Talk with Raye Facic

Working with leather  is just like working with any textile, you never know what you are able to make with it until you push the boundaries a little.  It’s expected that furniture weight leather is for furniture alone but saturated with watered down PVA glue it can be sculpted into variety of shapes. It’s ideal to have fine Italian leather to create flowers but I only had scraps of furniture leather so I gave it a go and it worked.     I’m a determined type when I put my mind to do something. My creation of flowers in shades of white was made for a workshop at the Guild house. I was encouraged to enter it in Royal Show and to my surprise it won a mayor price. Some of the flowers were created using heat as leather reacts to heat by curling on the cut edges. To cut leather good sharp scissors are a must. Soldering iron with a rounded tip is used to make dents in petals and leaves. I will show a quick demo of stages to create a flower as I feel that visual show is always the best way to understand the a technique.

My name is Raye and I’m a Croatian that’s been living in Australia for most of my life .I started crafting art as a very young child. As far back as my memory goes I’ve been creating something out of whatever was available to me. Hand embroidery I started very young learning from older family members as well as a village embroidery teacher. To attend a lessons from embroidery teacher I had to bring an egg or money ,chicken we had money we did not. In Australia things changed it wasn’t easy but I did get a job at 14 and so had some money so I was able to get items for what I love doing “creating “
Life gets in the way so there was less time spent on creatively but I always snuck a moment or two doing what I love.When I had more time I went full on into hand embroidery in every style. As I was a garment maker I made porcelain dolls just so I could dress them beautifully. Creating pictures with textiles, burning/ melting  polyester fabric with passion. Somewhere along the way someone mentioned leather and as I had limitless supplies working in industry sewing marine seat covers I gave that a go. Mountain of flowers made with leather followed Whatever I have a go at I do try to do it to the best of my ability. I should mention that I have spent 25 years in the market garden growing vegetables. Gardening I love and spend endless hours tending my small suburban garden. I must confess I don’t quilt or knit, felting I have done and was amazed how magical wool is. This is a small insight into creative side of my life, Raye.

JOCELYNE LEATH – Presentation & Trunk Show

Jocelyne is a Textile Artist, best known for her pictorial art quilts, fine work and intricate detail.

She is an international tutor and exhibitor as well as a multi-award winner, including several Best of Shows at a National level. 

“Please join me for an inspiring and motivating talk about the pleasures of mixing media.

I like to combine different techniques and very different materials into my pieces, to produce the effect that I seek. I have a good variety of work to show you and I hope to provide lots of ideas that are easily adaptable with the craft of felting. I find my craft very exciting and I wish to share it with you.”

The Group Project Seasons will commence after a short break.

Running an Art Business in a Changing world with Susan Sheppard

Love it or hate it, so many opportunities have opened up in recent years with far reaching media platforms.

How to sell our work is something we have all wrestled with. Whether it be visual art, sculpture or textiles they all have something in common: Creativity.

In this interactive session Susan will help us see other ways possible to put creativity to work.

Susan’s art business has been mostly by traditional means but once she decided who her ideal clients were ( feature pieces for home owners, investors and corporate) it was the most appropriate way to go.

It’s exciting times with so many options.

Susan is one of our newer felters but has been a realist painter for many years. She particularly enjoys large-scale landscapes rich in colour and this shows in her beautiful felt creations.

Her early experiences with her farming family gave her the freedom to explore the natural environment. It has left a life-long love of undisturbed habitat. Earlier life focussed around a science degree, 20 years science teaching, 10 years as a florist and being encompassed by family life. She has two adult children.

She feels greatly privileged to be in WA at a time of great economic growth while parts of our environment are still pristine wilderness. Together with her husband, Peter, she travels, often to remote locations, to experience the vast diversity of pristine habitat. This enables her to immerse herself in the experience and collect images.

Her challenge is to re-create optical illusions on a flat surface, so that the audience also gets the sense of joy she felt when visiting these places. Water is an ever-present feature in Susan Sheppard’s paintings. Even in harsh, dry locations, she generally chooses to depict aspects made lush by the gift of water. There may also be a closet geologist within. She has a great fondness for depicting rocks in their many forms.

This month Diny Monaghan is going to demonstrate the Gentle Roller. This is a great opportunity to see how it works and check out if it will suit your needs. Along with Diny several other long time users will be there to answer any questions.

So bring along you felting gear and put your new found skill into practice after the demo.

