Thursday 21 April 2016

The Hindmarsh Prize

Amazing news hot off the press is that my work, Under the Microscope, has been selected for the inaugural Hindmarsh Prize for glass.....yes, you read it correctly... GLASS!

Under The Microscope (Photo: Deb Jurss)

This body of work was created during my 2015 GLINT residency (see previous posts) as a sample for much larger works in glass for future exhibition.  My idea was to create a series of large microscope slides reminiscent of Victorian scientific microscope slides.
Image: http://www.victorianmicroscopeslides.com/slides.htm

These slides were beautifully decorated with printed papers designed by the different individuals or firms who specialised in the preparation of scientific slides for scientists or collectors.  They have become highly collectable themselves, unfortunately well out of my price range, but luckily I have access to the Cryptogam Herbarium at the Australian National Botanic Gardens who hold a lovely collection of Victorian glass slides of diatoms.
Detail image of my slide which has been printed and sandblasted
The image I have used in my slide above is an SEM of Phaeoceros inflatus by Dr Christine Cargill surrounded by a textile damask design typical of the Victorian era. Dr Cargill and I have worked for many years since our ANAT Synapse residency back in 2005, and we do joke that it is the art-sci collaboration that just keeps on giving!

The Hindmarsh Prize is specifically for artists who work in glass from the ACT region, and there were 18 shortlisted artists from a field of 31. More information about the Hindmarsh prize, and a sneek peak at each artist's entry, can be found here


Sunday 17 April 2016

More Mordant Printing

Here are some more photos of the work produced  during the Fibre Arts Workshop in Ballarat a cou-ple of weeks ago (see previous post). These were taken by Gaye, who thankfully had the presence of mind to remember to take them. As usual I got so busy I forgot to do it myself! This first photo is really interesting because we were all trying to take photos of the table runner we made, but only Gaye's phone (on the right) took a photo of the true colours.

Colour differences between phone cameras (Photo: G Nieuwenhof)

Student's Finished work (Photo: G Nieuwenhof)

Beautiful colour ranges (Photo: G Nieuwenhof)

Lots of pattern and layering to build up texture and colour (Photo: G Nieuwenhof)

Saturday 16 April 2016

Natural Dye Workshop @ Ballarat

Had a fantastic week in Ballarat with Fibre Arts Australia printing with mordants and dyeing with a variety of natural dyes, from fresh plant material,  powdered dyes as well as extracts. I had a wonderful group of students who were right on track to learn new ways of creating images and colour combinations by printing with mordants both before and after dyeing with natural dyes.  I think we worked out that we had made over 150 colours during the course of the week.....so all the students have built up a wonderful resource for their future forays into natural dyes.  Towards the end of the week our group had to make something for the "top table" so we decided to make this fabulous table-runner which we printed with mordants and then dyed in iris leaves.
Table runner after printing with various mordants (before dyeing)
We were all so proud of it and we raised $100 when it sold to one of the other tutors during the live auction.
Table runner after dyeing with iris leaves and decoratively stitched by students
After the workshop I had several enthusiastic emails from several of my class saying they had already started putting their new skills into practice.  That is so exciting for me as a teacher - to know that you have not only inspired others with your passion and knowledge but also to create the impetus for independant research and experimentation.

The Ballarat Class of 2016 - Awesome and talented ladies!!

Thank you all so much for a wonderfully calm and productive week!