RETREAT, RETREAT Why crafters just love to get away!

Finding a few hours of peace and quiet at home where we can concentrate on some creative work - quiet writing, organising photographs for scrapbooking, some stitching, perhaps a spot of knitting - can sometimes be an insurmountable challenge. Between mounds of laundry, shopping for school lunches, meeting work commitments, finding time for family and friends and just keeping life ticking over, the physical and mental space for creativity can lose out. More and more creative folk are, therefore, packing their bags and heading off for a day, a weekend, even a week... to locations sometimes humble and sometimes ultra glamorous. All are in pursuit of the same thing; time to be with like minded folk in an atmosphere that inspires and with no one asking where their dinner is!

The female of our species, it seems, is particularly hard wired to feel guilty the minute they think of time away from day-to-day commitments. Do men feel this so much? Drive by your local golf course on a weekday afternoon or pop by the local football oval any cold Saturday afternoon and ask that question again.

First time attendees at craft events often quickly become hooked. Many crafters find particular groups where they feel at home and they sometimes end up attending the same annual crafty get togethers for decades.

Recently a ‘stamping’ member of the ‘get creative’ team confessed her annual stamp camp was a time where the day-to-day hum drum and even tragedies were left at the door. “Sometimes, when we sit down together, we’ll find that, within the space of a year, children have been born, partners will have died or been divorced, major illnesses have struck,” she explains. “And yet, for a weekend, we leave it all behind. Sure the process of working creatively together and sharing a glass of wine at night opens up the space for discussion and sharing but sometimes our members just really want to leave it all behind. They just want to be ‘Maryanne - stamp girl’ for 48 hours. I think that’s great.”

More and more studies are finding that creative outlets, either communal activities or solitary practices, are essential to good mental health. Nancy Monson, author of ‘Craft to Heal - Soothing Your Soul with Sewing, Painting and Other Pastimes’, devotes the first chapter of her book to the following topic - The surprising connection between crafts, creativity and healing.

This busy writer, editor and designer, who is also an avid crafter, explores among other things what she calls a “landmark study - one that  was mentioned in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association”  that was sponsored by the Home Sewing Association.

“Researchers took 30 women (15 experienced sewers and 15 novice sewers) and measured their blood pressure, heart rate, perspiration rate and skin temperature - all gauges of stress - via biofeedback before and after they performed five leisure activities that required similar eye-hand movements. The pastimes included sewing a simple project, playing a card game, painting at an easel, playing a hand-held video game and reading a newspaper,” writes Nancy.

“The results showed that sewing was the most relaxing activity of the five studied; it produced drops in heart rate, blood pressure and perspiration. In contrast, stress measures increased after the women performed the other tasks, especially after playing a card or video game.”

Of course this is making everything sound way too serious. The other side of craft retreats and conventions is the amount of fun they are, the chance for socialising they provide and the endless opportunities for learning new skills they present.

Like many things that occur on a grand scale, the USA is home to some of the world’s biggest - in attendance figures - craft events.  Bead Fest (owned by Interweave) is in its seventh year and approximately 5000 attendees walked through the doors of the 2008 August Philadelphia show.

Interweave Event Manager, Karen Keegan, says that while Bead Fest offers “incredible shopping opportunities plus excellent classes from renowned instructors” it’s also important for allowing people “to find community with other beaders”. “We try to encourage that through events like our evening Bead Fest Pyjama Parties. There are always awards and competitions too, like the Bead Star Challenge and the winner’s project will get featured in the new ‘Bead Star’ magazine.”

Also popular in the USA but now expanding throughout the world is the evolution of the ‘craft vacation’. These are tours and cruises with a specific craft - most often quilting or knitting - as their focus. Even last year when we met famous knit designer and author, Nicky Epstein, she was in Australia as the star guest of a Vogue Knitting tour ‘downunder’.

Clearly the most decadent of crafty escapes, tours and cruises are the cherry on the crafter’s pie.

The Australian Sewing Guild (ASG), which this year holds its 7th National Convention from 28 September to 4 October (at the Marist College in Ashgrove, Queensland) is currently organising a 2009 Vietnam tour. The Guild has already run three tours to China where attendees got to see the sights, meet the people, try exotic food but also focus on countless textile related topics. As the ASG’s tour brochure explains it, “this (Vietnam) tour is also about craftsmen, stitching and textiles, dyers, spinners, weavers, embroiderers, beaders, tailors, leather-smiths, shoemakers and the odd jeweller or two!” How great does that sound?

The Guild’s Queensland based Convention is an example of what crafters get up to when left to their own pursuits locally. There are workshops, social gatherings, the AGM, a trivia night, guest speakers and the Guild presents The National Fashion Awards.

Another Queensland based event that just keeps growing in popularity is called Koala Conventions. “We specialise in organising the very best embroidery and textile retreats for ladies (and some gentlemen) wishing to learn this ancient art form,” say the organisers. The most recent event, which took place from 5 - 13 July of this year, was held at Brisbane Girls Grammar School. The schedule included classes with 23 Australia and overseas tutors, evening presentations and mini workshops, a ‘Show and Share’ competition, an evening banquet and even local tours.

