Week Two flies past

I have no idea where the last week has disappeared to - somewhere between the Glassworks and Megalo no doubt. Since our induction into both organisations the "Glinties," as we've been calling ourselves, have been hard at work trying to get up to speed in newfound media and work regimes and conscious that we are almost half way through our residency. Yes, scary.

So, what have we been up to?? On Monday I helped Deb and George put their designs onto some photographic screens, and we spent time going through all the necessary steps so that they learnt how to coat and expose a screen themselves. Actually they were very good at coating their screens so the rest of the procedure went smoothly. The afternoon was spent printing their designs onto fabric which is always exciting as the following photos show.

George is highly excited about printing her 'Sprinkles" multicolour design.
Photo by Debra Jurss.

Nicci Haynes invited us to a woodblock printing demonstration at the ANU, and gave us a very informative talk about the types of wood and tools to use, the creative possibilities woodblock printing can offer and introduced us to a few of the students who are making large woodblock prints. As well as using the press, Nicci also showed us how to transfer the prints by hand.

Nicci using a plastic burnishing tool to transfer the ink from the woodblock.

Now, I have to confess there were a few laughs about my optimistic post last week, where I mentioned I was looking forward to opening the kiln the next day to see how our casting lesson went...haha! As anyone who lives and breathes glass will know that putting the work into the kiln is one thing...waiting for it to come out is an entirely different beast. So I waited...and waited...and then finally four days later we were able to open the kiln and retrieve our samples.

My casting samples....hmmm ... what is it you say????

After four days I was super-excited to see how things turned out.  You can't really tell from the moulds what lies inside, and what our high expectations are.  So...breaking the plaster mould to reveal what lies within...

Two icebergs have landed  in the cold room....

I decided that my first casting project would be a series of icebergs inspired by my residency in Iceland a few years ago. Having an ipad with a store of photos from that residency with me was great - I just tapped straight back into Jokulsarlon and the beauty I found crossing the lake filled with icebergs and walking amongst them on the beach.

Jokulsarlon, 2011

Yes, pretty cool

So now my icebergs are out of the kiln (...that sounds like a weird oxymoron) I am just waiting to learn how to finish them off to get rid of the jagged edges and polish the bottoms.

During the week there was also an impromptu lesson on cutting glass circles with Ruth Oliphant. Ruth was teaching Spike how to cut circles out of glass and before you know it we were all having a go - successfully too I might add.  It was very satisfying but also relevant.  For those of you who know my work, you will realise that the circular form plays a major part in my artistic concepts - referencing looking down the microscope; the circle of life; the micro and macrocosm.

Carefully scoring the glass, then snapping it

Two of my perfect circles using window glass.

Then finally, on Thursday I taught Spike how to put a simple one colour design into repeat so that she could start printing fabric lengths.  This was a major breakthrough for her, and it took her a while to get the concept between the screen width and the repeat width, but then the light went on and she was off and away. Here she is happily printing at Megalo and thankfully everything joins up perfectly. Well done, Spike!

Spike prints Cats and Ravens repeat length

This coming week I will be exploring screen printing with powders onto glass; engraving and sandblasting; organising my digitally printed prototypes and trying to fit as many working hours into the week as possible.

Until then,

GLINT!

Last week was one of the most intensive weeks I've had for a while because I started the six-week GLINT (Glass+Print) residency with the Canberra Glassworks and Megalo. The reason why it was so intense was because the GLINTers had a 2-day introduction to printing techniques at Megalo, and then a 2-day introduction to glass techniques at the Glassworks. The six GLINTers are three print artists (myself, Nicci Haynes and Luke Chiswell) and three glass artists (Spike Deane, George Agius and Debra Jurss).

Me, George, Debra and Spike in the Megalo screenprinting studio

The first day we were all given an induction and WH&S instructions by Jemima, who demonstrated screen preparation, fabric printing and paper printing to the group.  This is totally new territory for the 'glassies' so during the residency I have offered to help them with their textile and print related processes.  During the six-week period we will all be working on our own ideas but will collaborate and help each other to realise our individual projects, because it is such a short time to produce work in a new medium.

Rory printing off one of the etchings in the Press studio at Megalo

The second day at Megalo we were introduced to the Press Studio by Rory who again took us through all the relevant WH&S to do with chemicals and equipment.  In the morning we explored the etching process and in the afternoon it was lithography.  Although I have done some relief printing and etching before, it was a long time ago, so this was very intense.  I have also wanted to find out about lithography, but never had the time, so this was a perfect introduction to working on directly onto stone.  I didn't realise what a time-consuming process it is, and as a consequence have a lot more respect and admiration for lithographers! Just the sheer physical work involved of grinding stones for hours before you even start to work on them is almost enough to put some people in our group off! However, we all conceded that there are many aspects of all our practices that involves concentration, dedication and perspiration, but not everyone is suited to that particular process.

