Organic Indigo Workshop

Julie Ryder Organic Indigo Workshop samples

Last chance to book in for the three-day organic indigo workshop I am running this coming weekend at Timeless Textiles in Newcastle.

This workshop will explore the many aspects of shibori in order to resist-dye with indigo – clamping (itajime), stitching (nui), pole-wrapping (arashi) and many other methods. The stunning indigo blue that is produced will magically develop before your eyes. We will also discover the magic of indigo resist paste printing and dyeing in the same vat, to produce stunning blue and white prints.

Click here for more details

Last chance to visit YELLOW

YELLOW exhibition at barometer Gallery

I have been so quiet on the blog front since the end of December that you could be forgiven for thinking that perhaps I had snuck away to some remote island, spending my days sleeping, reading and eating.....Well, that sounds perfect but unfortunately is far removed from the truth.

Since December I have been up to Sydney for a week where YELLOW has been installed - and it's the last day today! Barbara Rogers, Catherine Rogers and myself have all responded to theme of yellow for our annual Christmas show ( in the past it has been Blue, Red, White, Green....).  You can see two of my three pollen prints on the right hand wall. Catherine has hung some great digital prints on paper as well as some photos and Barbara has produced some amazing textiles.

I have also been planning my upcoming two workshops on Indigo dyeing with resist paste and shibori coming up at Timeless Textiles next weekend. I will do a separate post on this tomorrow, so for now ...hurry on down to Barometer before the show shuts!

A VERY BIG END TO THE YEAR!

I am always surprised at how quickly the end of the year arrives with the momentum akin to a steam train at full throttle! At the start of every year I feel that it's going to be a slow and cruisey ride, but somehow opportunities and deadlines manifest from nowhere and before you know it you are on the downhill slide to Christmas.  This is a perfect time to say thank you to all my loyal customers and friends who have supported me throughout the year at my market stalls, studio sales, exhibition openings and faithfully opened and read my Mailchimp newsletters and, of course, this blog. I hope you continue to enjoy the work I make for sales and exhibitions, because it is all made by my hands with love and passion.

What better way to have ended this year than with the World's Longest Screenprint!!! This was a world record attempt by Megalo for their 35th Birthday Celebration. It took place at 11.15am on Saturday 12th December in the Fitters Workshop at Kingston, but staff have been planning the event for months. In order to produce the world's longest screen print, a silkscreen frame and stencil had to be made the entire length of the Fitter's Workshop - yes! that's 35 metres!!! Teams of volunteers started at 7am in the morning to help move everything from Megalo into the Fitter's Workshop for the day.

Here you can see the sides of the frame on the floor with the hand-cut stencil lying
on top of the fabric beneath it. The stencil took the staff weeks of bonding over
sharp scalpels and craft knives.

A 35-metre paper stencil was designed to showcase the history of Megalo over the last 35 years - incorporating each different location and the services provided as well as other interesting facts. The paper was then cut by hand and joined to form the 35m stencil. A wooden frame was then erected over the top of the stencil and fabric underneath it.  Once in place, Megan and Jemima rolled out the 43T mesh over the top of the stencil, then teams of volunteers lined the sides to help lift the frame and staple the mesh to the screen as taut as possible.

Jemima and Megan roll out the mesh in preparation for attaching it to the screen frame.

This was a tricky procedure and it all fell into place beautifully because of the attention to detail in the construction and how to organise the many volunteers in a safe and supportive environment.  A lot of this work was done by the partners of Megan, Ingeborg and Jemima, who had us all working like clockwork to fulfil our tasks.

The mesh is stapled to the sides of the frame and temporary supports locked in place.

An ingenious system of supports were drilled into the screen sides every two metres so that the screen remained straight and true.  As the ink was squeegeed down the length of the frame by the rotating teams of printers, these were taken out and then replaced again to ensure the frame did not collapse. Myself and Yasmin Masri were support printers, just checking the print as it was printed and cleaning up any sloppy bits.  As you can imagine, to man a squeegee that is about a metre wide and print 35 metres of ink is an heroic task.I  don't have photos of the print process to hand - because I was too busy helping to use my camera! But several people did take videos of the whole procedure (can you believe it took less than 5 minutes??) so I may pop one up on the blog in the next post.

Here is the finished print - all 35 metres of it!

Once the whole screen had been printed, teams of volunteers and the general public descended on the frame and lifted it up to rest it against the workshop wall.  You can see in the photo above that the paper stencil has attached to the back of the screen by the viscosity of the ink.  The coloured design at the start of the print was done on the fabric beforehand. 

And here you have it !

Congratulations to all the staff at Megalo for including the print community and the general public in this momentous (and hopefully world-record) performance. We  LOVE MEGALO!!

HAPPY A VERY HAPPY, SAFE AND CREATIVE FESTIVE SEASON 

SEE YOU IN 2016!!

Belconnen Christmas Market

What a crazy two weeks it's been with the lead up to Christmas.  It seems like there is a market on every weekend, and in fact there are more, with several markets on the same time all competing for public attention.  My first market at Undercurrent went really well - that was the first three-day market I had ever done -so thanks to all my loyal customers and friends who dropped by to say hi and to those who purchased some goodies for Christmas presents.

