Home

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Studio Tidy-up Time Continues



I am taking my time cleaning up my studio because it is giving me time to think - the type of thinking that goes on when my hands are busy and the music is up loud. The ideas just rise to the surface and all I have to do is jot them down for later contemplation.

One of my recent treasures a friend picked up for me is an old Gray & Dunn biscuit tin full of silk threads...

...on wooden cotton reels.
I will wait to see what they want to become.

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Done & have the paper to prove it!

My drawing desk. 
Notice the drafting board is empty.
 I completed the final assignment, presented it....

...and graduated.
For the past couple of months I put everything else more or less on hold and focused on this program. 
I feel a great sense of achievement and also pleased I am able to return to my 'normal'.
I took the following week off to do nothing in particular - sleep, read, sleep, eat.

This week I am back in my studio.
 First I want to put away an accumulation of materials: project left-overs, acquisitions, gifts. 

While doing this annual task I enjoy getting reacquainted with my resources. I keep a pen and paper handy because the activity always generates a heap of ideas.

Friday, February 28, 2014

More Christmas Knitting Completed

Amber's Christmas knitting is finished - for the 2nd time. I guessed her head size and made it too small the first time round.

It is Fleece Artist's Ana Bandana in their luscious Woolie Silk (65% wool/35% silk).
Amber lives in New Zealand and there is no rush to send it to her because it is summer there. I am sure she doesn't want to be reminded winter is coming, just yet.

I was successful with an auction bid for this copper kettle and tankard.
Now I am set to do some natural dyeing with a copper mordant.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Composting Up Close ....

We make compost in wire sleeves held together with twist ties - real simple

But in our winter-wet climate the pile gets a little too wet.
I need to make some winter hats for the piles.

We took 1 pile apart to feed the camellia at the front door.
 It is having a rough time this winter. With the 1st lot of heavy wet snow it had fallen over.

Luckily there is a sailor in the house who knows knots.
I think it is the engineer who added the containers full of water as a counterweight.

Its not pretty at the front door but it appears to be working.

The camellia needed compost & mulch because it has woken up already and is working on its flowers.
Once it has finished blooming we can prune it back so it can stand up on its own again.

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Ready To Make Compost

Ever since Ron & I did the Gaia College Organic Master Gardener course we have made compost together - not the most romantic of dates but always most interesting.
The key is to have the materials on hand before a compost-making session.
We have been collecting and will be ready to make compost once things warm up a bit.
Above is a pile of our wood chips produced when we had a pile of small branches shredded.


A pile of horse manure that is maturing nicely.
I collect it in my car, not Ron's, from a nearby stable.


The reason why I have to visit coffee shops is to collect their grounds.

All of our 'non-shiny' waste paper gets collected in a pile outside to start decomposing.

As does all of our 'non-shiny' cardboard.
I have been know to raid our neighbour's when they put it out on recycling day.

And most valuable of all, our raked up leaves.
Now if it would just warm up a few degrees so we can use the compost we have and start making some more.
We know how to have a good time together.

Monday, February 17, 2014

More Christmas Knitting Completed

Take some delicious yarns: (left) -3 ply wool & silk hand-dyed by Fleece Artist & (right) Diamond's lace weight pure silk...

... add needles & follow Fleece Artist's Ana Bandanna pattern.

The 2 yarns blended together so well into a softly draping sunset-looking fabric.

Younger daughter modeled it before it was packed up and sent to her older sister.

The pleating at the back looks like origami.
I have heard it fits well.

Monday, February 10, 2014

'Articulated Materials: Bridging Waters' in Saskatchewan

The 4th showing of Articulation and Material Girls' response to the Bay of Fundy and the River Thames, respectively, will be shown in its 7th exhibition - 3 in the UK & 4 in Canada.
This time it is in The Gallery on 3rd, Watrous, Saskatchewan. 
It is the last time before the individual works will be boxed up and returned to owners in the UK and across Canada.
This international collaboration has been an exciting and rewarding project for both groups.

Feb 19 - March 10, 2014
Opening Reception Feb 20, 1 - 4 pm
Gallery open Thursday to Saturday 1 - 4 pm

Articulation member, Donna Clement has designed all 4 posters for the Canadian exhibitions. This last one features one of her works, 'Erosion as Joggins Fossil Cliffs -"Ammonite".'

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Carole Sabiston 'Everything Below All of the Above'

There are 2 galleries full of Carole's work.
This one gave me a start because I used the same PK Page poem in my degree studies. 

