Marking time

For a week from Easter Sunday, I attended my first 'Fibres' event: Fibres Ballarat. I registered for a workshop with John Parkes (a self-declared 'maker', lecturer in textiles, and visual arts mentor at Edith Cowan University. See an example of his work here) called Marking Time. It was at Ballarat Grammar, the grounds of which are spotted with 'cottage gardens'. This rose matched my name tag bloom, and made my pillow (where I left it for the week) smell sweet.
There were a number of artists who put work up around the grounds too. Below are hand printed lengths of nylon, stretched up between trees. You probably won't be able to make out what is what in the photo, but just enjoy the colours and layers.
John made me look at my surroundings in a slightly different way. Perhaps it also had to do with the time and space - physical & mental - that the week provided, because I do tend to look this way at things when I am on holiday in distant places.






I spent the days stitching and dreaming about stitching, reading (I really enjoyed A Spot of Bother), knitting (mostly in the car on the way there and back), listening to presentations of the 16 tutors, looking at the work of the other attendees, talking, and eating boarding-school-quality food (that was the low-light). It was oh-so-relaxing. I don't think this will be my last Fibres event.
For the moment, until I get a chance to scan some things, I will post some in progress shots of things I worked on. In some ways these are more interesting anyway.





As a token of our thanks to John, the people in my class each stitched him a small piece that was then sewn into a book. Can you guess which is mine? Actually, it was one of the pieces I made for an exercise on the first day. I did make another for the thank you purpose, but I so liked how it turned out that I had to keep it for myself.