Fibre Forum Winter School 2016

My week at the Fibre Forum in Ballarat went very quickly. One minute it seemed that I was checking in and the next thing you know it was time to say goodbye to everyone.
As usual in Ballarat it was cold but we only had one rainy day which was a relief. We stayed at Ballarat Grammar which is a beautiful school with lovely buildings and grounds.

Ballarat Grammar

There are some beautiful old trees in the front of the school.

I was doing a Master-class with Lisa Call called Working in a Series. I don't do many workshops these days but I couldn't resist doing a Master-class with Lisa. The class was all about the benefits of working in a series as well as learning about critiquing and taking your art to the next level.

We had to make 4 little compositions. I chose to work on some coral reef quilts. They were only little exercises because there was no way I could do 4 finished pieces in 5 days. Every morning we would have our work pinned to a design board and Lisa would critique it.

It could have been very daunting but the other eight students in the class were all supportive and friendly and it wasn't as bad as you would think. We all had completely different styles of work, so it was very interesting.

My first composition was very reminiscent of the homework that I have been doing in my Art Quilters group this year.

Composition 1

Lisa didn't like my choice of background or the values of my rocks. It was so interesting because when I did my Design and Composition course a few years ago the teacher said that she didn't like my backgrounds. It seems I still haven't learnt that lesson!

For my next composition I went back to basics and did a value study to help with my fabric choices.

Composition 2

Lisa liked that one much better as it showed greater depth.

I went back to colour for my third composition and tried to follows the values in my back and white piece.

Composition 3

I think that it does show more depth.
I didn't want to create another underwater scene because of the time restrictions and the fact that I can do them so much better at home where I have all my fabric and supplies.

I decided to try an abstract study using the underwater fabrics that I had with me.

Composition 4

I quite like my little abstract composition. I might revisit that technique sometime.

The other class members did some fantastic work but I don't think it is fair to show photos of it because it was done in a class under time pressure and I didn't ask their permission to post their photos.

The students and tutors were asked to make 10cm x 10cm and 15cm x 15 cm little pieces of work to sell for fundraising.

15cm x 15cm

10cm x 10cm

They were priced at $10 and $15 and were all snapped up very quickly.
I bought a 10cm x 10cm piece by Francie Mewett from South Australia.

I met Francie earlier this year at AQC and then again at the Fibre Forum, it's good to have work by someone you know.

I also bought one of Lisa Call's art work called Lines 54, it is beautifully mounted on a black painted artist canvas and will be a great reminder of my class with her.

Lines 54 by Lisa Call

We were very well fed with home cooked cakes and slices for morning tea, cheese and fruit platters for afternoon tea, breakfast, lunch and main course and dessert every night. One night we had birthday cake for desert and everyone who had an 0 birthday this year had to stand up and we got served first as a treat. There I am on the right. You can get an idea of all the different ages at the Forum.

0 birthday cake

Our class had to sit together on the last night. By the end of the week you feel as if you know your class very well. They were a great group, unfortunately one of our class members had to leave early and wasn't at our final dinner.

Lisa Call's Class

In the school grounds was a statue of a fish and I had to take a photo of it seeing as I was immersed in fish all week.

So the Fibre Forum is over and it did go quickly, Lisa made us really think about what we want to achieve in our art in the future. We are going to receive 10 weeks of online class so we can think further about our plans.

It is not often that you get an opportunity to think about these things and so it will be interesting to see if it makes a difference to my life. One of the things she stressed was that there is only so much time in a week and we have to work out our priorities and not try and do everything that is put in front of us. It's OK to say no! Easier said than done sometimes.

Bye for now,
Linda