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.

Mountains to Sea tapestries on display

Today a few of us put up the tapestries from the AuNZ online tapestry group at the Handweavers and Spinners Guild.  The tapestries drew many admiring comments from the many guild members present.  I must admit, I was overjoyed to be able to see them in actuality when they arrived last week.

There were more this year, so we had to arrange them differently.  As usual, it was great to see the different interpretations people had on the theme. The colours are wonderful too.

We laid them out how we thought they would look best together, pinned the names on them and then pinned them on the boards, making many decisions about how to put them up as we went.

Despite them being on display already, the official 'opening' is at midday next Saturday.  I look forward to catching up with some of the weavers.

Our small group that meets at the guild rooms on a monthly basis has its own challenge - Buildings.  The last board in the gallery has our responses to that as well as a 'work in progress' - partly to show how tapestry weaving is done, partly because I didn't get it done in time.

Mountain to Sea inspiration

The online group, tapestryweaversoz, has an annual project to make a tapestry that is no more than 20 x 20 cm.  Each year has a different theme.  This year it is Mountains to Sea.  I have seen that a couple of people whose blogs I visit have posted about their work (Vera and Pat), so I will too.
I am looking forward to seeing all the works in the flesh, so to speak.  It will be a travelling exhibition, in a suitcase, and we are hoping to host it here in Melbourne in June or July. Seeing pictures of people's work is good but nothing compares to seeing them in reality.
I think I mentioned already that I was having problems with my tapestry having bulges.  I have sewn up the slits, steamed it a little, and the bulges are less obvious.  They are still there but I have decided that I can't make it any better and that is the best I can do.

Isn't it amazing how the time of day affects the colours?

These themes give me the impetus to weave, and to try various techniques, so I am not going to beat myself up about the work not being perfect - I need this encouragement to weave and will participate as long as I can.  The group is a very generous one, people will always answer questions and no question is too simple. I need to be weaving, so I can try out different ideas and for the pure enjoyment of the process.
As usual, I haven't just done the topic, I had to put a twist on it.  So mine is Sea to Mountain - it is based on ammonite (or ammolite) that is a sea fossil - ammolite is found in the Rocky Mountains.   I have been influenced by the fossil turning into rock and by the fact that the sea-bed is now in a mountain.
I found my inspirational image on a royalty free stock photo site and have bought the licence to use it. It is a relief to think that I am legal about this - if I am understanding copyright properly, such a tricky process.