Tree Cloths

Within a few weeks, the cloth wrapped around the Cedar was rearranged by fauna running up and down the sloping trunk. I didn't touch the cloth.

By October staining was clearly visible.

As I had hoped, each tree stained its cloth in a distinctly different way.

The cloths are tied on the trees with a hand made jute string I bought at 10,000 Villages store. It was showing signs of decay too.

BA(Hons) Graduation Exhibition Work

I have been rather quiet on my blog this past month or so because I have had my head down stitching. I am working on my final work for a degree I have been pursuing for the past 6 years. Soon I will be finished. My final work began over 2 years ago when I initiated a series of dialogues within the forest I live in. One of these dialogues involved wrapping cloth around tree trunks.

I wanted the trees to leave their marks on the cloths.

I selected 4 different types of trees, hoping for distinctive marks from each one.

Cedar - Arbutus - Douglas-fir - Maple

Cellular Automata

Cellular Automata; Rule 110

Cellular Automata: Rule 30

These are the 2 works I entered in this year's faculty exhibition.
They were inspired by the work of  knitter Debbie New - one of Canada's best - in her book 'Unexpected Knitting, published by Schoolhouse Press, 2003.
Cellular Automata are systems governed by simple rules to produce snow flakes, to determine how cells divide, and to generate molecular structures.
These rules can be applied to knitting to produce self generating patterns, each rule producing a different pattern.
These utility towels remind us cellular automata systems are at work in our daily lives.

I used a hand spun linen/rayon (dark) and a wool/hemp (light) in a fair isle technique.

Hand to Hand Opening

This evening we went to the opening of the Victoria College of Art faculty show at the Cedar Hill Gallery

10 faculty members are showing work

Here am I with my 2 works

Art history instructor, Yvonne Owens (on left with mic), with a pick up band treated us to a tribute to Kate Bush.
The Victoria School of Ballet's award winning students also performed for us.
It was a fun night out.

Hand to Hand: Works by Teaching Artists

Tonight I'm getting my work ready for this exhibition
I'm entering 2 knitted hangings
The opening on Thursday will be most entertaining!

Bay of Fundy & River Thames

What is the link between the Canada's Bay of Fundy and England's River Thames?

image above - Bay of Fundy on a blustery day

Bay of Fundy on a tranquil day
Local past time - 'tide watching'

Scene from Ye Olde River Thames

Living wall in heart of London near River Thames

here are some more clues to the link between the Bay of Fundy and the River Thames

Two Continents

Two Groups

One Passion

Material Girls present

Articulated Materials: Bridging Waters

A transatlantic collaborative exhibition by

Materials Girls (U.K.) and Articulation (Canada)

Venue:

Date:

Opening

Times :

The Brentwood Road Gallery,

The Frances Bardsley School for Girls

Brentwood Road, Romford RM1 2RR

22nd February - 2nd March 2012

Wednesday-Friday only 9.30 - 16.30

(Final Friday until 15.00)

Saturday 10.00 -13.00

For more information ring: 01708 472468

www.the-materialgirls.co.uk

"Hand To Hand" - Works by Teaching Artists

 The faculty at Victoria College of Art is having their annual exhibition this month

Here is all the info about it

Do hope you can see it

I will be at the opening on the Thursday evening - looks like it is going to be lots of fun

Hope to see you there

Lesley

"HAND TO HAND" - Works by teaching artists:
Performances, dance, textile arts, mixed media, installation, tapestry, painting, drawing, sculpture, claymation puppets....

Opens:
Monday Feb. 13 – Feb. 19

Reception:
Thursday 7.00 p.m. February 16 at CACGV( Community Arts Council Greater Victoria)  Gallery, Cedar Hill Recreation Centre (3220 Cedar Hill Road)
At the reception on Thursday, giving a Degas touch, there will be a performance by two award-winning students, Kie Matsuit and Joel Exposito, from the Professional Training Program of the Victoria Academy of Ballet.
Monday (opening day) and also Thursday evening,  a performance piece by  Yvonne Owens, Leyla Mitchell, and Atomic Vaudeville's Mily Mumford --  who will present ‘Military Industrial Dreamers: A Kate Bush Tribute Piece.’
  
