Award winning work

Many of our members entered and were successful recently in the 2012 Royal Agricultural Society Easter Show at Olympic Park, Sydney.

Ken Marshall and Helen MacRitchie both achieved Standard of Excellence Awards for their entries in leatherwork and wearable art respectively.

Ken Marshall 2012

Contemporary Elizabethan tunic
Helen MacRitchie 2012

Our congratulations to everyone involved!

If you didn’t get to the Easter Show this year then you can see more of Ken and Helen’s work at the NSCG’s Contemporary Craft Exhibition and Sale in June which is “Made for You“

Watch this space for more details of our exciting guest exhibitors featuring this year – mark it in your diary!

 

 

How about checking out these exhibitions?

If you are in the Sydney area this Easter, how about visiting these exciting exhibitions involving some of the NSCG members.

Situated in the Botanic Gardens of Sydney, the Palm House is a lovely historic building that is housing an exhibition and sale of Enamels and Textiles by Heather and Elizabeth Calnan from 17 – 23 April.

Then why not visit the Craft NSW Gallery,104 George Street, The Rocks for

 An Exhibition of creative flame-worked art glass objects

The artists invited have been selected for the unique styles and techniques used to produce an exciting array of flame-worked art glass objects.

Opening: April 17 at 5.30pm, and the exhibition runs from April 17 to 29, 2012

Gallery open 7 days, 9.30 to 5.30

Phone: 61 2 9241 5825 Fax: 61 2 9252 6255 Email: gallery@artsandcraftsnsw.com.au

Web: www.artsandcraftsnsw.com.au

This display includes wonderful sculptural work by NSCG member and flame worker Penel Bigg.

And finally you’ll find more information and gallery photos from one of the Group’s newest members, Joy Dodd, by clicking on her name now included in the members’ list here.

Her weaving is even better in real life.

Always busy…

A few of the NSCG members met up recently to catch up on some coffee, cake, chat and creative handstitching with some other likeminded ladies.

It was also a great opportunity to share our latest book purchases as you can see from the pile on the table, and glean some inspiration for future work.

Trudy Billingsley (in foreground) was working on a handstitched piece of layered fabric, a base material from which she creates her wonderful fabric figures.  The material will be embellished with a myriad of colourful embroidery stitches.  The close up below shows the detail involved and how Trudy clearly loves the process.

In case you were wondering what Val James was up to in the background, she was working on a textile entry for Returned to Glory, the recycled art competition run by Hornsby shire council each year.  Val was won many awards in the past for entries in the wearable art and mixed media categories of this competition.  I won’t be disclosing her entry of course but here is a close up of her ‘fabric’ under creation, so that you can start guessing what’s being recycled.

You’ll be able to see Val’s completed work when the Returned to Glory 2012 exhibition opens on 6 June until 24 June 2012 at the Wallaroba Arts and Cultural Centre, Hornsby.

Bags and Bling

Here are some lovely examples of new pieces that Brenda Coleman has been working on recently.

Brenda Coleman- Earrings, oxidised sterling silver, 18ct gold, peridots

Brenda Coleman "Elephants 1" necklace and bracelet - Sterling silver, carnelian

Brenda has been a member of the NSCG since 2006, skillfully creating unique jewellery pieces particularly glass beads, kiln formed glass and silver jewellery.  You can find out more about Brenda and see further examples of her work here.

Helen MacRitchie has had a colourful spell recently with new scarves and a sneaky peak at a felt handbag that will be making an appearance at this year’s Royal Easter Show in Sydney.

Trellis Scarf (detail) H MacRitchie

Twirling Colours (detail) H MacRitchie

Twirling Colours (detail) H MacRitchie

Starting the new year

The NSCG met this week for our first group meeting of 2012 to begin planning joint activities for the coming year.

After our Christmas exhibition we had enjoyed a lovely Christmas party at our President’s house in December looking back on the year and taking the opportunity to involve our long suffering partners in our socialising.

During the summer holidays, however, our members were far from inactive.  Many were involved in exhibitions and workshops locally and internationally.

Barbara Schey, a regular tutor with Handweavers and Spinners Guild NSW as well as an active member of NSCG, gave a workshop on Buttony during the Guild’s Summer School workshop program.  Barbara has long been an exponent on the history of button making and maintenance of the required skills and techniques through education of such.  Her dorset buttons are simply to die for!

Buttons created during workshop by student Brigitte Sieber

Barbara was also involved in the World Shibori Symposium recently held at the Hong Kong University in late December 2011.  19 works measuring 30cm square were sent from Australia under the theme “Out of the Box” including this work (below) by Barbara.  She was unfortunately unable to travel this time to Hong Kong to attend herself due to her busy schedule especially disappointing as she had been to the previous 5 Symposiums in Chile, Melbourne, England, Japan and France.  The artists decided to donate their beautiful work to the University who expressed their thanks for this gift.

"Out of the Box" exhibit 2012 by B Schey

Also at the recent Shibori Symposium in Hong Kong, Barbara’s colourful kimono (below) was exhibited in Energy Nexus Exhibition.  This work was selected to be exhibited at the ancient temple at Foshan in Ghanzhou, China opening on 17 February 2012 - would love to be there.  Philomena Hali from Alice Springs was the only other Australian artists accepted.  The kimono is dyed silk organza and measures approx. 2 x 2.5m.  It could be worn on a catwalk perhaps but is primarily a wall piece.

Kimono by B Schey

You can see more of Barbara’s work along with work of other NSCG members at our upcoming Contemporary Craft Exhibition and Sale in June 2012, Ku-ring-gai Town Hall. Pymble.  Follow this blog for more details.

Boutique Christmas Sale

A big thank you to all those who came along to the NSCG Christmas Sale at Thornleigh community Centre last weekend, and supported our members and the charity Dial-a-Mum.

The hall looked amazing as usual, with a Christmas themed stage area full of beautifully made decorations and cards displayed to a backdrop of quilts by Val James.

In a just a matter of a few hours the hall was transformed thanks to all the members working together, and the effort was evident in a very successful weekend.

For a few new members of NSCG this was their first exhibition and sale with the group, and their craft attracted a lot of well deserved attention.  The outdoor ceramics of Ruth Fugar, a ceramicist from Dural were very popular, her birdhouses practically flew out the door on Friday!

Joy Dodds, a new weaver with the group, had some beautiful scarves that didn’t remain on display for long either.

If you unfortunately missed the event, the Group’s next exhibition will be in June 2012 at Ku-ring-gai Town Hall, Pymble as usual, but in the meantime keep an eye on our blog for updates on our members’ work and hints of our Challenge theme for the June exhibition.

Christmas Show 2011