Textile Workshop with Petra Meer Day 3

On our final day, we shared the text and images we had brought.  This took quite a while as there were some very moving and inspirational pieces. I took the photo I used last year for my tapestry weaving.  I love the way the rocks show time and movement in the geological structure.

We then developed some new fabric collages, incorporating words from our discussions and writing - yes, we wrote more.  We also drew an image that arose from the discussion, appropriate to our own work.
After some time working on the collages, we shared what we were working on this time.

The whole process was very personal.  We didn't have to reveal anything we didn't want to but we did have the opportunity to spend a deal of time exploring ideas without any mundane, everyday interruptions.  I really enjoyed the process and hope to utilise it in my development of ideas from now on.

Textile Workshop with Petra Meer Day 2

The second day of the workshop started off quietly, with some sitting and sewing of the fabric collages.  However, Petra doesn't like the 'f' word (finished) so we did not have a long time to work on these.

She showed us some embroidery stitches and we did a small sampler of some simple stitches.  We then had a little time to try some on the fabric collages but moved on to the next item we had brought.

My piece of textile that meant something to me was an old embroidery that I had done when I was young and my mother had been teaching me crochet to edge it.  One piece was finished, one was not.  These were stuck on the wall, beside our clothing and paper and fabric collages.

We wrote again and discussed our pieces.  There was no pressure to talk about our writing if we didn't want to.  Petra allowed us to talk and didn't direct the conversation in any particular direction, it evolved according to the needs of the group.

As it turned out, I didn't feel that my textile piece was adding to the direction of my thoughts, so it came down off the wall fairly quickly.

One thing I have learnt from this workshop is that it is good to have a couple of things on the go at once. That way, if you run out of ideas on one, you can move onto the other while ideas germinate quietly. Another is to have your work on show so you can look at it frequently. I have actually tried to accommodate this at home, having come home and rearranged my workroom so that I can have some of my inspirational images in sight while I am working.

Textile Workshop with Petra Meer

I have been away recently, attending a three day workshop at the Yarra Valley Arts Centre.  It was about taking your textile work to the next level.
The brochure didn't give a lot of detail and the list of things to take didn't enlighten me greatly.  I had to take a piece of clothing that I loved but no longer wear, a piece of textile that meant something special to me and a piece of text or image that grounded me or has special meaning.
As I wasn't sure what we were going to do with the clothing, I took something that I loved wearing but was not bothered about cutting up or working on.  (Actually, I cheated a little, I do still wear it, just not in public.)

The workshop turned out to be about taking our work to the next level through our mental processes rather than learning a particular technique. There was a lot of thinking, talking and writing, as well as making.  It was quite intense as we had to focus on our ideas and try to draw them out.

On the first day we taped the clothing to the wall and wrote words it made us think of.  Then we drew some small sketches from it. The top I had chosen has moth holes in it and some staining.  When I looked closely I really liked the fluffiness of the the hole.

After this, we then did some paper collages based on our sketches and the piece.  My top is blue which is not a colour I would usually use, so I was instantly out of my comfort zone.

The collages were either pinned or tacked, no glue.  We did them at about an A5 size and had to work relatively quickly, making three.

After more reflection and discussion, we tacked them on the wall with the clothing.

As blue is not my colour, I used fabrics from the pile that Petra had provided as well as donations from the other participants.

The next step was to make some fabric collages based on the paper ones, once again just tacking or pinning.

That was about it for the first day - we had done a lot of talking and thinking.  We had thought about taking some home and doing some 'homework', finishing off the fabric collages but decided that we didn't want to change the feel of the work.  The working space was wonderful and we decided to do all the work in that environment.

The working space.