Vancouver Island Circumnavigation

The Captain

Guipse Bay, place of an early 20-century utopian Danish settlement, now abandoned.

The knitting grows.

I am observing, sketching and photographing the boundaries between different elements.

Ocean Beach - Shed 4, Jacobson Point, Brooks Peninsula

One of the best surfing beaches on the West Coast of Canada, so the book says.

Though plastic is the main type of debris on these west coast beaches we also saw this huge vehicle wheel, the wheel of a plane, and rubber boots from Japan.

The day was a little chilly while the sun burnt exposed skin. 

My solution.

Sketching with water-colour pencil crayons and sea water.

Circumnavigation: West Coast Vancouver Island

By the time we were on the west coast my knitting had grown much longer.

And I was working my way through the pile of stowed books. They included a few about and by Emily Carr because this was the country she traveled through and worked in.

Kerry Mason Dodd's book 'Sunlight in the Shadows. The Landscape of Emily Carr' is full of photographs of places Emily visited. It gave us clues as to where Emily visited and we were able to stop at a few of those places.

Emily Carr, Indian Church', 1927, oil on canvas, 108.6 x 68.9cm. Art Gallery fo Ontario.

photographed from Sharyn Rohlfsen Udall's 'Carr, O'Keeffe, Kahlo. Places of their Own.'

Emily Carr did sketches for this painting when she visited Friendly Cove, Nootka Island.

We anchored in Friendly Cove, puttered ashore and went in search of the church. We learnt from the resident warden that particular church burnt down in 1954. The above church was built as a replacement 2 years later on a new site further towards the point. It is now a museum for the local First Nations band's collection of artefacts.

Also in Friendly Cove is the Nootka Light Station.

Emily Carr sketched the light station buildings during a later visit, in 1929. 

I found this image in Doris Shadbolt's 'The Sketchbooks of Emily Carr. Seven Journeys.' 

Reading about Emily Carr, Georgia O'Keeffe and Frida Khalo, 3 artists with intense connections to nature and long attachments to specific places, helped me during the month at sea to look longer and deeper at the water, land and sky that is home and a source of inspiration for my work. As a result, I have a sketchbook of ideas to work with.

Circumnavigation: Things To Do When Not Actually Sailing

Sketching in Roller Bay, Hope Island

Roller Bay, so named because the round stones roll in and out with the waves making such a distinctive noise.

Picking up debris on what should have been a pristine beach. I collected a bag of stuff to incorporate in a work about the world's plastic garbage issue.

And there was always knitting when not required by the skipper to pull my weight.

Vancouver Island Circumnavigation - What I did this Summer

This summer Ron and I went on a big expedition. We explored the island we live on.  Travelling on our sailboat we took a month to circumnavigate Vancouver  Island.

We saw many beautiful sights including much wildlife: orcas, dolphins, sea lions, whales, sea otters, seals, bears, and birds - none of which I was able to capture adequately with  my point 'n' shoot camera.

I got lots of knitting time in. I read most of the books I stowed on board.

I did lots of quick sketches to make me really see what I was looking at.

My sketchbook is full of inspiration and ideas for future works which will keep me busy in my studio over winter.

Studio Construction: Plumber's Last Visit

This little beauty is an instant boiling water tank - big enough to fill a dye pot or a teapot. For my purposes it is an energy efficient way to get small amounts of water at the right temperature rather than running the faucet, boiling a jug of cold water or heating a pot of water on an element. It is cheaper and takes less energy to maintain a small amount of hot water than it does to heat it up from cold each time. I can turn the unit off when I know I will not be using it for a while.

The plumber installed several outside faucets near the planned garden beds.

Ron adjusted the motion sensor for the outside light. The way it was set our bedroom filled with light whenever a raccoon or cougar walked by at night. I need the light to come on only when going down to the crawlspace at night. 

Ron has painted the surround for the porch light.

The porch 'dark-sky-safe' light is in action. The Dark Sky organisation's Fixture Seal of Approval program certifies outdoor lighting fixtures as being Dark Sky Friendly, meaning that they minimize glare while reducing light trespass and skyglow. All products approved in the program are required to be fully shielded and to minimize the amount of blue light in the nighttime environment. It is an important issue for my studio in the forest.

Studio Construction: Painting and Plumbing

Marshall Travis, Artisan Painting Plus, brought his daughter, Madeline, along to help him with the painting.

Ron unpacked the new sink faucet that arrived in the mail.

The plumber delivered the hot water tank.

Ron helped carry it around the back to the crawlspace.

This is a plumber's bag.

There were lots of different vehicles in the back yard this day.

Studio Construction: Lighting

Installing the lighting.

Note the orange spot on the ceiling - Paul Dancy of Prices Alarms has installed the alarm system. The orange cover will be taken off once the system is activated.

An electrician's belt/bag has lots of different wire cutters.

Lighting was another big issue that we were most particular about. We got 2 different companies to model the lighting and give us a quote according to our specifications. When we started doing the research last year dimmable LED lighting wasn't available but once we started looking at specific lights last month dimmable LED lights were being made.

We began designing on the premise that light was needed over the different work areas and not necessarily over every area all of the time. We needed controls to manage the amount and location of the light. The amount of light is measured by lumens per square foot. Transition areas require only 7.5 lumens/ft while work surfaces require 75.0 or more lumens/ft.

