Teaching, travels and beautiful boots!

Above is a picture of my brother Garry’s dad. The photo is taken on their property at Casterton. They had trained the sheep to pull a cart and Garry’s Dad was eager to be pulled about the paddocks. Just part of a fabulous woolly family history I have discovered! Isn’t it a great photo? The next two images are students’ work from my three-day Shades of Grey in 3 dimensions class at the studio.

Have had a busy time with my travels to Melbourne then Central Australia and then a fabulous workshop in Western Australia. I fell in love with the South West! My father-in-law Des came from Kojanup and I spent a little time there which was lovely. My host was wonderful and took me sightseeing even though it was a fairly rushed working trip.

Then our much-awaited Felting Convergence in Toowoomba and Natalya Brashovetska visiting and teaching felt boot making from Cyprus. Natalya originally comes from Ukraine, as with many Eastern European countries, a place with a wonderful history of traditional felt boot making. She shared her techniques which are very modern, innovative, and interesting. 10 students came to the workshop which was, I think, a perfect number. It was such a busy time most days starting at 7 am and sometimes not finishing till 7 at night. Very dedicated students I must say and the work showed their attention to detail. I think everyone was exhausted by the end but felt very chuffed with their fabulous boots and bags.

Feltmaker, Chris Lines and her husband Steve, came for a social visit before Convergence. We met in the UK when I was teaching a couple of years ago and I always admired her work. She is a marvelous feltmaker from the Isle of Wight in the UK. We are hoping Chris can come back to visit and teach here soon. Here is a link to her work. http://quaycrafts.com/artists/artist_chris-lines/ Chris taught classes at convergence which were very well received. If you are interested in a class with Chris email me to put in an expression of interest. Below is one of my pieces from Chris’s faces class and one of the other participants’ faces as well. We learned such a lot. And two of Chris’s beautiful works….

My annual textile exhibition with Sharyn Hall is fast approaching. Can you believe it has been 9 years since we first started working together? We are excited to have our flyer finished at last and look forward to popping copies out and about around Brisbane. If you know of anywhere we could pop flyers let me know. I can pop some in the post. We will both be busy preparing after a hectic year! Here are a few of Sharyn’s lovely images. Next year we have Mary Hettsmansperger visiting and teaching from the USA.

She will teach from the studio for 5 days. Very excited to have her visit. She will be teaching a combination of three classes with a special emphasis on using felt and textiles in pieces. Please email wendy@wendybailye.com if you are interested. We have 7 bookings so far and can take 12. Well, that is about it for now. The studio calls. Yes and don’t forget blessed are the feltmakers! Wendy xxx.