19 Oct Meet some of our contributors in the September 2020 magazines!
We thought you’d like to know more about some of our contributors who bring you the projects and special articles in our magazines. Click on any red text to be taken to various links to find out even more about our contributors.
Textile Fibre Forum issue 139:
Born in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1950, Cresside Collette migrated to Australia in 1962.
Originally trained as a Graphic Artist at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), she worked as a book illustrator and advertising artist whilst developing large embroideries and exploring the textile arts. She was employed as a foundation weaver of The Victorian Tapestry Workshop in 1976, where she worked as a production weaver for 15 years. In 1980 she undertook postgraduate studies in the Tapestry Department of the Edinburgh College of Art, Scotland, subsequently completing a Master of Fine Art (by Research) at Monash University, Melbourne in 2003. In 2003 and 2004 she was awarded residencies at Bundanon (the estate left to the nation by renowned Australian artist Arthur Boyd) where she pioneered working “en plein air” in the medium of tapestry.
She has exhibited in individual and group shows consistently since 1971, and tutored in drawing and tapestry weaving in the Studio Textiles and Design Course at RMIT University for 11 years.
Over the last 25 years she has combined her own exhibition practice with designing and producing community tapestries for schools, city councils and universities. Her recent art practice examines the dichotomy of belonging to two lands, inspired by her return to Sri Lanka in 2009 to attend the Lanka Decorative Arts Workshop and subsequent visits over the past eight years. As well as being represented in Colomboscope 2019 her most recent exhibition, Postcards from Home, took place at the Saskia Fernando Gallery, Colombo, in the same year. More information on Cresside’s website.
Award-winning quilt maker to the stars, fearless leader of the Glitterati, and spiller of truth tea, Molli Sparkles originates from small town, USA, but has called Sydney, Australia his home for over fifteen years.
He has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Sydney.
Molli started his journey with textiles in 2012 after deciding he wanted to make his grandmother a quilt.
He likes drinking champagne while sewing, and if there’s one thing he’s learned, “it’s just fabric, you can’t break it!”
Visit Molli’s website for more glitter and fun!
Svenja works from her home studio in Brisbane, where she lives with her husband and unwitting ‘Patron of the Arts’, Matt. A previous World of WearableArt® addict, as of 2019 she has had thirteen garments accepted into the iconic New Zealand competition and show. In 2017 she graduated from TAFE Brisbane with her Diploma of Applied Fashion Design and Technology. Svenja continues her studies each year by participating in textile art workshops across Australia.
She is inspired primarily by the natural world, exhibiting in 2009 and 2011 in Morphology – Exploring the fascinating surfaces and forms of fungi and lichen through contemporary textile practices. Most recently in December 2019 she spent 5 weeks on King Island studying kelp and the shoreline as part of an artist residency fostering a change in direction of her work from wearable to low-relief wall and sculptural work.
Visit her website and blog to keep up with her adventures in textiles and life!
Embellish issue 43:
A multi-skilled artisan living in Queensland, Australia, I run a full-time practice which includes fine art, photography, fabric, felt, paper, bookbinding, sculpture, polymer clay and a great deal more. I teach, write and regularly contribute to Embellish magazine. Right now I’m enjoying soldering irons!
I am fortunate that I can wake up every morning and decide what I want to create that day; something new or work on a longer term project? How lucky can you be. Creating – in a myriad of forms – is what life is all about. I made the choice long ago of making money or creating. The first option has no true value. I started sculpting and painting as a young child, now I’m a lot older and still going!
For more information, check out my portfolio.
Anne Mitchell has been teaching fabric and silk painting in Australia for over 40 years. A former High School teacher, Anne also held teaching and management positions with Hobbytex before starting her own business in 1999.
Anne has travelled extensively throughout Australia and New Zealand, hosting fabric painting workshops and product demonstrations. In conjunction with Derivan, one of Australia’s leading acrylic paint manufacturers, Anne has developed a unique range of paint and dye products that are produced exclusively for Genesis Creations.
“The love of what I do motivated me to start my own business, which, for many years has allowed me the freedom to share my knowledge and skills with other craft professionals and enthusiasts. Now we have amazing products like Liquid Radiance as well as other fantastic paints and dyes that actually stay where you put them on the fabric!”
Anne has created many wonderful projects for Embellish ♥.
Barbara is a textile artist and a national and international educator, lecturer and tour leader.
Barbara teaches groups within Australia and overseas. She also teaches Design online to distance students – this gives students the knowledge to create original pieces.
