Student Work from the Weekend

 

 

I have been away for the weekend teaching in Braidwood, a small country town between Canberra and Nowra. It is a delightful town with many historic buildings ( I was lucky to stay in the old Post Office residence which has been beautifully renovated whilst keeping its old world charm) and I was teaching at Braidwood Townstay, which is an old bank building, the downstairs part of which contains a wonderful space in which to teach or utilise as a retreat space for a group in which to work, a lounge and diningroom and kitchen and , an upstairs part that sleeps eight people ( or more with some foldout beds). Kate Marshall is the delightful owner of the space, and it is her dream to see the space utilised for all sorts of textile activities. From a teaching point of view- the space was big with great design walls, well lit and warm ( important on cold winter mornings). Some of the students stayed in the accommodation and were able to keep working until all hours ( yes you Gerda and Carmel) and got up at sparrows fart to do even more sewing!

The collages are the work students who did the tifaifai workshop. I was delighted that nearly all students created their own designs ( in fact several had come along with designs already done- some even with two!!!!)I was also delighted that many of the students attached both the positive and negative of their tifaifai cutouts to backgrounds. I have to say Gerda and Carmel worked like trojans to get both panels sewn- and they were up late but lightened the load with a bit of bubbly here and there( and they even offered the tutor some ). The red and blue work and the green and red work in the second collage are by Carmel and Gerda respectively.Well done!!! Gerda also showed me ( and then gave me) some printouts she had made of my blog- wow- I have always thought of my blog as an internet thing- never thought to print it out- but the images were better quality than I would have thought, and well the whole thing was so booklike- it really blew me away to see my blog like that.And here I have been wondering what to do about another book???

I also visited Braidwood Print and Bookroom- a small company that did print its own limited edition artists and writers bookson their own printing press, but now also publishes books of essays one of which I bought entitled "When Books Die" 15 Essays edited by Finlay Lloyd published by Finlay Lloyd ISBN 0-9775677-0-2. The front cover flap ( and I just adore front cover flaps for starters) says;"The future of the book may be equivocal but its continuing power is demonstrated here by fifteen contributors to this collection of essays who examine,play with,and question the role and fate of reading in an electronic age." They also sell many other books- in fact their shelves looked a bit like my wishlistfor literature and philosophy!
There are other lovely businesses in Braidwood- cafe's, secondhand bookshops and small galleries with all manner of interesting objects and art and two patchwork shops. So if your group would like to have a retreat- i can't recommend it highly enough!