Marshall Arts

receding shore

2012-02-14T11:55:00.007-03:30

I've been thinking about weaving a new piece for a while now, in between embroidery, spinning and dyeing. A long horizontal piece, depicting a stretch of shoreline that is vulnerable to erosion. After the piece is off the loom, I plan on embroidering the coastal profiles of the shore in previous years, to demonstrate the impact of erosion.

Nice to be weaving again, even if it is on my small loom instead of my big one (the big one is dismantled in my parent's basement until I have the space for it). I do notice I need to take lots of breaks - my smaller loom is great for production, but is more physically demanding for this kind of inlay that involves a lot of hand work.

I am basing my weaving on this drawing, which is loosely based on the photograph below of eroded shoreline on the north shore of New Brunswick.

prep

2012-02-06T17:20:00.008-03:30

Textiles take time. Preparation of materials (spinning, warping, dyeing, counting, threading) takes time.

But in that preparation, there's space to further flesh out my idea in my head. As the weft gets dyed and the ikat ties are removed, as I wind my small skeins of hand-spun and over-dyed wool into balls for my inlay palette, the potential of all these separate elements combining becomes more concrete.

And so does a vision of how the piece will come together and make sense through being made.

spinning out

2012-02-01T14:07:00.008-03:30

For the last few days, I've spent parts of my days spinning wool. Finishing up my stash of dyed merino fleece from Belfast Mini Mills and combining it with a grey wool fleece into one ply. Also using up white wool fleece from New Brunswick that I was given for Christmas. Next I will over-dye all these mini-skeins of hand-spun yarn in different combos of natural dye.

I've been lucky enough to have been given a fantastic selection of natural dyestuff over the years: madder root, cochineal, alkanet, saffron, lac, and even indigo (I've only attempted the indigo twice so far), and my own collection of onion skins.

The thing is, I don't really have a dye kitchen in our apartment in Charlottetown. In the winter, the kitchen must be cleaned and taken over for a day of dyeing, and then cleaned again. In the summer, I can dye out on our back deck in the fresh air (though no outdoor sink is a bit tricky). I'm really missing our basement we had in our Halifax apartment: two giant porcelain sinks below a window with lots of afternoon light - perfect for the time-consuming process of natural dyeing and the necessity of letting things sit for days and not be in the way.

All this to say that the hand-spun one ply that I will dye (making due the my kitchen and living space as it is) will be used to continue my Islands project that was started last winter. The colours of wool will be my palette for crocheting my islands, matching the sand, cliffs, dunes, grass, forests, and bogs.

art cloth text

2012-01-31T12:32:00.006-03:30

I was just taking a break from spinning wool for my Islands project, and checked facebook. There on my homepage was a link from Mackenzie Frere to his blog, Art Cloth Text, and a wonderful post about my recent work, specifically my map of Charlottetown.

It's so insightful to read other people's (especially other artists) impressions of my work...two sentences of Mackenzie's in particular really resonate for me:

"The embroidered emphasis of a small city’s vulnerability on the edge of the water give this woven map a compelling emotional depth."

"While both weaving and embroidery offer the artist a degree of control over pattern and image, her subject is total loss of control to unpredictable, natural forces."

I met Mackenzie in my last year of my BFA at NSCAD University in Halifax, circa 2003. He was doing his MFA and I was very taken with his work, particularly his exploration of ikat natural dyeing - a beautiful simplicity and dedication to material and process. I've held him up in my mind's eye of weaving mentors ever since. He is now an instructor in the Fibres Department at the Alberta College of Art and Design.

dreams of Sweden

2012-01-26T14:03:00.008-03:30

Since Monday, I've been working diligently on an application for the W. B. Brucebo Art Foundation Travel Scholarship. The Brucebo Foundation offers two scholarships (or fellowships) a year: one is a residency on the Swedish island of Gotland, and the other is a European fine art travel scholarship. The travel scholarship can encompass fine art research anywhere in Europe, but I've chosen to focus on Sweden.

Since being exposed to scandinavian textiles at NSCAD University, I have had a desire to travel to Sweden and study and learn about their textile traditions. The integration of art, design and craft is well known as being a real strength of Sweden's culture. Textile artists, and tapestry artists in particular, are very celebrated. Needless to say, I need to visit this country!

My research proposal centers around the intersection where Swedish textile traditions and contemporary culture come together. Focusing on hand-weaving and folk art traditions, I'll explore the influence of cultural textiles on Sweden's art and design practices through my travels.

I hope to visit a folk school (a very strong tradition in Scandinavia), university textile departments, galleries and museums, as well as commercial production businesses and textile mills. I'm really interested in the powerful role material culture plays in shaping our sense of history and community, and how material traditions are re-interpreted to determine their continuity into the future.

Fingers and toes crossed!!

re-visiting

2012-01-17T13:53:00.005-03:30

With the embroidery of my woven map of Charlottetown's vulnerable waterfront, I have started to re-visit other woven works I've completed in the past two years. I feel the embroidery of the handwoven image and cloth brings a whole other depth and strength to the pieces. The map of Charlottetown is finished for now: all the streets of downtown have been overlaid, the perimeters of the flood zone have been re-emphasized and the motion of the sea onto the land has been indicated with vertical blue arrows.

After washing the map last night (this always brings the cloth together, making it something whole as opposed to various elements forced together), I took a look at a piece I wove in Halifax almost two years ago. It is a depiction of Bottle Cove, a magical piece of coast on the west coast of Newfoundland. When I wove the piece, I emphasized the parts of the shore where I had visited and/or thought of as particularly magical in yellows.

So last night, while perched cross-legged on the couch with an embroidery hoop, I used a chain stitch to draw a a line along the coast where the water meets the land. I have never been satisfied with the piece and am excited at my start at embellishing the coastal abstraction with embroidered mapping.

this town is small and close to the water

2012-01-11T13:26:00.009-03:30

This week I've started re-visiting a woven piece I completed over the summer. The piece is based on a map of Charlottetown showing the areas of the waterfront that are vulnerable to potential flooding due to predicted sea level rises (the woven red areas).

I wove the piece (very slowly on my days off from Parks Canada) on my big Cranbrook loom when it was at the school house in North Milton between July and the end of October.

This week, I've been embroidering into the woven cloth, adding the streets and accurate shoreline, building up the map-like elements.

The more I add, the happier I am with it and the more ideas flow....

more scarves for the shop

2012-01-10T15:58:00.002-03:30

Just listed some more scarves in my Etsy shop today...trying to fill the shelves with stock!

scarves for wintertime

2012-01-05T10:03:00.002-03:30

Yesterday I got around to photographing some of my scarf inventory for my Etsy shop. Photographing, uploading and editing the photos, and then listing the item in my shop takes a lot of time, but I managed to get 6 new scarves listed. It was my first time photographing my scarves inside our Charlottetown apartment, but the soft winter light pouring in our living room bay windows was perfect. The scarf you see here is a Stream Scarf in Winter Dusk, and it is now for sale in my Etsy shop. Bit by bit, I hope to get more of my inventory photographed and listed in the coming weeks.

Happy New Year!

2012-01-03T16:02:00.007-03:30

After two weeks of socializing, sleeping in late (and staying up late), reading, watching movies, going for wintry walks - I'm ready to get back into a routine. I'm ready to make art and research and weave away the winter.

Just before Christmas, I received a book about Swedish rep weaves by Laila Lundell...this was a gift ordered for myself to simultaneously satisfy my curiosity about Swedish weaving traditions and rep weave rugs. My first rug project is on the loom (see photos above): a long rug for our bedroom to warm feet when we hop in and out of bed. Rep weave is a simple plain weave structure, the magic occurs because of the close sett of the warp threads binding in the thicker weft, while a thin weft allows for repeat treadling (like in overshot). My warp is made up of natural linen and blue cotton, my weft is three strands of thick wool.

This is one of my favourite photos from the Rep Weave book: love the blues and the combination of the rug and wall hanging....my only question: where's all the bedroom clutter (ie. books and clothes on the floor)??

I also manged to finish up a custom order I received in December at Halifax Crafters' (the aqua scarf in the middle is for Heidi).

And today, four back issues of Selvedge magazine arrive in my mailbox. I ordered these over a month ago to improve my textile library, keep abreast of contemporary fibre art, thought, and design, and basically spark my imagination as I settle into a productive winter.

home projects

2011-12-15T13:09:00.010-03:30

Since finishing up the craft fairs for this year, I've been enjoying puttering around home. My first project was to come up with a solution to studio clutter. My studio is in what we've been calling the "anti-room" of our apartment: a strange rectangular room that accommodates our front entrance and three doorways (to our bedroom, Damien's studio, and the kitchen). Needless to say, my studio has often become a bit of a hallway depository, attracting clutter along the edges - not a very attractive workspace. So, I found an adjustable Ikea shelf on Kijiji. It holds all my studio odds and ends very nicely, and the room feels so much bigger and happier.

I also finally got around to putting up two wooden wall shelves above my loom for books, yarn, and weaving tools.

We started a batch of white Reisling wine - hopefully it will be ready and bottled by Christmas. The first batch of wine since we moved back to PEI in May.

And I've spent many hours spinning and then knitting dyed merino fleece I bought at Halifax Crafters a couple of weeks ago. It is now my new hat for winter...

customize

2011-12-13T10:51:00.005-03:30

Getting three custom orders out the door and into the mail in the last day or so. I'm enjoying the anticipation of working on my own custom project for our little home after the last scarf is woven in the next few days. I've been contemplating a rug for our front entrance/my studio.....maybe rag, maybe rep - definitely sturdy and cozy.

home again home again

2011-12-07T09:44:00.009-03:30

So, my craft fair season is finished for another year. Time to slow down, finish up a few custom orders (you can see the warp above), and get around to all the things I've been meaning to do. A lot of puttering, re-organizing, and art-making. Also a bit of re-evaluating of the role I want my production weaving business to play in my life. Next year, I think I will do fewer shows and choose shows that don't require flying and a huge output of expense. Working for Parks Canada allows me to step back from the unpredictable nature of the craft fair business a bit, as the financial necessity of doing as many shows as possible is diminishing.....I would like to do smaller productions runs and even let myself play a little more with one of a kind work, while expanding well beyond scarves. And make more time for my art practice. A good winter ahead.

A panaramic view of Halifax Crafters Yuletide Cheer Handmade Market in Halifax this past weekend. Thanks to everyone who came out!! It was a very fun and busy weekend. Wonderful to see so many crafty, happy faces....Halifax has an fantastic art/craft community.

While in Halifax, I also had the chance to visit my cousin Martha and her brand new baby girl, Freyja. She was born on Saturday, November 26th. It was a traumatic birth done by emergency caesarian section, but Freyja is doing great and Martha is healing. This is the first grandchild on my father's side of the family (there are only 5 of us cousins), so she feels very very special. I got to hold her (so tiny!!) and watch her sleep under the little cotton baby blanket I wove specially for her.