She is Co-Convenor, tutor and assessor for the Embroiderers’ Guild of SA Inc Certificate and Advanced Certificate Courses and accessions articles for their Museum.
In addition, Barbara takes groups to India, Morocco and Bhutan to study textiles, meet the people who have created the textiles and give the groups the experience of staying in the artisans’ country.
For her service to the Creative Arts, she was awarded an OAM in 2020.
For more information visit her website.
Lynda is a full-time textile artist after previous lives as a medical research officer (researching in the field of Immunology, including creating monoclonal antibodies from scratch), and business and resources manager. Art and crafting, across a wide range of arts and crafts, have been part of her life since she was very young.
As a textile artist, her varied and original works cover many techniques. In 2006 she had her first solo exhibition, “A Journey In Textile Art“, showcasing works covering the previous decade including garments, fashion accessories, fabric bowls, 3D fabric sculptures and more. Lynda’s original design gowns have been entered in Australian Gown of the Year, Flair Fashion Awards, The Australian Wool Fashion Awards, and Art to Wear. Her works are influenced by textures, Australian flora and fauna, and the Australian landscape.
Her textile art is predominantly free machine embroidery and mixed media. However, more recently, hand embroidery has been making in-roads into her works.
Lynda is Editor of Embellish as well as Editor-in-Chief and Craft Editor for Vintage Made magazine. She also volunteers her time to help with our administration and as our contributor contact point and advertising guru.
If you are interested in seeing some of Lynda’s textile art, visit her website (which she says she “really should update!”) or Facebook page.
Yarn issue 59:
Hi I am Simone, Owner and Dyer of Gum Blossom Yarns. I am a scientist and a teacher whose hobbies are knitting, crochet, botanical dyeing, and walking in the Australian bush.
I was searching for softer, more natural yarn colours to craft with than was capable with synthetic yarns. I now use my research skills to find new, attractive and sustainable botanical dyes in plants.
I dye yarn using native plants: eucalypts, seasonal berries, herbs, seeds, and garden flowers foraged in my local area of Brisbane Australia.
If you would like more information about these yarns, please contact me at gumblossomyarns@icloud.com or visit my website.
Follow my discoveries on social media @gumblossomyarns or #gumblossomyarns. Information on seasonal products is available in our blog.
A multi-skilled artisan living in Queensland, Australia, I run a full-time practice which includes fine art, photography, fabric, felt, paper, bookbinding, sculpture, polymer clay and a great deal more. I teach, write and regularly contribute to Yarn magazine.
I am fortunate that I can wake up every morning and decide what I want to create that day; something new or work on a longer term project? How lucky can you be. Creating – in a myriad of forms – is what life is all about. I made the choice long ago of making money or creating. The first option has no true value. I started sculpting and painting as a young child, now I’m a lot older and still going!
For more information, check out my portfolio.
I got the gardening bug from my Father. Every evening after dinner he would go and potter around outside until dark. On weekends, if he couldn’t be found inside it was a surety that he’d be in his beloved garden.
Watching tiny seeds grow into beautiful plants, enjoying the sound of calming water on a summer’s day, this is what gardening is for me. Gardening is not a chore; it’s about creating a thing of beauty in harmony with nature. It is an extension of who we are and brings a sense of peace into an otherwise hectic life.
I studied garden design at the Blackford Centre while living and working in West London. The course provided me with the tools to take my love of gardening and turn it into a new career. While studying I was a volunteer gardener at ‘Osterley House and Gardens’, a neo-classical house owned by the British National Trust. I graduated earning a diploma with merit shortly before migrating to Sydney and starting my own business. I am a qualified horticulturist, having studied horticulture both in the U.K. and in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. I have designed, maintained and built gardens in England, Wollongong, Sydney and the Southern Highlands.
As well as being a keen gardener, I have a passion for conservation. Where possible I strive to source all my materials locally and sustainably. I like to recycle materials as this is more environmentally friendly and can give a garden that ‘weathered’ look rather than being shiny and new. I compost as much as possible and all uncooked vegetable waste and copious amounts of coffee grounds make their way in to my large, very healthy composting piles. More information can be found on my website.
Award-winning author Amy Lane lives in a crumbling crapmansion with a couple of teenagers, a passel of furbabies, and a bemused spouse. She has too damned much yarn, a penchant for action-adventure movies, and a need to know that somewhere in all the pain is a story of Wuv, Twu Wuv, which she continues to believe in to this day!
