Post Cards From Fundy, Port-Royal

The 2nd post card in the series is about the French who settled in the Bay of Fundy at various times from the early 17th century until the mid 18th century.
I visited a reconstructed French fort, Port-Royal, a national historic site, to find out what sort of houses were built and what  textiles were used.

Wool felt and fur

Baste fibres and linen.

I stitched a simple house on evenweave canvas.
This will be the stamp on the post card.

I went through the materials I had been collecting for the past 6 months...

...and sorted them by colour to find the ones that would work together.
All of the colours are low intensity because it was a period of natural and bleached colours of the materials and natural dyes.

Then I laid them out by value, light to dark.
 I  decided to go with the mid values plus black and white to put the work in the major scale.

Quiet Zone - World of Threads Festival

Maggie Tchir, Kathleen Hill, Earth Nest

Merino & Romney wools, barley seed, maple branches.

Kerstin Bennier, sitz.kugel - white, hand made merino wool felt, cotton fabric.

Catherine Dormor, Shimmer, digitally printed silk organza, silk satin.

This was my favourite exhibition of the festival. Each work was so quietly powerful.
The Winter 2013 edition of Fiber Art Now also has an article on the World of Threads exhibition with an image of the Quiet Zone showing that power.

Clare Verstegen @ SDA

Clare has an exquisite body of work called 'Atmospheric Measures', in the Joan Mondale Gallery at the Textile Centre www.textilecentermn.org, here in Minneapolis.

(these are terrible images of some of the work)

She screen prints on thick industrial felt made of wool, which means she can then have fun with her other favourite technique....

...burning.

She takes the burn marks around to the edges of each work, which is most satisfying to discover.
Notice, above, her purpose-build hanging system that is in such harmony with her felt work.

Chris Spencer 2011 Jc Graduate

Here are postcard images of Chris Spencer's graduating exhibition work. 

The series is called 'Through the Woods'.

Inspired by woodland near where she lives, Chris made felt with an embellisher then added stitching.

Sorry about the quality of my images, which has added to the problem of what is lost when textiles are photographed.

These images show the work insitu, in the woods that inspired them.

They do look as though the belong there.

Mark Making With Thread

The first Fine Arts Textiles course is nearly finished. We started with 2 basic hand stitches then spent 2 full days a week for 5 weeks exploring the qualities of many variables possible with these 2 stitches. And we barely scratched the surface.

Throughout the course different students often shared an area of expertise which added so much to the whole learning experience for everyone. Here Barbara Gilbert demonstrates to the class.

On Monday we spent time getting work 'hanging ready' then mounted samples and 2D projects on boards.....

... in preparation for the Victoria College of Art Christmas Show, www.vca.ca.
The last class is Friday. In the morning the students will work together to install an exhibition of their work and they will return in the evening in their role as docents while the college is full of guests invited to come and celebrate the students' work.
In the Textile Studio space there will also be demonstrations of stitching, fabric painting and felting.
The learning will continue for the students throughout the weekend as they practice talking about their work. They provide a personal connection with the work that many viewers look for.

More from Articulation's CQA Exhibit

(Left) Wendy Klotz's 'Gates Puzzle' silk piecing and applique and Vickie Newington's stump work and stamping.

Donna Clement's 'Spruce' and 'Cedar', free motion embroidery on cotton, silk, linen and paper.

Wendy Klotz's 'Colours of the Forest', hand dyed, hand/wet felted, machine embroidered wool and organza.

Vickie Newington's work. (not sure of the title of the left hand one, 'Alley' or 'Concrete Reflection', but it is from her Winnepeg series), painted, printed, burned, felted, machine embroidered, layered. Right, 'A Hole of My Own', cotton, rubber, metal , plastic has been hand dyed, embroidered by machine and hand and layered.

I think Articulation's work was successful in showcasing a wide variety of stitching techniques and materials.

ANDREA GRAHAM - Feltmaker

ANDREA GRAHAM - Feltmaker Friend, Linda Wallace (tapestry weaver, stitcher, spinner etc) put me on to this inspiring feltmaker. She moves effortlessly from 2D to 3D and back. I feel aligned with her when she talks about sustainable craft/art and nurturing the planet.

Check out her blog and her unique web site that is full of surprises - I think she designed that too.

Thanks Linda, for the find.

Banff March 31

This is Wendy Klotz's work in Articulation's Loose Threads: Works in Progress exhibition on the Other Gallery here in Banff. 2 of the themes Wendy is exploring are Edith Cavall's story and the pine beetle problem. Wendy's specialty these past couple of years has been working with sheers. This month she has made a lot of felt then machined into it - to make a forest.

This is Donna Clement's wall. Donna spent 2 weeks of the month dying & screen printing backgrounds & motifs for her Burgess Shale & pine beetle studies.

Gloria Daly spent the month putting french knots on her glacier. She said glaciers take a long time to do their work so her glacier will take a long time to make. She had indigo dyed all of the cottons & silks she used in this work.
Today is our last day in Banff after a month long residency. We have talked about the tremendous growth each of us has experienced in our practices and we have noticed major movement in the development of the group and a shift in focus. It has been such a valuable experience we are already into the planning for a fall 2011 residency when we will complete phase 4 of our Women Rock project.

Banff March 24

Yesterday, when I got back to my room after working in the studio all day, I found this beautiful vase of flowers on my desk. I have a secret admirer.

Being in Banff for the month, Donna and I would have missed our monthly neighbourhood book club meeting, if they hadn't come up to the mountains today and had the meeting here with us! Left - Ann Cockerton, Cindy Johnson, Roberta Davis, Donna Clement, Sharon Gainor, Jan Brummit

We took them on a tour of The Centre. While down in the paper making studio they thought they could help Wendy with her felt making.