Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

You're invited to: 'Flying Free' Newcastle’s Timeless Textiles Gallery will continue a five-year tradition of holding community-based art events to celebrate International Women’s Day, with the culmination of its Flying Free project featuring a huge flock of hand-made fabric birds that will ‘fly free’ outside the gallery in March this year. Timeless Textiles has collaborated with local artist, Wilma Simmons, to create the IWD art events, with local artists offering free community fibre art workshops, using techniques such as embellishing, screen printing, painting, stitching and dyeing. As well as the chance to learn new skills, the workshops allow people to brush up on their techniques and, of course, to enjoy themselves. The focus for IWD has varied each year including stitching 100 metres of white ribbon for 14 hours (2014) and creating hope flags. Seb, one of young creative bird makers with Wilma SImmons For IWD last year approximately 2,000 fabri...

It is now a month since the Flying Free Project was launched. Four free workshops have been held, averaging twelve participants each week. This project has been developed to honour and remember the women who tragically have died as a result of domestic violence. All  the proceeds from the sale of bird kits and completed birds on International Women's Day 2016 will be donated to women's refuges in our local area.  Unfortunately in the month we have been making birds, two women have been added to the sad statistics of 43 female domestic violence deaths in Australia this year... However, we have sat peacefully each Wednesday at Timeless Textiles Gallery stitching birds and I would like to share with you some of the  wonderful  moments and creative achievements of "Flying Free" in the last four weeks. Thanks to UK artist, Abigail Brown who gifted Timeless Textiles a basic pattern for a bird. .  Another 15 + birds fle...

Free Wednesday workshops starting 20 May 2015  at  Timeless Textiles , 90 Hunter Street, Newcastle .  10.30am - 12.30pm.  Textile art birds - 2016 International Women's Day Project.  In March 2015, visiting British textile artist, Abigail Brown kindly designed this bird and gifted Timeless Textiles a bird pattern for International Women’s Day 2016. Every Wednesday in our free creative workshop program, we will be creating birds -using some of the 2000 fabric tiles (from the ‘Letting Go’ celebrations: 2015 International Women’s Day) The birds will fly free amongst the Norfolk pines outside the gallery, attached by white ribbon to celebrate next International Women’s Day (March 8 2016). All proceeds will be donated to women's and children's refuges in the local area.  The fabric and Abigail Brown’s template will be available for participants to use at each free workshop on Wednesdays. “Flying Free” kits may also be purchased for $20 if y...