Yuletide Cheer

2011-12-01T14:45:00.003-03:30

I'm heading to Halifax tomorrow for a weekend of Halifax Crafters. This will be my last show of the season, and it's a relaxing one to do - which is good, cause I'm fighting a bad chest cough. That's the toss up with doing shows: I can't predict how I'll be feeling health-wise. But lots of rest and tea will do me good.....and this show is always FANTASTIC.

thank you!

2011-11-23T10:07:00.008-03:30

A big thank you to everyone who visited my booth in St. John's and Halifax over the last two weeks!

I arrived home on Monday after two weeks on the road, and I'm settling back into the comfort of domesticity. Home sweet home. I'm gonna be taking it easy over the next week and a half: I've got a couple of scarf orders, and a batch of scarves to weave for Halifax Crafters' (Dec. 3-4), but other than that, I'm focusing on relaxing. Getting back into my morning yoga routine, going for good long walks, and making good meals with my sweetie.

I thought I would share some of my favourite photos from the two shows......

My little business cards and a baby blanket I wove on my 8-harness Cranbrook for my cousin Martha (who is due tomorrow!). I used the blanket to cover my small table in St. John's and then gave it to Martha when I got to Halifax. All cotton, hand-dyed warp. I'm really liking the lightness of the greys and whites.

One of my favourite scarves of the year, hands down. A new design, inspired by a custom scarf I made for my friend Dean last year. The colours in this are heaven to me: reds, blues, oranges, periwinkle. I love the way the eye mixes them all together to create a rich, deep purple.

Every year, I seem to forget something when it comes to traveling for craft fairs. Last year I forgot my sign, and this year I forgot my dowels for my rack display. I only realized as I was setting up for my first show in St. John's. I had to think quick and came up with stringing rope between my vertical supports, creating little clotheslines, the scarves looking like bunting banners. In this shot, there's a mix of River, Wave, Dean, and Echo scarves.

River and Waves scarves.

last minute addition

2011-11-15T09:29:00.004-03:30

I fly back to Halifax today from St. John's, Newfoundland. I've been here for a week for the Craft Cuncil of NL's Christmas Craft Fair. Thanks to everyone who came by my booth to say hello, buy a scarf, or chat. I've done this show since 2007, and past years have been very busy and successful. But, for whatever reasons (the beautiful weather, Rememberance Day falling on a Friday making it a perfect weekend to get away, market saturation), this year was much slower than previous years. This means my sales expectations weren't met and I made a last minute decision to do the Nova Scotia Designer Craft Council Christmas Show this coming weekend in Halifax as I'm on my way back to PEI. It runs from Friday November 18th- Sunday the 20th at the Cunard Centre at Pier 23. Even though I'm feeling tired (I've been going non-stop since I finished working full-time for Parks Canada two weeks ago), craft fair season only comes around once a year.....

St. John's, here I come!

2011-11-05T12:09:00.004-02:30

So, after finishing up work at Green Gables this past Monday, I head out on my journey to St. John's, Newfoundland a week later. This week has been a mad dash to get everything ready for the Craft Council of NL's Christmas Craft Fair: finishing up a last batch of scarves, dyeing, tagging and pricing, printing business cards, getting my booth set-up ready for plane travel, and generally getting around to a few things that were neglected while working full-time for the past four months.

I'm looking forward to this show - I always do. I like the routine of crisp November mornings, walking from my aunt and uncle's house (where I will be staying) to the Arts and Culture Centre, detouring to Georgetown bakery to pick up a coffee and croissant, and then settling in for a day of scarf-selling and crafty socializing. If you are in St. John's, please stop by and say hello!

on the loom....etc.

2011-10-24T19:13:00.006-02:30

On the loom right now, just about the finish weaving the last scarf in a series of four. I've been using one single threading and tying on different warps (each long enough for a series of four scarves). This design above is based on a scarf I designed as a custom order for my friend Dean last Christmas, and I simply put it into production. The warp is made up of four colours of cotton: dark red and dark brown in the borders, and cayenne orange and cocoa in the center; and equal number of white raw silk, and white merino wool. The weft is blue cotton.

In two weeks, I will be finished work at Parks Canada and be on my way to St. John's, NL for the Christmas Craft Fair (November 9-13, Arts and Culture Centre), expertly put together by the Craft Council of Newfoundland and Labrador. This is one of my favourite shows to do - I always look forward showing and selling my scarves there and visiting with family and friends in beautiful St. John's.

Damien's exhibition, Painted Space, opened at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery in Charlottetown this past Saturday evening. His work looks incredible (in my un-biased opinion) and you should go see it - it will be up until December 23rd. Lots and lots of people attended the opening for all 5 shows at the gallery, and I thought it was one of the best groupings of exhibitions I've seen.....
Damien learned how to use video game design software to create landscapes that the viewer can navigate explore by using an X-Box controller. He used images of his paintings as elements making up the landscape. And he doesn't even play video games at all....

Autumn, beautiful autumn. Damien and I house-sat for my parents while they went on their first trip to visit my brother and his wife in Cupertino, California. Logan has been living there for over two years, and it's so wonderful that mom and dad were able to to go for two weeks. My parents' new house on the Buffalo Road, in Rustico, is heaven and a whole new part of the island to explore. It was very wonderful to have time spent in the countryside. We had friends come to visit both weekends and explored the back fields, and and nearby shore....warm, sunny fall days with amazing colours and fresh air.

gorgeous fall

2011-10-13T23:32:00.003-02:30

Thanksgiving weekend walk on Crown Point, Alexandra, south shore of PEI. 22 degrees celsius and colour everywhere.

school house morning

2011-09-26T15:24:00.004-02:30

I made my way out to the school house today to weave. It was so wonderful to weave on my Cranbrook loom at the school house on a beautiful sunny September day. I was able to just focus on building my image on the loom and wove a good five inches of cloth. I'm working (slowly) on a piece depicting a map of downtown Charlottetown which indicates which properties are vulnerable to flooding with potential sea-level rises (most vulnerable properties are in red).

Midday sunlight....
piece is almost 4 feet wide and has a cotton warp (hand-dyed); cotton tabby weft; wool, silk and merino pattern weft.

I adopted overshot technique (2 weft yarns: 1 tabby, 1 pattern) to weave a 8 harness pattern. The overshot weft (or pattern weft) is made up of many different yarns, each building up areas of colours as I weave the cloth horizontally. I keep each different colour of yarn on a little bobbin and control by hand the distance it travels under in each shed to build the imagery. Once it's off the loom, I'm going to go back in and embroider the grid of the streets and other details.

Map of Charlottetown with vulnerable areas in red that I've been using as a reference.

Using Jessica's beautiful bowls as yarn ball holders for re-filling pattern weft bobbins.

still weaving...and exploring this red red island

2011-09-09T19:23:00.004-02:30

River scarves on my home loom..plugging away at them in my off hours for the two or three shows I'll be doing this fall. These will include the Craft Council of Newfoundland and Labrador's Christmas Craft Fair in St. John's from November 9th - 13th at the Arts and Culture Centre, and Halifax Crafters' handmade market in early December in Halifax, NS.
Rice Point shore.
St. Peter's Island.

Red red sandstone.

end of summer

2011-09-03T17:34:00.006-02:30

My rope bridge installation, Suspended Access. Up for three days before Art in the Open (as seen in photo above), and then there was some confusion on the day of the art festival and the maintenance guys at the Confed Centre took it down and then put it back up incorrectly: big droop and upside down. I didn't find this out until I got home from work....I was a little heartbroken on the night of Art in the Open, but the whole evening was magical and transformative for our little city. And I take heart in the fact that people did get to see my piece for three days.

Last Friday, the night before Art in the Open, my dear friend Valerie and her husband Dave had their wedding part II. Part I was in London, UK in May and I was lucky enough to be there too. Part II was a fantastic dance party and bonfire and revelry in the woods on the Gairloch Road in south eastern PEI. At one point in the night, these incredibly long sparklers appeared (above). It was one of those perfect summer nights we dream about in the coldest days of winter.

Above is one of Damien's light drawings in Rochford Square for Art in the Open. We used glow necklaces and attached them end to end to create continuous contours of shadows and geometric shapes.

Valerie Salez's work in Connaught Square. She's a friend and artist living in Halifax, and spent the last month on PEI doing an artist-in-residency in preparation for Art in the Open. It's hard to tell from this photo above, but there are actually two tractors involved in this piece, one of them suspending this collection of hoops and stretched cloth hides.

Our neighbors have these incredibly big fires in their backyard. The fence is pretty high, but we can see sparks rising up into the darkness.

Today, Saturday, is my first Saturday off in two months. Since starting work at Green Gables, my weekends have been Tuesday and Wednesday. From now until the end of my contract, I will have Saturday and Sunday off and be in synch with all the weekend activities. Like going to the farmer's market.....today Damien and I bought seven pounds of string beans and pickled them. We used fresh dill and dill seed, fresh cayenne pepers, garlic and mustard seed. Our beans came in three colours: green, yellow and deep purple (eggplant colour). The purple faded when covered with boiling vinegar and water and salt....we now have 19 bottles of pickled beans to get us through the winter!

This is a short video I made after my rope bridge was first installed:
(I think the two voices are my mother and I)

raising a bridge

2011-08-24T14:44:00.005-02:30

Today was the day for installing my rope bridge from the roofs of the Confederation Centre of the Arts for Art in the Open which happens this Saturday, August 27th in Charlottetown PEI. My piece is called Suspended Access and I am so pleased with how it looks. With the help of Randy and Roger, the "how-to" guys at the Confederation Centre, everything came together and the installation was a breeze. The piece will be up until next Tuesday. I'm excited to see how it looks at night......

A big thank you to Damien, and my parents Janet and Geoff for helping me saw and drill the panels. I have many more ideas now that I've conquered my biggest installation yet....so many possibilities involving rope, drilled wood and suspension.

more PEI adventures

2011-08-12T21:50:00.005-02:30

I've done a little adventuring on my days off this summer. This past week, we headed up east to spend a night on the Cardigan River. This is a beautiful part of PEI that I've rarely (if ever) had the chance to explore. We discovered our new favourite cottage spot at a place called Four Seasons Cottages just north of Georgetown, with a view of the water. We did some exploring along the eastern coast on a rainy Tuesday afternoon and discovered a magical part of the Island called Launching. Wednesday morning we headed to Greenwich, part of PEI National Park, where we hiked the trail to the parabolic sand dunes. A little taste of summer despite the dampness....

Seagull perched at the Launching wharf.

Lobster straps piled high at the Launching wharf.

Launching beach. There is land for sale here. My heart fell in love with this stretch of shore.

Tons of purple jellyfish washing onto the beach. Bright, deep purple blobs.
Fireweed at Greenwich along the trail.

