Random weave basketry sculptures workshops
RANDOM WEAVE SCULPTURES WORKSHOPS
Sunday 3 March and Sunday 2 April 2023 (individual workshops)
Time: 10am – 3:00pm
Where: The Barn, Mosman Bay, 3c Avenue Road Mosman. (Free all day parking, next to the Mosman Bay Ferry Wharf).
Cost: $195 inc GST and materials
Bookings:
Click here: Sunday 3 March 2023
Click here: Sunday 2 April 2023
See my instagram for sculptures students have made: click: https://www.instagram.com/p/CoRKhA3voau/
A full day workshop so you can make and finish a beautiful work of art!
By the end of this course, not only will you have gorgeous baskets or wall sculpture, but you will be confident in this basketry technique.
Join this fun filled all day workshop with weaving expert Catriona Pollard and learn the random weave basketry technique using the wonderful Bangalow Palm inflorescence. The basketry workshop is all about exploration and play – not perfection. Experience and explore sculptural basketry techniques and learn how to create something from found organic material just using your hands and imagination.
It’s a small class so you get hands-on tuition from expert weaver, Catriona Pollard. Materials included, but if you have access to Bangalow Palm inflorescence then bring it along. Once booked, I’ll give you preparation notes.
Suitable for beginners, or intermediate weavers. If you’ve never done weaving before – perfect! You’ll love it and leave with finished a basket or sculpture.
This course is for you if:
- You want to learn the ancient basketry technique of random weaving, but don’t know where to start.
- You don’t have any experience or want to further develop your weaving.
- You’re looking for a fun, relaxing creative outlet, and an enjoyable way to spend your downtime.
COVID safe practices in place. Masks are no longer compulsory, however it is your choice if you wear a mask during the workshop. If you have a cold/flu or cough please wear a mask.
“A joyous experience. I highly recommend it. Thank you for your kindness, care, instruction, guidance and creativity. Such a wonderful day.” Lynne
“Thank you for your fantastic workshop on Sunday. I have been fortunate enough to find myself collecting and connecting to nature yesterday and this morning. May it stay that way. I love looking at my little sculptural ‘basket’ – it’s colours are changing and it’s just magical – it makes me happy. I feel more centered. Such a gift – thank you again. Kim
“I had a wonderful day creating, learning new skills, using natural elements and sitting chatting with like-minded women. What a gift to be able to take time out with Catriona guiding us enthusiastically and nurturing our new skills and self-belief. Thanks heaps Catriona.” Robin
Catriona Pollard – Basketry artist and teacher
Catriona Pollard is a contemporary artist who uses traditional basketry techniques to transform foraged plant fibres into organic sculptural works. Her unique sculptural work offers glimpses of shapeshifting natural forms, from unnoticed branches, leaves and seedpods into works that investigate human’s personal connection with the natural world. Engaging audiences to build creative connection with the natural world is a fundamental part of her art practice and her teaching. By transforming organic material into sculptures, she presents an opportunity to be enchanted by the natural world and the stories it shares.
Through her sculptures, she uses nature as a way to connect with people that goes beyond physical beauty, but touches them in a personal and profound way. Ultimately aiming to reignite people’s relationship with nature for the wellbeing of both the human and more than human worlds.
She exhibits extensively in solo exhibitions, selected and group exhibitions. She has been a finalist in many art awards including 2023 International Art Textile Biennale, National Capital Art Prize, Environmental Art & Design Award (Awarded Highly Commended 2022), North Sydney Art Prize, Australian Fibre Arts Award, Ravenswood Women’s Art Prize, Northern Beaches Art Prize Emerging Artist of the Year Craft NSW and Mosman Art Gallery.
Her artwork is profiled across major art and design media and is featured nationally in galleries, high end design spaces and private collections. Watch her talk about her art at ABC TV and Gardening Australia and read in the feature in Good Weekend, SMH/The Age. She is profiled in the Book: Woven Together: Weavers and Their Stories (Gingko Press). See the new section for more talks and media.
As a dedicated professional educator, she holds sold out sculptural basketry weaving workshops in Australia and internationally and teaches for design and craft centres. She holds demonstrations for organisations including Museums, and gives artist talks at galleries and community groups. She also established the online SchoolofBasketryArt.com with students from around the world.
