Time for an update

When you are busy making, especially if it involves travelling, it is hard to find the time to blog. My most recent jaunt, undertaken with a little trepidation of a snap covid shutdown, was a flight to Sydney to enjoy a wonderful felted vessels workshop with Denise Lithgow organised by ATASDA. Denise is a very generous tutor who shared many of her techniques over that she employs in her wonderful award winning sculptural vessels.

The company of the creative and generous ATASDA members plus Denise’s delicious cakes and even champagne for a birthday celebration made this one of my most memorable workshops!

Denise and her husband Peter Griffen live and work in a quirky renovated factory in inner Sydney. As we worked we were surrounded by Peter’s colourful paintings (and floor) and characterful sculptures along with Denise’s amazing maxi sized vessels and machine embroidered artworks. All in all a totally fabulous art immersive experience!

Cracked bowl technique

A more adventurous piece incorporating many of Denise’s techniques has been put on hold due to other events but I am looking forward to getting back to it.

Another recent workshop was held by fellow GeeTAGger Kerrie Maloney on coptic bound sketchbooks. Although I had tried this binding technique before nothing beats a hands on tutorial with an expert and the company of other creatives. I have one sketchbook completed and one in process (which will be gifted). I can see, once I have mastered the basics, this will be a technique for further exploration. If you are local to Geelong, Kerrie is looking to start a bookbinding group to meet before our GeeTAG sessions. Contact us if you are interested.

Each signature is bound with a piece of interesting paper

Our latest GeeTAG session for May was great fun. Led by Gillian, we played with lots of drawing and printing materials on watercolour paper. I will be trying this on fabric soon.