The Dirty Workshops

 Had a fantastic week last week at the Dirty Denim exhibition opening & workshops.  Here are some snaps from the workshop days - check out this full table of sewing dirty denim girls!

 

It was a joy to share my love of English Paper Piercing and even more exciting to witness other hand sewers enjoy the patchwork technique too.  Verity is explaining screen printing processes here.

 

And here distressing the denim using bleach (although far from environmentally sustainable!)

This family making team brought along there own jeans to make two denim bags and create a skirt from the waist band!

Below are some finished works

Plenty of dirt on this patch

I do love sewing - although right now I am just not focused on getting things completed.  More kinda like I am plodding over old ground and scrambling for some rainbow rays to hit me and light my way.

This work below is a shot of work in progress for Dirty Denim.  Again using English Paper Piecing - usually I use Horse Hair - but for Dirty Denim I am using reclaimed denim! So many tones to play with.

 

This will be a large quilt stuffed with dried grasses (rather than a man made quilt lining) - and where I am wanting to go now is to use a previous drawing from a sampler pattern and transpose it into a large wall piece using the larger squares.

Perhaps I have a rainbow now - top of the season winter weather here - not a rainbow in sight.  Kinda like it is  spring already.

We Want Your Pants!!

Dirty Denim is a new project I am starting with a wonderful Bendigo based textile artist Verity Lougoon.

We have a show coming up next December at the La Trobe University Visual Arts Centre.
Along side the show will be textile workshops in green screen printing, hand sewing quilts and embroidery.

Want to learn more about denim and its tragic impact on the world check out this great video "From Crop to Swap". Video by Planet Ark

Image by Brendan McCathy