August already!!

 Time is rushing by - in a slow sort of way. 

This lockdown life is weird, it seems to be going slowly and quickly at the same time. 

I have enrolled for an online tapestry weaving workshop at the Australian Tapestry Workshop (how appropriate) and that is giving me some mental peace, even though some of it is challenging me a lot. 

I learnt the things that we are doing, so far, in the workshop while I was at RMIT but that was a while ago. and we had a lot of new learning - very new for me at the time. I had never done any weaving. It is good to be going back over some basic principles to make the weaving work better. I think I understand better now how to work out what I am doing wrong and how to correct or adjust for that. I just have to be able to incorporate the principles into my work. 

We started with a circle - I had SO MUCH trouble with it. I did it twice (not counting the 2 or 3 times I pulled then out) and it still isn't quite right. I just decided to keep going and do the rest. I 'might' try another sampler of circles in the future but have two others to do in the next two weeks. Other techniques to remember or learn new. 

Lots of learning, lots of concentration. 

Two Invitations

I am posting two images of invitations.  One is for the annual RMIT student art work auction, New Collectables.  I have not attended it before but have had work in it.
Students of all courses at RMIT can submit work to the auction and are asked to keep prices low as there is no commission taken and it is a sale to promote student work.  Apparently many people attend and buy Christmas presents.  Not all work makes it to the auction and is sold separately in back room sales.  This event starts on Wednesday, for the backroom sales, with the auction on Thursday evening.  Backroom sales continue till Friday evening.

The other event is an exhibition of students who enrolled for the Studio Textiles and Design course and either graduated this year (its final year) or who did not graduate.  Many of the students were part-time and have not been able to finish the course before it has been discontinued.  There will be a range of techniques on show.
The exhibition will be at the Tinning St Gallery from Thursday December 15th till Sunday December 18th.

Opening of Moreart and Artland

Yesterday was the official opening of Moreart and its associated RMIT exhibition, Artland. The weather was favourable and there was a good attendance.  Congratulations, and many thanks, to Jodie Lawson for organising the event on campus.

I was quite excited to see that my piece had changed, people had been playing with it.

There was work all around the campus, of all different sorts. Here are a few shots of some.  They were all very interesting and innovative.  Congratulations to all the award winners. I didn't note down the names but do know the RMIT award winners:

Beka Hannah, Tricia Page, Michael Carolan, Minyoung Williams, and Hilary Rossignulo.

Here are some shots I took around the campus, I will try to post some more during the week.

I must admit that I have yet to take to the bike track between the stations to see the off-campus works but there is a tour on Wednesday that I might make an effort to attend - if I am up to date with my work.

Artland

As part of the Moreart public art show, Artland is an installation based art exhibition for RMIT students, at the Brunswick campus.  The exhibition opens next Sunday. There will be tours around the campus as well as along the bike track between stations.  Go to the Moreart website for more details.

I set up my piece today, it is developed from the work I did last semester, based on Pattern Blocks and quilting.  I have made it slightly bigger than the last prototype and hope that students at RMIT will play with it, developing different patterns and mandalas.

Here is it, incomplete so that participants will play with it, I hope.

I am looking forward to the exhibition as so many of my fellow students have made work for it, lots of it interactive also.

New Tapestry Group

We are going to have our first tapestry weaving group meeting next Saturday.  It is being held at the Handweavers and Spinners Guild, 655 Nicholson St, Carlton North, between 1.00 and 3.00pm.  We are going to meet every 4th Saturday of the month.

As it is our first meeting, we do not have much planned.  We are hoping that members will come with ideas for us to work out an agenda for our meetings, something to focus our weaving.

It is a group that has started up because we met in tapestry class in our Studio Textiles and Design course at RMIT and we want to keep up the skill.  Unfortunately, tapestry will not be taught at RMIT anymore, so we are especially keen to keep in touch and maybe find another outlet for inspiration and skill development.

I haven't done much tapestry weaving this year although I did design two in my Design Concepts course in first semester.  Hopefully this will give me the impetus to actually start.  I did get as far as warping the loom but no further, other subjects have taken priority.  This is my big chance - if I don't get bogged down in doing my graduation piece - and my work for the Machine Embroidery as Art course that I am doing through SWTAFE.  Hmm, maybe I should just make sure I am in touch with the group and let ideas mull around in my head till I have the mental space for them.

Anyway, if you live in the area and have the time to come, please do so.