Brooching the Subject

More than 100 fibre artists from across Australia and the world will compete for prizes and glory in the inaugural ‘Brooching the Subject’ exhibition at Newcastle’s Timeless Textiles Gallery in July.

The artists have been busy creating the wild and wonderfully creative brooches, using many techniques – beading, stitching, embroidery (hand or machine), felting, painting, pinning and more.

The contributing artists have all brought very individual approaches to creating these brooches – to be worn or hung on the wall –resulting in more than 100 unique works that will not only create a spectacular gallery display but also impress the ‘Brooching the Subject ' judge, Brisbane-based fibre artist Sylvia Watt.

If you love brooches, don’t miss this playful ‘Brooching the Subject’ exhibition, showing for one week only between 12-17 July 2016. All brooches will be for sale and there will be a people's choice competition online. 
My entries are one wearable brooch and one crazy whimsical fun piece for the wall. 

The wearable brooch is a piece of my embossed silver, handmade 99.9% silver stitched onto handmade felt with a background of ecodyed silk. I hadn't worked silver for a few years, so it was a lovely return to one of the techniques and media I enjoy. 

This was such fun - a brooch for the wall. Inspired by a workshop I did with Ines Seidel, I started making a hexagon patch worked paper "quilt". The paper is old species cards my husband no longer uses - these were records of species of trees growing in state owned forests some years ago. The other paper I used are pieces of dyed kitchen  absorbent paper and eco dyed silk paper. I also crocheted some little hexagons with crochet cotton . The bees are made from scrunched painted newspaper with some wire and as a hanger I used a honey "twirler". This is a  hand turned wooden tool used to serve honey from a jar without spillages ( in theory at least!) Not a serious contender in this competition, but I enjoyed making this ( with my tongue firmly in my cheek, so to speak!)

After 12 July, remember to visit Timeless Textiles' website to see all the brooches and vote for your favourite.