Wild Women Textile Arts Group

A very Merry Christmas from all of the Wild Women.   We wish you a fabulous, creative and productive 2018!

With all the Christmas commitments and travelling, it was a small gathering of Wild Women for our December get together.  We had a lovely time sharing some delicious food, sharing stories and working on our projects. And of course showing off some beautiful work ... Very appropriately we had some Christmas fare ... But the pièce de résistance was from the supremely talented Hilary who had themed her " Rain "  postcard around her book The Golden Umbrella .

Hi everyone, I popped along to the Gold Coast City Council Officers' Exhibition today at Robina Public Library. Much talent was on display including our very own Leona. Leona's work is titled "Stone and Sky" and is a felted collage of silk and wool mounted on canvas. In case you missed the exhibition, here is Leona's work below for you to admire and enjoy. Stone and Sky by Leona Well done Leona! 

The Wild Women ... weary, but very satisfied with the results from day 2 of our Fabric Journal Workshop with the delightful Ro Bruhn.

What an amazing day we have had with Ro Bruhn doing our fabric journal workshop.   Looking forward to more tomorrow!

Lots of fun was had by Make Create Day @ 11th Avenue visitors (and by us) at our tag station, set up at the end of WWTAG heavily laden display and sales table. Many were eager to splash paint, scatter glitter, tear paper, glue a sequin or two, emboss and stitch. Here's a few of the tags created and gifted to Wild Women for inclusion in the upcoming exhibition next September.  Tags A wonderful morning enjoyed by all!

What a fabulous time we had at Palm Beach this morning as part of Gold Coast City Libraries Make Create Day.

It may have been a grey rainy day on the Gold Coast but that didn't stop the Wild Women from getting together @ 11th Avenue Creative for another fun day of experimentation. We started off with luggage tags and inchies with Carolyn taking us through the delights of gelli plate printing and embossing. Eileen outlined the process for constructing the postcards and inspired us with a selection from her fabulous collection.  In keeping with the weather, our challenge is to bring a completed postcard to the next meeting around the theme Rain . After taking care of the logistics for our upcoming workshops and the Make Create Day on 28 October, we launched into a whirlwind of colour and vibrancy of show & tell.   From quirky bags & iPad covers to felted masterpieces, intricate stiching & beading and Pat's amazing fabric books

For those wondering how Shannon's capelet from Svenja's Precious Fragments workshop turned out,  here it is, being modelled by the lovely Clare from Feltfine I think you'll agree that "magnificent" is an understatement! Visit the  Precious Fragments shared album  for a trip down memory lane

A  productive planning meeting with lots of suggestions and contributions for workshops and our exhibition next year.  Not to mention creativity ... as seen in our monthly show and tell! There was crochet ... with bags by Hilary and Maggie, and a rug by Lilyan Eco-dyeing Cram Jar samples from Helen, Margret, Lilyan (not pictured) and Leona - who opened her jar on the day Sitching from Carolyn, Maggie, Leona and Patti as well as Maggie's tea bag art

What a great stitching day we had on Saturday for our August meeting. Following the theme of the textile taster we all beavered away working on our own "stitch-a-pic". More stitching was on display at Show & Tell Along wth tea bag art and flow paintings

Everybody was hard at work on Saturday morning at the Stitch-a-pic textile taster held by the WWTAG @ 11th Avenue Creative, Palm Beach. Many thanks to Carolyn, Eileen and Linda for organising and running the event. Our next community workshop will be in October. Keep an eye out on the Gold Coast City Libraries Calendar of Events for details.

It was a delightful day at Palm Beach Library for our July meeting and creativity was the order of business! Show and tell offered some real gems ... we had some finished pieces from our last few workshops: Mitzi's machine embroidery; Patti and Margret's discharge dyed pants; and Hiliary and Patti's silk paper bag and flower. Patti displayed her exquisite bag makeover, Elaine had made a vibrant book cover and Linda had been experimenting with a new technique for felted flowers. Lilyan had stenciled a fabulous fabric piece which is destined for a quilt Carolyn amd Leona showed their #1yearofstitches projects Then it was on to the Tea Bag Art workshop. Linda had already started her masterpiece ... while the rest of us have just begun

We were in for a real treat today with mother and daughter team, Margret and Michelle, generously sharing their techniques in discharge dyeing. They showcased a wonderful array of samples and finished pieces.  Michelle and Margret Then it was our turn!  Check out all the action here . Please post your photos too! 

What a fabulous day we had today making silk paper. We started off with a Textile Taster which was held as part of the Gold Coast City Libraries 11th Avenue Creative program of events. Participants created a piece of sericin silk paper using silk carrier rods, cocoon strippings, cotton gauze and some metallic leaf and used it to make an embellished iPad or sunglasses cover. At the workshop we took this a bit further and used threads, fabric scraps, glitter, angelina, etc to add additional texture and colour. We then played with making sheets of paper with silk tops and textile mediums. Click on the image below to go to the album of photos from the day or to upload a photo of your finished work.

Hi Wild Women, A glorious sunny day, it was time for the great reveal! Two months ago we filled our jars with all sorts of goodies and were challenged to leave them for 12 months. Well I succumbed today. My jar was filled with a potpourri of dupion silk strips, wool and silk yarns and lots of RED ONION SKINS. And the results .... Wet dyed dupion silk Yarns and dupion silks now dried Plum colour of red onion skin dyed silk against background of eucalypt bark dyed cotton I'm really thrilled with the gorgeous pinks and plums. Now what to make? Anyone else fallen to temptation? Carolyn 

What an amazing array of creativity was on show for our April meeting, we had: eco-dyeing inspired from our workshop with Wendi Trulson (and Linda's work from her recent India Flint workshop) precious fragments capelets from our workshop with Svenja a machine embroidery frenzy fuelled from Pat's workshop last month printed, stencilled, discharge-dyed and handpainted fabric (some from our workshops with Sue Dennis and Helen) that had been quilted, handstitched and bedazzled stunning woven, crocheted and knitted neckwarmers, scarves, beanies and beret and our #1yearofstitches projects I'm exhaused just typing it!  Oh ... and we planned out the activities for the second half of the year!

Hi wild women! I'm about to embark in doing some dyeing with eucalypt leaves (and possibly bark). There are quite a few eucalypts in nearby parks and when it's cooler I'll go collecting. As a complete babe in the woods with this eco-dyeing world, the whole mordant thing has been a bit of a mystery to me. I found this great article by Sally Blake and it really helped! Here is the link https://sallyblake.com/eucalyptus-dyes-1/ Hope you find it interesting and helpful too! Carolyn

While most of our attention yesterday was focused around Pat's Free Machine Embroidery workshop we did have some Show & Tell items display:  Eileen modelled her exquisite capelet from  Svenja's Precious Fragments wokshop  in November   A number of people brought in their work from last week's Eco-dying workshop with Wendi Trulson - please remember to upload your photo's to the shared album Here is the March progress shot for Caroline, Helen, Maggie and Leona's 1 Year of Stitches 2017 challenge contributions