for the Catholic church for two years to help rebuild after the '98 tsunami. The area that he was sent to is on the border with Indonesian Papua and is very remote. What little electricity there is, is from 30 year-old generators and the roads are very rough. The people who live there are entirely self-sufficient. They know how to survive off the bush and know how to make things from scratch.

Continue reading "James Brown: New Guinea Craft" »

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The February guest speaker was Veronica Calianco, Ashfield Council's Artist in residence.

Thank you for having me. How did I get from the Kimberleys to Ashfield?

I completed a fine arts degree in the 1990s. I began work as a graphic designer. Presently I am travelling and working in the Kimberleys. I have travelled to Japan, France, China and Turkey. I met Natalie in Turkey when she came to my exhibition.

Continue reading "Veronica Calianco: Ashfield Council's Artist in residence" »

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The January guest speaker was Bev Cooper of Belisa Cashmere. She was introduced as a passionate fibre person who has made a great contribution to the Australian Cashmere industry.

Thank you ladies and gentlemen. It is great to see some guys. I have been in business for 12 years. It all began when I purchased goats in 1984 to clear paddocks instead of slashing them. The goats steadily increased in number at Kellyville. At this time I was working for a large corporation and saw the fibre going overseas for processing. I got some cashmere from the USA and spun it. It was a disaster as I had spun it too loosely. I decided to learn how to process it properly.

Continue reading "Bev Cooper of Belisa Cashmere" »

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The October guest speaker was designer, master painter and etcher, Pamela Griffith.

Pamela started her talk by saying that she has great admiration for the beautiful works created by the membership. She believes that there is little encouragement for hand craft now-a-days and so it is great to see a group nurturing and promoting these sorts of activities.

Continue reading "Pamela Griffith — Designer, Master Painter and Etcher" »

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The September guest speaker was weaver, spinner, writer and teacher, Anne Field.

Anne shared with us her recent study trip to the UK and the subsequent samples she produced.

Last year Anne applied for a grant from the New Zealand Arts Council to study abroad. She won the grant and was scheduled to go in October but only a month before her departure, was diagnosed with cancer of the stomach. Consequently she had to wait two months to see how things would pan out, and so delayed the study grant 'til April this year.

Continue reading "Anne Field" »

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The July guest speaker was Embroiderers' Guild archivist, Marie Cavanagh.

Marie introduced herself and then showed a set of slides illustrating some of the important acquisitions of the Guild, including a Tree of Life, Good Queen Bess and a cushion from Schrewsbury Hall. There is a lot of symbolism in the embroideries to do with Mary Queen of Scots, for example a Tudor embroidery in a silver gilt frame from the 1600s which showed ravens, snakes and toads.

Continue reading "Marie Cavanagh of the Embroiderers' Guild" »

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The June guest speaker was textile sculptor Rodney Love.

Rodney Love entered COFA as a sculptor but was subverted by Liz Williamson's textile units. His grids and statuettes became stuffed with hair collected from hairdressers — what he calls anonymous hair. He spun this hair into weft and wove it on a cotton warp. He then made paper incorporating the hair of friends and fellow students. This way he could name each hair contributor and create a memorial, of sorts. But he soon discovered hair takes a while to grow and he needed a fabric that was personal to each individual that he could incorporate into his memory/group cloth. Socks were his solution. Many of us have spare socks that can be donated along with a personal story. He has created a kimono of strips cut from white socks and a runner of many subtle colours each tagged with the donors' name.

All these projects will be combined for a masters exhibition. Currently he is weaving bands of individual's hair which make a fascinating sequence of colour blocks. He needs light and red hair to add to his pallette and was eyeing the heads at the meeting. Luckily there were no scissors on hand.

Continue reading "Rodney Love's Hair and Socks" »

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The April guest speaker was Audrey Dixon of the Knitters Guild.

Sue Rogers reports on her lecture.

Our speaker began her talk by telling us of her mother who worked as an apprentice to a French dressmaker in England. This had a profound effect on the young Audrey who was always surrounded by beautiful fabrics and designs, so fostering an interest in clothing in general. She developed her sewing and knitting skills as a student and became a teacher. Her love of singing led to the designing and making of dresses for musicals and other productions.

Continue reading "Audrey Dixon of the Knitters Guild" »

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The March guest speaker was Silvana Natoli, who is a découpage artist of exceptional delicacy. She shared her techniques and showed samples of her work.

Peta Andersen reports on her lecture.

Thank you Hand Weavers and Spinners Guild and Prue for your invitation to speak today. I must warn you I'm not a public speaker but I'm passionate about my craft.

My name is Silvana. I worked as a Diversional Therapist. It was my time in this profession hat led me to study and practise different craft techniques. I was inspired by découpage after I had read Val Lade's book about découpage. My involvement in the Australian and New South Wales Découpage Guild keeps me up with the trends, product and projects.

Continue reading "Silvana Natoli on Découpage" »

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The February guest speakers were Alix Mandleson and Jeni Kanaley, who discussed East Timor textiles.

Alix and Jeni brought bags of beautiful fabrics from East Timor for us to examine. Jeni said that because we are weavers she bought her best pieces for us to see and she was generous enough to hand them around while she was speaking so we could feel as well as gaze at them. If she wanted us to remember her every word about the difficulties that weavers in Timor have had since colonial times she shouldn't have let us touch the textiles until after she spoke. They were so beautiful, intricate with ikat as well as supplementary weft decorations, often with surprising colour combinations that they distracted me from her oration.

Most of those we handled were from her private collection. They are supporting a cooperative in Timor which markets items made from local weaving as well as scarf or sarong lengths. Rather along the lines of a Tupperware party they will send out a bag full of textiles to a group to buy and examine at their leisure. All you have to do is send back the unsold pieces (and the money). I would recommend this as an excellent project for a local group.

Contact

Alix Mandelson
AETA Committee
Phone/Fax: 02 9331 1496

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The September guest speaker was Lynne Taylor, who is the Australian Textile Arts & Surface Design Association (ATASDA) Newsletter Editor.

This is a very big year for us. We celebrate our 30th birthday. Inger Hunter who began her work in 1969 started the group in 1974. She had found it hard to find dyes and recipes for her batik. Together with five other people she formed the Batik Association of Australia (BAA). This group grew bigger and eventually changed its name to ABASDA (The Australian Batik and Surface Design Association).

Continue reading "Lynne Taylor on the ATASDA" »

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The July guest speaker was Elizabeth Wright who is responsible for the refurbishment of Old Government House, Parramatta.

Elizabeth started by telling us that some years ago she purchased Aberglasslyn, a large and inspiring Georgian House in the Hunter Valley. She quickly realised that, if possible, the house should be refurnished and decorated in its' original style. This involved hanging sheets of material at the windows and tying them back with ropes and tassels to study the effect. The work on Aberglasslyn led to a continuing interest in the furnishings of period houses.

Continue reading "Elizabeth Wright on Old Government House" »

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