And then came the rain.....

Have not achieved much this week. It has been so hot that it is hard to think let alone sit at a sewing machine and sew. And then last night it started to rain- more than four inches of deluge- our dams are a third full after being dry since September.

I did go up to Melbourne where Olga Walters, Robina Summers and I gave a workshop to try and fundraise for Sense of Place. We did not have enough people to fund raise let alone pay any fees but we did have a fun day. We did the workshop at Samson Hill Winery and were well looked after for morning tea and lunch! The view from the winery towards Melbourne is just wonderful . As you can see, everyone that did come, were intently engaged in painting fabric!

There is another workshop next week in which we will explore transfer(sublimation) dyeing and printing and stitching- if you would like to come there is still places available and it is definitely going ahead.

We also decided we would do the teaching with the three of us on a more regular basis-Samson Hill Winery are agreeable to us using space there once a month. So we decided to form the Bandana Club- which will teach a group of interested participants for a whole year with an ongoing commitment from participants for that year as we will extend what each participant learns and facilitate the development of work which will be exhibited at the winery at the end of the year. We will limit numbers. We have heard many comments from students from the BoxHill Tafe textile design course ( and on a similar basis the lack of scope of the weekend workshops conducted by many groups) that whilst the course is good on design elements that there are shortcomings in relation to techniques, particularly in relation to fabric creation and manipulation with which to develop your designs- we hope to address both of these issues. I think with the decline of textile departments in tertiary institutions that there is some scope for a more independent sort of teaching( just like many independent art schools were set up in the first half of the nineteenth century). I also like the idea that the ongoing commitment will probably be more helpful to participants developing work- rather than a one day touch base with a teacher this will be an ongoing relationship which will see both parties evolve. I know that from the beginning of my textile practice I would have loved to have had a mentor- and sometimes still feel as if I would like one, to push you that one step further and to bring another "what if" into the equation .If you are interested let me know , and if you have any ideas please make them known!