Craft And Quilt Fair- Hamilton

Running from Thursday 08 Sep 2011 to Sunday 11 Sep 2011, this event is open to the public for a reasonably small entry fee, and has craft related sales as well as the Quilt Exhibition which features quilts from Australia and New Zealand. 

Running in conjunction with this is the Creative Fibre Experience exhibition. This is a good opportunity to see some of New Zealand's finest hand spun, woven, felted or fibre based exhibits in one large exhibiting arena.

It is also an opportunity to network and catch up with friends for the day.

Where:

Claudelands Events Centre

Cnr Heaphy Terrace & Brooklyn Road

Claudelands, Hamilton

Creative Fibre Festival 2012 Marlborough

Here are the dates for the National Creative Fibre Festival 2012 in Marlborough. The team down there has set up a blog site that you can visit. Go to  http://fibrefestival2012.blogspot.com/   to find out all you need to know about their planning and activities thus far. The blog also has a link to their face book page if you would rather follow what they are doing that way.

The emphasis of this festival is to Interest, Educate and Inspire no matter what area of the fibre arts your particular interest is in.

The National Festival runs from 12pm Thursday 26th to Sunday 29th April 2012 and will be held at the Marlborough Convention Centre in Blenheim, with the Exhibition on display at the Millennium Public Art Gallery.

Where do the ideas for tapestry designs come from?

WORKING DRAWINGS/MACHINE EMBROIDERIED WORKS

Time 4 Tea

I decided that this exhibition was going to be used as an opportunity for the viewers to see where my future work was heading from a design series point of view. It is all very well to show the woven end result, but some people don't understand that there is so much going on behind the piece. 

These machine embroidered working drawings are part of the design process I have used for creating a future mini series of weavable designs. I have used tapa cloth, artist canvas, acrylic paint, cotton thread and my hand-made paper to produce fibre works that were fantastically playful to produce while at the same time are reasonably resolved fibre artworks in their own right. 

Male on Friday?

These stitched works have been photographed and then adjusted in Photoshop until a satisfactory colour and contrast has been achieved. 

Me standing next to the machine embroidered works, showing the  proposed cartoons I will be weaving from them on the right hand side. 

Keeping in mind that they will become weavings is an integral part of  decision making during this procedure. What yarns, colours and textures will best be able to be replicated with the new image I am creating? How will changing them add artistic value to the end weaving? How much will I be able to deviate from the exact image without losing the integrity of the design details?

Tapestry Exhibition Photo's

Taking it all in my stride.....NOT!!!
Friday putting up the tapestry weavings.

It is actually quite nerve wracking posting up the pics of the exhibition when you are not sure who is out there keeping an eye on what you've been up to.

You really do have to be brave to do this kinda stuff,  Ta da... it's me.... and this is what I do. I don't know that I will ever have a solo show again as I am hopeless at promoting myself and always fail in this area of my professional responsibilities.

This is a retrospective exhibition of my past works rather than a showing of the new. However I am o.k. with that, as this show has been cathartic in getting a grip on what I can do rather than what I can't do and it has led to a very positive need to get myself up and running again. Illness certainly works in mysterious ways and I thank you for bearing with me over the last nine months of reasonable inactivity on the loom. 

I put this in the exhibition because unless you have visited my studio and seen this piece on the wall, you probably won't have seen it. It was woven during the anti-G.E rallies down Queen Street, Auckland in 2000.

My focus has been on my drawings and design strengths and I know this has been a VERY important process that will now produce a flurry of activity back on the loom.

Sketchbook drawing

Allowing the design aspect of my process to take precedent over the last few months has been the right thing to do to allow me to move forward from this point and between now and February 2012 I will be sharing some of the making of five larger works I have to complete within this time-frame on the blog from time to time. Taking time to design  has been inspirational in allowing me to come to the conclusion that I actually only need to produce 4 or 5 larger and better weavings each year anyway. 

Woven shaped Tapestry panels, sewn on canvas and laced onto pohutukawa branch.
This sculpture is an idea that has evolved into the designing of a piece I am working on to submit for the NZ Professional Weavers exhibition next year.

This posting is a peep into the gallery during the set-up on Friday and at the opening on Saturday. To those who got there on the day a very BIG thanks to you all.

Waiuku Spinners and Weavers

I was less than enthusiastic during the build-up to this show for strange and varied reasons, but of course the whole point of exhibitions is to see your work through the eyes of others to help you move forward with your work, to identify any weaknesses, to ponder on what was perfect and what could have been improved upon. And exhibiting is the final stage, a reflection as a grouping of work that allows you to move forward from that defining point. It is a place to share with others where you are at with your work so that they have a comparison point from which they can mark future work you create.

Max at the opening, appreciating the fact that his Granky Steph appears to be as much into titties as he is.