Don’t miss this unique selling exhibition of affordable contemporary textiles by Brisbane based textile artists and ATASDA members Sharyn Hall and Wendy Bailye.

Shibori sheer - Sharyn hall

Textiles in all their forms will be exhibited and there will be lots of wonderful handmade items to buy –- many utilising recycled materials.

Expect plenty of smaller items that will make fantastic Christmas gifts. Brooches, bags, large and small art for the wall, lamps, sculptures, handmade cards, exquisite machine embroideries, and hand felted items. Expect a dose of quirkiness, priceless individuality, bold colours and amazing textures and techniques!

Wendy Bailye

It is here you will find truly unique Christmas presents all with that little bit of hand crafted eccentricity.

The exhibition will be held at Richard Randall Art Studio, Brisbane Botanical Gardens,

Mt Coot-tha   on the 27 – 29 November 2009. Fri: 10am – 4.00pm, Sat: 9.00am – 5.00pm, Sun: 9.00am – 4.00pm.

Wendy Bailye is an award winning Brisbane based contemporary felt artisan. Working with a very eclectic mix of wool fibers, fabrics, silks, threads and recycled materials, Wendy produces fibre rich alchemical artworks. Each piece tells a story.

Owls and wrap - Wendy Bailye

The making of handmade wool felt is an ancient technique that has developed into an advanced contemporary art form including the use of a wide variety of modern materials in the process. Feltmaking is indeed a process of transformation.

Wendy has been felt making for over 15 years and runs a vibrant felt art studio from her home in the Samford Valley, close to Brisbane. Here she runs monthly workshops as well as working on commissions and refining her felt making practice. Her classes very much revolve around individual creativity being brought about by the felting process. Wendy teaches her skill nationally and at present is Featured Artist with Expertise Events traveling with the Craft and Quilt Fairs to each state in Australia.

For the past year Wendy has been working with Mixed Media artist Sharyn Hall combining their skills to further each others’ artistic development. This has been a very rewarding continuing collaboration. Wendy is always refining her skills learning from many other talented artists and students who so generously share their wealth of knowledge with her.

Felting provides Wendy with a creative outlet that is both unique and full of challenge. It is always the process that inspires her and fires her imagination; the finished product is often far from her thoughts. By playing so much is learnt!

Felt is such a versatile medium that has so many practical applications-the possibilities are never ending. It is this that intrigues her most about felt.

Wendy is inspired from within her inner landscape in combination with the never ending inspiration of colours, textures and patterns in the outer world.

www.wendybailye.com

Felt stones - Sharyn Hall

Sharyn Hall

Sharyn uses stitching, dyeing and mixed media, to create artworks which currently reference landscape and culture, working from her studio in Brookfield, in between travelling nationally and internationally to teach, study and exhibit.

Her source material is photography and her inspiration, the colours and textures of the landscape. The cultural aspects of her travel experiences inform her design ideas. Utilizing the medium of textiles, she works to create art pieces, which imbue a sense of spirit. Combining dyeing (resists and discharge), printing (transferred photo images, block and screen printing) and stitching, (machine and hand), she manipulates, colours and embellishes the textile surface.

Textiles, in some form have been a part of Sharyn’s life since childhood, from making dolls clothes, teenage creations, printing and stitching children’s clothes, making toys to dyeing fabrics for wearables and embellishing items for interior decor. Since 1988, Sharyn has been teaching textile related workshops, after completing an Associate Diploma in Visual Arts, majoring in Textile Design.  She has been invited to judge the major quilt shows of the Queensland, New South Wales, Victorian, Western Australian and Northern Territory Quilters Guilds, as well as selector and judge of major textile competitions and exhibitions across Australia.

Awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 2001, Sharyn travelled to Japan, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and France, to study the transfer processes of photographic images to textiles, including computer manipulated and generated imagery. Her study of the many different transfer processes enables Sharyn to experiment with combining her photographic images with her current technical processes. Overseas study, and attendance at the bi-annual Surface Design Association (USA) Conference held in Kansas City, Missouri, allows her to keep abreast of new developments in the fields of Printing and Dye Processes. She was awarded the Quilters Guild Scholarship (NSW) in 2003 for study in the United States and in 2006 was selected as the feature artist for Bernina Australia (sewing machines), where she travelled and exhibited her work nationally, representing the company.

