What a colourful and inspiring month September has been for NCEATA!
We’ve enjoyed two wonderful workshops this month, along with plenty of creativity, conversation and sharing at both of our regular meetings. From exploring the many ways colour can influence our textile work to creating our own Stitched Gardens, there has been plenty to inspire us and get our creative ideas flowing.
What a colourful way to start the month of September! Our meeting began with a splendid presentation from Anne Maree Kelly, who took us on an exploration of colour theory and its importance to textile artists.
Anne Maree set up a wonderful display of fabrics, samples and finished pieces, leaving us in no doubt about the theme of the day. The variety of colours, combinations and examples immediately caught everyone’s attention and provided plenty of inspiration for the afternoon ahead.
There were many excellent examples of work to illustrate how colour can influence so many aspects of the design process. We explored how different colours can change the mood of a piece, how colours interact with one another, and how the choice of background or surrounding colours can dramatically alter the way a particular colour is perceived.
It was fascinating to see how the same colour could appear quite different depending on what was placed beside it. For textile artists, where fabric, thread and embellishments are constantly being combined, understanding these relationships can be an invaluable part of the creative process.
The presentation generated plenty of discussion and gave everyone lots to think about when approaching their next project. It was also a wonderful reminder that colour choices don’t always have to be predictable — sometimes the most unexpected combinations can create the most exciting results.
To finish the session, members were given the opportunity to create their own colour wheel using fabric offcuts. This practical activity gave us a useful reference tool to take away and use in future projects, while also providing a great excuse to rummage through our fabric scraps!
A very colourful and inspiring start to September, with plenty of new ideas to take away and experiment with in our own textile work.
As Anne Maree talked us through the principles of colour, members were soon drawn into conversations about their own experiences. We discussed those times when a particular colour combination has worked beautifully — and perhaps those occasions when the colours we carefully selected didn’t quite produce the effect we had imagined!
WOW! What a terrific workshop we had on Saturday! There was a great turnout of members and some new faces joining us for the day. As always, Wilma arrived with a wonderful selection of her own work to inspire us. There was plenty of time to look at her examples and talk about how she approaches her designs before we started on our own Stitched Gardens. Wilma took us through the initial design process, including deciding on the size of our garden, creating a sense of perspective and thinking about how different thread weights and stitch sizes can help create depth and detail.
The workshop was broken into manageable stages, with Wilma taking us through each part of the process step by step. There was plenty of discussion around the tables as everyone started to interpret the project in their own way. It was fascinating to see how differently people approached the same idea, with individual choices of colour, stitch and design beginning to emerge. Wilma was generous with her knowledge and experience, moving around the group and offering help and encouragement whenever it was needed. Being such a big group this week, we had some other members assist our newer members.
This is normally a two-day workshop, so our two-and-a-half-hour session was really just an introduction to the project. There was certainly no expectation that anyone would have a finished piece by the end of the afternoon. Instead, we came away with the knowledge and confidence to continue working on our gardens at home, using the techniques Wilma had demonstrated. Of course, there was also time for the essential tea and coffee break — and, as an unexpected bonus, one of our visitors even led us through a short Tai Chi session!
As you can see, many chose to include houses or birds generously provided by Wilma along with a variety of mediums to add colour to the background fabrics.
It was lovely to see how much progress everyone had made in such a short time, and we look forward to seeing these gardens grow as the work continues.
A huge thank you to Wilma and her helpers for another inspiring workshop and to Wendy Anderson for hosting such a wonderful afternoon.
I have chosen another book from my own library again this month to get you inspired for the October workshop with Wendy Scott. I have a feeling Wendy introduced me to this book many moons ago.
First published in 2002, Take Silk introduces the fascinating technique of making silk “paper” – a lightweight, textured surface created from silk fibres. The resulting fabric can be stitched, embellished, shaped and used in both two- and three-dimensional textile art.
What I love about this technique is that you are creating your own surface from the beginning. You can experiment with colour, texture and the arrangement of the fibres before adding stitching, threads, beads or other embellishments. The beautiful sheen and transparency of silk can produce wonderfully rich and delicate results.
Judith Pinnell explains the process clearly and provides plenty of inspiration, but the book doesn’t feel as though you need to follow the projects exactly. Instead, the techniques provide a starting point for your own experiments and ideas – perfect for anyone who enjoys playing with colour, texture and stitch.
Pinnell later published Silk Paper Creations for the Fibre Artist, which explores further possibilities with silk fibres and more sculptural work.
Would I recommend it? Definitely! If you enjoy experimenting with unusual textile surfaces, Take Silk is well worth a look and may have you seeing silk fibres in a completely different way.
Want to have a look? Check with Anne Dixon to see if we have a copy in the NCEATA library.
To finish off this colourful month, here is a finished piece by Sue Russell from last month’s workshop with Sandra Cooke, along with a little sneak peek at the deliciously vibrant silk paper we’ll be exploring in October.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this month’s colourful blog. If you’ve enjoyed reading about what we’ve been up to, please let us know you’ve paid us a visit by leaving a comment below.
Until next time, enjoy the colours of spring!
One Response
Thanks forthe excellent coverage of the September activities at NCEATA . I also want to thank other members who assisted me last Saturday . With such a large crowd it was difficult to give everyone the time needed so I am very grateful for the help. I am really looking forward to Wendy’s silk paper workshop in October, do thanks for the recommended additional reading too.