Juxtapositions
Irene Manion
Birds, insects, or botanicals can be your chosen subjects for this course.
We will be juxtaposing subject with background, technique with technique, and colour with colour. Our detailed centrepiece images will be placed beside backgrounds that might complement, contrast or camouflage. Participants will end up with a set of fabric ‘pages’ that illustrate the various techniques being taught.
Transfer printing or Dye Sublimation printing is a way of permanently dyeing fabric that does not require immersion of the fabric in water. It also allows you to create prints that range from photographic realism through to the most gestural, abstract mark making. Scale is only limited by the width of the fabric and no print residue sits on the fabric surface.
Once all our designs have been ‘printed’ we will spend the second half of the course embellishing our imagery with free motion machine embroidery.
Machine embroidery techniques will be taught from scratch, and we will be building up to advanced techniques, so all levels of ability are welcome. A knowledge of your sewing machine will make the machine embroidery unit a more enjoyable experience and some practice at free motion machine sewing would be an advantage.
A textile practitioner for many years, Irene Manion’s recent practice has taken her in the direction of investigating the transfer printing/dye sublimation process in depth.
Stitching, especially free-motion machine embroidery, has also been a long term focus and has resulted in the exploration of stitch in less conventional ways, extending stitch length and using traditional stitching techniques in expressive and experimental ways.
Birds and the landscape appear regularly in her subject matter. They may represent intimate personal, social themes relating to family and friends. They can simultaneously refer to transience or be a metaphor for the fragility of the environment.
Irene’s work has been extensively exhibited in group and solo, as well as selective exhibitions throughout Australia and the US.