A water plant growing in the marsh at Greenwich. Created an amazing effect on the surface of the water.

Awe-inspiring sand dunes at Greenwich.

on my plate for August

2011-08-03T20:39:00.004-02:30

I am currently planning to build a rope bridge for the Art in the Open festival happening in Charlottetown, PEI August 27th from 4pm - midnight. The bridge will be suspended by two of the buildings (library and theatre) that make up part of the Confederation Centre of the Arts.

The Confed Centre - as those of us who grew up here call it - is at the geographical center of downtown Charlottetown. The architecture of the arts complex is typically 1960s and so different from the rest of historic Charlottetown. It was where we hung out as teenagers. It is where the library, art gallery, and theatre are - places I have visited most of my life. I have worked in both the gallery (quite a bit) and backstage (once) and know the building pretty well from the inside, as well as from street level. But I have never been on the roof....

A rope bridge invites the viewer to contemplate urban architectural space as playground.

rope bridge

2011-07-25T20:37:00.002-02:30

schoolhouse

2011-07-20T11:18:00.004-02:30

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours at Hutchinson Pottery and Gallery in North Milton, PEI. This is the shop/studio in an old school house where Jessica Hutchinson has been sweet enough to let me have my Cranbrook loom for the summer and into the fall. I still have a warp to dye before threading begins, so yesterday I did the treadle tie-up. And took pictures of the lovely space....

As I mentioned yesterday, the grand opening for Hutchinson Pottery and gallery will take place this Saturday, July 23 at 1pm, North Milton Schoolhouse, 697 Rustico Rd. PEI. Aside from some of my scarves, they have a wonderful hand-picked selection of work by Island artists and artisans, including jewellery, pottery, handspun wool, felted hats, weaving, and painting.

An example of Jessica's beautiful tweeked neutral glazes....

Handspun wool by Louise Lortie....

These beautiful supports help hold up the ceiling in the schoolhouse. Apparently they are an architectural detail taken from shipbuilding.

still here

2011-07-19T09:58:00.003-02:30

In the last two weeks, I have been absent from many things that have made up my daily routine for the last few years, including the creation of blog posts. I started my contract with Parks Canada on July 6th and just finished my second week of work. My contract will run until October 3, giving me just enough time to weave like a mad woman until craft fairs start. I am working at Green Gables National Historic Site, in the heart of all things touristy on PEI: Cavendish (I found this great article in the Atlantic that's worth a read and offers good insight into the context within which my job is based). It's about a half hour drive each way to work, but the staff at Green Gables have organized a very effective car pool, so I only actually drive about once a week. The biggest adjustment has been to simply adjust to full-time employment. I have been self-employed for so long that the first few days of work were kind of anxious - not because the work is "difficult" but because I was mentally adapting to the reality that I am not self-directed for those 40 hours a week of my working life. But, after two weeks, I feel like I'm in the swing of things and am much more comfortable, though trying to get all the things done that I would like to get done on my days off can be a challenge.

Last night I finally got around to doing some dyeing after getting my inventory cleaned out by four new shops that are carrying my work this summer...nice to be outside in the evening sunshine, doing what I know how to do by heart. See the side bar on the left for a re-vised list of shops that are carrying my scarves right now.

I'm heading to the schoolhouse later today to start setting up a project on my loom. The space is so wonderful and this Saturday will be the grand opening (Saturday, July 23rd, 1pm, North Milton Schoolhouse, 697 Rustico Rd. PEI). Looking forward to spending at least an afternoon there each week, working on my Cranbrook loom. I'll take some photos of the lovely space today so I can post them here....

building on the edge (exploring PEI part 2)

2011-07-05T11:28:00.004-02:30

I've noticed something happening on PEI since moving back. People are building summer homes - not quaint cottages but large, extravagant homes - right on the edge of our vulnerable coasts. A few weeks ago, we were driving along Malpeque Bay and came across these enormous, modernist summer homes (above), plunked down in cottage country. These are homes that are undoubtably only inhabited during the summer months - maybe rented out, or maybe occupied by the owners who live somewhere else during the rest of the year.

I am partly fascinated by the beauty of these houses perched right next to the sea: the juxtaposition of the architecture against the PEI coastal landscape.....but, I also want to go and knock on their doors and let them know that our cliffs are crumbling and building so close to the shore is not a great idea on so many levels. I am also blown away (is this space/money envy?) by the priveleged lives these people must live to be able to build such beautiful, large homes that are only lived in for such a small portion of the year....

summer has arrived

2011-06-30T10:56:00.003-02:30

Summer is here. After a month of cold and rizzle, summer has arrived. If I want to go for a jog, I have to do it early in the morning. Weaving requires lots of breaks for hydration. Not that I'm complaining. I love the velvet evening breezes of hot summer days. And the light, oh the light. Now, for a first dip of the season in the ocean....

production continues

2011-06-29T10:19:00.004-02:30

This next week will be my last week of full time self-employment for the next three months. After a very long application process involving multiple exams and language texts, I was offered a position at Parks Canada last week. The offer was contingent on the results of my french oral assessment which came through on Monday - I received the score I needed for the position of Heritage Presenter. So, I will be be working full-time at Green Gables National Historic Site for a 15 week contract, until early October. My job will be to organize the heritage interpretation activities at the site: guided walks, demos, races and games for children. This will be my first "real" job outside of my weaving business and art practice for four years...the goal is to get a foot in the door with Parks Canada and be offered seasonal contracts for a few years and hopefully be offered a permanent seasonal position down the road, providing me with stable income for five months and while the rest of the year I can keep weaving and making art full-time. I'm very excited to see how the cultural and ecological environment I'll be working in will influence my art and my weaving.

In the meantime, I have four new shops that want to carry my scarves this summer (two on PEI, two in NL) and I am planning on doing at least two or three Christmas craft fairs come November and December....so I will squeeze in some more weaving this next week, and do what I can between work and summertime fun to keep production rolling until I go back to full-time weaving in October.

beeswax

2011-06-27T22:11:00.003-02:30

Today I was lucky enough to take a full day workshop with Canadian artist Aganetha Dyck who is in Charlottetown for the opening of her exhibition Guest Workers at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery. The workshop was pretty informal and centred around experimenting with various materials and processes and melted beeswax. I played with ripping paper, drawing, and linen stitching and then dipped each strand into the hot beeswax.

I also did a series of postcard sized dipped paper, lining them up to create a continuous horizon line. I like the texture of the layers of dips as well as the colour created by the increased opacity...incredibly three dimensional. And the yellow beeswax drips long the bottom are great.

summer home

2011-06-23T13:01:00.006-02:30

This past week, I found a home for my giant Cranbrook loom. For the past month and a half, it's been stacked up (in pieces) against our bedroom wall - there isn't enough space in my home studio for it and my small Leclerc loom. So, my friend Jessica Huthinson, a potter, is renting an old school house for the summer just outside of Charlottetown in North Milton.

Jessica and her partner have been busy sprucing the place up and painting the inside to get it ready to open as a fine craft shop this summer. Because of agricultural zoning restrictions, the shop can only be 40% retail and has to be 60% studio. Jessica will have her pottery equipment out there, but there is still lots of space and she's happy to offer up the space for me and my Cranbrook loom. I will also sell my scarves in the shop.

I stopped in the have a look at the school house on Sunday while I drove out to my parents' new house - it's conveniently on the way....So wonderful, a perfect summer home for my loom. Hopefully I will set it up out there in early July. My Cranbrook loom is primarily used for my art practice and I've just really begun to explore the possibilities of 8 harnesses in the past year while I had it set up at North Pocket Studio in Halifax. I plan on making the time to go out once a week to weave. It's so much better having it set-up than not, even if it's only until October.

day for fathers

2011-06-19T11:59:00.009-02:30

My parents sold their house of 16 years in downtown Charlottetown and moved to the country. Buffalo Road to be precise. Up towards Rustico and PEI's north shore. This is their new house above, with lilacs blooming. It's nestled on about 2 acres of land and it is very beautiful. They have a huge wrap around deck, surrounded by flowering trees and bushes.

When I was out visiting last weekend, the lilacs were so abundant and fragrant.

Honeysuckles in the evening sunlight.

Bleeding hearts in all their glory.

These are some of my dad's honeybees at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery and Museum. My father is the beekeeping technician for an installation of a live beehive in the gallery for an exhibition of work by Canadian artist Aganetha Dyck. The beehive is attached to a plexiglass case containing a lobster trap - the idea being that the bees will construct honeycomb on the trap during the three months in the gallery. There is also a long plexiglass tube that reaches up towards the ceiling of the gallery and out a window so the bees can fly outside and collect pollen. My dad is a technical apiary wizard for managing all the logistics of this project.....

And my wonderful papa. I'm going to head out to the Buffalo Road "homestead" this afternoon for a father's day visit.

blanket landscapes

2011-06-17T09:57:00.006-02:30

Candice Tarnowski is a Canadian artist and conservator based in Montreal. She's in Charlottetown this weekend for the installation of her piece A Bed's Been Made Up For You at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery. Her work will be presented in the five glass concourse display cases. Several of the cases will include the artist's drawings and other two dimensional work, but others will feature her signature strategy of layering blankets to form visually-striking stacks that resemble landscapes or geological strata. The blankets she's using are from her own collection, as well as loans from the PEI Museums and Archives and MacAusland's Woolen Mill.

I got the chance to meet Candice yesterday while I was tagging along with a group of intro weaving students from NSCAD - they were brought over to PEI for a field trip to Belfast Mini Mills, Confed Gallery and McAusland's Woolen Mill by my former Textile professors Lesley Armstrong and Frances Dorsey. I also went to her artist talk last night where we both realized we had met before at the Handmade Assembly conference in Sackville, NB back in early April (the textile/craft community in Canada is small). Her landscape installations have really struck a chord in my imagination: I too have contemplated the beauty of folded blankets and their strong relationship to geological strata. It's interesting to think about the creation of these landscapes as a maker of cloth, not only a collector....

this town is small

2011-06-15T14:36:00.004-02:30

Since moving back to PEI a month and a half ago, Damien and I instantly got involved with a new artist run organization here in Charlottetown, called this town is small. Started by artist Becka Viau, Sobey's long list contender (first Island artist ever) and NSCAD alumni, this town is small is revitalizing the arts community on this little Island. One of the inititatives that Damien and I are helping out with is the creation of the Small Town Print Shop which will open next weekend. With an exclusive focus on screen printing, the Small Town Print Studio will provide affordable public access to equipment and facilitate the sharing of knowledge through skill-building workshops and collaborative projects. And one of the first projects will be to screen print t-shirts designed by local artists. The submission deadline is today, and Damien and I both created designs.
Here are my two initial drawings for the two t-shirt designs I submitted. The dots above refer to the framework of any community, thinking about the connecting of dots leading to connections and creation.
This drawing is based on a photograph of a crazy quilt made on PEI in 1930. Crazy quilts were traditonally a product of rural life, a way to make use of clothing that had been worn until all that could be selveged were small odd-shaped scraps of cloth. I loved how the lines of this particular quilt are so reminiscent of aerial views of town clusters.

new shop, new order

2011-06-14T11:11:00.004-02:30

This morning I'm gathering up a consignment order of scarves for a new shop in Bonavista, Newfoundland called Neil's Yard. The owner, Ruth, found me and my work through the Craft Council of NL Shop in St. John's and has chosen to only carry work that has been juried by the Craft Council. I'm sending her a selection of Echo and narrow Wave scarves to start off.

