Setting up Textile Studio

Yesterday morning i shopped for supplies for the new textile arts studio at Victoria College of Art.
In the afternoon I finished off painting the edge of the floor.
Ron and Barb McCaffrey turned up and took charge of laying down the floor tiles.
This is Barb looking mischievous. She has a plan.

When Barb arrived and saw the damaged grey side of the tiles laid out she was disappointed the room didn't look as new as it should. So she and Ron pulled them all up again and stacked them according to colour. Barb eliminated the pink tiles and with Ron worked out a pattern to use the remaining 3 colours.

When i returned from a meeting, i found this. It looks great. Just the effect i wanted - stimulating and not like any one's living room. Thank you Barb and Ron.

While we have been cleaning and painting, George, the Victoria College of Art illustration/animation instructor, has been upstairs above us painting a mural on his computer studio wall.
Here it is complete, another inspirational studio in the college.

Painting Painting

I put in another 9 hours of painting in the studio yesterday.

Thankfully Ron arrived, with hot tea and cookies, then painted with me for 4 hours. We were able to finish the main room. Yippee!

This is our paint station out in the vestibule area. The vestibule still needs painting.
While waiting for the floor to dry, i am having the day at home working on my dissertation rewrites.

Progress in the Studio

My husband, Ron and i spent the whole day and into the early evening painting today.
Here is the vestibule area where the heavy furniture that can't be taken out of the room sits, we have moved it and painted.

The washroom walls looked in OK condition after a power wash so the room just got a painted floor and trim.

The far end of the main room now has a fresh coat of paint on the ceiling, walls and floor. The trim needs another coat then the floor edge can be finished. Now the room is starting to look better.

The other end of the main room still needs to be done.
And the vestibule needs finishing. So still another couple of days of painting left to do. But progress is being made.

Painting the Studio

When i arrived at the college this morning, this is what the main room of the studio looked like. Still chaotic.

I painted 2 coats of dark pumpkin orange trim, appropriate because it is Halloween.

And another bit of punchy trim in the wash room.

Wow, but this is too much punch. I wanted to see what it would be like. Now i know and i will be changing it - blue or white?

Cleaning the Studio

Then Ron moved inside with the power washer. I got to use a power tool too - the Shop Vac. While Ron sprayed water I sucked it up along with black dirt, grit and 100 years worth of loose paint. See the suction head in the bottom i am trying to operate while taking a picture and trying to avoid being sprayed by water, all at the same time.

The walls and ceiling in the storage and locker rooms is in good condition after cleaning so won't need painting. The floor washed up well and will get a new coat of paint.
I cleaned all of the bathroom stalls and enjoyed it because they are fantastic. The walls are thick slabs of slate with lots of faint graffiti accumulated over the years. The doors are heavy solid wood. The metal fittings are all brass and nickle.

One lot of graffiti i found protected behind a spare door in one of the stalls and I washed around it because it is so interesting.
My guess is it appeared when the building was still an elementary school because the drawing was done by a shorter person. Peter, the president of the college, thinks it is post-WWII- early 50s, going by the style of the planes.
I cleaned the spare door and put it back to continue protecting this bit of history.

Now the studio is clean - you could eat off the floors! But we are still going backwards as far as how the rooms look.
We are leaving the rooms for a couple of days to dry out then Keith, the custodian of the building, will put all of the furniture temporarily back in place for the classes being held in the rooms this week.
Painting is the next stage.

Power Washing

We pulled up all of the dusty floor tiles.

When classes had finished for the day, Ron brought his power washer to the school and cleaned tiles until it was too dark to see.
Next day, Saturday, we went back in the morning to finish cleaning the rest.
We stacked them against the building while they dried. It was a wild, windy day and threatening to rain any moment. When a tile was getting dry it was obviously lighter and the wind would pick it up and send it spinning across the playground (there is an elementary school nextdoor). my job was to lay out the tiles, turn them over so the other side could be washed, put the washed ones in the sun to dry and chase the ones flying around the yard.

The main room...

...and vestibule ready to be power washed.
Then Ron moved inside and power washed all the ceilings, walls and floors.

More 'Before' Shots

The main room of the studio set up for an Illustration course.

Coming down the stairs from the main floor there is this small entry room.
Now to get cleaning!

Studio 'Before'

I spent today at the college getting my studio classroom ready for a class starting November 8th.
This is a 'before' shot of the bathroom/storage room.

Previously the 3 rooms were the Sculpting and Molding Studio so you can imagine the amount of fine dust and grit that has worked its way into everything.

Hand basins and lockers.

These are the 'Before' shots. I'll keep you posted on the transformation.

Writing-Reading-Gardening

I haven't posted for a while because i have been spending a lot of time each day editing my dissertation, this semester's module towards my BA.
Last week i received, in the mail, 2 books from Anne Gott in Calgary. She has been following on my blog the reorganisation of the Victoria College of Art library. She noticed the mention of starting a Textile Arts section and sent 2 books as her contribution!
Aren't there some wonderfully generous and caring people out there. And Anne is one of them.
This Colette Wolff book happens to be on the Book List for the 1st 2 courses i am teaching at the college. It came out in 1996 and there hasn't been another book published before or after, on this particular technique, that comes anywhere close to the quality of this one. There is a lifetime of exploration between its covers.
Every time i use this book i get the urge to write to Colette to thank her. Yes, i need to follow through on that urge.

The 2nd book Anne donated is another valuable resource holding its own. It was published in response to schools in the UK expecting textile art students to present their work on worksheets. Later, when I did City and Guilds courses, work was glued directly onto boards. The expectation for this BA degree program is to fill sketchbook after sketchbook with ideas in a more informal presentation People are now interested in the actual process the artist works through.
You may have noticed an increase in the number of art exhibitions where the artist's sketchbooks are included in the display.
It is interesting how things evolve.
What will be next? I have a hunch about what it will be and i will be using it in my classes.

The other activity that has kept me away from my blog is happenings in the garden. I have been waiting for the fall season to experiment with a method to convert a weedy area back to Douglas-fir natives. I pulled out the blackberry and my husband cut short the rampant grass with his trusty weed-eater blade.

We covered the area with newspaper then a layer of soil/mulch.
I don't know how long i have to wait until i will be able to dig through the newspaper to plant natives transplanted from other areas.
I'll keep you posted on how this experiment progresses.

Dialogue

It must have been cold last night because this morning there are a lot more fallen leaves under the maple.
The tea cloth I put under it is quite covered.
I hope lots of interesting staining is going on under those leaves.
I have to watch it closely now to catch it before the cotton threads start disintegrating like they did in a previous sample.

This was an unexpected surprise. Even though it is October here in Victoria and I knew the lawn was still growing, I didn't expect grasses to grow up under the cloth.
They have found their way through the eyelets in the tea cloth. It looks like threading.
I could do something with this.

Victoria College of Art Library

This is the 'Before' picture.
Barbara McCaffrey and I have put in a couple of days of work reorganising the library at the college.
We are going through the contents of every shelf and developing an organisation system that will reflect the courses taught at the collage.

After 2 days work we have managed to make it look worse than when we started.

But, look what happened as I was picking up my bag to get ready to leave.
A Student walked by, stopped, opened her back pack and got out a binder then started looking at books in a specific section.
It works!!! Even the make shift, tentative set up is already looking more approachable.
Barb and I have donated some books to start the Textile Arts section. And some angel donated what initially looks like the complete set of Threads magazine, including the premier issue. What a treasure trove.