Ken Smith's Textile Art
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.)