Sharyn has been working in the medium of surface design for the past 25 years, and enjoys the challenge of combining her textile practice and studies, with teaching. She is continually updating her workshop processes, allowing students to learn from her experience and experimentation with the materials and techniques used to colour, stitch and manipulate the fabric surface.  Her current work practise includes studio interaction with felt artisan, Wendy Bailye. Time spent allows both artists to experiment using a range of new and existing techniques and materials, each artist interpreting and creating individual design concepts within the resulting artworks.

www.sharynhalldesigns.com

First the hard work:

Then the great results:

Svenja and Janet De Boer

Morphology – exploring the fascinating surface and forms of fungi and lichen through contemporary textile practices, an exhibition by Carol Wilkes and Svenja, was opened by Janet De Boer OAM on Sunday 16th of August, in front of a simply outstanding crowd. A steady stream had visited through the day, no doubt prompted by the coverage received in the Sunday Mail the weekend previous. Another article was discovered in the Courier Mail on Monday, too! Peter had recently celebrated a birthday, hence the presentation of the ‘fungal’ hat he is wearing - created by Carol and Svenja. Janet outdid herself in pink to rival Svenja, with a constantly changing array of headgear over the afternoon.

Carol Wilkes, Peter and Svenja

Warm studio–good music–plenty of inspiration
Limited to six students per session
All materials and equipment supplied
Just bring your lunch-good coffee and tea provided
Cost $ 75.00
a short day from 10 am till 3pm
Thursday 20^th August or Sunday 30^th August

For more information or to book, email di_groenewegen at bigpond dot com

More of Diane’s work can be seen in her ATASDA Member’s Gallery here.

Tora

Denise has used machine embroidery to create a passageway in the Passages of Intrigue group swap.The rings in different colours will be decorated by each person in her group of 5 as they see fit. The final piece will be completed in April 2010.

Meditaranian seagul

Using recycled raffia the Bliss Dress has been knitted to form a wearable artwork. My colleagues at a busy day surgery helped collect the raffia and other recycled products used. The dress has a silky sheen and its form has been achieved by sculpturing, shrinking,and moulding. Floating features have been attatched to the skirt. To compliment the dress I have created a futuristic neckpiece made from handmade fabric beads, wire and silicone tubing covered with raffia.

Front

Back

Detail of neckpiece

Photos: David Griffen

Val made this mask in Cheryl Bridgeart’s class at the Tafta Forum in Orange this year. Maz Beeston’s work from the same class can be seen here.

Val showed one of her bags that will be exhibited in the Hornsby Shire recycling competition in June.  The competition will be judged this weekend and then the exhibition opens on 3 June until the weekend at the Hornsby Art Gallery in Hornsby (next to the Shell Garage).

Edited to add: The Hornsby Council Recycling ” Returned to Glory” Exhibition had the official opening and announcement of awards. Val James won the Art to Wear section and $1000 prize with her Fantastic Plastic handbag!

The exhibition is on daily from 10am to 4pm at the Hornsby Art Gallery,
208 Pacific Highway, Hornsby, till Sunday 7th June.

Photos: Helen MacRitchie

Ecilia wore a jacket made by a friend to the SSSE

Val James kindly offered a treasure trove of fabric and trimmings up for grabs to those present for a small donation to the scholarship fund.

Exotica celebrates ATASDA’s 35th anniversary. It is travelling Australia as part of Expertise Events’ 2009 Craft & Quilt Fairs.

Exotica, showcasing the work of Helen and other ATASDA artists, can be seen in Perth (13-17 May), Sydney (10-14 June), Hobart (26-28 June), Melbourne (23-26 July), Canberra (6-9 August), Brisbane (21-25 October) and  Adelaide (5-8 November).

More of Helen’s work can be seen on her blog, fibrenell.