Crochet Forum 2003: 'Scrumblers' Unite!
Geelong Forum | The Workshops & Tutors |
Scrumbalot on the drawing board | Installations

The Aftermath – Pictures:
Campus, Party, Scrumbalot | Sinclaire Gallery Exhibition

What is 'Scrumbling'? | 'Scrumblers' Gallery' | Gateway | 'SUMbody' | Other Links

TAFTA:
TAFTA | Forum schedule | Cost & Travel
Join TAFTA | Booking Information

Crochet Forum 2003:
SCRUMBLERS UNITE!!

This very special Forum event took place
in Geelong, Victoria, Australia,
28 Sep – 4 Oct, 2003

Crocheters
of all levels and skills,
from all over Australia and from overseas
descended on Geelong Grammar School
to attend a week-long crochet event,
held under the auspices of
TAFTA
(The Australian Forum for Textile Arts )
and
The Geelong FORUM 2003

It was a massive success for all involved
and a triumph for Janet De Boer
and everyone at TAFTA,
who all receive three hearty cheers from us all!

Our subtitle was,
"You've nothing to lose but your chains!"

… and there were plenty in evidence,
when, at the last night party,
one of the hapless tutors was duly subjected
to a restraining order at the hands of
a notorious gang of rogue nuns
(Don't ask!)

'Forum' has a whole assault course of impressions and experiences in store for everyone present – mostly to do with fabulously creative textiles, of course! Here are some photographic impressions – mostly of the party and the 'Sir Scrumbalot' parade, in which a certain exotic 'Garden of Eden' snake got well and truly knighted, but also some of the campus itself. Yes, you have to be there to have any idea of what goes on!

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What is 'Scrumbling'?

'Scrumbling' is the name
James Walters and the late Sylvia Cosh
gave to their approach to
free-form crochet,
but it is for everyone to 'scrumble' in their own way

Mostly this is about:

• peeling off the layers of household grime which have accumulated around the infinitely popular, but limited, 'painting by numbers' tradition of domestic crochet

• exploring simple and expressive techniques and adapting them to your own individual personality and ways of seeing/thinking/feeling

The idea is:
using a hook and a continuous thread of some kind, each of us can make our own kinds of fabrics and structures in two and three dimensions, by allowing our eyes, hands and heart all to work together intuitively

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The Workshops & Tutors

Participants picked:
• one main (three-day) workshop
from those on offer by the four tutors
and
• two short programmes (3-hour sessions)
with two other tutors

Some were learning to 'scrumble' for the first time, others were pushing boundaries

All were having having fun
– and that was only in the workshops:

• 'New Dimensions in Scrumblings
- moving up beyond the flats!'
– with Susie Bowring-Miller
from Newcastle
More about Susie's Workshop

• 'Take a Walk on the Wild Side'
– with Jenny Dowde
from Wollongong
More about Jenny's Workshop

• 'Organic Crochet'
– with Prudence Mapstone
from Brisbane
More about Prudence's Workshop

• 'The Garden of Eden'
– with James Walters
from the UK
More about James's Workshop

More about:
TAFTA Forum | Forum schedule | Cost & Travel

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At Crochet Forum there was a special

Scrumblers' Exhibition in The Sinclaire Gallery

Some of the work is on show here now
and hope to add more soon

Please also visit

'Scrumblers' Gallery Online'

– a place where anyone can showcase
creative crochet

and

Gateway

for creative crochet
Links & Resources:
• books
• bookfinders
• classes, courses, workshops
• conferences, conventions
• exhibitions, events
• galleries, museums
• organisations, groups
• suppliers
• videos/DVDs
• websites

Following the Geeling Forum Pamela Mercedes-Morris has been inspired to start a new group of scrumblers just around the bay in Melbourne, Victoria,
called Scrumblers United Melbourne (S.U.M.)
with the slogan
– Join up and become a SUMbody

The group already has its own website and plans for workshops with Jenny Dowde, Prudence Mapstone and Susie Bowring-Miller in 2004 and 2005

If anyone knows of any other scrumbling developments, please let me know, so we can publicise them:
james@crochet.nu

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Join TAFTA

Don't miss out on future Forums
– join TAFTA now

Since most Forum workshops fill immediately
and are oversubscribed,
we advise that you
join TAFTA
as soon as you can to ensure that
you receive the 'Members Only' Newsletter,
which includes advance notice
of all Forum workshops
together with an enrolment form

Visit the TAFTA website:
www.ggcreations.com.au/tafta/

As an added bonus,
all TAFTA members get a discount
on the cost of a workshop

Booking Information

The full information for each Geelong Forum
is released by TAFTA in November the previous year.
If you are at all interested in attending,
you should get in touch ASAP after that with:

TAFTA, PO Box 38, The Gap Q4061, Australia
tafta@uq.net.au

The background for this page is part of a hanging
made by members of The International Free Form Crochet Guild
in honour of the life and creative work of
Sylvia Cosh,
who died in July, 2000

More about this hanging

This website:
http://www.crochet.nu/crochetforum2003/
Designed & maintained by:
James Walters

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Crochet Forum 2003: SCRUMBLERS UNITE!!

What is 'Scrumbling'?

The Workshops & Tutors

Scrumblers' Exhibition in The Sinclaire Gallery

Other Links

Join TAFTA

Booking Information

Crochet Forum 2003:
SCRUMBLERS UNITE!!