At the end of April 2012…

I’m back in the studio at Sturt.  When I walked into the studio, it was very familiar territory.

Before I share what I have been doing, I’d like you to meet some of my Tuesday’s class. They are working on a variety of individual projects.

This is Tuesdays’ first warp. On her 18^th birthday she started a wonderful journey. It was the day she started weaving. What a birthday! This is her third day of weaving in the studio. Well done Tuesday!

Judy is preparing her loom and busily spinning wool at home to weave her rug.

Maureen is working on a hammock.

Judy is working on her first floor rug. She has also hand dyed her yarn.

I have two tapestry weavers in my class. Dimity Kidston has been their tutor for the last term. They are working on completing their tapestries. Both have enjoyed working with Dimity and are looking forward to continuing with her again. Sturt and those working in this medium are fortunate to have access to such an accomplished tutor.

Ann has been challenged by circles and lines.

Sara has interpreted her grandchild’s drawing.

What have I been doing on my residency? Firstly my exhibition continues. It is the last week next week. I have been enjoying company dropping into the studio after they have seen the exhibition: some are weavers, some are travellers, some have an appreciation of textiles and design while others just want to have a yarn. It has been fun.

I have been busy working in the studio and have completed a collection of woven shibori pieces.

 

The challenge for me while I weave at Sturt is to design using the looms that are here and most specifically design for a minimum of shafts. The maximum number of shafts available on any loom is 8. This image shows the progression of weaving with fishing line being woven in for the resist, a pulled up sample and then after dyeing has been completed. This series uses the absolute minimum of shafts for woven shibori : 3.

The finished sample has permanent pleats as well as a dye pattern.

For those who are going to Canberra, Travelling the Silk Road is on show at the National Museum of Australia. I caught the exhibition when taking a friend who had visited to the airport. A visit to Canberra also means I get to spend time by the lake. It is a very beautiful time to be visiting Canberra.

The gardens at Sturt are again spectacular. Here are some views of different sections around the studio.

March 2011

There’s more investigation into indigo, playing with “rust” and some serious weaving this month.

After last month’s “Great Indigo Experiment”, there were still three recipes that Sheila and I were interested in trying. Jane wanted to do a rerun with the zinc/lime vat as she wasn’t happy with the results. So, this month we got together and continued the experiments. In addition to repeating the zinc/lime vat, we tried one that used soda ash instead of caustic soda and one that used a combination. The recipes are again listed. We got good dark results from the first two and reasonable results from the second. The blue, this time around, was much darker. Maybe this was because of more exact measurement, precise temperature control but also because there was not as much being dyed as on the Experimental Dyer’s day. One of the biggest surprises was the great results we got out of the soda ash vat. It produced the deepest blue and the vat also lasted for 3 days. It is also great because it is non toxic as compared to all the others with caustic soda. I also tried a comparison between doing multiple dips on one day and the same number over several. This was one of the advantages of having the vats here. I could spend a lovely few minutes each day dunking. Better results were obtained over an extended time. In all our experiments the dipping time and time between dips (when they were consecutive) were standardised.

Top: repeat of zinc/lime vat, middle: recipe 10, bottom: recipe 11. Beside each test result is the deepst blue achieved from each bath. Top: 6 dips with 2 each day over 3 days. Middle: same sequence. Bottom: Unfortunately this bath did not last beyond 2 days so this is the result from 6 dips on day 1.

 I was having such a lovely time starting out each day with a play activity, that I had another look at rust. (Sometimes I find a quick light hearted play where results aren’t important a great way to start the day and get creativity started.) Experimental Dyers this month experimented with “eco dyeing”. One of the activities involved sandwiching plant material and rusty bits between silk and tightly tying it up before boiling. Those results need to sit for a month before being revealed. They are still waiting, but I was reminded of rusty bits. Quite some years ago I did some work on rusting paper. I wanted to use these same recipes and try them on fabric. Because a strong solution of caustic is required, I would only attempt this on cotton. Different sequences produce different results. The results on fabric are not as spectacular as on paper but are still interesting enough. In addition I transferred rust from rusty bits onto silk by sandwiching them between layers of silk, spraying with vinegar and leaving wrapped up for a day or so. Now those results are interesting. I still have plans for trying out an “Indian Black” recipe that uses rusty bits at some stage but that process takes a while.

