Once again we all descended upon Geelong Grammar School in Victoria, Australia for a week long round of workshops, lectures, exhibitions and just plain textile fun.

Geelong's Corio Bay

I did disperse dyeing with Holly Brackman this year and had a great time painting paper and then transfering the painted designs onto synthetic fabric. never before have I been surrounded by so much polyester! The group of women in the workshop were fantastic and Holly was just lovely.

Disperse Dyeing Team

We were located in the technology building so didn’t have to fuss to much about our surroundings. You can see some painted paper on the table in front. Holly Brackman is the 2nd person from the left at the back while I’m the 3rd person in from the right.

The best treat came when I was asked to model a disperse dyed jacket from Japan that one of the traders had bought when she was over there.

The back of Jacket

The techniques involves purposely creasing the fabric to get the transfer to go on parts of the fabric but not all. Some of the group did the most amasing scarves using this technique. The big tip was to use water to dampen the polyester first and iron in the creases, then start printing the colour on it.

Front of Jacket

I completed a scraf and printed heaps of fabric. Having access to an ironing press was a big plus as ironing by hand is a real drag.  I liked the process so much I’ve invested in an ironing press off e-bay! Here’s a little of what I printed. My camera is out of batteries and I have to get charging them up again

Disperse (Transfer) prints

I printed on Lutradur, polyester, poly-cotton, curtain sheers, sparkly polyester stuff… basically anything I could find. I didn’t do a print onto the acrylic felt but a few others did and basically confirmed that you do get a fuzzy print. Holly had printed onto micro fleece for one of her scarves and that was really nice

As usual I traded on the last two days. I had bought with me a heap of lutradur and the Pogaji class fell in love with it. Lisa Hollingsworth produced this magic box – so translucent in the sun, the picture doesn’t do justice.

Lisa's Box - feathers between Lutradur

She used the 30 gsm weight -  the lightweight lutradur which is perfect for translucent work. Thanks Lisa for letting me have the photo of this gorgeous little piece.

Lastly I’ll like to thank Janet De Boer of TAFTA and her team for putting on the Geelong Forum. I really hope Janet has a wonderful year off next year (just from Geelong, still doing Orange and all the other stuff she does). I know everyone will miss her outfits and magic presence next year

Goodbye Geelong for 2009!

My mother-in-law’s been cleaning out the closets and passed a few treasures on to me. Firstly we have a hankerchief from Eqypt, brought back from from World War 1 by her father.

Its on very fine silk and is a little worse for wear for the number of years old it is. Now I’m going to have to find out how to appropriately conserve this piece. Here’s a close up detail…

Next I was given a shawl from her mother’s trip to the UK by boat forty years ago. Its a very pretty number with lots of silver thread.

In better condition than the hankerchief but with a couple of small moth holes.  Here’s a detail…

And lastly a little treasure trove of Buttons! I love buttons they can add so much to a mixed media piece or ATC or be the artwork in an inchie. A few interesting antique ones in this lot.

In the meanwhile ‘ve mulling over a bit of autumn.My next swapbook page is about it so here’s what I’ve been thinking so far…

May end up stitching over it too. It needs a bit of a lift. Its designed to be 13.5 cm square to fit the little swap books we have. In the meantime I’ve been playing with a bit of Pearl Ex in its watercolour form to see what it can do. Results in the next blog.

This month’s Reddy Art Quilters challenge involved swapping a piece of fabric that you love with another member of the group. Only thing is that our tastes are widely different!! So what one loves, the other sometimes wonders about!  I recieved what looks like Christmas fabric – gold lines over that kind of emerald green. Eeek! What will I do?  And then I happen to turn it over…

Marbeling, saltwork and some drizzel painting

Been doing a bit of painting. The weather is beautiful here at present, cool in the evening and warm during the day. Just right for painting and dyeing. Its good to get a heap of backgrounds together then when I want to do something I have the raw materials to get straight into it.

