Photo from The Star newspaper

At Bradford School....
http://digital.thestar.co.nz/OLIVE/ODE/STR_DAILY/LandingPage/LandingPage.aspx?href=U1RSLzIwMTIvMTEvMjk.&pageno=NTI.&entity=UGMwNTIwMA..&view=ZW50aXR5

Textile Art @ Bradford School

I spent a wonderful week at Bradford Primary School working with textile processes to enhance one of the school's rooms into a meeting place. We looked  artists Tracey Tawhiao, Richard Killeen, Cliff Whiting and Reuben Paterson along with Pacific Tapa and Maori tattoo designs for inspiration.

We had various goals - making curtains which displayed the school values and whanau groups: Pikorua   - Friendship, Koru – New life, Matau – leadership/determination and Manawa- Heart. (5 year olds did these - painting with pieces of plastic in a palette knife fashion and then overprinting symbols with foam stamps they made.)

We looked at the Three Baskets of Knowledge legend: the kete - aroni which held all the knowledge that could help mankind, the kete-tuauri which held the knowledge of ritual, memory and prayer and the kete-tuatea which contained knowledge of evil or makutu , which was harmful to mankind.   We made our three kete's by wrapping fabric around sticks - here are two  of them. Rooms 3 and 4 made the insects and birds that the blown to earth by the wind in the legend. Thanks to Elizabeth Marshall who came in and helped with this project and provided wire which we used for the handles. 

These details are of a ceiling to floor artwork of the poutama pattern panel which Room 5 collectively painted/stamped and screenprinted. The pattern represents 'steps of learning' and so numbers and letters were included along with direct printing of some of the leaves from the school environment.

 We also had the goal of making  Polynesian themed patches which were made a variety of ways – painting, screen-printing and stamping. I especially loved the cut paper stencil work. These now decorate curtains and cushions and some are 'patched together in large wall hangings -this one photographed in situ by the mirror. 

School librarian Gill said I had to be in one of the photos...here i am with my two scarves on!  I appreciated help from staff member Val in helping sew these patches onto the curtains. We also worked on a mural thinking about the Tane Mahuta legend
 - with plans to finish it next year - phew! I so enjoyed all the responsive pupils, parent helpers and the explosion of colour.

New Zealand Printmakers: Matiu Somes, 26Sep-27Oct, Wellington

New Zealand Printmakers: Matiu Somes, 26Sep-27Oct, Wellington: The exhibition Matiu Somes: The Next Chapter is opening at Solander Gallery in Wellington on 26 September. The artists featured in...

Summer Solar Printmaking class in the Hutt

Please check out Hutt Art Soc's website for an outline of workshops
http://www.huttart.co.nz/#!summer-school-2013
PRINTMAKING IN THE SUN
SOLAR PLATE PRINTING BY LYNN TAYLOR
(4-day workshop)
Dates: 10-13 January 2013
Level: see below
Time: 9.00 – 4.30
Room: print room
Number: Minimum=4: Maximum = 6
Cost: $480
Materials: to be advised
Other notes: Adult or over 16 yrs only
ABOUT THE WORKSHOP:
Printmaking in the sun will introduce to and advance students in using solar plate
printing. Both emboss and intaglio processes will be explored.
Participants will be introduced to ways of manipulating images that are relevant
to them. Images are printed out on a transparent film prior to make them ready
to expose on solar plate. This is an opportunity to try something different and
produce a range of results and you will be encouraged to experiment.
Individual research strands will be encouraged in this workshop, making it
suitable for beginners to advanced printmakers. This will endeavor to encourage
linking personal ideas with practice, while considering how art might
communicate to a viewer. On the final day each participant will have a one–on–
one session with the tutor as an opportunity to discuss and format an individual
current or future project.
This course is relevant to people who are interested in process and also to artists
working in other media who are interested in extending their current art practice
through the graphic surprise of printmaking.

