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I am thrilled to appear in This Week In Noosa 3 August 2017

A big shout out to the delightful Sue Mikkelsen of Tourism Noosa, who has not only added my upcoming Exhibition to the Events page of This Week In Noosa, but is also showing it as a Featured Event!

Thank you so much Sue!

This is what the two pages look like:

I am thrilled to appear in This Week In Noosa

If you don’t have time to pop over to their site, here is the text they wrote:

Partners in Textile exhibition at Cooroy Butter Factory

When: 11 August – 19 September 2017
Where: Butter Factory Art Centre, 11A Maple Street, Cooroy
Time: Tuesday – Sunday 10am-3pm
Price: Free entry
Website: www.butterfactoryartscentre.com.au

A mutual love of textiles is the common thread for three long-time friends and artists, Helen McIntosh, Sybil Orr and Cathy Moon who showcase their talents in a new fibre exhibition, Partners in Textile which will be a kaleidoscope of colourful artworks and jewellery at the Cooroy Butter Factory Arts Centre in the Noosa hinterland.

At the grand opening on Saturday 12 August from 10am to 3pm there will be artists’ market stalls, meet and chat with the three artists, light lunch and refreshments from noon. Sybil Orr will give an Artist Talk on textiles and texture at 11.30am, followed by guest speaker Janet De Boer at 1pm.

Artists’ stalls will include Icon Ladies, cards, tea cosies, jewellery, clothing, tableware, scarves, miniatures, fabric, woodwork, sculpture, pens, silks – buy something unique!

A free art raffle will be drawn on Opening Day with the winner receiving a piece of art by Helen McIntosh.

Brisbane-based Helen McIntosh’s work is constantly evolving, exploratory and experimental, including textile-based work, mixed media paintings, mosaics, jewellery, sculptural pieces and
tapestries.
Sybil Orr is producing plant-dyed, stained and reductive-dyed fabrics, while reflecting an interest in conservation and mending fragile, found and recycled fabrics.

Cathy Moon creates unique Shibori fine-art and apparel by interpreting and adapting traditional shibori techniques on varieties of natural fibres.

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Rosie and The Icon Lady Photo Booth

Rosie and The Icon Lady Photo Booth with Helen McIntosh

Rosie and The Icon Lady Photo Booth showing you where NOT to put your legs (this did make me chuckle!) — instead, put your hands through the holes to look a little bit more lady-like 🙂

You will have your chance to take your own photos in the IconLady photo booth at my upcoming Exhibition — Partners in Textiles.

Please do join us on the Saturday and be part of the frivolity!

So if you’re anywhere near Brisbane, Cooroy or the Sunshine Coast (Queensland, Australia), do come see us!

Where?  The Butterfactory, Cooroy, 12 th August 2017 – read more >>

August 2017 Partners in Textile

If you’d like to chat, you can also find me on Facebook and Instagram.

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A sneak peek of my Lotus watercolours

Just a sneak peek at what else I do — lotus watercolours!

A sneak peek of my Lotus watercolours

Here is my brief description of what the Lotus artworks are about.

The dried Lotus leaf, to me, is particularly beautiful , offering an abstract view of nature , and to quote from Ruskin, “the mystery under which the separate character of each is more or less concealed”.

It’s about organic flat forms, complex structure and the balance of positive and negative space. It’s about each leaf having its own symbolism, pattern, colour and shape. It’s about being different but the same.

To see these large watercolour paintings in real life, why not come see me at my Exhibition?

So if you’re anywhere near Brisbane, Cooroy or the Sunshine Coast, do come see us!

Where?  The Butterfactory, Cooroy, 12 th August 2017 – read more >>

August 2017 Partners in Textile

PS — don’t forget to sign onto my mailing list to get details of all my upcoming exhibitions.

PPS — If you’d like to chat, you can also find me on Facebook and Instagram.

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My five minutes of fame in the recent edition of Down Under Textiles

My five minutes of fame!

The recent edition of Down Under Textiles gave our upcoming exhibition, Partners in Textile, the cover (woohoo!) plus six pages.