Read more about at www.theartofweaving.com.au/about
Refund policy: Refunds up to 14 days before the event.
Exhibition: Composing Earth and Sky
Exhibition: Composing Earth and Sky
25 March – 2 April 2023
Composing Earth and Sky brings together woven and ceramic sculptural works that explore concepts inspired by natural environments and our personal connection to them.
The sculptures of foraged vines and recycled metal wire references the ancient basketry technique of looping that has been used across human cultures for tens of thousands of years. The looping creates patterns and harmonious rhythms that I witnesses in nature. The sculptures are created in spiritual conversation and meditation with the artist’s natural surroundings, and explore the liminal state between observing with sight and sound and observing with spirit.
By sharing dialogue with the materials and allowing them to inform the narrative of the artwork, it means that stories are formed and shared from the landscape in transformational ways – in a language that provides new meanings and relationships with spirit, nature, humans and the landscape – and the interconnectedness of all.
Concerned with humankind’s detachment from the natural world, the artists use materials that are formed in the earth and grow towards the sky to embody this dilemma. With their hands and hearts, they work with their material’s innate qualities to co-create forms that respond to their own environment and personal stories. These are inextricably linked to their landscape - both earth and sky.
By building new foundations and exploring alternative possibilities the artists compose forms that express respect for the tenacity of nature and inevitability of change. Combining human influence with natural processes, the works highlight we are connected by our existence and experience of living together on this planet. By relinquishing control of nature, we move towards harmony between earth and sky.
25 March – 2 April 2023
Opening: Saturday 25 March, 2-4pm
Open 10-4pm every day
Barometer Gallery, 14 Gurner St Paddington
Selected for International Art Textile Biennale 2023
So extraordinarily thrilled to be selected for the International Art Textile Biennale 2023.
"The selected works in this award push previously held notions of textile/fibre art, opening a dialogue about what it is to be a textile artist that makes an expression and commentary on content and concept in the 21st Century.”
This Biennale is managed and produced by Fibre Arts Australia and Curated by Glenys Mann. Over 270 entries were submitted from 167 artists from 25 countries including Australia.
Listen to my interview with East Gippsland Art Gallery about my work and processes.
Galleries where IATB23 will be shown:
East Gippsland Art Gallery, Bairnsdale Vic 20 January – 18 March 2023
Emu Park Art Gallery, Emu Park, Queensland 15 April – 10 June 2023
Toowoomba Regional Gallery, Queensland 8 July – 26 August 2023
Kyogle Gallery, Kyogle, New South Wales 23 September – 11 November 2023
Moonah Art Centre, Moonah, Tasmania 9 December 2023- 20 January 2024
Design Centre Sydney, Darlinghurst, NSW 2 February – 22 March 2024
Geelong Art Space, Geelong, Victoria 5 April – 18 May 2024
Ku-ring-gai Sculpture Trail
Thrilled to be selected for the Ku-ring-gai Sculpture Trail for my woven installation work ‘Seeds of Hope’. It runs from 3 September - 3 October at the Ku-ring-gai Wildflower Garden St Ives. Opens daily 9am-4pm.
While you are there take the time to walk around the trails. There are so many beautiful wildflowers out.
krg.nsw.gov.au/sculpturetrail
Spring Show + Open Studio
Pop in and see me at my open studio Spring Show this weekend. Come along to my Spring Show at my Mosman studio where I will have selected works at great prices. 1 - 4 September 2022, 10am - 4pm.
I recently moved to my new studio at Gunshot Alley, Headland Park in Mosman overlooking the bush and the harbour. A move and Spring is the perfect time to do a little spring cleaning to make room for new artworks. Don't miss this opportunity to get some beautiful sculptures at great prices.
Thursday 1- Sunday 4 September 2022, 10am - 4pm.
Suite 1 (corner Suite), 58 Suakin Drive, Gunshot Alley Mosman. It's the last building before Gunners Barracks. Free parking. (Please note, it's not the Headland Park Artist precinct)
Finalist in National Capital Art Prize
Thrilled to say that ‘She Finds Her Wings Within Her Cocoon’ has been selected as a finalist in the National Capital Art Prize.
It’s online now for sale and will be part of the 2022 National Capital Art Prize Finalist Public Exhibition will be held at the Fitters’ Workshop in Canberra in from 22 September to 13 October.