Contributing Artists:   Andy Wooldridge, Lesley Turner, Victor Arcega, Danielle Hogan, Joanne Thomson, Carol Thompson, Tony Bounsall, Paul Peregal, Steven Dickerson, Yesman Post, Joyce Kline, Yvonne Owens, Georges Daigle.

Sponsored by the Victoria College of Art, the CACGV and the Victoria Academy of Ballet

Enquiries to CACGV              250-812-6112 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            250-812-6112      end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            250-812-6112 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            250-812-6112      end_of_the_skype_highlighting      end_of_the_skype_highlighting        or
Peter Such
President, Victoria College of Art1625 Bank St. Victoria V8R 4V5www.vca.ca              250-598-5422 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            250-598-5422      end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            250-598-5422 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            250-598-5422      end_of_the_skype_highlighting      end_of_the_skype_highlighting      

VCA Textile Students Colour Sessions

For the past 3 weeks the VCA textile students have been learning about colour by dyeing.
Kati has produced a wide range of different colours using a couple of different dyes.

Kati's analogous blue-green palette

Dana has worked with a bright light palette

The wide variety of results provided a valuable learning experience when students talked about their fabrics

This week they added black to make a range of shades.

VCA Textile Students Dyeing

The students have dyed their fabrics a 2nd time, adding complementary colours to their analogous palettes.
Esther's 1st dye layer is shown at the bottom with over dyeing shown on top.

Esther also dyed matching threads

Laura's 1st layer of dyes
She found linen dyed the darkest.

Pat is working with the same palette as Laura but their individual folding of the fabrics have produced different marks.

Wylie began with a lower intensity Paulette, the light blue fabric on the left.
With the 2nd layer she built up a lot of luscious  greys. 

The cloths were folded 6 different ways to give distinctive marks.
The same folds were repeated  with the 2nd dyeing.
This is Sarah's 1st layer of dye.

Colour Work Bee

Today there was a Colour Work Bee in the Victoria College of Art.
Textile students and faculty spent many hours sorting fabrics into colour groups.

Within the 1st hour the piles of colourful fabric began to accumulate in assigned spots by using Joen Wolfrom's '3-in-1 Colour Tool' as a guide.

We stopped only to have a delicious pot luck lunch then went back to work.

President Peter Such and Vice- President Nancy Ruffolo stopped by to help take sample books apart...

...some of which took a lot of strength.
Fabrics were donated by Chintz & Co., Zebra Design and a number of generous individuals.

After fabrics were sorted by hue they were put in labelled boxes....

...and stacked, ready for use by the students when they are making samples my hand and machine. This library of fabrics has become a valuable learning tool now they are organised and more easily accessible.

Storm Watching

Last week Ron and I went over to the west coast to storm watch (and for our wedding anniversary).
We saw several 1sts, including surfers riding waves while it was snowing.
And we walked on a snow-covered beach for the 1st time.

But over all the weather was mild

At times it was sunny while it was snowing

So it was a surprise when we drove back home over 4 mountainous passes on icy, snowy roads to find the storm had happened across Canada, including Victoria (all schools were closed) while we had been in the mildest place in the country.

But last night a wind storm hit Victoria. We lost power twice, the 2nd time we decided to go down to the coast to see what was happening.

Birds had come in from the sea and all stood facing into the strong winds.

And, finally, we got to see how those massive logs were tossed high up on the beaches like toothpicks.

The breakwater at Ogden Point had waves breaking right over it.

While we were having hot drinks in a cafe to warm up, we phoned home and found the power was restored so we went home. Storm watching over.