Be Creative by the Sea was one wonderful event that ‘get creative’ attended this year. Held in Coffs Harbour, this is billed as a Retreat for “textile artists, quilters and embroiderers” and the venue is Opal Cove Resort, a four and half star property on the beach. Tutors this year included Helen Dafter, Sue Dennis, Helen Godden, Gloria Loughman, Beth Miller, Lisa Walton, and Helen White. Next year’s event takes place 26 April to Sunday 3 May 2009.

Wendy Martin, Be Creative by the Sea founder, says the event has provided opportunities for many Australian textile tutors to share their skills and knowledge with others and to develop their own professional experiences,” she says. “After retiring I realised that my love was teaching textile arts. I persuaded my husband to move the cars out of the garage and I set up my own teaching studio - Be Creative Sewing - in 1995,” explains Wendy. Eventually Wendy began asking others to come and teach at her studio.

An avid traveller, whenever Wendy and her husband were overseas she would always ferret out a class to attend. She has joined students at the Patchwork University at Washington University in Seattle, Empty Spools Seminar at Pacific Grove California, Lancaster Pennsylvania and more. “I always had it in the back of my mind that I would like to conduct a similar event in Australia,” she reveals.

While house sitting in Canada in 2000 friends Chris Timmins and Di Burgess visited Wendy and hubby and they all drove to Oregon, USA, to attend classes at the Festival of Classes in Bend and the Quilter’s Affair in Sisters.

“We were thrilled to hang our quilts at their 25th anniversary of the Outdoor Quilt Hanging... I knew that I could organise a similar event in Australia. With support from Chris Timmins, along with her outstanding administration skills, plus my husband’s blessing, my dream was to become a reality.”

By 2002 the women welcomed 125 participants to Be Creative by the Sea at Nautilus Beach Resort for five days with six tutors. They raffled a quilt that the group made from blocks left over from a previous workshop and donated $880 to Breast Cancer Research. Over seven years of Be Creative by the Sea, $33,000+ has been donated by sponsors and participants.

“The participants enjoy this uniqueness, the sense of indulgence, the relaxed atmosphere, the inspirational beauty that surrounds them and the opportunity to create,” says Wendy. Not everyone attends for the whole week, some just come for a day. “Our motto is come for a day or come and stay, indulge yourself and create beyond your dreams.”

Surely the best known of craft events, with a textile or fibre bent, in Australia is TAFTA - The Australian Forum for Textile Arts - whose aim is to support all the textile arts through publications, FORUM conferences, workshops, advice and resources.

Annual conferences are held twice a year, in autumn (Orange NSW) and in spring (the Geelong FORUM). There has been a major international FORUM in April each year since 1991 incorporating tutors from Australia and overseas along with talks, installations, exhibitions, a ‘merchant’s hall’, ‘selling bazaars’, an Open House and a party.

The Geelong FORUM occurs near the end of September each year and has been housed at Geelong Grammar since 2000. It follows the model of the other event but has its own unique aspects including a close relationship with the National Wool Museum in Geelong, plus the biennial acquisitive Wool Quilt Prize, ‘Expressions’, which is held in even numbered years. There are two dedicated exhibition sites on the campus, plus beautifully appointed grounds and quality classrooms.

For an even more scholarly environment another great creative respite is the renowned USQ McGregor Schools. The University of Southern Queensland’s - USQ - McGregor Schools run creative, visual and performing arts retreats throughout the year. January brings with it the two-week McGregor Summer School. Established in 1969, offering just three classes in painting with three tutors and 43 students, the Summer School has grown to be one of the largest cultural events of its kind in Australia. Over 50 classes are now offered at the annual two-week retreat, attracting tutors and participants from around the globe.

The McGregor Winter School follows in June/July. This year the Winter School celebrated its 21st season, offering twelve creative arts classes in Toowoomba, four masterclasses in Hervey Bay in July and five at Springfield in September.

Michelle Fox, from the School, says, “The ‘McGregor Experience’ offers an intimate and inspirational atmosphere where students can learn and create
alongside some of the country’s finest professional artists and a wonderful social environment in which much  fun is had and many lifelong friendships formed.”

Only a fragment of the retreats on offer are touched on here. Local craft stores are often linked to events and, of course, you can always start up your own. All you need at first is a house or studio space, your crafty friends and plenty of imagination.

Useful links

Bead Fest
www.beadfest.com [beadfest.com]

Australian Sewing Guild
PO Box 553 Civic Square
ACT, 2608

Koala Conventions
www.koalaconventions.com.au [koalaconventions.com.au]
T: (07) 4093 9474

Canberra Quilters
www.canberraquilters.org.au [canberraquilters.org.au]
PO Box 3297 Weston Creek,
ACT 2611

Creative by the Sea
www.becreativebythesea.com [becreativebythesea.com]
Phone Wendy Martin on
(02) 6652 1483 or
Chris Timmins on
(02) 6642 1173

TAFTA
www.ggcreations.com.au/tafta/ [ggcreations.com.au]
[ggcreations.com.au]
PO Box 38, The Gap,
Qld 4061 Australia
Phone (07) 3300 6491

USQ McGregor Schools
www.usq.edu.au/mcgregor [usq.edu.au]
Contact Christine or Liz on 07 4631 2755
or mcgregor@usq.edu.au

Great site for lists of craft related tours and trips - international
www.textilelinks.com/travel/trips.html [textilelinks.com]

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