It always takes longer to put an order together than I think it will: tagging, invoicing, and then packing it all up and carting it to the post office. Really happy to have a new shop carrying my work, I've been mostly focusing on selling through craft fairs for the past year or so. And, Ruth is offering one the best consignment split around: 66% of the retail price goes to the artist, 34% to the shop! Anything above 55 - 60% is almost unheard of......

exploring PEI part 1

2011-06-13T13:56:00.004-02:30

Friday afternoon we took a drive up towards the north shore and Malpeque Bay area of PEI with our friend Matt. The wind was chilly but the world was sunny and bright and the rolling hills looked so lush and fertile. We stopped into St. Mary's Church in Indian River, a large wooden church famous for its beauty and incredible accoustics. Each summer, the Indian River Festival takes place there, a series of musical concerts held in the church. Damien and I had never been there before and we were lucky enough to find the church open to us.

The attention to detail in the woodwork is incredible, including the simple herringbone patterning of the balcony (I can't help but pick out woven patterns applied to architecture).

The ceiling blew me away. All geometric arches made of glowing amber coloured wood.

Even the ceilings of the side areas (for lack of a more appropriate term) were vaulted with geometric woodwork.

slow spring

2011-06-08T10:07:00.004-02:30

Spring is late and slow this year on the east coast of Canada. The majority of days are gray and the temperature has been averaging 12 degrees celsius. But there are signs that summer is here, despite the chilly, overcast air. The trees have come out in full lush leaves, the dandilions have turned to seed and the world is very green. The photo above was taken of our backyard soon after we moved in at the beginning of May.

This is our backyard right now, early June. Happy to see the tree I suspected was dead actually has quite a few leaves.

And, in between my studying for my french exams which take place this Friday (for a position with Parks Canada), I managed to dye the last eight scarves in my small production run of narrow Wave scarves.

Devonshire Hunting Tapestries: depiction of cloth

2011-06-06T10:16:00.007-02:30

"The production and sale of tapestries was part of the immensely important and complex medieval textile trade. In addition to its economic importance, the textile industry was a potent political force, both nationally and internationally. At the top of the market, because relatively few luxury goods were available, fine textiles, including woven silks, velvets and tapestries, had a significance and cachet which is almost unimaginable today." (Medieval Life and Leisure in the Devonshire Hunting Tapestries, by Linda Woolley, V & A Publications, 2002.

I returned back to PEI from my week-long trip to London at the end of last week. There for a friend's wedding, I managed to get a bad cold soon after the wedding activities were over. My big plans to traipse all over London visiting many galleries was reduced to a single, day-long trip to the Victoria and Albert Museum. This was a wonderful day and I was lucky enough to re-unite with an old friend who has been living in London for the past five years, and we got to spend the day together exploring the museum. The irony was that of all the permanent exhibits on display at the V and A, it was the textiles exhibit that was closed for renovations. But, the tapestry exhibit was open and it blew my mind. The Devonshire Hunting Tapestries are a series of four gigantic wool tapestries made during the 15th Century, the only hunting tapestries from that era to survive. There are magical, complex narratives with plenty of detail about the hunting activities of princes and noblemen in the later Middle Ages as well as the medieval fashion of the time.

I was particularly compelled by the depictions of cloth in the tapestries. There's something very exciting to me about the pictorial depiction of cloth using a weaving technique which is creating cloth itself. The delicate vertical cross hatching to create the illusion of shade in the folds of a dress of a sleeve took my breath away. I was allowed to take photos and I took almost fifty, mostly abstracted close-ups of hemlines, skirts, jackets, and hats. I also bought the book quoted above, a treasure trove of information about these masterpieces from another time.

I think I might like to start off by doing a series of drawings based on some of these photos, playing off the abstracted, fluid qualities of the images and see how references to landscapes emerge...landscape as luxury....

shawls/ giant scarves for summer

2011-05-23T17:49:00.003-02:30

I got around to photographing four Wave shawls / giant scarves today. I've been meaning to list some new pieces in my Etsy shop for a while, but with moving, juggling many things, and the crappy weather, it didn't happen until today. I've posted four of my shawls /giant scarves in my Etsy shop and I'm really happy with how the photos turned out using our new digs as a backdrop. The peeling paint and fire escape on our back deck work really well to contrast against the colour of the scarf....and as always, the black of my clothing (yes, I am my own model) makes the colour pop.

a measure of time

2011-05-22T12:50:00.004-02:30

The sun has finally come out over the past few days and the leaves are loving it. Our backyard landscape is slowly changing as the sky that was previously etched with branches fills up with green. I can't quite believe it's the end of May. I fly to London, England on Thursday with my dear friend Mille for our dear friend Valerie's wedding. Val is from PEI but has been living in the UK for a good while now with her partner Dave and their son Reuben (who just turned 1 year old). This will be the first time I have traveled outside of Canada in almost 11 years, the first time Mille and I have traveled together despite a friendship that spans half our lives, and the first time I've visited Val in her London life. The whole trip is very exciting, and yet very surreal - so many other things have been occupying my mind lately with our move and all the changes that go with that...but adventure awaits and I am thrilled. I've started a list of everything I need to do in London (the Tate Modern, the V & A, the Handweavers Studio and Gallery) while trying to leave plenty of time for things to unfold in a relaxing vacation kind of way.

So, spring brings change, weddings, and my parents' anniversary. On Friday night, Damien and I shared a wonderful meal out with my parents who are celebrating their 30th anniversary this year (May 20th is the date they were married). They are getting ready for a big change in their lives. They just sold their downtown Charlottetown home of 16 years, and bought a house close to PEI's north shore, about 30 minutes outside of town. They will be living the country life and I am so excited for this next chapter in their lives.

the swing of things

2011-05-17T10:30:00.004-02:30

The rainy wet weather has continued. I think it's supposed to break later this week, finally. We've been in Charlottetown for over two weeks now, and we've only seen what our new apartment looks like in the morning sunshine ONCE...

Despite the damp, we happily have radiators in our new home, perfect for drying wet clothes and freshly dyed scarves. This is my first batch of scarves woven and dyed in our new place. I no longer have a basement with a big porcelain sink anymore (like in Halifax), so until the weather clears up and I can do my dyeing out on the deck, I have to scrub down our kitchen sink and counter when dyeing time comes around.

On Saturday, Damien and I went out to visit his parents just outside of Charlottetown. His mom Nancy joined us for an epic 8 kilometre walk/hike down on a piece of land called Crown Point that extends behind their house to the shores of the Northumberland Strait. Damp, but so beautiful, especially when we finally arrived at the beach, probably untouched by other people since last summer.

back to work

2011-05-11T15:35:00.000-02:30

Over the last few days, I've gotten some warps wound and my loom set up for a small production run of narrow Wave scarves. After a week of settling in to our new home, I've been itching to get into a routine again. And since I still haven't heard about the scheduling of my french exams (the last step in the lengthy application process for that Parks Canada contract I've talked about in previous posts), I'm just proceeding with business as usual. Which means it's time to build up scarf inventory for potential summer shows. Happy in my new studio space, I just wish the sun would shine after days and days of rainy, gray weather.

moved

2011-05-06T12:47:00.005-02:30

Hard to believe we've been on PEI for almost a week now. We pulled into Charlottetown with our UHaul last Saturday, exhausted. We pulled out our mattress, slept in our new apartment and then unloaded the truck the next morning with the help of mine and Damien's parents. Since then, each day has blended in with the next as we unpacked and settled in to our new home.

When we first arrived, we were scared that all our stuff wouldn't fit. We had only seen photos of the apartment before and reconfiguring a new space to fit our needs always seems daunting at first. And we have been used to having a basement to store extra stuff at our place in Halifax. But, as we've found a place for everything, it is all coming together and we're feeling pretty excited about our new home. We have a big deck and a lovely backyard and lots of lovely natural light, and we both have studio spaces. I will have to find a home for my giant Cranbrook loom, maybe get in touch with the PEI Weaver's Guild again and see if they will let me set it up in their studio space at an old convent here in downtown Charlottetown.

Living room with big bright bay windows, and door to back deck.

Lovely neighborhood of backyards.

Damien's studio.

Kitchen with lots of cupboard space and high ceilings.

And thanks to the generosity of Damien's parents, we even have a car. I need to practice the clutch and gears, but we have wheels! Life is good.....

meanwhile...there's an election in our country

2011-04-28T14:59:00.002-02:30

Please check out this video made by my dear friend Mille Clarkes. This was filmed in Charlotttetown at one of the recent rallies to motivate and inspire voters to participate in our democracy. There's been a lot of mobilization across Canada to get the vote out on Monday May 2nd's federal election. Everything DOES matter.

moving day

2011-04-28T14:32:00.004-02:30

Tomorrow Damien and I go to pick up the UHaul truck. We'll pack it up tomorrow and Saturday and leave for PEI Sunday or sooner. We've been packing up our home and editing through our belongings, deciding what we need/want, and what we can part with. We're donating a lot of things to the Canadian Diabetes Association who will come by tomorrow and pick things up and take them away. We've also brought about 12 bags of recyclables to the curb. How do we accumulate so much stuff?? Sometimes I think we should both become artists whose practices are all digital to avoid the creation of more material objects in our lives....but I don't think it's in our nature. But I do vow that after this move, I will attempt a more minimalist approach to the accumulation of stuff.
What you see in this photo is what was my home studio and has become the receiving room for packed boxes. My little loom has had its "guts" removed and is ready for transport. I also was ruthless in my editing of yarns and fabrics, and finally got rid of four years worth of fibre scraps I had been saving for some yet to be imagined project. It felt liberating!

anatomy of a wholesale scarf order

2011-04-18T18:34:00.004-02:30

- 32 scarves, handwoven from raw silk and cotton.
- 16 "land" scarves, 16 "sea" scarves.
- each scarf hand-dyed after weaving.
- 2400 inches (or 200 feet) of weaving before washing.
- 2240 inches (or 186.6 feet) of cloth after washing (7.6% shrinkage).
- 1920 fringes twisted.
- all scarves woven between March and April 2011.
- off to Devon House, St. John's NL for the Craft Council of NL Shop.

West Point, PEI: 1958 - 2000

2011-04-14T12:54:00.004-02:30

Yesterday was the last class and final crit for Science into Art, a sculpture workshop I've been sitting in on at NSCAD. For my final piece, I presented West Point, PEI: 1958-2000, a work that involved handweaving aerial images of a piece of shoreline in western PEI and then overlaying the profiles of the changing coast using embroidery. I "coloured in" with embroidery the areas where shoreline used to exist but no longer does, and land that will be created in the future through the action of erosion and sediment re-distribution. Thierry Delva, the course instructor, suggested I research the history of cloth wall coverings - traditionally tapestries - to investigate the narratives and the depiction of time passing in these functional works of art.

And all semester, I intended to take some video of Halifax harbour, directly out the giant plate glass windows of the NSCAD sculpture studio. And yesterday, having finally remembered to bring my camera to our last class, I shot 1 minute of the water through the window. What you hear are the echo-y voices of students in the studios. The presence of the water is so strong at NSCAD's Port Campus.

on the other side of the continent

2011-04-12T15:19:00.005-02:30

I have a handful of blogs that I check on a regular basis. One of them is Pirtti, a blog by fellow weaver Anne-Marie who found my blog sometime last year. I love her weaving, maybe because it has some similarities to my own: very fine and lovely rich colours. She purchased one of my wide Wave scarves from my Etsy shop way back when we first connected. She recently moved from NYC to San Francisco, and today when I was checking out her blog, to my surprise I found this lovely photo of her wearing her Marshall Arts scarf....thank you Anne-Marie! It is an amazing feeling knowing that my scarves have made their way to many corners of the world, far from my own home.

coming together

2011-04-10T10:16:00.005-02:30

We now have a home to move to in Charlottetown! On Friday, after working my magic and being the first one to make a security deposit on a highly competitive bid for a 2 bedroom + den apartment, my mother went to look at it and confirmed it was good. We'd seen pictures online, but I wanted my mom to check it out and make sure we weren't making a mistake. The apartment is at the back of the house, away from the quiet street, we have two private entrances, a room with a bay window, our own deck, a shared backyard, and enough rooms for Damien and I to each have our own studio space. And we'll be paying less than our rent here in Halifax. Knowing where we're going to live a month from now has lifted a HUGE weight of stress off our shoulders, and lets us feel like everything will work itself out and life will come together as it should....phew!

In the meantime, that big order of 32 scarves for the Craft Council of Newfoundland and Labrador is coming together. I've got twelve more to make and I'm hoping to get them in the mail by the end of this week.

unknowns

2011-04-06T10:40:00.004-02:30

This is a time of anxiety tempered with faith that it will all come together. Damien and I have less than a month until we make the big move back to PEI. We've been away for almost four years while Damien has been at school earning his BFA. He graduates this month. This is an exciting time, but it is also a roller coaster of emotions. We still have a lot of unknowns - where we'll live (no apartment yet in Charlottetown), jobs for both of us (a little financial security is attractive right now), and what the future will hold in general. We are excited and happy to be moving "home", closer to our families and many dear friends and the island that we love, but the opportunities are a little thinner on the ground in that smallest of provinces...but, if we're looking in the right places, there is plenty of potential for our lives to grow.

This photo is one I took last week when my mother and I went to look at a little house for sale in Charlottetown. For some reason, this image radiates hope and optimism for me right now...

heart and pocket revue

2011-04-04T22:15:00.004-02:30

After a week away from Halifax, I arrived home today. I spent a few days last week on PEI where I had an interview with Parks Canada, spent great times with my parents, and looked for a place for Damien and I to live when we move back to Charlottetown at the end of the month. On Friday I went to Sackville to meet up with Joanna Close where we both participated in the Heart and Pocket Revue, a craft fair that was part of A Handmade Assembly. A little fair, held at the local Legion with about 18 artists. I wasn't expecting huge sales, but I was very pleasantly surprised by the super positive response I got from Sackvillians....a big thank you to everyone who came by and chatted or bought a scarf!! I had a lovely time.

good ole sackville nb

2011-03-31T11:41:00.002-02:30

I'm really looking forward to A Handmade Assembly this weekend. I'll arrive tomorrow, so I will sadly miss some of the events and happenings, including the wonderful artist, spinner, fibre-holic and yogi Robyn Love's talk this evening. The lovely Joanna Close, my friend and studio mate, is giving a natural dyeing workshop Friday afternoon which will be fantastic (I might try and slip in to be her "assistant"). If you're in the area, please check out the schedule on A Handmade Assembly's blog. As I mentioned in my last post, I will be at the Heart and Pocket Revue with my scarves (for sale) from 11am - 5pm both Saturday and Sunday at the Royal Canadian Legion, 15 Lorne Street.

new scarves and A Handmade Assembly

2011-03-28T11:10:00.003-02:30

Today I'm getting ready for a week away from my home in Halifax. I leave for PEI early tomorrow morning where I will have my interview with Parks Canada on Wednesday. From PEI, I head to Sackville, New Brunswick on Friday for A Handmade Assembly, a symposium all about the rise of craft and DIY culture in contemporary art practices. I'll be participating in the Heart and Pocket Revue, a craft fair running April 2-3 as part of the symposium.

Last week, I did a small production run of a new square scarf that I will be bringing with me to Sackville this weekend. Woven from cotton and raw silk on my 8 harness Cranbrook loom, this scarf is like a giant hankercheif: meant to be folded into a triangle and tied behind the neck....I really like the look and feel of these: nice to have a scarf that's not a long rectangle but keeps your neck cozy in all the right places. Perfect for spring.

the path ahead

2011-03-25T20:37:00.003-02:30

Back in February, I applied for a position at Prince Edward Island National Park. After an exam almost two weeks ago, I now have an interview in Charlottetown this coming Wednesday. In my preparation for both the exam and the coming interview, I am overjoyed by how much of the knowledge base required for the position is already of great personal interest for me - particularly the vulnerability of PEI's shoreline ecosystems and the inherent cultural heritage of a landscape - subjects I have been exploring in my art practice for the past few years. This is a seasonal, (hopefully eventually) permanent position that could change many aspects of my life, but still allow me to continue my weaving and art practice during the off-season from October - May....we shall have to wait and see. In the meantime, I am working hard to prepare myself for a stellar interview next week.

unexpected dye pot surprise

2011-03-21T10:34:00.004-02:30

My technique of over-dyeing my scarves can sometimes lead to some surprising and beautiful results. I over-dye each of my scarves after it is woven to colour only the white raw silk with acid dye (meant for protein fibres), leaving the cotton colours untouched (cellulose fibres). But, every now and then, one of my cotton colours, pre-dyed at the factory, takes on the dye pot colour in a strange and interesting way. My guess is this is because the cone of cotton was exposed to a sizing or starch that made the fibres more vulnerable to acid dye. Whatever makes the cotton more receptive to the acid dye, it often occurs in intervals on the string, resulting in patterns that are very reminiscent of ikat dyeing techniques. Sometimes a new cone of a particular colour of cotton is completely receptive to the acid dye, resulting in an overall shading of the weft cotton.

For the scarf you see here, I used a peachy coloured cotton for the weft, some of it from a new cone, and some of it from an older cone - all the same colour before the scarf met the dye pot. Once dyed, a really interesting zig zag pattern appeared, as well as whole block of weft that turned an almost solid dark grey.

shifting shores

2011-03-18T11:38:00.004-02:30

I've been slowly embroidering my piece depicting the carving of West Point, PEI by erosion from 1958 - 2000. I have layered the profiles (or contours) of the original shore in 1958 and the 2000 shore over each of the four woven aerial images of West Point, embroidering the two profiles in a simple running stitch, the 1958 shore depicted in light grey and the 2000 shore depicted by dark red.
This week I started "filling in" the overlapping shapes where shore will either disappear or be created.

Really happy with the direction this is going as I integrate mapping, patterning and imagery.

juggling on the cusp of change

2011-03-16T09:44:00.005-02:30

It's been a busy time lately. I feel like I've been keeping many balls in the air as my mind contemplates what's to come in the very near future. In the midst of trying to sublet our lovely Halifax apartment, find someone to take over my studio space at North Pocket Studio, find an apartment on PEI, waiting on a potential job interview for me for Parks Canada, Damien finishing up school - I'm also working on a large scarf order, working on some art pieces, taking that one class at NSCAD, getting ready for a craft fair in Sackville, NB. Phew! But times are exciting and I feel optimistic about a new chapter.....

exponential growth x3

2011-03-09T10:09:00.005-03:30

I've kept going with the exploration of exponential growth using crochet. I was supposed to have a crit last week in my sculpture class at NSCAD, but three of us got pushed to this week because we ran out of time. And this gave me more time to keep playing with string, a crochet hook, crochet stitches, and mathematical growth scenarios.

The black one was made using a thick 3-ply wool, crocheted using single stitch, with exponential growth applied so that each row doubles the number of stitches that were in the previous row (2:1 ratio). The gray one was made using a 1-ply wool, crocheted using double stitch (slowing down the rate of growth), with the same rate of exponential growth as the black one. The red one is made using two colours of one ply wool, spiraling around each other. The dark red wool crocheted using a double stitch growing at a 2:1 ratio, while the bright red wool was used to slow down the exponential growth of dark red using a single stitch at a ratio of 1:1 after each row of dark red stitched. Really interesting how the ruffles end of making new circles in the red piece, emphasized by the two tones.

state of the studio

2011-03-07T11:01:00.005-03:30

Some of the work waiting to be done in my studio:

First sample for a square scarf....

Sable Island waiting to be embroidered, warp for square scarf production waiting to be put on the loom, and lots of white cotton waiting to be warped and dyed...

Piled crochet islands, more embroidery to be done in the disappearing shorelines piece, and scarves to be woven for a big order going to the Craft Council of NL in April.

New to me stash, delivered by my friend Jenny yesterday as she was attempting to downsize her yarn collection. So much potential.

exponential growth

2011-02-27T11:39:00.004-03:30

"Exponential growth occurs when the growth rate of a mathematical function is proportional to the function's current value. In the case of a discrete domain of definition with equal intervals it is also called geometric growth."

I've applied the principles of exponential growth directly to the growth patterns of circular (spiral) crochet: for each stitch that I am stitching onto to keep "building", I create two new stitches. This means every time I make a full round, I am doubling the amount of stitches from the previous round - 4 stitches in first round, 8 stitches in second, 16 in third, 32 in fourth, etc. What happens is that the exponential growth is creating too much material too quickly and therefore needs to ruffle to accommodate the growth.....the flat circle quickly becomes a sphere.

After humming and hawing over what to do for the "thing itself" project for my Science into Art class in a previous post, I decided to focus on mathematical principles applied directly to technique and material.

sable

2011-02-24T10:31:00.003-03:30

I'm headed back to the studio today to keep working on my piece of Sable Island. The weaving is based on a contemporary satellite image of the island. The only physical characteristic of the island that I'm inserting in the inlay/overshot is Wallace Lake. In the 1700 and 1800s, the lake was much larger and open to the ocean, and sometimes provided a (somewhat) safe shelter for the boats that would otherwise be shipwrecked on the islands sand bars. In the photo above, you can see part of the middle half of the island, while the curving western tip has been woven and wound around the breast beam....

the thing itself

2011-02-23T10:23:00.007-03:30

As I mentioned earlier this winter, I am sitting in on a sculpture class this semester at NSCAD. Taught by Thierry Delva, the class is called "science into art" and is studio based. Our second project is a challenge. In the class, we've been discussing the idea of the artwork being "the thing itself" versus "the illustration of the thing". Somewhere in the middle lies "the demonstration of the thing". The "thing" we speak of is the science. A lot of art work is referential: illustrating or refering to something that it is not. My mapping pieces are an example of this - they are not the actual shoreline, but are instead a representation of the erosion of the shore illustrated in woven cloth.

When we talk about the science becoming the art itself, we are delving into the realm of the work itself being the phenomena. And yet, this is different than a mere demonstration of a scientific phenomena which would veer into science fair project or museum display. Needless to say, I am having some difficulty coming up with a satisfying idea for this challenge. I may be over-thinking it....sticking with simple but poetic notion, and something that is accomplishable in one week (too many of my ideas I have involve lots of time passing).

In researching other artists, I have found two strong examples of pieces that incorporate textiles into works that are "the thing itself". The first is a piece by Judith Fergerl called Galatean Heritage: a circular knitting machine that creates a long cloth tube that is then spun, being forced to double up and twist back on itself.

The second is by Janine Antoni (I remember seeing images of this when I was a student and being very struck by it) called Slumber - the artist sleeps in the gallery on a cot with electrodes that read her brainwaves while in REM sleep. The next day, she wakes and weaves her brain patterns (on a loom of her own design), using strips she tears from the nightgown she wore as she slept. At night she sleeps under her dream blanket. After many performances/exhibitions of this piece, the blanket is now over 200 feet long.

I've been thinking about over-spun handspun wool: under tension at its full length, and when that tension is released how it wants to twist and turn around itself...it's really about time and space, but the question is, how do I make this curious material phenomena into compelling art?

ghost island

2011-02-18T09:21:00.004-03:30

I'm heading into the studio today to get started on another piece. I'm planning on weaving an aerial map of contemporary Sable Island, and then once off the loom, embroidering past coastal profiles and geographical features from maps of days gone by, including the map above by JFW DesBarres from 1779, and the map below by Blunt from 1897.
Below is my warp for this piece. Gradation of blues getting darker towards the center and lighter towards the selvedges....

disappearing shore, part 2

2011-02-15T11:07:00.006-03:30

Yesterday I went in to the studio for a couple of hours and finished my piece depicting the shoreline changes to West Point, PEI. I'm thrilled to see it off the loom. While weaving, I can only ever see a small section of the piece while I work and the woven cloth gets wound around the front breast beam. I really like the dimensions of it: about 82" long by 25" wide, like a banner. I now plan on embroidering the shoreline profiles, choosing my colours and stitches carefully, with the purpose of layering time and drawing measured contrasts of the changing coast.

These photos were taken while the piece was laid flat to dry on my home studio floor. Hence the funny perspectives. I do plan on hanging the piece eventually....I'm thinking I want to see more: a row of banner-like pieces hung side by side creating a larger experience. And for those weavers out there - it is all cotton, woven in a 8-harness twill within twill pattern, which I adapted for overshot use, and then adapted the overshot (or pattern weft) to use as inlay allowing me to build the imagery. I love what's happening with the woven pattern, creating this 3-d optical push and pull as the pattern zig-zags across the cloth.

have some heart

2011-02-14T09:53:00.004-03:30

Yesterday was my 32nd birthday. Friends came over in the afternoon and we ate lots and lots of food which is usually the nature of potlucks. Joanna made this amazing heart-shaped cake - the icing coloured with beet juice and flavoured with cardamom and cinnamon. As it was quickly being devoured, I got in just in time to take a photo. I had a great day surrounded by the ones I love and today, Valentine's Day, my heart is still full.

disappearing shore

2011-02-12T13:05:00.003-03:30

For the past week, I've been going to North Pocket Studio almost everyday to work on a new piece on my Cranbrook loom. The piece is a long, vertical cloth, depicting four aerial photographs of West Point, PEI spanning the years 1958, 1974, 1990, and 2000.

The changes to the profile of the coast are dramatic. I've simplified the images in my weaving so that the I am only using one colour for the water and a different colour for the land, both in very neutral browns.

Once the piece is off the loom, I plan on going back in and embroidering the images to delineate the sedimentary plumes in the water (which you can see in the original black and white photos), as well as mapping the historical shore profiles as progressive erosion occurs.

weaving friends

2011-02-09T09:40:00.005-03:30

I met Bronwyn Gallagher last September in Fredericton when I participated in an outdoor craft fair organized by the New Brunswick Craft Council. Bronwyn is a fellow weaver and recent graduate from the New Brunswick College of Craft. And, being a young weaver trying to make a go of handweaving and entrepreneurship, we had a lot to talk about. I ran into her again over the past weekend when she was in town for the Atlantic Craft Trade Show and she told me she just purchased a 32 harness AVL loom after years of saving her money. Wowzers. She'll let me know when her website is up and running, but until then, I found a little video of Bronwyn being interviewed, talking about some recent awards she's received, and the magic of differential shrinkage - a technique I've been using in my scarves for years, but she really brings it to the next level by using double cloth.

winter's influence

2011-02-08T12:10:00.002-03:30

It's mid-winter. The days are getting longer, but one day to another the weather changes drastically. A bright sunny day like yesterday and the sun's warmth is so rejuvenating. And then waking up today to big fluffy flakes and a gray sky. My thoughts are turning to spring, summer and change. Damien is graduating from NSCAD in April and one chapter of our lives will be coming to a close and another one beginning. There's no certainty about where life will lead us next, so the only thing to do is to pour myself into my work for the next few months and hunker down for the rest of the season.

dune

2011-02-02T13:38:00.005-03:30

I think I'm on the mend. Today I have more energy than I've had the last two days.

I managed to finish my third island which I started yesterday. A dune island: long and bright, like the sand spits that extend along the north shore of PEI and glow golden on summer afternoons.
Because they are constructed of sand, they are easily breached by storm surges and sea level rises. Year to year, shorelines made up of dunes are dramatically altered and are often the first pieces of land to become separated from the larger land masses. Really happy with how this one turned out...I will now turn my attention to making smaller islands.

This is a photo I took from BJ Sandford's blog, a glass artist on PEI. She took this after a severe winter storm over Christmas. This is a sand dune on the north shore of PEI that was literally transported away from the shore and out towards the water by the power of waves.

thinking of beaches on the last day of January

2011-01-31T13:42:00.003-03:30

Well, I'm officially down for the count and out with a cold. I spent the last four days with a congested chest, and then finally yesterday, it turned into a full fledged head cold: runny nose, sneezing, coughing - the whole works. Before yesterday, I still had some decent daytime energy and managed to spin up a whole bunch of one ply wool and then do some batches of natural dye. I use onion skins, pomegranite, cochineal, umbilicarium, and alkynet roots. My goal was to create lots of beach colours for my crocheted islands....I am now well stocked.

island #2

2011-01-26T09:42:00.003-03:30

I finished crocheting my second island yesterday. Really, it's my fourth island in two weeks, but my second crocheted island. My goal is for it to be part of a larger piece with multiple islands, connected by patterned cloth water which I'm planning to weave. I will present the two crocheted islands this afternoon in the NSCAD class I'm sitting in on.

This second one is loosely based on an island up the eastern shore of N.S. that I found exploring the coastline using Google Earth. It's not necessary that these pieces be exact replicas of existing islands - it's more important that I create a landscape that really compels the viewer to ponder the vulnerability of coastal landscapes.

My father told me the other day that a study recently completed by my uncle (an environmental engineer) has predicted that with current rates of sea level rise, Prince Edward Island will be divided into four islands 100 years from now.

meditations in an emergency

2011-01-25T10:10:00.004-03:30

Last night was the opening of Damien's solo grad exhibition at the Anna Leonowens Gallery at NSCAD University. Damien Worth is my partner/boyfriend/artist buddy and is about to graduate with his BFA in April. Here he is below, smiling and talking at his show last night...

His exhibition is called "Meditations in an Emergency" and is made up of paintings, a body of work done over the past year while he's been a student. Here's a little bit from his artist statement to put his paintings in context:

'My current work investigates the interactions and intrusions of human situations within a "world in crisis" through the medium of paint. Themes of apocolypse, rebirth, and the mechanics of how we navigate environmental and constructed landscapes are expressed in a variety of approaches, from abstracted geometric forms, to representational mythic/historical narratives. Atmospheric landscapes are at once built and destroyed through a material exploration of paint application. In turn, the act of permitting accidents and chance to remain and be "controlled" in these turbulent situations allows for allegories to emerge that relate processes of material manipulation to the cultivation of manufactured and augmented landscapes.'

Last night was one of the coldest we've had so far this winter (-27 celsius with the wind chill), but lots of people came out for the exhibition openings (there were three other shows opening last night at the Anna Leonowens as well). Damien's exhibit is up until Saturday, January 29th.
For more info about his work, check out his artist website.

inch by inch

2011-01-21T13:36:00.004-03:30

Yesterday I plowed ahead and devoted a full work day to crocheting an island. I took out most of what I had started the other day, looked up some islands on Google Earth (St. Peter's Island, Pictou Island) to sketch contours and colour blocking, and began again. By last night, my hands and wrists were aching, but I had one island complete.

This morning I hand-washed it to felt it up a little and now I have it "blocked" to dry. By blocking I mean that while it is damp from washing, I have stretched it out and pinned it down while inserting supports under the island part - hopefully when it dries, this shaping will stay because of the density of the crocheted cloth.

I'm now thinking of crocheting one or two more islands, and thinking of how to adress to water to emphasize its difference from the land in a way that will connect the individual islands.

island exploration

2011-01-19T11:00:00.002-03:30

I've been plugging away the last few days, exploring different materials and construction techniques for making islands. Trying to sculpt with cloth using embroidery, keeping the colours simple and referential.

