Traders Hall Update - New Trader - Rock View Alpacas

Things are getting busy in the Traders Hall and we are very pleased to welcome Rock View Alpacas to provide you with all the lovely soft alpaca that you need to create the softest warmest lightest garment ever.

Keen felter Maureen Foss runs Rock View and  has been building up their herd for several years now.

Photo Shane Foss

The softest, whitest fibres come from the baby alpaca, and they are cute too.

Photo Shane Foss

Maureen's alpacas have won prizes in shows Australia wide as has her alpaca felting.

Alpaca requires a slightly different felting technique so Maureen will be on hand to demonstrate techniques and give some tips and she'll have plenty of lovely alpaca for sale including batts.

Photo Shane Foss

We'll see you there.

The 12th Southern Hemisphere Felting Convergence - Where Will It Be?

With  only a month to go and the clock swiftly ticking towards the start of the 11th Southern Hemisphere Felting Convergence starting here in Bunbury the Organising Committee is busy putting together the final arrangements for our fabulous felting event. 

We hope you are enjoying sharing some of our tasks and arrangements through our blog and maybe even wishing you were part of things here at Felt Central.

Well the big question is where will the next Convergence be?

We have participants coming from all over the globe so who knows who will pick up the baton. 

Will it be somewhere new like Tasmania?  All that wonderful scenery for us to enjoy and the perfect felting climate.

Or perhaps New South Wales or Queensland.  All those active ACT felters may want to put their hands up perhaps?  Or the New Zealanders again?  What about Victoria?  Who felts in South Australia?

Are you game to run the next Convergence?

Photo Toni C

Traders Hall Update - Nannas Notions

Another new Trader attending the Convergence on Wednesday 5th October including the Bazaar Night is Lyn Bolton who runs Nannas Notions down in Bridgetown WA. 

Nannas Notions provides vintage sewing and knitting notions as well as turned wooden notions.   Exactly the sort of things we felters need to finish off our hand made garments  as so often modern commercial products really don't work for us do they?

We are really looking forward to seeing Lyn and her old sewing notions at the Convergence. 

The Wednesday of Bazaar Night looks as if it is going to be a great opportunity to stock up on all sorts of goodies so remember to bring your cash!

Please Dress Matilda

Our model - Matilda has nothing to wear to the Convergence.  Can you help dress her?

Matilda is one of the models appearing at the Convergence Fashion Parade but we are worried that she may have absolutely nothing to wear.

We have the auditorium, photographer, models, music and lightshow but so far only 49 Convergence attendees have indicated that they will be providing garments for it! 

So please bring your beautiful garments and wearable art for a spectacular night of entertainment with your work on show at this fashion event.

You can model your own garment or have it paraded by the models that we will be providing. Professional photographers will be taking pictures of the catwalk show and a CD of the event will be available for purchase at a nominal cost at the end of the Convergence.  

We need you to bring your creations to make this a fabulous night of fashion and to dress Matilda of course!

Traders Hall Update - Sheryl Chant

Things are getting busy in our Traders Hall and we are pleased to announce that Sheryl Chant has contacted us and is going to be joining us on Wednesday 5th October which is our  Bazaar Night.

Sheryl is a highly qualified artist and has exhibited throughout Australia for many years.  She specialises in primitive firing  saying

"I employ a variety of firing techniques, from oxides on green ware to Raku to pit and saggar and smoke firing. The thrill of the unpredictable, the excitement of heat and flame, each firing is an experiment, an adventure for me".  

See the clayfeet website - http://www.clayfeet.com.au/sheryl_profile.htm for more information.

To the Convergence Sheryl is bringing her unique hand made primitive and raku fired ceramic buttons.   We all know how hard it is to find buttons that compliment our felt garments  so be quick to visit her as we will certainly be hot footing it to her stand to buy them.

Thanks for joining us Sheryl.

Unique Perspectives Part III

The second textile artist on show at this exiting exhibition is Jiyoung Chung (USA/Korea) with her work titled Joomchi Paper Works.

Jiyoung Chung is a tutor at TAFTA's 2011 Geelong Forum and Janet de Boer of TAFTA has very kindly allowed us to reproduce this article from Textile Fibre Forum Issue 2, No 102, 2011 -

For more pictures of Jiyoung Chung's work click here.

UNIQUE PERSPECTIVES: TWO SOLO EXHIBITIONS – Felted work by Helen O’Hare (Ireland), and Joomchi Paper Works by Jiyoung Chung (USA/Korea) is presented by BUNBURY REGIONAL ART GALLERIES 23 September – 13 November2011, in partnership with Fibres West 2011.

Unique Perspectives Part II

If your head is still spinning from the size of Helen O'Hare's work in yesterdays post we have some more pictures for you but first - let's meet Helen-

Helen's Workshop

Clearly Helen needs a big space to work in when you consider the size of some of her exhibition pieces.  She's based in Northern Ireland and you can read more about her work by clicking here.

We have some more pictures of her work; these kindly sent to us by Janet de Boer of TAFTA (Australian Forum For Textiles Arts Ltd) -

Section of large piece.

Grey pink detail

Detail colour

1999 Felt work.

Helen's beautiful installation work will be on view at BUNBURY REGIONAL ART GALLERIES 23 September – 13 November 2011.  

Don't miss it!