'Planet Earth:after PK Page' 2013
It was so interesting to see how Carole worked with the same words.

'Connecting Threads: Arc of Carol Shields' 2013
This is a tribute to her friend, Carol Shields, the Noble prize winning writer of short stories.
This image doesn't do justice to the complexity of the silk layers.


3 friend, Esther, Kati, Sarah, all artists, enjoying looking through the large 'Touch Book.'
It is a large exhibition with lots to see, so I have visited twice so far and may go again.

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Carole Sabiston Opens at Art Gallery of Greater Victoria

We attended the opening of Carole Sabiston's exhibition at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, a retrospective solo called "Carole Sabiston: Everything Below All of the Above"

Curator Pat Bovey, a former director of the gallery and now from Winnipeg, spoke to a packed audience about her long friendship with Carole and her observations over the years as Carole's oeuvre grew.

Left: Pat Bovey, Carole Sabiston, Jon Tupper, Director

Pat's text panel.
 Hope you can read this.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

'Hands Around the World' in Christ Church Cathedral

In the Christ Church Cathedral, Victoria, there is an exhibition of 11 international textile murals. It is the 'Creative Peace Mural Project which aims to link and celebrate communities around the world'.
This mural was made in Morioka Japan in 2010 as a community project with the makers' hand prints making up the border. The inner panel shows what the people of Morioka decided makes up their history, geography and culture.
  

The project started in Victoria as a millennium project. Since then the project, with the accumulating number of textiles, has traveled to 8 different countries. The completion of each textile is celebrated with a community event involving local dancing, music and culture.

Each panel is made up of 10 vertical panels, 5m x 2m. 'This panel design allows the completed mural to be easily packaged for shipping'. 
The paneled design looks familiar to Victorian's because the textile designer was Carole Sabiston.


Behind the alter in the cathedral is a large work by Carole constructed in her signature panel technique. By working in panels she is able to make the large scaled commissioned work she is well known for.

'The Forest Primeval', 5 x 2' x 10' panels.

Victoria's Christ Church Cathedral is well worth a visit by textile enthusiasts. Most of the ornament inside the building is textile based - they are everywhere and some of them change with church calendar. Elaine Ellison is the Sacristan where it is her job to make sure the right textiles (and the other items) are installed for each  event.
 It is bit of a treasure hunt trying to find all of the banners, panels, hangings, flags, cloths, kneelers etc within the church.

Monday, January 27, 2014

New Studio Work Area

This used to be the admin area in my studio until I moved it outside my main studio room.


In the process of moving out.


I didn't decided what to use the space for but just waited to see what happened there.

For the past year I have been in the Gaia College Ecological Landscape Design program at Royal Roads University. The last 2 courses have involved lots of sketching and drafting.


My new work area has turned into my drafting work station. It is so good having a dedicated area for it where I can leave things out.
Here I am working on my big final project.


Friday, January 24, 2014

#2 Christmas Knitting - Check

I had a most enjoyable evening sitting in front of the fire and the TV while weaving in the ends on Sebastian's scarf. We watched 'Earth, Wind and Fire" - a movie about Georgia O'Keeffe, Emily Carr and Freida Khalo - I don't know what the connection is between this movie and the exhibition of work by these 3 artists.
Then we watched lots more TV, until 1:00 a.m.! Then I finished weaving in the ends this morning!


There are a lot of ends. It is such soft merino wool and mohair I put the ends out in the garden for the birds. They will be working on their nests soon. I am looking forward to the day when I find on old nest with some of my wool ends woven into it.


I did find this nest. There is a white horse over our back fence.
Onward with the Christmas knitting projects....

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Christmas Knitting

Towards the  end of last year I got the urge to knit.
It may have been prompted by my daughter's request for thigh-highs.

After they were finished and I looked for something else to knit. 
With Christmas approaching I ambitiously decided to make something for each person's Christmas stocking.


Elizabeth got some leg warmers using one of my first efforts at dyeing wool, from many years ago.
I finished these on our 2 day road trip to Edmonton for the family Christmas.

Also on the road trip I knit this scarf for son-in-law, Sebastian.
He pulled it out of his stocking Christmas morning with the needles still attached.
Before I finished it I needed to know how long he wanted it to be.
Here it is on the wall washed and blocked.
Look at all of those ends to darn in. I need a good TV movie to watch while darning.

Sebastian is a scientist so his scarf is striped in a Fibonacci sequence.