Ken Smith's Textile Art

 index.htm about.htm artworks.htm bark.htm Character Cloth Dolls.htm Fabric collage.htm faces.htm layering.htm Machine Embroidery.htm Silk_Painting-and_Shibori.htm Wearable Art.htm WorkshopsCourses.htm School_Plays.htm school_plays_2.htm      

          

NEW! 19th April, 2015. See my Wearable Art page (see link above) for images

of my new commission for Bernina Australia, a Joker-themed waistcoat worn last

night during a presentation at the gala dinner at the Australasian Quilting Convention

in Melbourne

Welcome to my  website! The site wallpaper is based on a detail from the

layered piece Wellington, (above), which appeared on the front cover of

Issue #71 of Textile Fibre Forum in 2003. This piece began as a demonstration

in a class on Layering, Optical Colour-Mixing and Texture  in  Wellington, New

Zealand, in 2001. As with all my work, it is in freehand or freemotion machine

embroidery.

    All images on this site are thumbnails. To see a larger image, just click on

the thumbnail. Some images may be enlarged twice: click on the thumbnail

to enlarge and again on the enlarged image to enlarge further. To return to

the page, simply click on the "back" button in the browser tool bar.

                                 All links appear in blue (but not navy).

Workshops/Courses

    I offer an extensive range of courses in both silk painting/Aussie Shibori

and freehand (freemotion) machine embroidery. Courses are available to

suit students at all levels - beginner, intermediate and advanced.

Intermediate-level courses are designed to reinforce basic skills while

extending the range of skills. More advanced courses tend

to be technique-specific or theme-specific. To mention just a few:

    Beyond Gutta: Silk Painting Without Tears © (exploring the way fibre-

reactive dyes work and interact on stretched silk)

    Aussie Shibori © (several workshops featuring my variations and

adaptations, including hybrids, of classic shibori, but using colours rather than

indigo)

    Fabric Manipulation for the Fearful © (exploring textural effects achieved

by manipulating silk and combining them with freehand machine embroidery)

    The Miraculous Meander, or Wandering to a Purpose © (understanding

this ancient pattern and exploring its decorative possibilities - and those of

variations)

    How to Become Almost Completely Detached © (freehand machine work

on dissolving fabric or on small pieces for attaching to or incorporating into an

embroidery)

    Holier Than Thou * (different kinds of apertures/holes in freehand machine

embroidery)

    Into the Woods! * (interpreting bark, lichen and fungi in freehand machine

embroidery)

        * © as machine-embroidery course titles

   Workshops/Courses gives contact details.

    About will tell you about my background and my attitude to my craft

    and teaching.

    Artworks will introduce you to pages featuring my work. The page

    Machine Embroidery (accessed from Artworks), has three sub-pages

    which show my work. One of those, Faces, has a sub-page about

    technique. Links at the bottom of the pages provide navigation.

          Because they contain many images, some pages (Faces, Wearable

    Art and Character Cloth Dolls) may be slow to load. Please be patient.

    Contact Information

    Postal Address:

        P. O. Box 39, KETTERING, Tas. 7155, Australia

    Electronic Mail:  ken at bennett-smith dot com  (Sorry. Trying to foil the robots.)

    Telephone: + (61)3 six two six seven four one six nine (Trying to foil the robots again.)