More Glorious Colour!
On the evening of February 25th 2014, after having just arrived in Perth and coming straight from the airport, Brandon Ma
bly introduced Kaffe Fassett, who gave a presentation about his love of colour. The audience sat enthralled as Kaffe talked about his new book Dreaming in Colour which follows his growing up years in California and journey into colour. It is full of fabulous colour images of creations by himself and Brandon, and documents their travels to exotic places which inspire their textile designs.
The Western Australian Fibre Textile Assn Inc. (WAFTA) hosted this event at Modern School in Perth city. The stage of the auditorium was a blaze of colour with Kaffe and Brandon’s quilts and knitted creations. There were also colourful quilts created by WAFTA members and a fabulous silk “sail” flowing from the choir stalls above, down to the stage. This silk creation is 26m x 2m. It is comprised of 144 individual pieces made by WAFTA members. Twelve ladies took 10 hours to compile, French seam and iron the sail.
Photographer Josh Wells. Image courtesy of WAFTA
Modern School’s auditorium built in the 1920’s with raked seating, stained glass windows and aboriginal art exhibited on its paneled walls is impressive. Reference to the art work was made by Kaffe who said, looking up from the stage the colours of the audience resembled a “dot” painting on the wall. All 300 seats were full. Tickets went on sale at the beginning of December and were sold out before Christmas.
A group of rug hookers from the northern suburb of Wanneroo and southwest town of Donnybrook, enjoying the colourful images showing on the big screen were surprized to see this rag rug appear
and to hear Kaffe talk about his use of recycled fabrics and original designs when creating rugs. In Dreaming in Colour there is an image of a glorious rag rug by the fireplace in Kaffe’s dining room – nothing traditional about it!
A question/answer time followed and the evening finished with Kaffe signing copies of his books.
Photography of the event by Josh Wells. Images courtesy of WAFTA.
