Ispirato

Last week I escaped the real world and attended a residential art retreat, Fibres Ballarat. There were 170 of us living-in at Ballarat Grammar plus a number of locals who lived-out. Classes ranged from basketry, felt hat making, felt jewellery, tin jewellery, etching, machine embroidery, machine embellishing, garment making, banner making and my class of choice: book binding.

 My tutor was Sandy Webster of the US. She has taught in Australia several times and came highly recommended. I was not disappointed! Fantastic, generous with information and attention - this is a great teacher and artist.

Our class project was a book with a cover that wrapped around it like a box . Tucked into the book pages are several smaller projects - mini-books, paper toys and interactive mechanisms. Very cool. That’s my book spine getting stitched at left.

We also took on personal projects and you can read about my ‘Inanna’ project at my other blog, myartself.com as it was a book in combination with paper art dolls.

I have been attending Fibre Forums like this one for several years now and it is like being reunited with my sisters. I’ve forged many friendships and we have a good time both in and out of our classes. There are social activities like the cocktail party which raises funds to provide scholarships to these events. Here I am on the far left - one of the Cocktail Queens. We make ‘em and serve ‘em. Our natty fascinators are pretty bra cups. Would you have guessed? That’s Nonie, Robyn (the amazing Chief Beverage Designer) and one of my oldest, dearest friends, Jane - who lives in Sydney and often comments on this blog!

We could’ve done with more make-up and fewer double chins in this photo. But heck, we’re all smiling and isn’t that really what matters most?

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