Day Three of the Intensive week saw us rock up to the Glassworks to have an induction and WH&S with Emilie Patteson, the Artistic Programs co-ordinator who was also a GLINT 2014 participant.  Emilie makes beautiful work that encases botanical specimens within glass, and I can see many similarities in our interests and concepts.

Debra, Emilie, George, Nicci and Luke exploring fusing.

Emilie took us through ways to fuse glass and print powders onto some small tiles in the morning.  The printers learnt a whole lot of new terms and techniques, although Nicci has done workshops in glass before so she was a few steps ahead of Luke and I. In the afternoon Matt Curtis, who is the inaugural Creative Fellow for 2015, showed us the techniques of etching and sandblasting onto glass, and I think these are two techniques I will be using a lot with my project.

After lunch George and Debra booked a slot in the hot glass workshop for us and demonstrated glass blowing and stringer -making.

George pulling some glass out of the furnace ready to work, Debra assisting behind.

This was the first time some of us had been down on the floor of the Hot-shop as opposed to watching from the safety of the balcony. Ben Edols also had a team on the floor, so we were introduced to the etiquette of pas-de-deux between furnaces and glory holes! We were assured that it was a quiet day, but frankly I would not want to be down there when it was busy. I was conscious of trying to avoid globs of molten glass the whole time! George and Debra were great, and I really admired their cool and confident handling of the glass tools and heat, their skill in pulling stringers, jacking-off (yes, this is a glass-term!) and finally putting the finished pieces into the annealing kiln.

Debra pulling a stringer from a single blob of molten glass

The girls enabled each of us to explore the addition of different objects into molten glass - for me it was a piece of metallic-silk organza; for Luke it was a dollar coin and an American dollar bill; and for Nicci it was some different metal wires.  It was really enlightening to see what worked and what just ended up as ash. My experiment turned out well, with the silk thread burning and depositing ash but the copper metallic thread stayed in tact and formed a weird fibrous object encased within glass.

For the last day of induction we had the whole day with Spike, who taught us how to make plaster moulds around clay objects so that once the clay is removed, the void is filled with broken glass, then fired in the kiln.  This did take a while, as there were three separate layers of plaster to cover our clay sculpture, the last one containing grog (again, another glass or ceramic term!).  At the end of the day we managed to get our moulds into the kiln and I am impatiently waiting for tomorrow when I can see what the result will be.....

Spike helping me smooth down the last layer of my two moulds

This residency is not only going to be a great adventure into the world of glass, but also fun, and already I feel we are all working together to help each other realise our projects and to learn as much as we can. Stay tuned!
I would also like to acknowledge the support provided by the Copyright Agency CICF grant for my GLINT project.

Fertile Ground Opening

As promised, here are a few photos of the opening of my exhibition, Fertile Ground, at Maitland Regional Art Gallery on 18th July. I was in Maitland for the week installing with the MRAG Dream Team who impressed me with their professionalism and respectful handling of my work. Their attention to detail and ensuring everything was just right was laudable, so I am confident my exhibition is in safe hands for the duration. The acting Director, Bridget Uren, was so enthusiastic about my work, I could often hear her explaining details about it to VIP's whilst I continued putting the finishing touches on things in the adjacent galleries.

View of the G1 & G2 galleries

View of 'generate' series of works in G3

Back wall of G2, 'transmorphing' and 'Phaeoceros spores'

G2 view of 'I think...', 'Europa 1 &2' and 'Net Returns'  foreground

It was also a great pleasure to meet the amazing Patrick Corrigan in person, who was showing 'Power and Colour',  new paintings from the Corrigan Collection. I finally got to thank him personally for the Pat Corrigan grant I received early in my career, way back in 1999 - it certainly was a great help back then, and, as he reminded me, I was in good company as he reeled off name after famous name of the Australian artworld. Pat has a very hands-on approach to his philanthropic ventures and is totally committed to the causes he supports. Once again, thank you Patrick Corrigan!

Patrick Corrigan at the MRAG opening.

