Last week I was lucky to attend the Fibre Arts Winter School at Ballarat in Vic. The concept of Winter School is you get to work with the tutor of your choice for one WHOLE week while living in at Ballarat Grammar School in the boarders lodgings.
The class I took was 'Painting the Landscape with Materials' with Caroline Sharkey. One of the best things of all was I actually finished my project!!!! How often do you attend a workshop or class and never finish the article - it then gets put away and often forgotten until one does a spring clean of one's workroom/studio.
The class, tutor, other students, organisation was all fantastic. No pressure - work at our own pace, all meals provided (and they were delicious); lots of fun with the students in other classes, mixing with some famous tutors - Helen Godden, Linda Steele, Jenny Bowker, Karen Goetzinger (from Canada) and of course Caroline Sharkey. ps I even had Helen Godden in my car one day.......
This is my finished piece of work - a 3D piece - something I've never done before. But Caroline was so, so helpful and excellent in showing us how to interpret our pieces and how to work and improvise as well as showing us various techniques. It was one of the best classes I have ever attended. It is my interpretation of the new growth in the forests around Anglesea after the devastating bushfires of Ash Wednesday.
During the week each class gets to sit at the 'Top Table' for the day - and provide some decorations for the table which are then auctioned at the end of the week with the proceeds going to Breast Cancer Research - these bottles were our contribution. ps - they are empty!!!
This is the table with ours and some of the other decorations of the previous classes.
Next posting I will show you some photos of the progress of how I worked on my piece.
Also I hope to have some photos of some of the work from the other classes - am just waiting to hear if it is OK if I post here. Have heard back from one person, but not the others as yet.
I have already booked into the next School in April 2014 week in Ballarat. The class I'm doing then is with Kim Thitchaki from England. She works with lots of mixed fibres and heat guns, soldering irons etc etc.
