Fabulous fun with fabric

Or Dyeing with Dijanne.

Today I was in Leopold for a dyeing workshop with Dijanne Cevaal, textile artist from Gellibrand in the Otways (organised by Geelong Sewing Centre). Dijanne specializes in the most beautifully designed and executed machine and hand embroidery over her own printed and/or dyed fabrics. We were able to view and touch her beautiful artworks up close as she brought a huge selection of finished large and smaller pieces to show.  It was a small group of seven which meant plenty of personal attention, lots of room to spread out and much sharing of information. Dijanne was very generous in sharing her tips and techniques and all participants had a wonderful selection of dyed fabrics by the end of the day.

One of the techniques demonstrated was that used by Dijanne to produce her wonderful forest piece. Here is my version, 146 cm long x 77 cm deep.

This one is a smaller piece which I pleated diagonally and scrunched a little before dyeing:

Some moody blues:

And a variety of red/pink/orange:

Finally this is the wool I dyed a couple of weeks ago as the hair for the sea angels. I was very relieved when the colours came out perfectly toned for the rest of the bits I have done.

Cheers

Fabricate 09

Today Pauleen and I made the trek up the Melbourne/Geelong Rd to the opening of the Fabricate 09 exhibition by the TAG (Textile Art @ the Guild) group.

There was a wonderfully diverse range of textile art by invited artists from Australia and internationally, including art dolls, indigo dyeing, felting, weaving, free machine embroidery and printing. The exhibition is beautifully hung, with the ‘luminous’ indigo dyed panels of Rowland Ricketts 111 dividing the space.

The photos below are taken from the catalogue, designed to allow them to be used as postcards, with funds from the sale supporting the TAG group activities (there are more photos on the TAG site).

All art pieces at the exhibition are for sale as well as the patterns for Jennifer Gould’s exquisite dolls. Well worth a visit.

Cheers

Lucked out on Grand Final tickets

I have just checked the GFC web-site and we, along with 10,000 other members missed out on the AFL tickets in the ballot. 10,000 other members did not bother registering for the ballot. Looks like a BBQ at home watching on the TV (after I spend the morning at the Fibre Forum Open Day that is!)

Son Number 2 lifted the lid on the guinea pig cage and the hinges fell off. The screws and hinges were very rusty, so I told him to pop them in a container for me!! (rust dyeing I’m thinking). I moistened some muslin (scrim to the rest of the world), hand spun wool and perle cotton in vinegar, then wrapped them around the rusty bits and placed out on the north facing (that would be south in the top half of the world) verandah for a couple of days in an open plastic bag. I then rinsed in some cold water with some baking powder.

  And this is a close up of the interesting hinge marks. I will now go and give these a spray with the moonshadow mist and see how they dry.

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, this is what I’m reading right now, in my breaks from writing an essay. 2,000 words down, 2,000 to go. Hopefully I will get to see the Bayeux tapestry in the flesh one day. Cheers.