Surrounded by thorned vines, just like the overwhelming rhetoric of climate change, she finds wings within her cocoon that gives her hope. Woven using Smilax, a thorny Australian endemic vine, she looks beyond the thorns, to the sweet leaves that can be eaten straight from the vine or boiled and used as tea or medicinal tonic. Shifting her focus – finding her wings – gives her the ability to see how her actions, even if they are small, can be impactful. She takes responsibility for conserving nature and recognising the interdependence between the welfare of humans and the natural world.
100cm x 45cm x 33cms - woven from Smilax vine.
To purchase it please click here.
Artist Talk - The Silence of Beauty
Click on the image above to listen to my artist talk about my solo exhibition The Silence of Beauty.
WEEKEND BASKETRY WEAVING RETREAT – Mosman, Sydney 27-28 August 2022
Learn my favourite 4 basketry techniques in 2 days in this weekend workshop
Saturday 27 – Sunday 28 August 10am – 4pm daily.
Cost: $460 includes all materials
Where: The Barn, Mosman Bay, Sydney
Limited spots – BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL
More Info & BOOK HERE
You will be learning and exploring my favourite basketry techniques with materials you can easily access after the class so you can keep on weaving:
- random weaving with cane + inclusions
- random weaving with long leafy plants
- twining with jute with a pattern
- looping with paper string
By the end of this course you will be confident in multiple basketry techniques.
Tapping into your creativity, like all of my workshops, it is so much more than just learning techniques, it’s an opportunity to tap into powerful creativity that is ready to surface.
Learning at your own pace, in this hands on, practical workshop is all about exploration and experimentation not perfection. While learning basketry techniques, you will be reconnecting with your imagination and creativity.
It’s a small class so you get hands-on tuition from expert weaver, Catriona Pollard.
Suitable for beginners, or weavers who are looking to learn these techniques If you’ve never done weaving before – perfect! You’ll love it and leave with finished basketry sculptures and the confidence to do more.
This course is for you if:
- You want to learn multiple basketry techniques.
- You don’t have any experience or want to further develop your weaving.
- You’re looking for a fun, relaxing creative outlet, and an enjoyable way to spend your downtime.
- You deserve the gift of a weekend of dedicated weaving with a group of lovely people.
“I was lucky enough to attend Catriona’s workshop. It was truly a blessing to have full days of creativity being guided and taught by someone who is so talented and inspiring. I learnt a lot, laughed a lot and it felt so good to be part of such a like minded and creative group. It was a special experieince that I will not forget in a hurry.” Allison
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“This workshop had boosted my confidence and creativity and had taught me practical techniques that I can apply in a myriad of ways. My basketry skills have escalated since doing your workshop! I loved the way you scaffolded each skill we learnt with your teaching style this made the progress smooth and achievable! Thank you also for your encouragement, reassurance and support.” Lea
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“Led by the dynamic and richly talented Catriona, we mastered new techniques and learned so so so much more about the creative process. It is not always that the practitioner can teach, but despite her own high level of skill, Catriona knew that we needed to learn the elements of the craft before letting loose our imaginations; understood, also, how difficult twining and cording, weaving and binding is for newbies. Patiently she demonstrated and repeated (again and again!) until our hesitant fingers danced to newly mastered rhythms. Her rich imagination and her technical skills together with a profound understanding of the inspiration to be found in natural plant materials enabled us to twine our souls into an exhilarating world of creativity.” Sarah
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“I had a wonderful time creating, learning new skills, using natural elements and sitting chatting with like-minded women. What a gift to be able to take time out with Catriona guiding us enthusiastically and nurturing our new skills and self-belief. Thanks heaps Catriona.” Robin
BOOK HERE
Awarded in Environmental Art & Design Award
Super excited that Deep in the Forest the Faeries Sleep has been awarded Highly Commended in the 2022 Environmental Art & Design Prize.
At 2 m high, I wove her freehand using foraged Muehlenbeckia. (Needless to say my hands took along time to recover!)
I am one of 212 finalists selected from across Australia to exhibit in the annual Environmental Art & Design Prize Exhibition.
Finalists were selected from over 640 artists and designers from across Australia, who submitted works across nine categories
The exhibition is at Manly Art Gallery & Museum and runs across three Northern Beaches venues from Friday 5 August to Sunday 28 August. The exhibition entry is free