The six exhibitions on show for the Winter Program were officially opened by Lydia Miller, Executive Director of ATSIA, Australia Council for the Arts, and it was wonderful to meet her and listen to her insights about indigenous art and the role they play in our society. After the exhibition we all relaxed over a delicious meal in the cafe with a few champagnes, and I got to talk to some of the other artists involved in the Winter Program. Just before I left, I snuck back into the gallery to take a night shot of my 'Net Returns' installation which shows its true colours with a flash setting.  The glass fibre, which has 50,000 miniscule glass beads per square inch really reflects the light as I intended it to, as do the glass covered sticks on the wall installation 'I think'.

'Net Returns'

'I think...'

Finally, my sincere and hearfelt thanks must go to curator Kim Blunt, ex-Director Joe Eisenberg and Acting Director, Bridget Uren for their enthusiasm and commitment to showing my work at MRAG, which was in the pipeline for several years! I really appreciate their support and encouragement not only for this exhibition, but for my continuing arts practice.

Install at MRAG

This week I have been installing work for my survey exhibition 'Fertile Ground'  at the Maitland Regional Art Gallery, which officially opens tomorrow afternoon. I have had the pleasure of working with The Dream Team (a.k.a. Kim, Kate, Brad, Lizzie and Marie) to install the work across three of the ground floor galleries.  It has been fantastic to work with such a professional team who really respect the artworks and have taken such care with it. I am posting a few photos of the install because I always forget to take records of this at the start of an exhibition. I had the pleasure of having a visit from recent ex-Director Joe Eisenberg yesterday (obviously he is feeling separation anxiety from the gallery, haha!) and he was very complimentary about the exhibition over lunch. So far all comments have been extremely positive and I hope to see a few people turn up for my public talk at 1pm before the official opening tomorrow afternoon.

Marie and LIzzie installing framed works in G3

View of G1 from the scaffolding

Brad installing works in G2

Creative Fibres!

Queste forbici sono meravigliosi!!

The last couple of weeks have flown by whilst I finalise preparations for my work for my upcoming solo exhibition, Fertile Ground.  More about that in my next post....
Today I just wanted to show you a picture of these wonderful little embroidery scissors, forbici, that my friend and fellow textile artist, Sharon Peoples bought for me from her recent trip to Italy. They are beautifully sharp and are a pleasure to use.  They have a ringlock system instead of a screw, so this is supposed to keep them sharper and more accurate than the traditional type of scissors. Thanks Sharon!

My colourful range of tea towels, main picture.

I also wanted to remind all my wonderful clients and customers that Creative Fibre Day is on again at the Bus Depot Markets this Sunday, 12th July. If you go to the link you will see they are promoting my stall on their website, thanks OBDM! Now, for those of you who have listened with dread about the weather forecast for this Sunday (-5°C overnight, rain and 7°C max during the day....) all I can say is...Be Brave! Get out of the House and come on down to the Bus Depot Markets for some Creative Fibre!!

Winter Markets @ the Canberra Glassworks

This Saturday afternoon, the Canberra Glass works will be holding Glass 2015: Winter Glass Market from 4-11pm to celebrate 100 years of the Kingston Power House, and I have been invited to have a stall selling my textiles....But wait...!??? If it is a Glass market, why was I invited to sell textiles??

Because this year I have been selected as one of the Glassworks GLINT (Glass and Print) residents for 2015!! This is an exciting residency for me that starts in August and continues for 6 weeks.  Three glass artists will collaborate with three print artists utilising the joint venues and workshops of the Glassworks and Megalo.

Although I am a textile artist predominantly, my mixed media exhibitions have always managed to include some aspect of glass....whether it is the etched scientific watch-glasses found in Generate, the glass-covered sticks and the glass-fibre nets of transgenesis, or even my digitally printed bus shelter in Allinga Street in Domain 2007, I am keen to learn more about the medium of glass and the techniques of digitally printing and screen printing onto this non-textile substrate. So bring it on! I have a great project in mind for this residency, so stay tuned to see the outcome.  I will keep up a regular blog during my GLINT residency so you can enjoy it too!

I hope to see you at the Glass 2015 Winter market this Saturday night because there will be free entry, market stalls, live music, lucky dip and lucky door prizes, Winter glow garden, make your own glass, silent auctions of glass by renowned makers as well as hot food and cool drinks!

QUILT = ART

Yes, it has been a while between blog postings and I do apologise! I have been busy preparing work for several upcoming exhibitions, including my large solo exhibition Fertile Ground which will open at the Maitland Regional Art Gallery on July 18th. I will be driving up there this week to deliver most of the work. I will post more details on this exhibition closer to the opening date.

I was also invited to participate in Quilt=Art which opens at the Stanthorpe Regional Art Gallery on Friday 3rd of July.  Please see the invitation below, and if you are up that way put this on your radar because it looks like a fantastic exhibition.