 I am excited by a technique I have just been exploring. When I visited West Timor (and that’s on an earlier blog), I collected some textiles. I was intrigued by a number of techniques. This month I analysed a “Sotis” piece and worked out what the threads actually do. It is in essence a “colour and weave” in plain weave with warp floats. The West Timor weavers do these on a back strap loom with a pick up stick. I, of course, am going to use a loom and make it do the work of a pick up stick. I worked out that my 24 shaft could achieve similar results. Once I experimented with weaving pattern, I considered what design I wanted to focus on. One of the common patterns is a “hook” design. This design is used to represent “linked arms”. In every community, we were always greeted by a formal ceremony where the importance of relationships between us were stressed. They have a dance where they link arms and this was pointed out as being the same design as in the textiles. So, for me this design has significance and that was what I wanted to use.   I have used it though in a different way to how I saw it being used.  It was used as a paired motif. I have used it singly, in pairs and as a “string of linked arms”. I particularly like the philosophy behind the long line of linked arms.

Back in January I showed a piece of doubleweave in black and white while it was being woven. It is now complete and is no longer black and white. This piece and the following will be in my solo exhibition Line, Angle, Curve in Framed Gallery, Darwin in July. I am weaving a major body of work for the exhibition and am spending very focused time in the studio.

January 2011

Welcome to the first post of 2011. I hope this year will be exceptional with all of your plans and dreams being successful.

The focus for many Queenslanders for the past month has of course been on the floods. Other places in Australia have also been and are still are suffering. These have been extraordinary times. It is the spirit of many Australians and the sense of community that has shone through. I have been very fortunate and have not been affected.

I would like to share with you some projects that I have been working on since the last post.

 This tray cloth was woven on 4 shafts. The weave structure is  crackle. It is threaded with 4 blocks but woven using only a combination of 3.

 Later on in the year I will be teaching a week’s workshop titled Building Blocks for Fibres Ballarat (13 -20 April. www.fibrearts.com.au),  Textile Arts Academy, Brisbane (20-26 June www.textileartsacademy.com.au) and Sturt Winter School, Mittagong ( 4-8July www.sturt.nsw.edu.au). I have used this month to prepare and to weave a number of samples. This is a view of some of the samples. These will be some of the techniques to be explored in this class. See the websites for what will be on offer at each venue. It is quite amazing the diversity that can be achieved from the one design.

 

Lastly, I have embarked on a challenge. The design is drawn up, the loom threaded and the weaving just begun. It will take some time to complete.

 

December 2010

Japanese Story has been hung and will be on till 22^nd December at the Goulburn Regional Art Gallery. The following are some views of the exhibition.

The exhibition is by 4 artists: Michael Le Grand (sculpture in the centre), Lois Johnson (wood block prints to the right), Nicola Moss (paintings to the right) and myself (textiles at far end).

 

While I was away I took the opportunity to check out some exhibitions in both Canberra and Sydney.

In the National Museum of Australia, Canberra there is a wonderful exhibition: Yiwarra Kuju,  The Canning Stock Route. It is predominately a response by aboriginal artists to both the site and its history. In addition there are also some photographs and memorabilia on the history of the route. www.nma.gov.au

Ballets Russes is on in The National Art Gallery till 20^th March. There are some very interesting costumes on display from many of the ballets performed by this company. In the National Art Gallery are also some Asian textiles currently hanging in that themed gallery space.  www.nga.gov.au

Art + Soul is on at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. It is the exhibition that runs in conjunction with the 3 part series that was recently shown on ABC TV. The book and DVD are also available. www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au

November, 2010

Over the past 12 months or so, when I have had studio time, I have been working steadily towards a group exhibition at Goulburn Regional Art Gallery. This week sees the culmination with photography being completed. The work is now ready to be transported to Goulburn for the exhibition opening on Saturday 11 December. I am providing a sneak preview of some of the work from which the curator will select for “Japanese Story”.

Japanese Story 8-22 December 2010 at the Goulburn Regional Art Gallery with the opening at 2 pm on 11 December by Anne Fulwood, Trustee, Art Gallery of New South Wales www.grag.com.au

Don Hildred has taken the following images. www.donhildred.com.au 

Diamonds on Diamonds; hand woven, silk with cotton/linen, weft shibori on the drawloom, indigo, synthetic lining.

Integration IV and V: Yardage,both are cotton, handwoven 5 end satin damask on the drawloom with warp shiobori. IV: fibre reactive dyes; V: natural dyes (Eucalyptus cineraria), discharge, fibre reactive dyes.

Squares on Squares; hand woven, wool, warp and weft shibori, acid dyes, felting.

