While the garden grows I am at work in my studio...

While the garden grows I am at work in my studio.

A new work. 

The challenge - how to express what is the province of Alberta on one double-sided panel?

I decided to depict the diversity of landforms in the province - landforms shaped by glacial and tectonic processes.

The schematic with a beginning sample. 

Cutting out the shapes.

I decided to focus on the interlocking shapes of the different regions and I felt colour would be a distraction. I auditioned a variety of different unbleached cottons from my stash. I selected mainly handwoven cottons from India. I washed these fabrics and lightly tumbled them dry to allow their different weaves to naturally collapse into wrinkles unique to each cloth.

Problem - how to make a neat double-sided join?

Solution - couching hand-made jute braid from India that I just happen to have in my stash, patiently waiting until needed.

The different landform shapes have been joined.

Yes, the landform edges do need more definition.

Hmmm, not sure about the outline. Is it too dark? Too wide? Does the whole panel need a wider border?

I added a border of a wider jute braid.

Nope - I don't like the way the outline of each shape takes away from the feeling of the different landform regions being related to each other. So I unpicked all of the braid on both sides.

I sewed on a much thinner jute braid.

Much better. 

Now to block the whole panel just enough to make it hang straight while not flattening out the natural landform wrinkles.

I think this must be the first work I have made without the use of my trusty irons.

Julia Caprara's Buttonhole Textile

I found some more images of the work I posted yesterday. This close up shows the work with the 3rd layer - the buttonhole stitch starting to be built up.

The buttonhole stitch works to blend and highlight specific areas of the textile.

This is another work using Julia's technique. It is a Rockies scene where fireweed is colonising an alluvial deposit. I still need to work in more of the buttonhole stitched flowers before it is finished.

Flowers & Snow

When I was in the Rockies at Lake Louise a couple of weeks ago I was attracted to the faded colours of this late summer border planting.

We went into the Louise Railway Station restaurant for lunch. When we came out the flowers were covered in snow. I was too busy running to the car park to stop & get a picture of them in their changed state. We are always warned about the changeable weather in the mountains but I didn't expect the seasons to change from summer to fall while having lunch.

Hiking in the Rockies

I went for a hike up Paradise Valley in the Rockies this weekend. It was spectacular with the larches turning. BUT, I forgot my camera!

So I am showing you images from a hike I took a couple of weeks ago. There were fresh mushrooms, toadstools and many other types of fungi lining the trail. They were so fresh, dewy & shiny they looked as though they had all emerged overnight. They are great inspiration for future fibre art work.

McMullen Gallery, University of Alberta

Early in the morning Donna Clement and I packed the car then headed north to Edmonton to the University of Alberta Hospital Mc Mullen Gallery to install our work.

The large gallery space was daunting as we laid out our work.

But with help of family members we found a place for everything by early evening.

Donna and I will attend the Artists' Reception on April 24th from 7 to 9 pm.

Banff Centre

Professional photographer, Willi Schmidt, spent the morning with us showing his amazing photographs taken in the Rockies and talking about how to take a good shot.

He showed us the type of camera the earlier photographers in the Rockies would have used.