Been working away with the threads that Jeannie gave me on other projects and have finished a fabric postcard that has been lying around for ages.

Doodle Postcard

I was doodling with some Inktense pencils on fabric and then embellished over with threads, charms and a bit of sequins. I’ve been in a finishing frame of late of late. Finally put about 3 hanging pockets on some small art quilts and have been working on my little UTEE sample…

A Splash of Gold

A little UTEE drizzled onto painted Peltex (Ultra heavy lining). Then dropped some UTEE powder over and used the heat gun to melt. I’m up to the edges now – sheers which will be burnt back with a soldering iron and then this little number gets popped into my swapbox on textures. Was wondering what to do with the edges of this one as I’m so over satin stitch edging when I had a friend over who suggested the sheers. That’s wwhat I love about getting together with textile friends, we can all discuss, pick over and make suggestions on everyone’s work (who wants it!!) and come up with ideas that just don’t pop up otherwise.

The challenge this month from my Reddy Art Quilter friends was to use a skein of various threads to create something so I created a bit of fabric jewellery. The above is a bracelet while below is a matching brooch..

 Its been good to get back on the machine after a long break. I’m looking forward to wearing these to the next meeting. Otherwise I’ve been busy doing Art Dates around Brissie and meeting lots of new, wonderfully creative people.

Wow – posting early this week. Must be a first for me! Here is the latest page from one of the little swapbooks that I’m doing. This book belonging to Judy is themed “water” so I had a play with a bit of fish leather and paint…

Dragon Waves

In the meantime I also had a play with some lutradur. I love the way it cuts so easily with the soldering iron and you can fuse various layers together. Here’s a postcard make for the Textile Art Festival coming up in 2 weeks.

Dreams

Its made up of two pieces of lutradur painted different colours with some Angelina fused over and then mounted on painted paper. I cut holes into it BEFORE putting it on paper   (but I know you would have guessed that!!).

Only two weeks to go to the Textile Art Festival here in Brisbane, Australia. Trying to get everything packaged, labelled and in some kind of order. I’ll be at stand 46 so come and say hi on the weekend of May 29 – 31 if you’re in Brisbane and near the convention centre at Southbank.

After stamping the beaded piece last week, I also stamped a couple of left over pieces of fabric to use up the paint. This is what I turned one of them into…

"The eyes have it"

The rings look like litte eyes with the blue centres. I’ve painted a frame black so this one can go straight onto display. the white paint has a very shiny finish to it so depending on how the light catches it, the piece is another sparkly one.

Also getting ready for the next challenge. I had a piece of fabric I had painted some time ago so now its coming into play.

Before

What we have to do is chop it up into ATC sized pieces and then swap with the other members of the roup and do something with all the ATC sized pieces.

After!

Each little piece is unique so I’m looking forward to what peole do with their little stack of ATC sized fabric.

Last month I was given a little packet of mixed beads as a challenge – go forth and do something! So here is what I got from Kathy…

An eclectic collection of beads

So got to work trying a few different things and this is what I came up with. Its still in progress but shows the general idea.

The challenge piece

Finally found the camera cable and so was able to extract the image of the inchies that I did at 2QAQ on last Saturday. These are inchie plus sizes i.e. 1 1/2 inches square. I’m going to make the middle one into a brooch I think.

A Rosy Inchie Plus Trio

The middle one has a mosaic tile on it – its red and sparkly so you can tile your whole bathroom in one inch red sparkly tiles!! Used the mesh grid its set on to attach to the hand dyes baby wipes behind which are backed by felt. Dyeing baby wipes you say? I use them to mop up after packing my dyes and so I end up with lovely colourful fabric to play with. The flowers are simply cheap foam shapes attached with a little bead.

I’ve just finished a paper casting tutorial over on my website Essential Textile Art so drop by if you’re interested in this great technique. It’s a good way to extend the use of that stamp or texture sheet collection.