2013 Exhibition 1

 

The Guild’s 2013 Exhibition is on right now.

On Thursday it went from this:

to this…….

in the space of a few hours. Amazing!

Young Stitchers

One of the first things that visitors see when they walk in is the table with the work of the Young Stitchers:

Haven’t they done some awesome stitching?

Caroll Pichelmann Retrospective

A special feature of this year’s Exhibition is a retrospective of the work of Caroll Pichelmann. Carol came to Australia from Austria in 1960 and has had a lifelong love of all things creative in embroidery.

She’s always encouraging other members to think outside the square when it comes to embroidery. She’s an artist with both the technical expertise and imaginative flair to pull off ambitious contemporary textile works like this one:

This work My City Lives is large, three dimensional and with a strong architecture. It’s intensely worked and detailed and there’s a surface richness that’s hard to capture in a photo.

The city itself is a composite of favourite places in cities around Australia that Caroll has visited. Here are some details that I picked out from the foreground…..

Rocks and plants…

The rock garden up close – you can see how the stitches create a landscape effect…

Gates……

and a mossy tree…..

It’s an inspiring and powerful work and it’s been a hit with visitors to the show. What do you think?

Some other Sumptuous Surfaces from Caroll

Caroll uses many techniques to create the complex, layered and interesting surfaces to her textiles. Here’s a sample of other work:

gum leaves…..

lid of a small chest…….

a piece created with Tunisian crochet…

I’ll be sharing more of Caroll’s work in later posts on the Exhibition.

Other work

And here’s a quick impression of some other work on show….

In earlier  Looking Over Shoulders posts you saw Fran’s A Siennese Treasure in progress. Here’s the finished lid of her box: 

Hazel has stitched an intricate  goldwork butterfly:

 

While Sarah K has made her Perugino embroidery into an elegant pencil case…

Doreen G has done a colourful sampler of stitches on canvas:

and Anne E has given her special touch to another vintage embroidery:

Alison K has used machine embroidery and beading to give a contemporary twist to her leaves. Here’s a close-up:

and Margaret J has made a decorative cushion with a cool blue cross stitch:

Tomorrow’s the last day of the Exhibition and if you’re in Canberra then make sure you don’t miss out on this chance to see some great stitching….

And when you need a break there’s the cafe’s excellent coffee and the retail therapy of The  Gift Shop and the Recycle Table.

Bye!