Gasworks Arts Park a place of art, ideas and events, where people meet, explore and create.
series image courtesy of Sara Thorn
Art, Design and Wellbeing
These weekend day and two-day workshops will unleash your creative spirit. Offering diverse art forms, such as sculpture, knitting, life drawing, jewellery making, textile design, essences, guided meditation, African beading and basket making, series curator Sara Thorn has gathered some of Melbourne’s most creative tutors to guide you into new and unexplored artistic realms. Suitable for everyone – from absolute beginners to artists wanting to shift their practice.
Click here for complete tutor bios or just select the name of the artist below.
Join knitter extraordinaire Brigette Cameron in a fun one day beginners knitting workshop. Participants learn the fundamentals of knitting in a supportive environment. Subjects covered will include: basic stitches, deciphering knitting patterns and how to create items without using patterns. By the end of the day, participants will be able to embark on their own knitting projects with confidence. Suitable for beginners or those with some experience.
Take a personal journey with healer Anne Baker to create a collage/storyboard assembled from your individual collection of significant objects. Drawing this material together brings focus on past significant events, present experiences and your future dreams and aspirations. As your collage storyboard comes to life before your eyes, a whole new picture of yourself will begin to emerge.
“Our life has a purpose. This is often hidden beneath the demands of everyday life and daily routine. Exploring the passages of your life, past, present and future; a visual picture will give you greater clarity and awareness of your unique journey. Although you may feel overwhelmed and confused at times, there is within all of us a deep longing to understand the story of our life and the thread that holds it together.” Anne Baker
Date:
Postponed. Please call us if you'd like to express interest in this class.
Materials:
Bring along photographs, cuttings, drawings, recipes, fabrics, wool, symbols, written word and inspirations to create your collage. All other basic materials provided.
Join renowned jeweller Candy Spender to invent and create new jewellery out of your pre-loved jewellery. Techniques covered include bead wiring, stringing and attaching clasps and findings.
“Nearly every woman I know has boxes and bags of broken down jewellery…they have lost one earring or the clasp broke, or a stone fell out and now they are in the ‘one-day-I’m-gonna.’ basket, a sad testament to their once commanding place on our dressing tables. I have recovered these poor creatures from their doom and have brought new life and fun back to my current wardrobe.” Candy Spender
Date:
Sunday 15 June from 10am to 4pm
Materials:
Bring pre-loved jewellery. All other materials included in class fee.
Join artist Mila Faranov in the Drawing Salon. Discover the delights of the muse and embark upon a life drawing class aimed to inspire the poetic and whimsical as well as the more formal aspects of figure drawing. As in the work of Edgar Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec, costumes, props and professional dancers will be the subjects of the day. A class appropriate for all levels – absolute beginners welcome.
Date:
Sunday 22 June from 10am to 4pm
Materials:
Bring the tools of your choice – charcoal, pencils, inks, soft pastels. Basic paper (bulky news) will be provided or bring your own. Wear clothes that don’t mind getting dirty or bring an old shirt to cover up.
Come and enjoy learning the simple and addictive art of feltmaking using only moisture, wool and friction with designer Sue Ramsay. Felting is an ancient versatile textile, a sculptural process and popular again in contemporary fashion and crafts. This workhop will explore how felting can be used in a variety of ways to make clothing, fashion accessories, jewellery, and homewares and even toy making. You will create pieces using the wet felting process and explore the technique of dry needle felting. For Beginners or those with some experience.
Date:
Saturday 5 July from 10am to 4pm
Materials:
Students need to bring- old large bath towel (to soak up water) and coverall/apron. All other materials provided in class fee.
Join Sudanese artisan Mary Unwat for this exciting opportunity to learn traditional hand skills from Africa right here in Melbourne. Mary will demonstrate the art of African beading techniques to make jewellery and how to make a traditional basket .Students will make their own basket from local grasses and hand beaded jewellery. For Beginners or those with some experience.
Join Margaret Atkinson, founder of Traveling Light Vibrational Essences, to gain an insight about the nature of vibrational essences, how they are made, how they are used, and how they are prescribed. You will use essences in meditation, and during the day complete a written and drawn image of a particular flower or plant and make up a mother tincture. Each participant will leave with a tincture that they have made during the day, a mandala and description of its nature, and ideas about how to use this essence and others to enhance your life.
Explore the history and traditional techniques of Relief modelling with
resident Gasworks sculptor Michael Sibel.
Use your drawings, photos or images.to model a relief in clay and learn how to create perspective and depth of field using the traditional bas relief method, create a plaster waste mould and cast it in plaster and finish off with paints and washes. Students will create their own plaster cast bas relief. Suitable for beginners or those with some experience.
Date:
Saturday July 19 & Sunday July 20 from 10am to 4pm
Materials:
Bring along your drawings, photographs and ideas to develop into modelling a clay relief. All other materials included in course fee.
Prices:
Full $110 Conc/Gasworks Members $80 (includes both days)
Experience new ways of designing and finding inspiration with artist/designer Sara Thorn.This workshop is a dynamic, hands on exploration of colour and design through combining collage, colour and patterning inspired by exploring our inner energy wheels known as Chakras. We each have seven main chakras starting at the base chakra through to the crown chakra, with each having a resonating colour and energy. A short focused meditation on each chakra precedes a patterning collage. Students will leave with original pattern/textile designs developed during the workshop. Suitable for beginners or those with some experience.