She writes contemporary romance, paranormal romance, urban fantasy, and romantic suspense, teaches the occasional writing class, and likes to pretend her very simple life is as exciting as the lives of the people who live in her head. She’ll also tell you that sacrifices, large and small, are worth the urge to write.
We have some of her previous writings available HERE.
For more, see her website.
Like many spouses, I’m surrounded by yarn and textiles and projects. Wherever I turn there’s crocheting or knitting, spinning or weaving, embroidery or macramé—and none of it belongs to me! When shopping, I love it when my wife visits the yarn stores, because it means that I can sit for a couple of hours in the nearest café and have a well-earned coffee or six.
My wife and daughter both indulge their passions with avid delight, and I sit back and shake my head in bewilderment. My contribution to their happiness is important for two reasons. The one they’d like to believe is that I enjoy devising things that make their lives easier. The one that’s more true is that I help them to keep their projects out of the lounge room, while leaving me enough space in the closets for my golf clubs and jigsaw collection.
I’ve been roped into putting together several rigid heddle looms, I’ve built yarn holders, an embroidery swift, a warping board for a rigid heddle loom, and I have an extensive list of future projects which doesn’t seem to get any shorter.
To summarise… I am an expert in wool husbandry.
I started knitting early in life, probably an attempt by my Mother to ensure I didn’t fall overboard when we travelled by ship from Australia to England. After that I was pretty well hooked. Throughout our lives we were encouraged to be creative and learned to sew and embroider – knitting was always my favourite. During my music studies it was a stress release after many hours of scales and battling with the violin.
When my daughter was born she became the recipient of many of my creations and whilst I’m not sure she was always terribly thrilled, craft sustained me through a nursing career and then a stint at Paton’s Australia, where I honed my pattern writing skills and perfected my crocheting under the eagle eye of Lucia Russo.
I have given knitting workshops at the CAE and in my home studio. In my spare time I work on my trapeze routine and foot juggling for various cabaret shows and try to spend as much time as possible with my two grandchildren who are now the main inspiration for my knitting. I also play with a String Quartet, playing at weddings and other events on a regular basis.
Inspiration for my knitting comes from many places. I love colour and have an enormous collection of wool, all sorted into different shades. Although I don’t have a large garden anymore I love gardening and often knit flowers into or attached to my designs.
My daughter has now discovered the joy of knitting and I have taught my grandson to knit. So, including my Mother, that is four generations of knitters in our family. I am also about to finish a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice – no idea what use I’ll put that to but it has certainly been good for my brain.
Rachel Preston has been experimenting with felting techniques for a number of years, creating unique pieces of felt art and projects that inspire others to experience the art of felting.
Rachel enjoys the creative process of taking something as soft and supple as wool and manipulating it into something that has strength and substance just by adding a little soap, heat and friction. It inspires and intrigues.
More of Rachel’s work may be seen on Instagram and Madeit.
Connect with Eva-Maria via her Facebook page.
Margaret Stump has been a pin loom weaver ever since aged 10, when her mother brought home two pin looms. Over the years she has woven many blankets, scarves, pouches, purses and other items… including a number of really ugly cushion covers that were so ugly she threw them away, but now wishes she had kept, just to help track all the things one can weave on pin looms.
Margaret came to write her pin loom weaving books without ever seeking out a publisher. She had written her own amateur book, Weavies One, that included a number of pin loom patterns and that she sold on the internet. One day she received a note from someone requesting a free copy of the book on the basis that they were a publisher and were considering publishing a book on this craft. She remembers thinking, “Good heavens, people will say almost anything to get a free book”. But she did send the book, which led to Pin Loom Weaving; 40 projects for tiny hand looms.
Since then Margaret has completed two further books of pin loom patterns and shares information, patterns and techniques via her website.
Margaret lives in Minnesota, USA, with her husband, Jerry, and a couple cats. She is working to avoid Covid-19 by spending almost all of her time weaving at home or riding her bicycle.
Elayne has been creative all her life. She inherited a love of crafting and creating from her mother, who tried to teach her to knit and crochet when she was a child. It took many years before she realised that she loved the same things, and then she had to re-learn everything!
She enjoys all sorts of crafts—not only textile-based ones—and is tempted to try every one of them. She wouldn’t call herself an expert in any of her endeavours, merely proficient, but she loves to give her ideas a try! She is not a perfectionist, and has found that some really creative accidents come from mistakes.
Elayne lives in Sydney with her partner and her two cats.
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