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 WA Craft Quilt and Stitch Show.

New for 2010...

 

 Jo Franco (WA) and Judy Stephens (SA) - Rugcrafters Australia
 Alexander Park Craft House, Clyde St, Menora
October 19 2010, 7:00pm start
$4 members, $8 non-members at the door, life members free entry

 Jo and Judy will speak about rughooking in Australia and their recent experiences with rughooking internationally.


 Judy Stephens - Rivers


 Jo Franco - Roses Waldoboro Style

 

Rebecca Cool
 Alexander Park Craft House, Clyde St, Menora
September 21 2010, 7:00pm start
$4 members, $8 non-members at the door, life members free entry

 

 Fiona Gavino
 Alexander Park Craft House, Clyde St, Menora
August 17 2010, 7:00pm start
$4 members, $8 non-members at the door, life members free entry

Fiona will speak about her Contemporary basketry/weaving. She teaches locally and holds many of her classes at the Fremantle Arts Centre.



 

 Leah Tarlo
 Alexander Park Craft House, Clyde St, Menora
July 20 2010, 7:00pm start
$4 members, $8 non-members at the door, life members free entry

 Leah says:

"I surround myself in stuff I have found, at the moment I am nearly suffocating under the volume of it all and amongst it all there is a world of endless possibilities and there lies the magic for me. I love the time that I can play with the things I have found, it is precious. I am passionate about the pieces I make and my wish is that people who acquire my work will be passionate about them too." Leah is a collector and hoarder at heart, a bowerbird in human form.
 
She works with an eclectic group of materials and objects, the commonality- is the found, the everyday, the past, humour /memory and just because she can.

“Collecting is not about what you collect as much as it is about who you are. Possession somehow connotes transference of the object’s virtues to its owner. Collections are about recollection.”
Marilynn Gelfman Karp

"A piece could be one, a story, a thought, a remembrance or it could be the beginning of your own collection, recollections, finds and stories..."

 

Holly Story
 Alexander Park Craft House, Clyde St, Menora
June 15 2010, 7:00pm start
$4 members, $8 non-members at the door, life members free entry

 Holly Story Came to Western Australia in 1970 having grown up in various countries with a family base in England. She obtained a BA followed by a Post Graduate Diploma in Visual Art from Curtin University in1991 and has been working as an artist, arts administrator and occasional writer on the arts since that time. Holly’s work incorporates textile forms and materials. Most recently her work has moved into sculptural, installation and video practice. She states “I take worn materials, already redolent with their own histories, and transform them through simple domestic processes.” Her research site on the South coast of WA has informed her exploration of the interdependence of the human and natural world. She lives and works in Fremantle.

Taking the Fancywork series (1999 -2000) as a starting point and continuing up to the video piece Breath (2008), Holly will speak in depth about her 30 year relationship with her research site at Deep River; source of the work that she feels has been her most successful.


 

Naturally at the Craft & Quilt Fair, Perth 2010

May 19 - 23 2010 
WAFTA Feature

A selection of pieces from Naturally 2009 on display at the Craft & Quilt Fair

 Original Exhibition CD available to purchase!

Demonstrations at 2pm each day:
May 19 (Wed) Anne Williams - natural fibre baskets and vessels
May 20 (Thu) Kate Weedon-Jones - complex cloth
May 21 (Fri) Trudi Pollard - shibori and natural dyeing
May 22 (Sat) LeeAnne Davis - embellished felt
May 23 (Sun) Shirley Treasure - weaving with emu feathers

Read about one of our artists, Liz Arnold, in the newspaper here
Link to the Craft & Quilt Fair here

 

Simon Rosengarten and Annei Errey
 Alexander Park Craft House, Clyde St, Menora
May 18 2010, 7:00pm start
$4 members, $8 non-members at the door, life members free entry

 Tapping Into Your Creative Muse

Art can be anything - but when it comes from that part of us which is intuitive, deeply knowing and full of wonder, then something special happens.
Annei and Simon share some simple and profound ways to precipitate this and explore inspiration, creative flow, authenticity, intuition and passion. They take you through several processes designed to uncover and transform any resistance or blockage to accessing your creative flow so you may expand into what you know yourself to be at a profound level. Unfolding into more of who you really are is the key to tapping into inspired art, creativity and passionate living.

