Warm up a cold winter's day with a visit to the National Wool
Museum's 2012 Scarf Festival, where an inspiring array of
hand-crafted textiles will be on show.
Housed in the museum's historic woolstores on the Geelong
Waterfront, the Scarf Festival has a record number of entries this
year, with 275 incredible scarves from around Australia going on
display.
Running from June 16 to September 2, the Scarf Festival is an
inclusive event that encourages members of the public to submit
their creations for exhibition. All entries are displayed in the
museum's top-floor gallery, revealing a wealth of styles,
techniques and materials.
Most of the wonderful creations are available for purchase, but
all will remain on show until the exhibition ends.
Now in its fourth year, the 2012 festival theme is The Journey,
with participants exploring what it means to travel, the many paths
we choose and the discoveries we make along the way.
The exhibition of scarves will be juxtaposed with artworks by
Mason Chamberlin, who has created a series of drawings of local
landmarks and forms taken from the passing landscape while
travelling between Winchelsea and Geelong by bus, train and
car.
Hands-on activities are also a highlight of the festival, with
craft demonstrations held daily between 10am and 3pm. You might
learn about nuno felting, creative knitting, hand spinning, Karen
hill tribe weaving, barbed wire sculpting, 3D knitting or
'scrumbling'.
For the first time this year the Festival will include a
People's Choice Award, allowing visitors to vote for their
favourite scarf. Other award categories, to be announced when the
festival launches on June 15, include best use of colour, best use
of sustainable practices and best felted scarf.
More information: www.nwm.vic.gov.au