I find being published as exciting as showing in a gallery!

Here is a quick snapshot:

My five minutes of fame in the recent edition of Down Under Textiles

So if you’re anywhere near Brisbane, Cooroy or the Sunshine Coast, do come see us!

Where?  The Butterfactory, Cooroy, 12 th August 2017 – read more >>

August 2017 Partners in Textile

If you’d like to chat, you can also find me on Facebook and Instagram.

 

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Who is Janet de Boer?

Who is Janet de Boer? Friend of Helen McIntosh, TheIconLady.com

So – who is Janet De Boer? I first met Janet somewhere in the 1970s, when I first discovered textiles.

Well-known in the Australian textile art industry, Janet has nurtured many textile artists over the decades and became our Mentor as well. Janet was instrumental in bringing textile artists from other countries to showcase and teach their work, and together with Australian textile artists created an incredible resource of knowledge and skills to share.

Owner and Manager of Gallery 159 in Brisbane for many years, it was a sad day indeed when Janet decided it was time to close the Gallery which had been loved by so many for so long.

Here is a brief overview of Janet’s amazing life so far:

Who is Janet de Boer? Here is Janet's bioJanet De Boer came to Australia from the USA on a working holiday in 1975, fell in love with Queensland (and then with an Australian) and has remained.

While initially working as an Occupational Therapist, she also had a well-developed passion for the textile arts and gravitated towards a young not-for-profit organisation known as TAFTA (The Australian Forum for Textile Arts) which became national in 1987, with Janet as its CEO until 2015.

Over the years she created a quality magazine, Textile Fibre Forum, which became quarterly, and she developed week-long ‘FORUM’ conferences that had a focus on outstanding workshops offered by Australians and also overseas tutors.

For 13 years from 2003 to 2016, Janet was director of TAFTA’s dedicated gallery space, Gallery 159.

Having become an Australian citizen in 1995, Janet received an O.A.M. for her service to the textile arts in 2004.

Although retired now, Janet continues to produce a substantial Newsletter / “e-bulletin” as a free service for around 5,000 subscribers, and she writes for Australian and international textile magazines.

Luckily for us, Janet De Boer still loves Queensland.

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August 2017 Partners in Textile Exhibition

August 2017 Partners in Textile Exhibition

I have partnered with two of my wonderful long-time arty friends — Sybil Orr and Cathy Moon — to create a Textile Exhibition to showcase a marvellous variety of the artwork we create. We do hope you can join us!

  • Date:  11-19th August to 19th September, 2017
  • First day: Friday 11th August
  • Grand Opening Event: Saturday 12th August — 10:00am to 3:00pm
  • Guest Speaker:  Janet De Boer
  • Location:  Butter Factory Arts Centre, 11A Maple St, Cooroy Qld Australia

August 2017 Partners in Textile

As well as the delightful Art Gallery exhibition space, we will have Artist Stalls (mine — Helen McIntosh, plus Cathy Moon and Sybil Orr, as well as woodworker Bill Orr, and Marion Glover of Beautiful Silks with her vast array of silk scarves and other goodies).

Promotional Tables include Morningside Picture framers, Al Comicae photography, Patches Of Cooroy local quilt group and Teena Hughes, an art marketing, website and video marketing specialist.

If you can make it, do please come and introduce yourself — I’d love to meet you!

Cheers,
Helen x

Map to 11A Maple St, Cooroy Qld

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If you’d like to chat, you can also find me on Facebook and Instagram.

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Tea cosy by Helen McIntosh

I was fascinated by the knitted tea cosies I found in second-hand shops because they’re diverse, original, made by people being creative who aren’t worried about status or artistic value. They are genuine hand-craft.

I have created cloth dolls instead of plastic or Barbie dolls etc, and use my own ideas for tea cosies. Being me, I can’t help going “over the top” where “more” is better, and better still 🙂

I see them as a celebration of women and craft, and who doesn’t love a cup of tea?

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Above:

Teacosy

Above: