holiday class wrap up IIII * handmade scarf printing

Our first time printing beautiful sheer cotton scarves and the results are stunning! I would wear any one of them!
The combination of bright pops of colour and the beauty of a childlike hand at printing created these wonderful handmade works of art!
We took our inspiration from the famous textile designer Marimekko, and hand cut potato stamps with our chosen design. The children were encouraged to work on their pattern repeat on paper before proceeding with colour choice and stamping their design with fabric paint directly on to their scarves.

holiday class wrap up III * wire sculpture

Oh my! This class was such a fun class! Something quite different where the children created their own wire garden atop one of weave+wonder's well-known logs! Inspired by the famous wire sculpture of Alexander Calder, the children were asked to experiment + minipulte the wire into any form they wished to begin, and we followed this up with technique on how to form flowers. The finished product looked amazing, each child focusing on the techniques + forms that most inspired them! I was super impressed!
We display our sculpture at home under a glass cloche - makes my children extra proud of their work!

holiday class wrap up II * collage

On the first Monday of the school holidays, we kicked off our holiday classes with back to back collage classes!
Inspired by the wonderful Georgia Okeefe and her large format paintings of enlarged blossoms, we created our own spring garden, layering and tearing tissue to create graded colour and texture.
The results were wonderful, especially mounted on our sturdy ply canvas!

holiday class wrap up I * Fashion

Deepest appologies for the delay in posting about our wonderful school holiday classes!
First up, a review on the sensational fashion design series. The feedback we received was so positive - a great 'taster' course for those interested in fashion as a career or those just starting to show an interest! The course is jam-packed with a wealth of useful information. The ever-talented Melanie Finger, fashion designer for Australia Zoo's Bindiwear and several of her own labels, including Nieve as well as a TAFE-qualified fashion design teacher. Melanie has designed a comprehensive + fun series enjoyed by all - we will run this successful series again next year!
In Melanie's words....

I had a wonderful three days with 6 very talented young ladies!

On day one we explored why people wear what they wear, where and how to look for inspiration (sorry if they have started cutting up your good magazines!) and began doodling in our own way. What emerged straight away were well thought out inspired designs – what a delight to see that talent!

On Day Two we looked at professional fashion illustration and how we can express our designs. We whipped out watercolour, oil pastels, turps, pens and pencils and after careful use of the light box with our favourite drawing, the girls were straight into creating a masterpiece! I hope you are very proud of what they produced!

On Day Three we talked about colour and fabrics and how much of an impact if can have on your designs. We chose a colour palette for our theme and then began the process of refining the designs and presenting as a final fashion illustration. As you can see from the photos – the results were extraordinary!

Thank you for entrusting your children to me – it was a delightful time. I really hope they are enjoying the journals and the extra work I included.
I just loved the way the girls worked at home in between class and were so excited about showing me their discoveries – such a motivated group!

Hope to see you again in another series!

weekday weave

[crochet vessel #6 holding sewing supplies]

The last week of school leading up to holiday classes is always a bit of a frenzy. I feel buried under a mountain of supplies + inspiration - not too bad a place to be for someone who loves art + creativity I guess, but easy to get lost here!
These are a few snaps from my week, including some of the delicious inspiration we will be soaking in next week for our classes!

[piles of soft floaty muslin sewn into scarves for printing]

[stamping sample #1 geometric]

[stamping sample #2 floral]

[inspiration for this class by the wonderful Marrimekko fabric house]

[wire flowers are multiplying here as my children experiment with offcuts!]

[so much wire goodness...I'm really loving this medium and have a few projects up my sleeve when class-craziness dies down!]

[Inspiration for this class by the ever-extraordinary Alexander Calder and his artwork in 3D]

[delicious rainbow of tissue cut for collage]

[texture from nature, flakey paperbark]

[inspiration for this class in the stunning work of Georgia O'Keeffe her use of colour + abstraction]

[long days packing and sorting....almost there!]