Alternate Squares on Blocks; wrap, hand woven, silk and wool, weft shibori on twill blocks, pleated, acid dyes.

At the end of October

I seem to be following a trail. First there were the petroglyphs in Colorado, then some aboriginal paintings in Kakadu and at the start of this month, I visited Carnarvon Gorge National Park in Central Queensland and saw some rock art. The paintings were not as refined as that in Kakadu and comprised of a mainly stencilled patterns where ochres were sprayed over an object. There were a lot of hands but also nets, boomerangs and other objects. In addition there were some carved symbols. There are three sites there. One of which required a 20 km hike. I am fitter than I thought.

The viewing platform at Cathedral cave allows access to the aboriginal art along the base of this rock wall.

All of these images have been created by ochres being sprayed over an object: hands, boomerangs and between two fingers for the fish nets.

There were a group of 6 textile artists on this adventure, with two husbands: Sandy Webster (USA), Mary Crehan (Ireland), Fay and Mike Roselt, Glenys and Robert Mann, Truda Newman and myself. We all did our own thing during the day, meeting for a communal meal at night, sharing our stories and what we had seen or done during the day. Accommodation at Takarakka, www.takaru.com.au was in safari style tents, very comfortable but a bit scary in a wind storm that followed a day of rain. One does become very aware of the force of nature when bits of trees are bombarding the tent.

As well as looking for the aboriginal sites, time was spent contemplating nature: the wallabies and kangaroos, platypus and birds. It had been raining so the wild flowers were in abundance. The creek came up and went down again, creating opportunity to stay in camp working on different projects or reading. We spent time fossicking for ochres and building formations with beautifully rounded river rocks. Carnarvon Gorge is certainly a very beautiful spot.

I have a cat that has come to visit for a bit. It’s my daughter’s cat and has lots of very beautiful fluff which unfortunately gets deposited everywhere. I also didn’t want cat on my beautiful Indian bedspread so decided to make an alternative.  It was a great opportunity to play with some basic woven shibori.  I decided to weave some lengths that would then be cut into squares and later joined.  Plain weave was deemed essential. Three warps were woven, each with a basic resist threading.  The aim was to achieve 3 variations of 4 squares within each warp, a total of 12 squares from each. Some variations were achieved by the resist weave pattern, others by removing sections of resist after it was woven. In addition, one warp was woven without resist and some basic clamping on folded cloth was carried out. All fabrics were prepared before dyeing in the one bath, thus ensuring that the colour was uniform. From a very restricted and simple design brief, I have ended up with quite a varied collection of squares which were then assembled in a relatively random manner.

This detail is of six panels showing variations in resist pattern. All fabric is hand woven.  

Mid August.

It has been another amazing month! This time I’ve been to the USA and Canada. It wasn’t long between trips, but sometimes one has to do what one has to do. It was a fantastic experience with four distinct components.

The entire trip was based around the Complex Weaver’s Seminars. These are held every two years, and are not something I would willingly miss. This year it was held in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It lived up to expectations: informative seminars, great networking with friends and peers, a fun fashion parade and a good time all round. I also presented two seminars: Shibori for the hand weaver and Not just real velvet. I must admit that I was delighted with the response.

I’d like to share a project that my friend Judith Krone and I did for CW. I had stayed with her on my last USA trip in Atlanta. We chose to have a day playing in her studio on my one free day. Our activity involved winding 2 warps of 2 scarves each. Both were in silk and had the same dimensions. We dyed using a repeated process of dye and discharge on these warps. Judith has been doing quite a bit of work on this process but on finished cloth. I wondered what would happen if we did it on a warp. So we dyed these warps. Then we independently we wove a warp each in our own studios without telling the other what we were doing. At CW we brought along our 2 scarves each and chose one from the others collection. This way we both have one of our own scarves and one of the others. I am delighted with my swap, both are very different. In fact I am always going to wear them as a pair. They work so well together and make for a such a lovely story.

Convergence followed on. This is the largest conference for the hand weaver. Apart from having seminars and workshops, other activities include both juried and non juried exhibits, a fashion parade, talks, and traders. There are lots of them selling anything from yarn, looms, clothing, ethnic fabrics and garments, books and some dyes. In other words they were selling anything that a hand weaver could be interested in. I did have a lovely day shopping and checking out the exhibits. This year I did not get to the fashion parade. To get there from Complex Weavers was too rushed and this year I did decide to conserve some $’s there. It was a real treat though when I got to the fashion exhibit to see that my friend from Australia had won an honourable mention. Well done Helen Barnard. The other exhibit I was excited to see was the one I got juried into. It was a treat to see my work hanging with the others. I must admit that one did have to crane one’s neck to see them way up there, suspended from the next floor.

