Auction House Lot- Finland Arabia, Russian plate, textiles

There was a collection of other things in the box I won at the auction.

A large printed table cloth and 2 plates....

One is a rather lovely painted, wooden plate from Russia (I'm guessing) and a Finnish Arabia plate, produced between 1971 and 1975.

...and this odd assortment.

These crocheted kitchen items were made using interesting techniques.

There was a collection of airline cutlery, most of the airlines now defunct. The previous owner appears to have had plans to polish all of the 'silver.' Yah for plastic airline cutlery, unless one likes 'polishing the silver.'

And that is it - all for $5!

Joshua Creek Heritage Art Centre

The Joshua Creek Gallery housed the World of Threads Festival exhibition De rerum natura ( On The Nature of Things). The festival curator, Gareth Bate, looked at all of the work submitted then decided on groupings and themes. He "observed that environmental work is the most dominant theme in contemporary fibre art."
These are some of the works I particularly liked in this exhibition.

Leanne Shea Rhem, Armour, 2011

Hand-made kozo paper and lambskin leather were stitched together to make a dressed, life-size human form.

Kozo was a popular medium in the festival but no 2 artists used it in the same way.

Emily Jan, Durer's Rhinoceros, 2011
Emily's title refers to the woodcut Albrecht Durer made in 1515, of a rhinoceros, an animal he had never seen. He worked from a description written by an explorer who had returned to Europe. Durer modeled it after what he was familiar with - metal and leather amour.

Wiki - "probably no animal picture has exerted such a profound influence on the arts".

Emily, likewise has made a rhinoceros from the familiar materials we cover ourselves with - our clothing. 

Recycled garments & textiles and resin.
Knitting, crochet, eyelet embroidery, button fastenings, lace edgings.

This suspended rhino made everyone smile.

More Dyeing

I have been doing a lot of dyeing to get materials to work with for my BA studies.

I have not yet been entirely successful with getting the right red I am looking for. So I am persevering and learning lots in the meantime.

Not a good image but this one worked out well. It looks like a licorice colour.

These 2 need over-dyeing with a few more layers to build up the richness and depth of colour I am after.

Clean Up and Dialogue

Now that i have sent this semester's module of work to the UK for assessment it is time to clean up my studio. All of the left over yarn that i had hauled out, i sorted by hue. I have all of my yarns and threads sorted into 24 different hues, each with their own box. I call these boxes my palette. i find sorting yarns like this helps keep my eye for colour in practice.

The dialogue where I staked doilies out under the trees is coming along.

After 10 days it looked like this.

While the agricultural cloth looked like this.

Dialogue Gardening vs Nurturing

This is another dialogue i have going on with a Douglas-fir and an arbutus.

I staked out under these 2 trees a grid of round knit and crochet doilies and squares of agricultural cloth.

I was anticipating the plants in the ground would grow up through the knitting/crochet....

...and be suppressed by the agricultural cloth.
This dialogue is still in place. i didn't send it to the UK with the rest of my work because i haven't responded to it yet except to photograph changes regularly.

More Artawearness IIX

Kris Hold, a 4th year sculpture student, crocheted "authentic smelling twine & translucent fishing line to build structural pieces that cover human bodies." In this image I love the way the backs of the heads of those in the audience mimic the textures in the structural pieces.

She is exploring "human form & sculpture", a relationship made all the more dynamic by her startling choreography.