This Sunday it is my last market for the year, at the Belconnen Arts Centre.

I always love the ambiance of the Belconnen Art Centre markets, and they are so well organised and supported it makes doing business a pleasure! Hope to see you there if you didn't make it to any of my other sales over the past couple of weeks, and if I don't see you, have a very happy and safe Christmas and New Year with your friends and family. Best wishes for a creative and peaceful 2016. Julie xx

UNDERCURRENT

Thanks to all my loyal friends and customers who visited my Open Studio last Sunday as part of DESIGN Canberra. It was a great day, perfect temperature, and I was run off my feet chatting and ringing that till! Luckily for me my friend Belinda Jessup popped in to deliver a coffee in the morning...and stayed to help behind the sales desk until 3pm.  Couldn't have done it without her!

This weekend I will be at Undercurrent Design Market at the National Portrait Gallery.  This is my debut at this market, but I have heard so many good things about it I thought I would give it a try.  However, as usual, my busy life intrudes.  I fly back from Melbourne on Friday just in time to set up my stall for the opening at 5pm. It should be a great weekend though, with so many other things happening as part of DESIGN Canberra.  Last night I attended the DesignBuzz talks which included Jessica Hemmings (I have written about her in previous posts) and Indigenous textile designer Lucy Simpson, who gave an inspiring talk about the influence that place has in design.

DESIGN Canberra will be finishing this coming weekend, so if you have the chance to attend some of the events, many of which are free, then go along! Canberra has definitely come of age and it's fantastic to see so many creative people living and working here. All kudos to Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre for initiating this wonderful festival.

DESIGN Canberra

DESIGN Canberra is being launched tomorrow night at the National Portrait Gallery and will run from 21 - 29 November.  As part of Living Artists, Kirsty, Lisa and myself are opening up our studios to the public again, thanks to the successful event last year.  And for those of you who came last year in the sweltering heat....this Sunday should only reach a top of 25...perfect.

We have all been working hard delving into our archives and pulling out some amazing bargains for you as well as making new work for sale.  This Sunday is an opportunity to see our space, have a chat over a cold drink, and see some work that you would never get to see otherwise. See you there!
Sunday 22nd,  10-3pm, The Hayshed, 7 Beltana Road Pialligo

Please park on Beltana Road and walk in

here & there

Last Friday fellow Canberran, Sharon Peoples, and I were in Sydney for the opening of our group exhibition, Here & There, together with shibori-artist extraordinaire, Barbara Rogers, at her gallery, Barometer, in Paddington.

Barbara Rogers (left) talking to Jane Burns at the Here & There opening

Here & There responds to the concept of time and place - of being in one geographical location whilst making work about a distant other - about our experiences of dislocation and displacement as artists.

For me, this occurred during my 3-month Asialink residency at Rimbun Dahan in Malaysia in 2013.  I was busy making work about Canberra for my exhibition Natural Wonders ( Narek Galleries in 2013) in the heat and humidity of a tropical home-away-from-home. My thoughts about Canberra, in particular Pialligo and Aranda were more distilled and defined despite the thousands of kilometres between us. It seemed that distance enabled me to envision and articulate my thoughts on home with more clarity.

Seasonal Variations I-IV - Julie Ryder

For Sharon Peoples, her pilgrimage to Santiago di Compostella provided the inspiration for new work about walking and thinking, about slowing down to absorb the details of her immediate environment. This camino resulted in her solo exhibition Habitus ( Narek Galleries in 2014).  Sharon states that the word habitus can refer to 'second nature', and that for her embroidery is part of her identity - she embroiders every day. The repetitive and meditative nature of embroidery reflected her camino through Spain - in both walking and embroidering Sharon truly engaged her whole self.

Installation of Sharon People's work in Here &There

For Barbara Rogers, inspiration came from trips to Japan to investigate different methods of shibori. Over many years Barbara has experimented and refined her personal interpretation of carved board clamped resist shibori,  called itajime gasuri.  This technique results in an ikat-like patterning on woven cloth, however Roger's inspiration for this new body of work was found in Meisen silk kimono produced from the 1920's -1950's. Her modern interpretation is bold and graphic, which belies the complicated technique used to produce it.

Barbara Rogers' complex itajime gasuri

We were most fortunate to have Professor Jessica Hemmings officially open the exhibition. Jessica is in Australia for a short time to exhibit the Migrations exhibition (see previous post); to travel and speak in other institutions and to participate in DESIGN Canberra as part of Design Buzz as well as concentrating on writing...and running!

Jessica Hemmings (centre) with Barbara Rogers (L) and Sharon Peoples (R)

We thank her so much for her insightful comments during her opening speech and look forward to hearing her talk with indigenous designer, Lucy Simpson, as part of Design Buzz on 24th November.

Here & There continues until November 28th.

Opening Hours are 11 - 5pm,   Wednesday - Saturday

For those of you who can't make it to Sydney, we will be showing an extended version of Here & There at the Belconnen Arts Centre in April-May 2016