Ballarat Fibre Arts Conference

I have just returned from a very creative couple of weeks in Ballarat and Melbourne, Victoria.
I was very fortunate to receive a grant from the Sunshine Coast Regional Council and the Queensand Government to help me with my expenses to go to the annual Ballarat Fibre Arts Conference.

 I attended Dorothy Caldwell's class - "MARK MAKING -A BOOK". What a fantastic experience - experimenting, developing ideas, sharing methods and philosophies, looking at other cultures and allowing myself to free up without restraints. Six days of hands on workshops and then artists' slides, demonstrations, talks, and exhibitions in the evenings. The last day was dedicated to a huge exhibition of finished work from the 300 participants and an artists bazaar selling all sorts of wonderful hand made creations.

In the classroom.

A simple mark making exercise.

 Blind folded stitching.

Noela blindfolded.

Bold mark making exercise.

Wax resist, batik, discharge dying exercises.

MARK MAKING ON PAPER... my results...

Ink on paper towelling,

...back of paper towelling.

Left handed 'jabbing' with fine liner,

...same with a 'brush pen'.

Playing with stencils,

and a smoky candle,

...and poking holes with a nail,

a candle flame and an incense stick.

Pages torn to size and assembled into a book,

... with fabric ties woven through 5 hole pamphlet stitch binding.

My small sample book with easy and effective 5 hole pamphlet stitch binding, with woven feature, coral beads and linen threads.

Class samples.

There is more to come from the workshop, including mark making on fabric. I'll save that for the next post.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH TO THE SUNSHINE COAST COUNCIL [RADF GRANT] FOR GIVING ME THIS OPPORTUNITY.