More about the workshops at Ballarat 2014

I realised that I haven't given any indication of the other wonderful workshops that were on at Fibre Arts in Ballarat this year.
We had the usual interesting and entertaining talks by the tutors. There was also a wonderful exhibition at the end of the week. I was so engrossed by my own workshop this year that I didn't get to visit many other classrooms to check out what was going on. You do hear from the participants at the meals and morning and afternoon tea breaks but it is not the same as visiting.
However, the exhibition was a good chance to see some of the work that had been done. But you had to be quick, most people took their work down again by the end of the evening.
I am feeling a bit lazy, so you will have to visit the website to check on the various tutors we had this year.  Here are some photos of the final exhibition. I didn't get pictures of all the exhibits, it was rather crowded and there was a lot of socialising.

Starting with our group, of course.

Shoe making.

One of a couple of dyeing groups.

Personal geographies.

Vessels from Kay Kahn's class. 

Woodwork, machine sewing, looked difficult.

One of a couple of clothes making classes, some of the participants were wearing their products - and looked great.

Small sculptures, each with its own story. 

Quirky knitted tea cosies.

Workshop at Ballarat 2014 - part 3

Our third design exercise was very simple.  We had another rectangle of black paper that we cut through. We had to look at the spaces between each piece as well as the angles of the cuts. It was surprising how often we tended to make the spaces the same dimensions, not good for the design process.

Once again, we traced the designs into our books for posterity. I didn't make print blocks from this exercise but the opportunity is still there.

Once we had made our print blocks, we painted them with acrylic paint and printed onto cartridge paper, newspaper, pages torn from books, maps, etc.
When the paint was dry, we put procion dyes onto the paper. The acrylic paint resists the dyes so that the printing is clear.

We were encouraged to use foreign language newspapers too, especially if they had non-latin alphabets. 

This was the end of one part of the process. 

I had worried about posting Kim's teaching but it is all there on her blog with our work. So I feel free to continue.