REGISTRATION
All workshops
Name: _____________________________________________________
Address: ___________________________________________________
Phone (Day ): _____________ Phone (A/H): ____________________
Email: ____________________________________________________
Workshop(s): ______________________________________________
If your workshop choice is full, we will contact you and let you know of other
workshops that might be of interest. There will be a waiting list on a datereceived
basis.
Deposit Due ($60 per workshop) _____________ cash/eftpos/internet
Post or deliver to: Hutt Art Centre, 9-11 Myrtle St Lower Hutt 5010
Email to: huttartsociety@xtra.co.nz
Payment may be made in person in cash, cheque or eftpos, or via internet
banking direct to: BNZ Lower Hutt 02 0528 0031079 00
(please indicate your name and "summer school" in the description on
our account).
Registration & Cancellation Policy:
Because of the limited numbers in the workshops, we will operate on a first-paid / first in
basis. A deposit is required to secure your booking, and must be paid before 1 October. If
a workshop is filled, you will be contacted to pay the full amount by 1 December. If you
have not paid by 1 December, and there is a waiting list, your registration will be forfeited
and the place given to the next person on the list – you will be refunded part of your
deposit.
If a workshop is filled, you may be put on a waiting list (in order of receipt) and advised if
a place becomes available.
If you withdraw before 1 October, you will be refunded your deposit, less $10 admin fee.
If you withdraw before 1 December, you will be refunded all you have paid less half your
deposit. If you withdraw after 1 December you will be refunded all you have paid but not
your deposit. Withdrawals after 24 December will not be refunded unless we can fill your
place from the waiting list.
All workshops have a minimum number before they will proceed. If this is not reached by
1 December, the workshop may be cancelled. In this case you will be refunded any money
you have paid. You may like to transfer the registration to another workshop, if available.
People who have transferred, will be given priority.
Balance of Fee (and any material fees) by 1 December.

Japanese Book Binding Class

A Japanese Book Binding Class will be held on Sunday October 7th 10 -12 at Diadem Studio, Portobello, Dunedin. Tutor - me! Limit of 6 students. Cost $35 each (materials included). Please contact Mary if you wish to enroll  027 3195033

Craft Aotearoa Charitable Trust: Dunedin Craft Research Meeting Invitation

Craft Aotearoa Charitable Trust: Dunedin Craft Research Meeting Invitation: Craft Aotearoa Charitable Trust and the Dunedin School of Art at Otago Polytechnic - Te Kura Matatini ki Otago are delighted to invite all...

Solar plate and photo stencil session in the studio

Today my daughter and I taught two gorgeous girls some printmaking in the lighthouse studio. They were such fast learners - so the time went in a whirlwind.  They did self portraits which were then made into negatives and exposed onto solar plate to make a relief matrix. They were printed with black oil based ink and then  hand coloured with water based inks. The girls (ages 9 and nearly 7) also screen printed background colours onto calico and over printed with photostencil designs - then their favourite bits were selected to make a cushion patch. (Plain cushions super cheap at KMart!) We did the session as a skills swap with their mum - so now we have some massages from her to look forward to - love this system. Let me know if you want to do a skills swap session!

the narrative page

Link to Jane's photos from our narrative page class.  Do contact us if you are interested in having a similar workshop - when we have enough numbers for a class we can arrange a date! http://txtilegrl.wordpress.com/2012/07/02/photos-from-the-narrative-page-class-june/

Brainstorm

Love how this student (Justine) in my 'Print and Page' class processes brainstorming - spills of ink create a non liner format to record around. Reminds me of the way Frida Kahlo would approach her diary pages - beginning with some ink splodges.

The Narrative Page

Kiri rolling out the colour

overprinting onto a photocopied page

Ita's ginko leaf prints

gel printed pages being assembled for book making

Jasmine's printing onto silk

Marion added her own lovely handmade papers

Jane introducing book making techniques

maps, wallpaper, sewing patterns, flax paper- textural delights

Marion's finished book

 What a productive Sunday - ten talented ladies from Wanaka and Dunedin participated in a 'narrative page' course. I taught gelatine printing and then Jane taught a bookbinding process where the prints and other papers could be collated together to create a personalised textural and visual book. We all had a blast and appreciated being able to spread out in the textiles department at the School of Art.

Teaching - Print and Page

I am juggling teaching in a few different classes this month - needless to say the car is full of 'just in case' materials! These images from the Print and Page elective I am co- teaching at the School of Design with my talented bookbinder friend Jane Armour. Students have been taught various techniques and are now undertaking their own projects. This work by Charlotte involves enlarging a letter, linking the text and now she is cutting away the negative spaces to create a large curtain - like an enlarged page. This work also fits nicely with her field - interior design.

A chance to win!

Here's one of the 'spot prizes' for people who brave the winter and pop into the opening of '3' at Solander Gallery on Wednesday night - June 6th. (French link stitch binding, black pages, hand screenprinted cover)  http://www.facebook.com/groups/SolanderGallery/

sneak peek

Crossing Over - edition of 8

Moana Whare - etching and copper disc

A sneak peek of my prints for the upcoming 3 exhibition at Solander Gallery - "Crossing Over". This work documents the trip I took on the "Interislander" ferry to go to my friends wedding in Wellington. Exhibition opens June 6th and runs till July 14th! Moana Whare is from when my Dad lived on a boat in Dunedin's Harbour for a year.  http://solandergallery.co.nz/

3

Upcoming exhibition at Solander Gallery in Wellington - I hope you get a chance to see it!

that tricky old deal of finishing work

How often have you had an art project 95% finished and yet you cannot find the motivation to do that last 5%. I am like this a lot but a recent example is this portrait of welfare staff at St Margaret's College. After a session printing together and mounting prints for them my task was to make a collective print of all their faces for the College. I was overprinting onto dictionary pages which reflected each persons realm of study - these have been lightly coated in gesso to create a more random, painterly look. I used one of my favourite colours - paynes grey. After they had dried and mounted I should have just mounted them but I have had a busy time and  I couldn't seem to get the job done. Instead I would lie awake at night , worrying about the task a little as one does. So I did that old trick and wrote the task on a big bit of paper and put it on my desk so there was no avoiding it. You know, it only took a pleasurable hour to complete. Same as always I am left on a bit of a high, yet thinking, why did I worry? Why did I not deal to that earlier? Umm, think there might be a few other unfinished jobs I better go and see to!