Both Simon and Annei professionally mentor people towards this state of integrated living through a unique program delivered world-wide by the Insight Foundation. Annei further marries this mentoring into the creative arts, being  a co-head of the Insight Foundation's School of Creative Arts based in Perth.


Simon Rosengarten is a multi-disciplined artist in the fields of dance, choreography, theatre, film, costume, spoken word, comedy, music and poetry. He is currently a coach and mentor specialising in the area of personal development and living from the heart with mentees across the world.



Annei Errey is a visual artist, educator,
creative director and curator. She has recently returned from the UK to head Visual Art at the School of Creative Arts.

 




John Parkes
 Alexander Park Craft House, Clyde St, Menora
April 20 2010, 7:00pm start
$4 members, $8 non-members at the door, life members free entry

John Parkes was born in Newcastle NSW in 1960. He studied textiles briefly at Newcastle CAE with James Bennett and Jutta Feddersen before moving to Western Australia to complete his degree under the tutelage of Elsje van Keppel (King). His current practice primarily uses second hand/recycled/found cloth, stitch and dye, though the practice will never be limited to these elements. The cloth and thread are of natural fibre, and this underpins his praxis in that the work will, given the circumstances, decompose, just as we as humans eventually decompose. These works tend to reference the body as adornment or protection. John has recently returned to Western Australia after a year based in Newcastle with his family. He currently lectures textiles and is a visual arts mentor in the Faculty of Education & Arts at Edith Cowan University.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image Details (top to bottom left to right):
 'brooch/broach XV' 2009 13 x 8cm silk and woollen cloth, linen, cotton and silk thread, hand stitch, stainless steel findings

'white cloth' 2008. (Detail. Actual size 90 x 39cm) cotton & silk cloth, hand dyed, natural and synthetic dyes, cotton thread, hand stitched

'...lest we forget...' 2008. 198 x 138cm woollen blanket (UNITED WOOLLEN MILLS 1941 Ben BURKE), silk cloth, natural dyes, linen & cotton thread, hand stitched

'bib - (Dear Nalda)' (2009) 30 x 20cm. silk and woollen cloth, cotton yarn, natural and commercial dyes, hand stitch (text), stainless steel bib chain  

'breast/abreast' (2009) each approx 14 x 9cm. silk, woollen & cotton cloth (including 1970 prison blanket and handkerchief fragments) cotton thread, hand (stab) stitch, stainless steel findings 

 

Waltraud Reiner Millinery
Trudi Pollard Studio, Bedfordale
March 13 and 14 2010
$250 members, $285 non-members

Please enrol by Tuesday 2nd March

Workshop Details:
3D Sculptural Headwear
No experience necessary – everyone will be accommodated, from beginner to professional. Waltraud Reiner’s skilled millinery knowledge combined with your creativity will allow you to design and make a 3D truly sculptural headpiece. Materials worked with include Jinsin, sinamay, feathers, crinoline and any other material you yourself might have brought along (eg handmade felt). Be prepared to think outside the square! The skill focus is on free shaping. Most people will make two headpieces during the two days, some even more! Escape for two luxurious days of learning and creating in 3D amongst beautiful bush surroundings.

Tutor:
Waltraud Reiner is an Austrian-born designer who built on her fashion degree by training in millinery in London with Rose Cory, milliner to the Queen Mother. She later worked for Philip Somerville, who at that time made hats for Diana, Princess of Wales. Waltraud has an incredible collection of hat blocks (as seen on the ABC’s Collectors program) and is a passionate teacher of a 3D artform that has become a lucrative niche opportunity for designers around the world. She has taught at tertiary level in Australia, USA, Europe and Dubai through consultancy and workshops, has produced three millinery teaching DVDs and is the founder of Melbourne’s Hat Extravaganza and Australian Hatweek which runs in September annually.