Silk Paper with Nancy Ballesteros

Silk paper is an exciting new and unique medium for designing with silk fibres. A shimmering sheet of the silk paper is created by simply laying down unspun fibres and “gluing” them together with various adhesive mediums. Silk paper captures the intense lustre and beauty of silk fibres but it is not considered a true sheet of laid paper. Its surface texture can be manipulated in a variety of ways – scrunching, moulding, stitching etc. By experimenting with the various adhesives mediums you can learn to paint with the silk paper, use it in felting, create unique sculptural pieces or design wearable art.

On the day, you will be shown a variety of samples of different types of Silk paper and discussion on how they were made. We will then break off and create a sample of Silk paper that can be used in your own felting.

We hope you can join Nancy for an exploration into one of our favourite fibres –Silk!

This is a Demo & Do session

Materials List:

• 10gms of Silk Tops (Bombyx or Tussah) – various colours can be fun to play with
• Optional – 10gms of Silk Throwsters Waste
• Optional Empty Spray Bottle – or there will be a few available you can share around
• Old cloth for any spills
• Scissors
• Plus your felting gear & wool

Nancy will supply:

• Starch Medium for making Silk paper for felters
• Grease Proof Paper
• Iron & Ironing board

Welcome back!

Needle felting essentials with Peta Korb

Peta Korb of Country Chicks Creations will join us for the first Toss n Tell of the year and welcome you to the world of needle felting. Unravel the confusion about needle sizes and shapes and how best to use them. What other tools are there along with fibre choices for different needle felting projects. Peta will share with you tips and tricks she has learnt over the years to maximise your enjoyment on your journey into the world of needle felting.

Peta will have her Country Chicks Creations pop up shop in the main hall from 10.00am closing during demonstration and reopening again. Needle and wet felting tools and fibres will be available.

Our last meeting for 2023 is our annual Christmas Party this Saturday 10:00am

We would love to see you all to celebrate the year we have had and to give you a sneak preview of what’s to come in 2024. We would like to do a little charity fund raiser, and keeping in the season – we would like you to make a Christmas decoration and we will sell them off.

Bring along:

• A plate to share
• Some flowers for the table
• Your favourite piece of Christmas felt or just your favourite piece of felt to show
• And your lovely selves!

Sue Eslick is going to show us how to use the leather making gear in our library – in particular the hole punch and grommet system. Perfect for holes in your felt.

Along with a Pop Up shop, Sara Quail will be demonstrating methods for creating decorative elements using viscose, a plant based fibre. She will show you how to incorporate this silky fibre into your felting to create a variety of effects ranging from light and lacy to lookalike nuno. To create graphic, jewel-like and textural elements, some unusual layout methods will also be revealed along with how to make ‘silk’ paper. Make the most of this versatile and economical fibre with the shared tips and tricks for endless possibilities!

Over 40 viscose colours and a variety of other Unicorn Fibres products will be available for purchase on the day – Cash or credit card available. To ensure availability of any specific items, please pre-order from the website for collection at TnT or email Sara at info@unicornfibres.com.au for assistance.

It’s that time of the year our AGM is around the corner. Doors will be open at 9:30am for Trash & Treasure sellers but the day will start at 10am.

All details are on the website under the Members section and include:

• Previous meeting minutes
• Agenda
• Both online and downloadable forms for nomination and proxies

Sue Eslick is going to show us the many ways to stiffen felt.

Nancy Ballesteros will be talking all things silk. The types, their nuances, and their uses.

Nancy will have a Pop Up shop with her so bring your credit cards and a shopping bag!

Nancy Ballesteros

Nancy Ballesteros has passionately worked with fabric all her life. She spent most of her childhood sewing and then was introduced to spinning, felting and dyeing while at university. These elements quickly took over as her life’s passion and she hatched a fibre business called Treetops Colour Harmonies in 1987. Since moving to Australia in 1990, Treetops continued to grow into a successful international web-based company offering felting supplies for discerning felt makers. She has taught felting for many years before taking a break to raise her two children and run Treetops. Since 2014, she began teaching again in Australia, Europe and the USA, mostly concentrating on unravelling the mysteries of working with superfine Merino and Nuno felting. Nancy was instrumental in developing the technique of Silk ‘Paper’. She has written about felting in numerous publications and participated in many workshops and master classes.

www.treetopscolours.com.au  facebook.com/treetopscolours   instagram.com/treetops.colours

The library has many books on colour and colour theory ready to borrow.