Opening of Mountain to Sea travelling tapestry exhibition

We had our 'opening' of the exhibition at the Handweavers and Spinners Guild rooms in Carlton North today.  It was so much fun!
There were people there with whom I studied the textiles and design course, people from our tapestry group, people from the online group which called the challenge, people from our smaller, local online group, people from the guild and complete strangers.  Quite a good crowd.
Marie Williams, one of the guild's vice presidents, gave a welcoming speech and Cresside Collette, one of our past tapestry teachers, officially opened the exhibition for us.  She commented on how good it is for her, as a tapestry teacher, to see past students making the effort to keep practising and encouraging each other, and how the online group that mounts the challenge gives us added impetus to keep weaving. It is true, it really helps to have a theme to work towards, with specific size limitations. It is also great to know that we will have a chance to see how others have tackled the challenge and get the opportunity to look closely at all the works.

The tapestries are wonderful. I have seen them several times now and see something new each time I look.  It is amazing how different they can look up close and then from further away.  Sometimes you wonder why the weaver did a certain thing and then you move away and it all makes much better sense.  It is such a chance to see how people attempt the same theme and how they manage to achieve very different effects.  It is a great learning experience to participate but it is also a great learning experience to just look closely at all the works.
We are very grateful to the guild for allowing us to to use their gallery for several weeks.