MISSA Day 2

We began day 2 by making different stamps and playing around with them.

The next step with our cloth was to establish territories on it. 

I used my stamps to define the different areas of an abstracted face. 

In the afternoon i sun-printed with ferns down the side.

At the end of the day i hung the cloth from a balcony so i could see all of it when i returned to the classroom the next morning.

MISSA

I attended the 1st week of this years Metchosin Summer School of the Arts out at the beautiful Lester Pearson College campus in Eleanor Hannan's "Compositional Cloth: The Face" workshop.

She showed us a number of ways to make stamps and patterns after a few warm up exercises to get us thinking about the face.

Eleanor showed us how to make a silk screen.

And how to make all the right sounds when using screen and paint.

The first marks we made on our 3 to 5 metres of cloth where to be bold and free.
I was not impressed when, with my first stroke, the too runny paint fell out of the brush to make a red puddle, a heavy-handed start  for my cloth. 

Disperse Dyes at SDA

The 1st exercise with the disperse dyes Marie-Therese had us do was a sample of the different dyes. 

This proved to be a most useful reference through out the week.

I have ordered a set of dyes from ProChem and will repeat this exercise with them.

Dyeing with a resist

An exercise to see how many prints one could make from one piece of painted paper.

I made 16 and could have made more.

It is a most economical technique.

An exercise using cheap copy paper to make a stencil.
Marie-Therese showed us there are so many possibilities with disperse dyes

Marie-Therese Wisniowski

The 2nd week, after the SDA conference, I attended a 5-day workshop run by Marie-Therese Wisniowski, from Australia.

Marie-Therese is an excellent teacher. She opened up the whole world of diverse dyes and transfer for her students.

I had worked through the Double Trouble book 'Transfer to Transform' but wasn't able to take the technique into more developed work. 

Marie-Therese explained the chemistry of the process then took us through a series of carefully planned exercises that allowed us to build on our knowledge as the course progressed.

The poor images are of Marie-Therese's signature work. She has also curated textile exhibitions. This Artcloth one featured a number of the instructors and speakers at the SDA conference. Check out her blog to see more of what she gets up to www.artquill.blogspot.com 

Indian Textiles

oopps! the images didn't appear with my last post - so here they are

Indian Textiles

i love Indian textiles - just want to show you some close ups of some displayed at the Beyond peacocks & paisleys, Handcrafted Textiles of India and its Neighbors exhibition, in the Goldstein Museum of Design, University of Minnesota College of Design.

i had to walk passed the gallery everyday to get to and from the workshop i attended after the Surface Design Association conference.

i found myself in there a number of times over the week... just looking

thanks Hazel Lutz and Anna Carlson (the curators) for the experience and for the exhibition catalogue with so many close-up images and satisfying essays ...yes, i bought the book

Valerie Walker @ SDA Conference

During the few hours break between the conference and start of the next week of workshops, a group of us took advantage of an outing organised by Valerie Walker (on right) EspaceFibre.com, transmedia fibre artist, gallery owner, natural dyer, radio host, instructor etc etc - you know the multi-talented type.

She had organised a happening at her friend Cecile Lewis's place.

Valerie had hung her naturally-dyed cloths around Cecile's garden - behind these cloths is the gourd patch.

Valerie had started an indigo vat at the beginning of the conference but true to its nature, it was on its own timetable and not ready for dipping that day. 

So we spent the time exploring Cecile's dye garden, stroking her dyed cloths, examining the vat, and soaking up some much needed sunshine after being inside for the week.

SDA Fashion Show

I felt there was some confusion in the focus of the fashion show. There were fashion garments that showed a wide range of surface design techniques but there were also wearable art garments, garments one wouldn't wear out in the street. The image shows Jess Larson's (Minnesota) used tea bag and paper jacket - a wearable art garment....

... the audience thoroughly enjoyed. The judges even gave a wearable art garment the SDA Award - Penny Collins' (California) 'Gown for Great Pacific Garbage Patch Ball' made from plastic bags.

After the show there was as much entertainment in studying the fashion garments worn by audience members.

These 2 beauties floated in Carter Smith creations.

Carter Smith - SDA Fashion Show

The feature artist of the Surface Design Association Members' Fashion show was Carter Smith, a shibori artist who has been at his craft for 40 years.

The fashion show began with 6 of his hand dyed silk garments, most of them bias cut so they moved on the body beautifully.

To quote Leesa Hubbell, as quoted in the show catalogue: "All kinds of women respond to [Smith's] shibori-psychology - the bourgeois bohemians, the goth girls, priestesses, poets, shamans, singers, movie stars, wealthy philanthropists, ladies who lunch..."

This was an entry that made everyone laugh - Della Reams' (from Doha, Qatar) 'Houndstooth Hound Crisscross Dress' with a humorous repeating dog pattern. The cashmere, merino wool and silk yarns were machine knitted. It must feel so lovely to wear.