Hearts in Crafts television programme - Channel 7

binding in the shipping container

looking into the shipping container

more stitching

Tamsin removing her book from the press

some of Gill's lovely papers

Julie gluing on a cover

Gelatine prints by Joel and book by Petra - we used some double sided adhesive on some of this silk fabric as the glue soaked through too much 

I was thrilled to be invited to be filmed teaching a bookbinding class for the upcoming hearts in Crafts television programme. I rallied together a class, swept out the workshop, cleaned some of the spiders webs off the windows, threw bark chips over weeds and was ready to welcome Tamsin Cooper - the presenter who also took part in the class. Everything went perfectly except the weather - yes sunny sunny two days either side but on Sunday it rained and visibility was low, so no nice shots of our beautiful view! It was an amazing experience to be part of this - a whole days filming yet only a few minutes will be on the telly. Also some tasks had to be repeated (like sawing the holes in the pages) so the camera could get shots from different angles. Sometimes my interview answers were a bit long so I had to shorten them down to a statement and had to do a retake when one of our chickens announced she had laid an egg - and drowned me out! Little time was left for the gelatine printing - shame, as the plate was working perfectly. Thanks to my daughter Petra and her friend Lisa we had some lovely food to enjoy.

art journaling

Yesterday I had a fun afternoon with Kat - making pages by recycling old music/encyclopedia pages by coating them with gesso and then paint and scribbles/crayon...these will later be bound into books, interspersed with plain pages. (nothing like a tactile book I say) You can see more photos and the delicious food Kat treated me with on her blog http://artjournalingnz.blogspot.co.nz/

Printmaking session

Each year I take a printmaking session with Welfare Staff at St Margaret's College, Otago University, as part of my role as a Fellow there. It is an exciting experience as the staff are training in areas other than fine arts - they are our future Lawyers, Doctors,Dentists, Musicians etc. They approach printmaking in an open manner that is often hard for an artist to achieve, because of the double edged sword:the more we learn about a process the more binding 'rules' we (sometimes  inadvertently) take on board.  One aim of the session was to work towards making a collective print of the participants faces and I found working with them and taking on board their suggestions and results from experimenting very liberating. We tried printing over old dictionary pages (here is Hannah) - and loved the result - so this will be a strong element in the final work. Images of the individual prints can be seen on my Facebook Artists page.

Caselberg Open Day

Film and photos by Steve Ting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX3LcNImhzE&feature=plcp&context=C3a01baaUDOEgsToPDskJ8HLtC56nh-1TZsoVpfQAq

http://www.flickr.com/photos/steveting/6800041511/in/photostream

Rolling beads

A while back I weathered and rusted a dictionary over a year as part of the erosion bundle project. I did not know what to do with the pages until I read about Rachel Chiesley aka 'Lady Grange' while on residency at the Caselberg House (I can't believe it, she has a Facebook page,http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lady-Grange/135930719772460?sk=info ).  During her seven years of imprisonment on St Kilda Island, Scotland she tried to get messages to the mainland - a common way of the Islanders was to tie a note around a cork and throw it off to sea. Rachel successfully smuggled a note out hidden in a spool of wool, unfortunately it did not reach the intended recipient for two years, a little too late. By rolling the words of the dictionary into beads I am changing there meaning and loosing many words, effectively making the dictionary useless. However it is poignant when words like SAIL and WISH are revealed. The rusting makes the beads appear a little like corks (or cigarette filters unfortunately). To mimic her idea I have wound them onto a bobbin sourced from the Alliance Textiles Woolen Mill - maybe this will be a way to display them, I am undecided yet. 365 beads are wound already, my ideal is to roll a bead for every day of her exile...only 6 years to go - better get busy!

St Kilda resources

Well, I'm looking forward to hearing Kat's stories of her youth in the St Kilda/St Clair area! 

In the meantime I have sourced some books and found in one of them a fantastic photo of tweed which was produced in St Kilda, Scotland. I am collecting old blankets from the St Kilda Dunedin second hand shops for the project, as they speak of the suburban history of the area, here they are - rolled up in the same manner as the tweed was in the photo.