The Banff Centre, Banff, Alberta, Artist in Residence

I am taking a break from posting blogs about my textile experiences during a recent trip to India because I am heading up to the Banff Centre in the Canadian Rockies with my exhibiting group Articulation.
We have been granted a 2-week stay as Artists-in-Residence where we will collect information and inspiration and start developing our ideas on the theme 'Women Rock'. We have all sorts of interesting people coming up to work with us: Dr Jennifer Salahub, a craft historian (among many other things), Willi Schmidt, a professional photographer, Margaret Anne Knowles a museum curator, Ben Gadd, an environmentalist, Tara Moran, a glaciologist, Paul Mackay a geologist and more.
We have a huge studio, nestled in the trees all by itself, to work in. We have full access to the Centre's extensive archives on mountain culture which includes all of the films shown during the annual Mountain Film Festival, so lots of movie nights are planned. We will attend the concerts on at the Centre during our stay including the ballet 'Anastasia' and a Tin Alley String Quartet performance. We will visit many of the museums and art galleries in the town of Banff, including the treasure trove of archives in the the Whyte Museum. We will experience what it was like for women last century when they stayed in the Banff Springs Hotel to take in the mountain air and have high tea in the Rundle Lounge which takes in the world famous Bow Valley view.
We will then work in our own studios for the next 11 months where we will develop our bodies of work. We are planning to return to the Centre in 2009 for a month to work on making the work. The 4th phase of our 'Women Rock' plan is to exhibit the work widely in Canada.

Drying the Textiles

Madder & pomegranate drying field. The dyed textiles are laid out on these stones to dry. There was a drizzly rain the day we visited so there were no textiles laid out.

Pomegranate husks in the foreground & the indigo drying field in the middle ground.

A delicious collection of Ajarakh & other traditional block printed textiles, dyed with natural dyes.

Washing the textiles

Washing the block printed, natural dyed textiles.

Dying Block Printed Textiles

Dying with iron liquor.

Boiling the textile with natural dye materials in a copper pot.

These textiles have been block printed and dyed repeatedly to build up the design.

Natural Dying

Pomegranate husks

Indigo plant

Indigo pot

Block Printing, India

The fabric,

the blocks,

printing with gum arabic.

Ajarakh Block Printing

Cloth is resist block printed with gum arabic.

Khatri Abduljabbar Mohammad (2003 National Award Winner) is known for his double-sided block printing.

Wedding Garments

Members of our tour party are dressed in heavily embroidered wedding garments.

Mutwa Embroidered Blouse

Another Mutwa embroidered blouse in the kungeroo style.

While visiting a village in the Kutch area we attended a workshop where we were shown how to use metallic thread to work the 2 main stitches shown on this blouse.

Embroidery from the Kutch

Metallic tape embroidered over a tie dyed fabric on this head shawl.

Newspaper is used as a pattern

Embroidery from the Kutch, India

More embroidered blouses from Kutch, Gujarat in the Guj style.

Shisha mirrors, buttonhole stitch, satin stitch, knots & pompoms.

Mutwa Embroidery

Mirror glass is cut to shape with scissors for shisha work.

A blouse embroidered in the Guj style where there are woven braids across the front.

A blouse in the Kungeroo style. It is usually made in one piece & is fully embroidered with a larger range of stitches. It is often made for a daughter-in-law.

Mutwa Embroidered Blouse

A Kungeree type of Mutwa blouse with embroidered panels for an unmarried girl.

The panels are embroidered flat then sent to the tailor to make up the garment, unsually with prints in the style of patterned fabrics the British brought to India in the 1930s.

The village is known for its tiny mirror glass (shisha) held in place by fine buttonhole stitches.

Bandhani/ Tie Dye Workshop

Once dyed the folded fabric is pulled open so the resist wrappings pop off (the blue thread).

The resist-dyed pattern is revealed. The textile is left wrinkled...

...or ironed out flat.