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Contemporary Craft Retreat - Canberra

Tranquil surroundings, creative and talented participants and good organization are ingredients for a great event. The Contemporary Craft Retreat was not just a great event – it was an exciting and inspirational learning experience. Congratulations must go to Lex Sorrentino, the coordinator of the retreat, who seemed to think of everything anyone might need, right down to extra cakes of soap and lolly bags for the tutors!
I was very fortunate to have had the opportunity to lead two workshops. One was  the Bio Bowl – a wet felted vessel inspired by biological beauty.


The second was Message Sticks and Spirit Art Dolls with many beautiful imaginative and creative interpretations of my wrapped message stick art doll. I’m not sure anyone used  the collected wise sayings as messages,  but the dolls were inspirational on their own.


 

 

We were also privileged to see some amazing “show and tell”. This beautiful art doll by Janice Laurent was created with a bottle as an armature, and what you can’t see in this photo below are the tiny circus dolls inside the bottle. You will see this beautiful doll  in Art Doll Quarterly to be published in February 2012. Weren't we fortunate to see it "in the flesh" in Canberra?

Demonstrations from various tutors each night were also popular and enjoyable. Here is my friend Hector Vera (Vera Designs) demonstrating the art of kumihimo.



Most of all, it was a weekend of fun, friendship and free expression, so please don't miss  the 2012 Retreat :12-14 October 2012. More  news and more photos of the retreat  are on Facebook . 
And will the stick doll workshop participants ever look at ordinary garden sticks in the same way again?
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Comments

  1. Melanie DildayOctober 31, 2011 at 7:02 AM

    What a wonderful example of a blog page Wilma. You share your stories with such affection for the work and those who attended and organised the retreat and your wonderful array of photos are such an inspiration to us all. Thank you

    ReplyDelete
  2. LoriNovember 4, 2011 at 8:30 PM

    I enjoyed looking at your photos and I would have loved to have been there too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. SujayNovember 6, 2011 at 10:13 AM

    So attractive arrangement.Well done carry on.

    ReplyDelete

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