“The Hunter is home to a surprising number of leading textile artists whose work I will feature alongside national and international artists in our inaugural new exhibition, “Revealed: Uncovering the Beauty of Fibre Art” which opens Thursday 25^thAugust and runs for 3 weeks. This opening exhibition will introduce eighteen of the artists who will be featured in solo exhibitions over coming months.

The inaugural exhibition will be opened by the well known Fine Art Program Convenor  at University of Newcastle Dr Kathryn Grushka.

“There is increasing interest and appreciation of the fine skills involved in creating beautiful textiles, the ability to transform fibres into exquisite forms of art.

Building on Newcastle’s avant-garde approaches to art, Timeless Textiles will focus on new works by local and international textile artists using techniques such as felting, dyeing, quilting, surface embellishment and design as well as  and fibre jewellery. As well as the art featured during exhibitions there will be a selection of pieceswhich would make unusual and beautiful gifts, suitable for all budgets.

“I have created a space especially designed for fibre art to expose the fine skills of textile artists and to claim its place as a collectable and desirableart form,” said Kempton. “There is increasing interest and appreciation of the fine skills involved in creating beautiful textiles.  This Gallery will also offer workshops for people interesting in learning the processes involved in fibre art.”

The workshops will provide an opportunity for anyone interested to experience the wonder of fibre art and textile design in a day workshop – on your own or with your friends. “This is a chance for people to learn new skills, brush up on their techniques and most importantly to enjoy themselves” enthused Anne “I hope to see you there!”

Dancing Lightly from France to Australia – a fashion show of ecologically respectful poetic wearable art by fibre artist Gina Mastio.

Dancing lightly on the earth is Gina Mastio’s way of living and creating. Conscious decisions on materials and artistic practices, such as only using natural dyes and fibres, accompany the design development of her work. Gina is constantly trying to find gentler, more sustainable solutions such as following the trail of her materials back to their source of production, as in her latest works with ahimsa peace silk and organic merino wool. Gina’s strong ethics, her lifelong commitment to permaculture, a decade lived in France, all inform her creative journey which has brought us this unique, poetic, haut de gamme collection exhibited here for the first time in its entirety in Australia.

“My pieces are often inspired by the layers of tree bark of the many varieties of eucalyptus, or the layers of life found on the ground during a bush walk: layers of fabrics and fibres, prints and dyes intertwining to create something very special. You become a part of this, allowing nature to surround and embrace you in these layers of clothing designed to compliment each other… making you a true living sculpture in this breathing fragile world which needs our help, not our indulgent pollution” says Mastio.

This Timeless Textiles exhibition, Dancing Lightly from France to Australia opens 6pm- 8pm on Thursday 22 September night with a fashion parade. Gina’s exhibition will be showing until 16 October 2011.

Enclothed in ecology’ – a new exhibition with Gina Mastio

Textile artist Gina Mastio celebrates her connection to nature in a new exhibition of ecologically sustainable wearable art – Enclothed in Ecology – that will open at Islington gallery Timeless Textiles in August.

“I consider the chemicals, the season, the country of origin,” she said. “I also consider what I wear and the chemicals that I absorb through my skin whilst I wear it. I think of the chemicals, water and energy required for the cultivation of the fibre, the processing and creation of the fabric, the dyeing and the creation of the article of clothing. I consider if it is biodegradable or will stay in a landfill for hundreds of years and the waste from these processes.”

She brings this careful consideration into the creation of her pieces of clothing by considering and questioning where the fabrics and fibres are from and how they have been produced. Gina takes care during production to reduce and reuse any waste products, with the final wastes going into her garden.

“I design the pieces expressing a celebration, a respect, a love of the vulnerable environment surrounding us. I sculpt my pieces by combining natural fibres with vegetable soap and water, by hand using nuno felting techniques and sometimes stitch. I create my colours using plants around me, which I find in the walks around my home environment with my dog and my children, or from my garden, my kitchen and those of my friends.”

Gina dyes her creations using plants, water, heat and rusty bits of metal as she contemplates her environment.

“I feel harmony and happiness as I create and wear these unique pieces of wearable art clothing. I see them as a blessing, a celebration of being alive, a conscious appreciation of being a small part of this greater nature surrounding and embracing us.”

The exhibition, Enclothed in Ecologywill be launched at a Timeless Textiles opening, to be held from 6pm- 8pm on Thursday 15 August 2013, where Gina’s work will be brought to life in a fashion parade.