Another consideration which was more difficult to assess was my patterns of use. Once I am working in my new space, I am not sure what my work habits will be. I don't want to limit myself at this stage, but we needed something to work with so we assumed  I would work mainly in the mornings because I know that is when I work best.

Jonathan, the architect, designed the windows to get maximum light right into the centre of the room without too much direct sunlight on the work surfaces. He designed for the soft morning light to come in through the east high windows. We have long summer days and short winter days so the lights would be needed mostly over the winter months. I will count on daylight as the primary light source for general illumination during the summer and turn on task lighting only when needed.

The result of the modelling was 3 banks of lights in the main room, each with their own control, and all dimmable.

The next consideration was the type of light.

I need the light to show true colours which translated to a high CRI (Color Rendition Index) bulb rating.

The light itself needs to be a neutral colour, not too warm and yellow like in a cafe and not too blue and cool looking like in a laboratory. These colours relate to the temperature of the light or the Kelvin Index. We went with a medium high Kelvin temperature of 4100.

The Green Shed lit up at night. 

A first.

Meanwhile, the dehumidifier continues to take moisture out of the building materials and the moisture level is slowly dropping.

If the humidity level inside a building during the heating season (winter) is at 30% the risk of condensation on cold surfaces such as windows increases greatly which can result in materials damage over time.

If mold grows inside the building during the warmer summer months when warm air hits a cold surface humidity levels are at 60%. 

Humidity levels at 50% and more are when dust mites flourish.

If you smell a musty odor inside there is mold present. Reducing the indoor humidity level is the first defense against indoor contaminants such as mold, mildew and dust mites. Keeping the humidity low makes for a healthy living environment and a longer life for the building's materials.

So we keep at emptying the dehumidifier bucket every day.

Studio Construction: Finishing the Floor

While I was downstairs in the crawlspace vacuuming...

...and scrubbing the polished concrete,...

...Adrian was upstairs finishing the floor. The tiles have the first coat of sealer. The light bulbs help it to dry and cure.

To help decide on the type of flooring I did a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of a number of different materials looking at their durability, life expectancy and ease of maintenance. 

The winner was......cork!

I made these signs to ensure people didn't track in pebbles and grit with their shoes and scratch up the beautiful new floor. 

Four thin layers of water based varnish have been spread over the tiles with the final layer drying slowly in a closed up room. Now the floor needs to cure for 4 days and I can't put any rugs down for 10 days.

Looking good!

Duro Design, a Quebec company, imports sustainably sourced tiles from Portugal, adds the colour and coats the back with a marine grade, neoprene contact cement. They make the tiles only once they are ordered to minimise waste and having to store a large inventory of the 6 different designs and 52+ different colours. Their flooring gives a building a lot of LEED credits because it is recyclable, made from renewable materials and the adhesives and sealers are low-emitting.

Cork trees can be harvested every 7 to 12 years and a considered a rapidly renewable resource. The fast growing species doesn't require chemical fertilisers or pesticide treatments. The cork tiles are guaranteed to last 25 years and can be recycled to make new tiles. Cork  tiles have so many positive attributes. They are antimicrobial preventing the cultivation of mold and they resist dust mites and insects so require only a damp mop and water to clean (no chemical cleaners). Cork absorbs sound, bounces back when things are dropped on it, and dropped things are less likely to break. It is fire resistant, anti-static and unaffected by humidity. It is soft underfoot making it easy on the feet and back when standing for a long time. Composed of 50% air in closed cells it has excellent insulation properties and always feels warm underfoot. Any damaged tiles can be lifted and replaced without having to replace the whole floor.

You can see why I am sold on cork flooring.

Studio Construction: Filling the Trench

I worked carefully around the tree roots while digging the trench. I covered the exposed roots with strips of wet, wool blanket to keep the roots moist. Luckily we had a number of drizzly days which also helped keep the roots from drying out too much.

The white pipes are part of  the irrigation system for the current garden beds. Most of this system has been broken during construction so we will have to get it redone. We would have had to anyway because the new back yard garden beds will be in different places.

Jason lines the bottom fo the trench with several inches of sand as required by code.

He then lays the conduit in the trench. Here he is gluing sections together.

The 2 conduits have to be kept 12" apart. This pic shows the 2 irrigation pipes on top of the 2 conduit pipes with the white water pipe below all of them. One conduit pipe is to carry the electricity the other is to carry cable, wi-fi or any future communications technology. I plan to not have any wi-fi in the studio, but it is there in case I change my mind.

I worked as Jason's assistant to weave the pipes around the tree roots. Jason said I earned some hours towards my journeyman electrician training if I wanted to pursue the trade.

Now the conduit was ready to have pipes and cables pulled through them. I wasn't present when this event took place and apart from using long strings I am not sure how it was done. To me, it is still another mystery of the electrical trade.

Meanwhile in the boiler/mechanical room connections were made with the power and communications cables. These went through the new holes drilled through the foundation walls.

I was very pleased when the back-filling started because it meant I could get going on establishing the new garden bed.

It is a big step to finally have power in the studio. We no longer need to drag extension cords from the house to the studio. There is still no light inside the building. Lighting is a whole other issue we are still investigating.