From there I had an amazing week travelling to Provo, near Salt Lake City, Utah. Judie and Dalbert Eatough showed me their country. On the way we got to see a lot of textiles, some in studios and others in markets. This area is so very rich in textiles, both contemporary and traditional native. One of the main things that I was keen to do was to research more into the Pueblo culture. I did get to see a heritage village, some native crafts mainly pottery, museums, and historic sites of petroglyphs (carved images into rock)and petrographs (images coloured on top of rock). It was interesting to see a negative hand shape which was outlined by spraying mud over the person’s hand, in much the same way that the Australian aborigines have done. Combined in this segment were some amazing walks though canyon country. It is certainly spectacular scenery.

The Michigan League of Handweaver’s workshops was the next stop. While I had only a very small group, they produced a very large amount of weaving in the 3 days. The workshop was on Woven Shibori where many aspects of both cloth design and dye /finishing processes were explored. Some very late nights were had by these dedicated weavers, but that can be one advantage on having an on campus event.

From there I went to Ottawa via Barrie north of Toronto. On the drove across with my friend, Jette, we visited a native gallery showcasing some interesting work and saw some more petroglyphs. These were different in style to those of the Colorado. Ottawa is a very beautiful city and this was my first visit. A morning was spent in the Canadian Museum of Civilisation. Again, I could follow the thread of early native culture. The museum is well worth a visit. The last few days was spent with another dedicated bunch of weavers. Again they were exploring Woven Shibori. This time though they had pre woven samples allowing for a lot of experimentation with various surface treatments. Again a lot of very interesting samples were produced.

Three books and a sleep later, and I was home again: just a few hours spent in airports and on planes.

At the end of February

Highlights of this month include a trip to Wagga Wagga, a book launch and an indigo bath.

But first, Kaos has been very busy supervising the reconstruction of the back garden. Apart from putting in more grasses in pots we are finished. What good timing: all the rain we’ve been having will surely make it all grow.

The trip to Wagga Wagga was for the Passing Out parade of our son, Andrew. He has joined the army and had completed his initial training. It was a very impressive occasion, lots of marching and pomp and ceremony. I was a very proud Mum and David would have been bursting out of his skin with pride.

Redland City Council launched the publication of a catalogue of the work in its collection to mark 7 years of the opening of the Regional Art Gallery. My work, “Which Way” is listed in the category of “Photography and New Media”. This is the work currently on tour with “Twelve Degrees of Latitude”.

Finally I got to do an indigo dye bath. I had been collecting various works to be dyed. They were all pulled up ready to go. The bath was made and then I started dunking. Some pieces had just a few dunks, others had up to 12. A comment on the actual bath: I used natural indigo as opposed to the synthetic version. I did find that I used much more natural to get the colour I wanted. The recipe I used came from Dana McCown and I have posted it in recipes. I am delighted with the results and the indigo bath is there for more dunking later as required.

 

While I was in Washington DC and at the Textile Museum, I acquired a piece of cloth that was resist tied ready for dyeing from Nigeria. The way it had been tied resulted in a 3 conical form so I was fascinated to see what pattern I would get when it was undone.  I am delighted with the result. I did use about 12 immersions to get to the colour I was happy with.

The scarf has three resists processes. The first was a warp resist and was used for devore. The second was a folded and clamped resist that was then dyed in indigo as was the third. It was also a different folded and clamped resist but a different format. I used 2 folded and clamped resists as I wasn’t totally happy with the first. The second set of folds aligned very nicely with the first.

The yardage is woven damask in 5 end satin. It was woven on the draw loom with an additional set of shafts for warp resist. I was very happy with how it wove and the design has worked very nicely with the indigo resist pattern.

Finally, I came across an interesting recipe in an old book, Hand Block Printing and Resist Dyeing. It is a recipe for finishing cotton cloth ready for presentation. It is a recipe for a sugar bath which ”leaves the cloth soft and slightly silky”. I tried it on a piece of commercial fabric which I had already dyed. Rather than rely on my own preknowledge, I took the samples to the month’s Weavers Interest group at Qld Spinners and Fibre Artists. The results of my survey were of 17 people 2 couldn’t tell the difference, 11 thought the treated fabric was different and had more body and 5 thought the treated sample was “soft and slightly silky”. It will be interesting to try again, but this time with handwoven fabric. I have also posted this recipe separately.

