WAFTA
supporting and advocating Western Australian fibre and textile practice
Events
WAFTA aims to hold an event for its members every month - general meetings
with guest speaker and demonstration/activity, site or studio visits
and workshops by high profile Australian and international tutors. WAFTA is also
involved with the Alexander Park Craft House community and the annual Craft
& Quilt Fair, Perth.
September 2011
Trudi PollardGuest Speaker
Alexander Park Craft House, Clyde St, Menora
September 20 2011, 7:00pm start
$4 members, $8 non-members at the door, life members free entry
Natural Dyes around the world in 60 days...
Anyone remember when Edith Piaf (aka Trudi Pollard) visited WAFTA last year...well this year’s talk by Trudi also promises to be exciting and inspirational... Trudi will share her natural dye textile adventures in both Europe and Asia. Trudi spoke and exhibited at the International Symposium and exhibition on Natural Dyes (ISEND2011)earlier this year which was held in La Rochelle in the South of France earlier this year. Trudi then travelled on to Cambodia where she assisted a Cambodian group of silk weavers to start a natural dye project to revive the use of natural dyes for their traditional ikat weaving. This will be a wonderful adventure in the world of natural dyes and textiles.
August 2011
Jill WorsleyGuest Speaker
Alexander Park Craft House, Clyde St, Menora
August 16 2011, 7:00pm start
$4 members, $8 non-members at the door, life members free entry
Jill has diverse interests. Being trained as a teacher and then maritime archaeologist, since retiring she has taken up botanical art and fine embroidery as interests. Her husband Peter has made many trips to South East Asia, visiting remote islands in both Indonesia and the Philippines. More recently he has been to various places in the Himalayas, such as Bhutan and Tibet. Jill sometimes accompanies him, but stays home if the trip involves hard trekking in the mountains. If he goes alone, Peter always brings back to her ‘consolation’ presents of rare or ancient textiles, some of which are very beautiful. They are keen to have you see part of this extensive collection, and also some of Peter’s great photos of the Himalayas, including the Hill Tribe people who live there and manufacture these beautiful textiles.
July 2011
Martien van ZuilenGuest Speaker
Alexander Park Craft House, Clyde St, Menora
July 19 2011, 7:00pm start
$4 members, $8 non-members at the door, life members free entry
www.martienvanzuilen.com
Born in Holland (1962), Martien van Zuilen arrived in Australia in 1985 with a back pack and a love of textiles, and went on to complete an Associate Diploma in Art Textiles. She has been a professional textile-arts practitioner since 1988, specializing in high quality handmade Felt. Since the late 1980s, Martien has taught felt- making workshops at all levels of experience throughout Australia, as well as Russia, the UK, Holland and the US. She has exhibited nationally and internationally and sells her work. Martien is the founder of the Victorian Feltmakers Inc., the coordinator of the Australian National Yurt Project and currently a Board member of The Australian Forum for Textile Arts (TAFTA).
In this visual presentation (which takes its title from a quote by Emily Dickinson), Martien will share experiences of her tactile engagements and journeys in Felt. It includes her felt research trip to Russia and Mongolia, a recent 11-week felt teaching tour to the US, and her PhD research (Anthropology) on the significance of time and materiality in textile and fibre practice in Australia. All these strands are interconnected; they have come to form and continue to shape the fabric of a life intensely felt.
Of her felt work, Martien says:
"Making Felt is a process-based exploration; a practice of gathering, arranging, and re-arranging, of layering and piecing together various fibres which are then transformed into a unified piece. It offers me the creative freedom to work with colour, texture, form and design in an inherently tactile way. Making felt is exciting and unexpected; however much control I might try to attain in my felt work, in the felt-making process fibres can move in unexpected directions. One can see this as a limitation. To me, however, it reflects that life holds unforeseen events and some very sweet surprises. That things may turn out different than planned can open our eyes to new opportunities and directions. Through my Felt work, discoveries continue to be made, and shared."
June 2011
Jan MullenGuest Speaker
Alexander Park Craft House, Clyde St, Menora
June 21 2011, 7:00pm start
$4 members, $8 non-members at the door, life members free entry
www.stargazey.com
Jan Mullen has developed a successful business in the quilt industry as 'Stargazey Quilts'. Author of three books and twenty two fabric collections, all through US companies, she has also taught regularly throughout the world. Her work is in a rule breaking, colourful, contemporary style. She will talk about how she made it happen and how she has chosen to ease out of her ‘big’ international life into a ‘small’ life working locally.