Last night I started crocheting an island using my hand-spun, hand-dyed wool (one ply, a mix of plain old wool fleece and super soft merino). I used to crochet quite a bit while I was a student, mostly making warm wool hats to sell, and that experience has taught me a fair bit about how to control 3-dimensional shapes using the simple single crochet stitch. Right now I'm just seeing where these explorations will take me, but as I work away the piece is starting to form itself in my mind: I imagine a series of small islands connected by water, with power lines stetching between the islands as if the sea-level has risen and changed what used to be a solid mass of land....

sketch read write

2011-01-17T15:41:00.004-03:30

Thinking about the layering of rock and sediment. Layers folded upon each other, suspended with tension and slack.

my first island

2011-01-15T12:45:00.004-03:30

After reading and researching and looking for the last two weeks, I finally dove in and started working through my ideas in a tangible way. Earlier this week, I was feeling a bit paralyzed by the prospect of making a concrete decision about where I wanted this project to take me. Bouncing different unformed ideas around in my head until I was feeling more apprehensive about how I wanted to approach the geology, geography, shorelines, and sea level rise in my work.

By Thursday, I realized I had to start making something - reading and researching was becoming a procrastination method. It didn't have to be big, in fact it was probably a better (and less intimidating) if I started small and thought of this first piece like a maquette: a way to work through the construction and details and hone my process.

And what I want to make is islands. Little islands, bigger islands, some islands based on real islands, some composites from my imagination and research. And if I want to make islands, I have to figure out how I want to make them. So, here is my first, pretty simple and round, only about 10'" wide. The embroidery has absorbed my last day or two because I made the island all out of yellow canvas to begin with and I really want to emphasize the differences between the cliffs and the green space for my own understanding of this project.

What I really want to do next is weave the cloth for each geographical area and then construct the island, having a lot of the texture and colour already inherent in the cloth and embellishing a minimum amount. I've already learned so much through the simple act of making this....

sable island, island of sand

2011-01-12T09:35:00.003-03:30

The other night, I started reading the book "A Dune Adrift: the strange origins and curious history of Sable Island" by Marq De Villiers and Sheila Hirtle. An amazing book that explores the history, folklore, geography, geology and biology of this small cresent shaped island balanced on the edge of the continental shelf off the coast of Nova Scotia.

There are many reasons why Sable Island is such fodder for the imagination. The two reasons it is most well known for are 1/ its wild horses (brought there by mariners in the 1750s), and 2/ it is notorious for being the graveyard of the Atlantic as ships have become stranded and shipwrecked since the 1500s on the shallow bars that extend far from each end of the isle. But, what I'm discovering in reading this book is a greater understanding of the forces that shape the physical profile of this island: "a beach in the middle of nowhere attached to nothing and apropos of nothing, a beach attached to nothing but beach". "Sable is probably kept in place by the currents. But its mass still depends on the winds".

The island is completely made up of sedimentary sand with no bedrock. The sand dunes are very vulnerable and what hold them (somewhat) in place is the vegetaion of maram grass and other bushes. A single wind storm can drastically re-shape the terrain. And because of a combination of ocean currents and winds, the island is moving further and further eastwards, and may one day be pitched over the edge of the continental shelf.

maps and the fragile coast

2011-01-11T11:29:00.003-03:30

Since last Friday, I've been refining the making of a homemade frame loom. I want to be able to bring a small loom with me to the NSCAD class I'm sitting in on, and get away from being chained to my stationary floor looms. My original idea was to make small woven studies on my frame loom, and then assemble these pieces into something larger and three dimensional. I'm still working through some of the bugs of my frame loom design and method while keeping in mind that it is a tool to achieve the work I want to make. I find myself getting absorbed into the technology of it, and I have to balance my process-obsessive tendency with my conceptual goals of the work. Today I'm heading to the studio to work through it all....

Joanna and I spent yesterday at the Dalhousie University Library and I found some great resources about the Atlantic coast. The photo below is of a map of the sensitivity of Canada's coast to potential sea level rises.

scarves in the shop

2011-01-07T10:57:00.002-03:30

I took a few hours yesterday to photograph and stock my shop. I still have more scarves left over from the craft season and will be listing more in my Etsy shop over the next few weeks. Here is a picture of a wide Wave scarf that I call "lichen and granite", it's now for sale on Etsy (click on side bar at left).

structure

2011-01-06T11:06:00.003-03:30

Before Christmas, Damien told me about a course being offered at NSCAD for the upcoming winter semester that would be a great fit for my 'liminal project'. A studio sculpture class taught by Thierry Delva called "Science into Art". My thinking was that maybe Thierry would allow me to sit in on the class (I don't need the credit) and I could integrate the assignments and dialogue into my art practice this winter.

The class started yesterday afternoon and I went down the NSCAD's port campus fifteen minutes before the class started, found Thierry's office, introduced myself and explained a bit about my work and wanting to sit in the on the class. The registration for the class was originally full, but less than half the students showed up for the first class, so it looks like I'm in.

I think this is just what I need: a weekly 5 hour class that can provide me with structure, dialogue, critiques, and general conceptual stimulation. It gives me the opportunity to discuss ideas within an academic context and will challenge and enhance my own working methods and conceptual practice. Every week we'll be bringing materials to class and working (it is a studio based course) with the expectation of completing a minimum of three projects throughout the semester. One of our first assignments is to make a list of sciences, a simple brainstorming activity. From this list, we will dig for ideas as the basis for our work. It is not a science class, but will use science as a tool in service to contemporary art-making. I'm thinking of building a small frame loom that I can take with me, building components like puzzle pieces that can be made and/or installed into larger works.

On my way home from class yesterday, I picked up a book published by Nova Scotia press Nimbus Publishing called "The Last Billion Years: a Geological History of the Maritime Provinces of Canada", written by the Atlantic Geoscience Society. An amazing resource for understanding the formation and transformation of our coastlines over time.
I also wanted to post an image of a painting by Halifax artist Peter Dykhuis (alos director of Dalhousie Art Gallery) who uses satellite and radar imaging and data to create work. This piece is "datapainting.1 (Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream / WorldCom)"; 2003, encaustic on 14 panels.

new year

2011-01-05T11:56:00.003-03:30

I returned to Halifax on Monday after more than two weeks on PEI. Nice to get back. The last day or two has been spent puttering, cleaning, and re-settling in. And contemplating the winter and spring ahead. I am in the very lucky position right now to have the next five months to devote almost completely to my art practice. The prospect of being able to completely absorb myself in the creation of a new body of work is thrilling, and terrifying at the same time. I bought myself the time through a creation grant that I received from the NS government, and the seasonal money-making nature of my scarf production.

The new work I want to create will explore the liminal spaces of our coastlines, that romantic dangerous space that is always in a state of flux. The work will be textile based, with hand-weaving obviously playing an important role, but I want to push my work into three dimensions integrating new ways of working to really bring my work away from the wall. My art practice requires a very different way of working than my production work. In the next few days, I'm going to have to sit down with a plan for research, play and creation.

While I was on PEI, I made a trip to Belfast Mini Mills. I bought bags of dyed merino fleece which I intend to spin into yarn to use in my work this winter. Aside from producing amazing fibres for sale, Mini Mills also has a few animals frollicking in the sunshine. This time, we saw alpacas, a cow, and a sheep with an extreme underbite.

home of my dreams

2011-01-02T12:00:00.005-03:30

So, today is my last day on PEI before heading back to Halifax tomorrow. Damien and I have only gone to see one house (we canceled our appointment to see that tiny in-town house I posted about the other day after I drove past it and saw that it was surrounded by parking lots and ridiculously tiny), but like a woman obsessed, I keep looking at listings on-line. And today I found the house of my dreams listed on Kijiji. Twenty minutes north east of Charlottetown, it's on a couple of acres, on a hill (safe from sea level rises) and it appears as I would imagine my dream house would after twenty years of sweat equity. And it's only $129,000....still out of our price range, but without the years of renovations that a fixer upper would need.

This is it. I couldn't imagine a better version of the house I see in my mind's eye.

And skylights in the master bedroom.

And not one, but two sunrooms. And a large out-building that could be converted into a studio. What more could we want??

lazy days

2010-12-30T10:47:00.006-03:30

Winter finally arrived on PEI with a bang after a green Christmas. My family and I drove down to NB on Tuesday on snowy highways to visit my cousins. The drive down was a little harrowing, but the drive back to PEI was sunny and beautiful, the trees laden with snow.

My Etsy shop has been hopping the last week, so I thought I would post another scarf that I have listed.....this one is an Echo scarf in "heather", handwoven in raw silk and cotton.

city mice or country mice?

2010-12-21T11:14:00.007-03:30

So, I haven't really been keeping up with the scarf-a-day plug. I've gotten distracted while on Prince Edward Island. Mainly distracted by houses for sale. And when it comes to daydreaming potential new homes, I have a one track mind and I get a tad obsessed. Damien and I have never house-hunted before and we figure it's time to get our feet wet. We're just looking for now, but we have to start somewhere, and looking at houses doesn't cost a thing.

So, yesterday with Damien, my mom and friend Mille in tow, we went to look at a small century farmhouse in South Pinette, about thirty minutes east of Charlottetown, towards the Nova Scotia Ferry. Three out-buildings (possible studio space), a small orchard and a price that is definitely in our low budget price range. We'd have to make some investments right off the bat - new oil tank, new septic, buy a car - but there's loads of potential there for us to make it our own for a very reasonable price....but two main issues pop up: do we want to be that car dependent, and the winter isolation of country living. But, we would be buying ourselves space and time to work on our individual art practices and live within our means. And, out of all the regions in rural PEI, this is one part of the Island where we have very good friends, (Mille and Dan would be a 5 minute drive away). It's easy to get swept up and romanticize country living....

And, last night, I found a tiny little house in Charlottetown that I'm going to make an appointment for us to see. It's about $17,000 more than the country house, only one little outbuilding, but we'd be in town. From the photos of the inside it looks like it's got good bones, nice moldings. The big question: is there room for both Damien and I to have studio space?

scarf a day

2010-12-17T16:04:00.002-03:30

Because I'm now on PEI for the holidays, and staying at my parents' house, I don't have my vast archive of photos which is on our own computer. I also didn't bring my cord for my camera to upload photos to my parents' computer. So, I will take images of scarves from my Etsy shop and do a scarf-a-day feature for the next few days. This one is a wide Wave scarf in cotton and raw silk, and I'm calling it Autumn Dusk.....

filling the shop

2010-12-15T17:30:00.003-03:30

I just spent the afternoon taking photos of some of my scarves and listing them on Etsy. Click on my Etsy shop link on the right sidebar. I am heading home to PEI for the next couple of weeks, but will bring these scarves with me, just in case I need to get them to the post office. After I'm back in my studio in January, I will stock my shop with even more scarves....I'm just running out of time right now and the holidays await.

stay-stitched

2010-12-14T10:31:00.005-03:30

My friend Mille Clarkes recently made a short documentary about sewing for yourself. Made as a way to promote the work of another PEI friend, Erin Arsenault's book "Stay-Stitched", (click here to watch the film on Vimeo) that encourages us to learn the skills and problem-solving to make items of daily use for ourselves. I am so struck by the beauty of this little gem of a film. Thinking how great it would be to hire Mille to make a little film about my weaving....