At the end of January

Firstly meet Kaos: the fence builder, the landscaper, the loom buddy, the source of cheap entertainment (He’ll keep catching that ball just however long you want to throw it.)  He’s my son’s, dog. Kaos will be staying with me for a bit.

I have been very busy landscaping the back yard. Kaos had ploughed up the lawn for me.

This is progress so far. After Kaos had ploughed up/wrecked the back garden it was time to fix up the disaster. I have redesigned a new garden path that follows the existing garden. Then had a concrete edge laid before digging out and laying pavers with a gravel fill. I must admit it looks great so far. It’s also just the thing to do on hot summer days! I am looking forward to planting.

I have also been busy weaving both on the 24 shaft computer assist and drawloom.

There is a collection of scarves and fabrics that are pulled up ready to dye. The large piece is the damask that is shown above. I hope to get an indigo bath happening in the next few weeks.

On my 24 shaft loom, I woven a fabric length that explored a combination of techniques. The original source of inspiration was patterning on ethnic fabrics that often combine uneven woven bands and in addition some interesting dye patterns. I wanted to combine supplementary weft patterning with warp shibori.

I have just realised that I haven’t shown a picture of the catalogue of “Twelve Degrees of Latitude”. It is a touring exhibition by Museums and Galleries Services of Qld celebrating Q150 with works selcted from Regional Gallery and University Art Collections in Queensland. “Which Way” was selected from the Redland Regional Art Gallery Collection. I was thrilled to be notified that it was included. A touring schedule is listed on my web site www.kayfaulkner.com.au. I do suggest that if you wish to see the exhibition, that you check whether the work is hung as this exhibition is extensive and smaller galleries will select work to be hung to suit their space.

 

Last week I went to see the lighting installation by KT Doyle . Check out her blog at http:// ktdoyle.blogspot.com.  The installation is in Briggs lane in the Brisbane CBD. I have been following her progress with the project so it was great to see the final outcome.

Central Queensland and the Southern Highlands of New South Wales

It’s a good thing that the airport is relatively convenient. I have just spent a week in Mackay and then a day in Mittagong.

It was a wonderful week in Mackay. I went there to talk weaving, dyeing and to spent time walking on the beach and in the rainforest with my friend Helen. Helen has a 4 shaft loom and wanted to investigate “holes” and textural fabrics, so we worked with overtwist wools, wool/lycra and her stash on a lace weave structure. I got this very excited email this week. The scarf turned out just as you said it would and looks great. The overtwist worked better on lengthier parts than shorter parts. So the small piece I have decided to turn into a U shape, pick up the edge and knit into the middle calling it “Captured”. Then I started to experiment with knitting with the overtwist – wow – what an experience. The overtwist wool looks delicate but the wool lycra worked on very large needles just goes nuts and sends the yarn around it into contortions – why haven’t I discovered all this before, it is great. I am looking forward to seeing how Helen will incorporate this into both her weaving and knitting.

Helen enjoys doing wall pieces that combine weaving and knitting. We installed this piece in the Sarina Library.

Then when I got home from there, I also couldn’t resist going down to Mittagong and having a look at an exhibition, Threads of Influence. Yes, one does have to be a bit crazy to go all that distance in one day, but I did really want to go. A flight and a car hire is all it takes. Elisabeth Nagel has been weaving and teaching at Sturt for 50 years and this exhibition celebrates that achievement. Other weavers who had also taught at Sturt were invited. The exhibiting weavers were Elisabeth Nagel, Jeannine Binoth, Julie Monro-Allison, Melanie Olde, Monique Van Nieuwland, Liz Williamson and myself. It was a very diverse exhibition.

The invitation for the exhibition with a detail of my work on the loom on the cover.

This is one wall of the gallery showing work by Elisabeth Nagel, Liz Williamson and myself.

Melanie Olde in front of her work.

Monique in front of her work.

As well as seeing the exhibition it was great to catch up with the friend that I had made during the residency. It was also amazing to see what Sturt looks like in summer. It was very lush and green. We celebrated the end of the day with wine and cheese on the lawn.

It was delightful: late afternoon, a cooler end to the day, drinks and chesse on the lawn,  and relaxed conversation.

How different it looks now. For those who followed the blog from my resisdency at Sturt I often included pictures of the gardens including this pathway to the studio. The grounds were so lush and green.

When I was artist in residency, I use to always start my blog with a picture of the view from the front of the studio. It seemed appropriate to finish this update with the same view.