Celebrating Home Art Quilt

'Celebrating Home' 12" x 12" art quilt based on theme for quilt competition. Commercially printed fabric used as background. Photo transfer technique used to print sepia coloured photo on cotton lawn and attached to background fabric with fabric adhesive paper. Photo is framed with stencil to emulate 'burnt edges'. Earth is stencilled fabric on background and hand quilted in circular pattern.

Fabric was bleached underneath earth stencil to highlight the image. Quilt was free motion stitched in angular and wavy pattern and over painted with oil sticks in bronze, gold and turquoise. Turkish 'coins' were added for interest. The edges have been stencilled in black in an irregular pattern in keeping with the photo frame.

I wanted to portray the haunting vulnerable image of earth floating in space in contrast to the perception of home as a more personal image and a place of security and shelter.

Felting Workshop Scarf

Felt scarf made using rolling technique and inlay with mohair slivers applied for the fringe on both ends. The felt was made with only two layers and in parts has a lacy appearance. Colours used were black, burgundy, rust and aubergine. Coloured threads were inlaid along the length to add interest and additional colour.

Felting Workshop

Three samples of felt made at a felting workshop at the College of Fine Art in Sydney.
1. Rolling - Felt using natural merino fleece felted in the traditional central Asian rolling technique.
2. Inlay - Coloured felt with merino fleece in rust and olive green, rolling technique inlaid with threads and mohair slivers. The technique of creating holes was also practiced in this sample.
3. Nuno - the technique of Nuno felting uses the rolling technique to felt fleece into loosely woven fabrics (cotton voile, silk organza). Various designs can be achieved with this technique and it can easily be adapted to clothing and other items.

Shibori Workshop Natural Dyes

Silk habutae dyed with Indigo and natural dyes. Some samples were overdyed using differentresists for each dye bath. Natural dyes used were: Australian Eucalypt leaves, Cootamundra wattle leaves and the leaf of another wattle species. Mordants used were: Alum with wattle (soft yellow colour); copper with one wattle species and iron with the eucalypt leaves. This produced soft yellow to dark brown/black effects. Indigo overdyed with natural dye using Eucalyptus produced a rich yet subtle dark brown colour.

Shibori Workshop Silk Indigo

Silk habutae and twill were dyed with Indigo dye in the Shibori technique using clamping, sewing and tying as resists. One piece tied small sections of fabric over buttons of different sizes (No 3). This resulted in some interesting efffects where the image of the button was transferred to the surface of the silk.

Shibori Workshop Cottons

These samples show cotton voile dyed with natural Indigo dye using the Shibori technique and various resists. These are from top left clockwise:

• tying small sections of fabric with rubber bands to achieve random circles;
• folding the fabric and tying wood blocks over a large area to achieve large blocks of colour;
• folding in narrow folds and clamping with bull dog clips; and
• folding in narrow folds and placing rubber bands at various intervals down the length of fabric.
  

Work for review Module 1

1. Sheet 3B - The placement of coloured samples on Sheet 3B (top) needed reviewing and adjusting. The turquoise, 'new shape from old', has been repositioned to align more comfortably with the other shapes on the sheet.

2. Composite Sheet - The pictures and samples relating to a common theme or design for the cross shape have been temporarily arranged on a white A3 sheet as a trial for the Composite Sheet. These have not been fixed to the paper. Images consist of: picture of tortoise with cross pattern on shell; paper and fabric printing; rubbing; black and white and coloured shapes; stitched sample; and reverse applique sample.