May 2011
Guest Speaker
Alexander Park Craft House, Clyde St, Menora
May 17 2011, 7:00pm start
$4 members, $8 non-members at the door, life members free entry
www.zebra-factory.com/emy
Elisa will talk about her ongoing series 'The Strange Quiet of Things Misplaced' which engages with the fallibility of memory. Elisa's personal history - born in Poland, moved to Germany at 16, in Australia since 2002 - is responsible for her interest in the subject. As a result of these multiple migrations she feels that she doesn't really belong anywhere. Croatian writer Dubravka Ugresic seems to think that memory might be a place, absent the notion of home, where we might live. Elisa can relate to that - her memories are the closest she has to a home. As such they, together with the associated fallibility and fragility, form the core of her artistic practice. Over time her focus shifted from our perception of memory as an archive and the holes we’re left with when we forget to the scientific findings that memory doesn't possess the presumed levels of accuracy and permanence, rather that it is fluid and pliable - every time we remember we invent the past.
April 2011
Guest Speaker
Alexander Park Craft House, Clyde St, Menora
April 19 2011, 7:00pm start
$4 members, $8 non-members at the door, life members free entry
www.wendylugg.com
www.wendylugg.blogspot.com
www.wahistoryresidency.blogspot.com
Wendy says "I've been artist in residence with the Royal Western Australian Historical Society for two years. This has given me behind the scenes access to their collection including textiles and costume, and involved me in all sorts of interesting activities including curating museum displays and travelling to the goldfields to explore family history. As a result of the residency I have curated a major exhibition, Mapping Memories, which will be shown at the State Library from April 9 to Jul 10. It's a family history exhibition drawing on my collection of family memorabilia as well as the collections of the Historical Society and the State Library, and a few of my own artworks. Previously I've had exhibitions combining artefacts and artworks, with the artefacts complimenting the artworks, but in this instance the artworks will have the lesser voice, with the artefacts taking centre stage. Needless to say, the exhibition includes a number of textile artefacts.
Mapping Memory
at the State Library is the result of my ongoing arts residency with the Royal
Western Australian Historical Society. Mapping Memory is open until July 10
during normal State Library opening hours, in the main ground floor exhibition
space.
A two year arts residency with the Royal Western Australian Historical Society
has enabled me to mine the historical landscape through which my family has
journeyed since my grandparents arrived in Western Australia a century ago. I’ve
dug deep into the fertile soil of the collections of both the Society and the
State Library of Western Australia, seeking stories which resonate with familiar
family memories. In Mapping Memory artefacts, maps, photographs and
documents from these two important heritage collections intermingle with my
personal memorabilia and artworks, to map family story, collective memory, and
the Western Australian landscape they share."
Theatre foyer, Ground Floor, State Library of Western Australia
Entry via Francis Street
MARCH 2011
Leanne Collova AND Jason CollingwoodGuest Speakers
Alexander Park Craft House, Clyde St, Menora
March 15 2011, 7:00pm start
$4 members, $8 non-members at the door, life members free entry
www.rugweaver.co.uk - Jason Collingwood
www.martinaliana.com - Leanne Collova
Leanne says "Bridal wear is definitely my passion - it is such a special garment - worn only once and on such a significant occasion. I am able to put so much more passion and attention to detail into a wedding dress than any other piece of clothing a girl will wear. I'm currently a freelance designer, working one on one with a company under which I head up a label: Martina Liana. This is a medium to high end label in the bridal market. It focuses on silk garments with couture detailing, yet at a price that is attainable. I design and release 2 collections per year selling to the global market including Australia, New Zealand, USA, UK and Europe. I work with a variety of different fabrics, mainly silk organza, silk satins, silk chiffon, silk dupion and silk taffeta. I use many different laces sourced globally and add my own beading or textural elements to give them a point of difference. I design my own beading ideas and templates, as well as sourcing ideas from India and Europe for new techniques and fresh elements to keep my collections up to date. "
Leanne will speak to us about her own design process - the inspirations and the process of sourcing components and then how she works through her ideas to create the final gown.
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FEBRUARY 2011
Elizabeth DelfsGuest Speaker
Alexander Park Craft House, Clyde St, Menora
February 15 2011, 7:00pm start
$4 members, $8 non-members at the door, life members free entry
www.elizabethdelfs.com
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View the 2010 events here