And just for the sake of posting some photos:

Two custom scarves just in time for Christmas. They were both picked up this morning. Plus some of my own hand-spun Blue Faced Leicester wool and silk in the back.

And the start of photographing scarves for Etsy - which I will get to before heading home to PEI.

tomorrow

2010-12-10T19:32:00.002-03:30

When Anne Pryde and I were doing the Dalplex show a couple of weeks ago, we decided to have an open house. I volunteered North Pocket Studio that I share with Joanna Close and Keeley McLean. So, tomorrow we will have a Holiday Open House with handweaving by myself and Joanna, stiching and fashion by Keeley, Anne Pryde Pottery and Osha Mae Soap by Laura Mae. All five of us are part of Halifax Crafters and it's a good excuse to have a little party at the studio while showing and selling our wares. We'll have treats and some refreshments too...

customize it

2010-12-08T10:54:00.007-03:30

Now that all my craft fairs are over for the season, it's time to get down to the four custom orders I have on the books, plus one scarf gift for family. I want to get everything finished by the time I leave for PEI at the end of next week.

The first scarf up was this beauty which I accomplished yesterday from start to finish (for the husband of a friend). Cotton, raw silk and merino wool, using the same threading as my River scarf, but without the felting. I hand-dyed it after weaving to colour the raw silk and merino a pale lichen green amongst the brown, blue and gray cotton.

thank you Halifax!

2010-12-06T19:48:00.008-03:30

This past weekend was wonderful. Halifax Crafters had their annual Christmas Handmade Market with about 70 artists selling their wares. Well-attended and busy with lots of positive energy. Thank you to all those who came out to buy, browse and converse; to all the crafters who together make this show so great; and the other volunteer organizers (some of whom make appearances as scarf models in the pictures below). Here's a smattering of photos from the show:

My table of scarves and shawls.

All crafters were asked to make 10 paper cut out snowflakes and string them. Joanna and Keeley took care of tying them together and stringing them across the room, from one balcony to the other.

Three narrow Wave scarves and one yellow Echo scarf. The three on the left are still available for sale and I'll post them soon in my Etsy shop.....

Anne Pryde and her new River scarf, purchased from me at the show.

Joanna Close and her narrow Wave scarf that I gave her for her birthday last summer.

Laura Mae and her new wide Wave scarf that she purchased at the show.

Anne and Dean's daughter Remi. Hanging out with her mom and dad at the show for much of the weekend. I love having this kid around.

this weekend

2010-12-02T14:44:00.004-03:30

I'm very excited about the Halifax Crafters' Handmade Market this weekend. The Christmas show is always a great one. A craft fair made up of artists who enjoy making things by hand and who have a unique vision to share. The mandate of Crafters' is to encourage new artists and local artmaking. Shows are juried every time creating a unique place for established artists and university instructors to gather with emerging artists and students to show inspiring new projects.

I've been part of the volunteer organizers since moving back to Halifax in 2009 and this time I took on the responsibility of doing the floor plan with Laura Mae of Osha Mae Soaps. I finalized the plan yesterday and this morning appeared bright and early on Breakfast Television along with other Crafters Amanda Fullerton and Caitlyn Purcell. I biked to CTV in the dark with my backpack of scarves.

things I learned

2010-12-01T15:00:00.006-03:30

During the craft fairs I've done so far this fall, there's been time to reflect. Thoughts about how I want my life and art practice to grow. Craft fairs are wonderful in so many ways: they allow me to talk to people about handweaving and my work, provide a high quality original handmade product to people who appreciate the value of skill and ingenuity and function, earn income to pay all my bills while continuing a full-time weaving practice. But they can also be exhausting, long, and sometimes discouraging.

A big part of making sure I don't burn out in my production weaving is to change things up now and then. This means trying new shows each year, learning what environment works best for my work. Some shows aren't juried as vigorously as a craft council organized show - this means that the people coming there may not be the right market for my work and expect much less expensive items. I felt this was partly the case at Dalplex this past weekend, combined with thin crowds. It might mean not doing longer shows, more than 5 days.

Changing things up also applies to the scarves I'm designing and weaving. I learned that my felted scarves will always sell, equal or better than flat scarves. This is largely to do with their volume and texture caused by the shrinking of the merino wool. This year, I decided to re-vamp the felting process to be done in the washing machine. For the past three years, I've been hand-felting my Seaweed scarves and my wrists are finally starting to protest (it involved taking the scarf and putting it in hot soapy water and beating and wringing the cloth - I did this to control the extent of the shrinking). I wanted to re-design a scarf using the washing machine to felt without the worry that it would over-felt. This meant spacing the merino yarn a little denser through the reed while changing the warp stripe design.

I left too little time to make as many of these new felted scarves as I would have liked, and only had nine River scarves to take with me to NL plus a smattering of older Seaweed scarves. But my new River scarf was a big hit in St. John's: I had sold the majority of them by the end of the first weekend. Felted scarves are more labour intensive - they have to be woven 25% longer to account for the shrinking and felting, plus watched while in the washing machine - and the price point reflects that. But they sell because they are soft, richly coloured, warm, and gently structured because of the differential shrinkage. I have another felted design in my head that I'm excited to play around with.

a breather

2010-11-30T11:30:00.005-03:30

It's been a very busy last couple of weeks. After finishing the Dalplex show this past weekend, I'm enjoying some time to simply catch my breath. Puttering around my home, getting to some household chores, shopping for a new winter coat. And a little organizing for the Halifax Crafters' Handmade Market this weekend: myself and Laura of Osha Mae Soaps took on the task of organizing the floor plan, and I'm to appear on Breakfast Television Thursday morning with two other crafters to promote the fair.

While I was in St. John's, my Nana gave me a beautiful cup and saucer from her china collection. It arrived yesterday packed in a box of extra cloth and clothes that I had with me while I was in St. John's for the craft fair but couldn't squeeze into my suitcase. I love the orange, the gold trim and the little bluebird perched inside the lip of the cup. So lovely.

Dalplex Christmas Market

2010-11-27T09:50:00.003-03:30

Today and tomorrow I will be at the Dalplex Christmas Market here in Halifax with all my scarves. See side bar at right for more details about the show....drop by and say hello and find that perfect scarf!

thank you St. John's

2010-11-23T09:39:00.007-03:30

Well, I made it back home in one piece yesterday. The temperature has dropped dramatically since I left Halifax almost two weeks ago - winter is in the air and it feels cozy. It feels good to be home, in part because I've been fighting swollen tonsils and some kind of sickness since Saturday (maybe strep?). Aside from being under the weather the last two days of the St. John's Christmas Craft Fair, it was a lovely show. A big thank you to everyone who came by my booth to chat or buy a scarf. Here's a smattering of photos to make up for two weeks without any blog posts:

My booth display under the bright lights. Very happy to have my little mannequin along to model....

Since this was my first fair of the season, I had an abundance of scarves. Too many to crowd onto my hanging racks. So, I borrowed a tall shelf from my aunt and uncle's where I was staying and it worked perfectly to house my surplus.

colours, colours.....

....and more colours. And textures.

I had three days off last week between the two four day sections of the fair. I took some walks downtown and finally made it to the Rooms, Newfoundland and Labrador's provincial art gallery and archives. The view from the Rooms is stunning and made vivid through the ginormous plate glass windows: all of St. John's spread out before you with Signal Hill keeping an eye over everything.

In the museum part of the Rooms, they had a display about the Products of Industry in Newfoundland and Labrador, particularly the domestic industries involving women and textiles arts. I stumbled upon this beautiful photo from the archives of a woman weaving at what looks like a home-made loom. I too am a woman of industry....

I noticed while walking the streets of St. John's that garbage bags are always placed under these fishing nets. My guess is that it's to keep out raccoons and other scoundrels who like to eat trash. Whatever the case, I love that in a city that has so relied historically on the fishery, that you see this reflected in the netting used to protect their rubbish...

And lastly, I stopped and took a photo of the first house my mother bought when I was a mere babe in arms. This is 52 Monkstown Road. My first childhood memories are in this house: learning to whistle, eating my lunch in the backyard in the summer sun. I think she bought it for something as little as $28,000. Today, the cost of housing is soaring in St. John's and you'd be hard pressed to find anything under $200,000.

In coming posts I will write more about my experience in St. John's, as well as some insights I had into the direction I would like my production weaving practice to go.....but for now, I need to take care of myself and work on feeling better for the next craft fair this weekend here in Halifax.

St. John's, here I come!

2010-11-09T17:07:00.004-03:30

Tomorrow morning I fly out of Halifax to St. John's for the Craft Council of Newfoundland and Labrador's Christmas Craft Fair. This is an 8 day fair spread out over two weeks. The first half takes place from November 11 - 14, and the second half from November 18-21 (see side bar at right for hours).
This will be my third year as an exhibitor in this craft fair and it is always a fantastic experience: wonderful atmosphere and community, all exhibitors are juried members of the Craft Council of NL, and I get lots of scarf love from the citizens of St. John's. It also provides me with a great excuse to visit the city where I was born and lived until I was seven years old. I get to visit with my extended family of cousins, aunts, my dear Nana, and craft buddies from my time living in Corner Brook. I love being in St. John's and am always amazed at how many people come out of the craft fair crowds who are old friends of my parents and remember me as a child......Please drop by the fair and say hello!

comfort and joy

2010-11-08T16:24:00.005-03:30

So, my second post today - I hardly ever do this - but I wanted to show off this one-of-a-kind scarf I just finished up. I made it especially for the Craft Council of Newfoundland and Labrador's Comfort and Joy exhibition which opens at Devon House in St. John's on December 4th (it will be for sale!). I'll take it with me when I fly to St. John's this Wednesday for the Christmas Craft Fair and hand it off to Sharon, the gallery coordinator.

The warp is raw silk and the weft is cotton. Before weaving, I wound two separate warps and dip dyed each of them: one warp shifting from pale straw to deep burnt orange, and the other warp shifting from a pale periwinkle grey all the way to a deep teal/blue. When threading the loom, I used a modified twill, alternating stripes of each warp and using a bright fire engine red cotton for the weft. Very very happy with it, love the transition of colours from one end of the scarf to the other with the stripe juxtoposition. I'm a little tempted to keep it for myself.......

my Island home

2010-11-08T14:46:00.005-03:30

My dear friend Millefiore Clarkes, a documentarian and film-maker from PEI, has been working on a project about Prince Edward Island for the last couple of years. The Telling is about an ordinary place and its ordinary people, an ode to the stories of an island that has seen many changes and is very dear to those who know it well.

Collecting interviews and many many hours of footage, Mille is finally in the post-production stage. I strongly encourage a visit to see the preview of this film (click on the link above), and if you are so inspired, you can even donate to help with the hard work ahead of editing all the material into a feature-length documentary and web series.