Venue:       March 13 & 14 2010
                Trudi Pollard Studios
                2 Otway Place
                Bedfordale, WA
The spacious studio is fully equipped with mirror, sewing machine, iron, ironing board, tables and chairs. Students bring basic sewing equipment, materials they would like to use in their sculpture and any hat making supplies they might already have. LIMITED to 10 places ONLY


 Contact:
 Trudi Pollard
Phone: 08 9399 7049 or 0423 977 919
 E-mail Trudi here

Cost:      
$285.00 non-members (includes a membership to WAFTA)              
$250.00 members
Supplies of hat making materials, if needed, are available from the tutor directly - allow approximately $25-$40 per headpiece

Just IMAGINE the possibilities – 3D Sculptural Textiles!

Waltraud is also our guest speaker at the March 16 meeting. Such a rare treat in WA, so be SURE to put this one in your diary!

Read more about Waltraud here
E-mail Trudi for registration and requirements.

 

stitched and bound 2010
Heathcote Museum and Gallery, Applecross
September 2 - October 3 2010
Gallery Hours: Tues-Fri 10am-3pm; Sat/Sun 11am-3pm

 stitched and bound 2010 is the eighth juried contemporary quilt exhibition hosted by the West Australian Quilters’ Association (WAQA) as part of its commitment to textile artists in WA and to raise awareness of the craft of quilting in its contemporary form.

Important dates:
    30 April 2010 Entry deadline
    14 June 2010 Notification by mail of results of entry
    30 August 2010 Delivery of selected quilts
    3 September 2010 Exhibition opening 6pm

 A little history: from Razor’s Edge to stitched and bound
WAQA’s first exhibition of contemporary quilts, Razor’s Edge, was held in the
New Collectables Gallery in East Fremantle in 1995. The intention was to provide a small exhibition in a gallery where individual and unusual quilts could be better viewed and appreciated. It was for local quilters who had mastered traditional skills and were seeking to be more adventurous in their ideas, materials or techniques. The exhibition has since developed into the biennial series of exhibitions known as stitched and bound. With entries from over 120 textile workers from all parts of Western Australia over the years the exhibition has become one of the leading exhibitions of contemporary quilts in Australia.

The exhibition is open to ALL WA residents and it has always been considered very important to encourage entries from those who work in textile fields other than quilting with interesting and exciting results.

Got a question? Read the stitched and bound 2010 FAQ
 For more information and an entry form go to www.waquilters.org.au

 

Megan Kirwan-Ward
Alexander Park Craft House, Clyde St, Menora
February 16 2010, 7:00pm start
$2 members, $5 non-members at the door

Megan Kirwan-Ward is a textile artist based in Fremantle, West Australia. In the year 2000 an Asialink Arts Residency enabled Megan to spend time in West Sumatra, Indonesia. Her meeting with a group of local women and ongoing relationship with them lead to the formation of a small collective and the eventual establishment of the Passion Prints Textile Workshop. That Workshop was the creative hub for the production of ranges of handcrafted textiles exhibited locally and throughout the region. Sadly, the entire building was destroyed in the recent earthquakes. Astonishingly, the women associated with the Workshop have salvaged cloth and thread and continue to stitch in well nigh impossible circumstances.
 Read more about Megan here

 

 Exploring Surface Design in Felt
Alexander Park Craft House, Clyde St, Menora
January 23 & 24 2010
$100 members

 Kick start the new textile year! LeeAnne says: "I discovered felt while studying Fine Art & Design. I have been felting for 9 years and teaching in the West for 5 years. I love using pre-loved fabrics, eagerly search for and integrate these discarded pieces into my work. I love to experiment with new ideas and colour combinations, colour is fundamental to my work. I like to use a collage of techniques including felting, stitching, appliqué, knitting, crochet, dying, printing." In this workshop we will look at ways to create fabulous textured surfaces in felt, using images that inspire us. We will prepare pre-felts exploring the various ways to create them. We will compose layers of material and stitch to create a design, and then manipulate the design by cutting, stitching, felting and embellishing, to transform to another level. We will also look at ways of adding movement to our work through stitching. The main object of the workshop is to create small pieces that explore the different methods with a variety of recycled/new materials. Some basic felting knowledge and skill is required.

E-mail Louise for registration and requirements.

View the 2009 events here