Independent Study Retreat

Monday to Friday, June 17–21, 2019, 10am–4pm
$775 plus GST

Please call to register for this workshop. Payment can be made by cheque, credit card or online by using the Paypal link below.

There is a lab fee and supply list for this class

Experience Level

Intermediate to advanced. Students must be familiar and comfortable with working with thickened Mx dyes or their media of choice, and using a range of techniques/processes. NOT suitable for beginners.

Class Description

It’s challenging to get to grips with wet processes in the world of surface design, and getting to grips with composition can be even harder. This workshop is for students who wish to really focus on building their ability with composition in relation to art textiles, and will encompass:

• Bringing alive ideas and realising specific pieces of work in terms of whole cloth as art, and/or whole cloth to be developed with stitch.
• Working with key design principles in terms of exploiting elements such as balance, contrast and relationship, and the use of..,
• Colour, value, scale and imagery to drive visual interest.
• How to use devices such as focal points, pathways and other ‘doorways’ into the picture world’.

We will also examine and explore how the process of design can start with building a background, or start with a strong compositional element. I will bring in examples of artwork to use as a focus for group discussions to identify compositional elements and we will also undertake group critiques/discussions of work-in-progress. In addition, I will work individually with students to review developments throughout the week.

My main focus will be to:

• Understand individual goals in terms of what each student wishes to achieve. To help with this, each student will be asked to share their intent with the group before we start.
• Provide advice and guidance on the best choice of tools to generate the imagery sought (e.g. use of the silk screen, rollers, scrapers, bottles and so forth)
• Provide advice and guidance on the order of process; pre-dyeing, working with dye paints, discharge etc. and where appropriate, refining technique.

As such, whilst this is a hands-on class, the goal is not to teach specific technique. Instead, students will be working to the beat of their own drum to generate the work they wish to create.