Dyeing, Displays and Demos

I spent some of the morning dyeing this silk velvet. I still haven't left any of my Arashi Shibori crinkled because curiosity has me peeking between the folds!

In the afternoon I was back at the Victoria College of Art to talk to visitors at our exhibition. I met textile artist and instructor Elaine Duncan, who gave me a demonstration of tapestry weaving on a copper loom. She had a display of her beautiful natural dyed yarns, books and some of her lovely pieces - and - some indigo shibori! Elaine will be teaching a tapestry weaving course and one on natural dyeing at the college soon.

Lesley Turner, who taught the Mark Making With Machine class I just took, was showing how to make a pattern using various stamps and paint. She is offering a course on pattern design this summer that is sure to be comprehensive.

I also have stitched a few more hearts:

When It Rains, It Pours

Okay - you might wonder what this has to do with fibre art: Well - a few days ago I awoke to still pouring rain and found part of the driveway flooded, with water rising and pouring right over the top of the stone wall edging it. A quick clearing of the drain, some loud sucking and gurgling sounds, and it was all gone and back to normal in minutes. I've been thinking about how that can mirror the shift from being in the intensity of a class or workshop with the flood of learning, doing and relating rising in momentum and then, once it's over, the sudden void or space. There is just one class and the exhibition left of the six week long textile art class that I've been taking and unlike previous weeks, my homework is complete and I can work on other pieces that have been waiting since before the class - or start something new - maybe arising from some of what I've just learned. I am used to doing some fibre work everyday, but I noticed that with the structure abruptly gone, I felt that difference - like I had developed a bit of dependency on it and had to stimulate that inner muscle of will a bit, whereas at first when the class was on, I was eagerly wanting to get back to the work I had been doing, even as I was also enjoying the learning from the class. This is an issue I keep encountering - how to stay tuned in with my need to make my art and also to fold in new learning from classes. I am signed up for two classes in January that I feel excited about - the Mark Making With Machine textile art course at the Victoria College of Art with Lesley Turner and Jude Hill's online Advanced Cloth to Cloth. Aside from the substantial other learning and benefits involved from classes, the more techniques that I try, the more possibilities I will know to include in future work - but that likely means postponing making more involved pieces for awhile. What feels most successful for me is when I find a way to weave what I'm learning into a completed piece, and I have done that, although at a reduced quantity.

Opening

A little door opened for me today. Do you remember when you stitched your first french knot? I did mine today, after first making a series of loops (interesting but not what I was after) and then Lesley showed me a few and my little baby was born in the far left corner :)

We are also exploring some open stitches:

I am enjoying seeing all the ideas of my classmates and am appreciating the wealth of knowledge they bring, in additon to all the rest of the learning!

Fish Stitch

Today was my first day taking the textile art course 'Mark Making', with Lesley Turner, at the Victoria College of Art. We are exploring four types of cover stitches this week, seeing the variety we can come up with for our stitch dictionary. I enjoyed the running stitch but have much more to discover with it - as well as with the other stitches.

Some of these remind me of the salmon I watched spawning recently:

Wherever I go, There Stitch Is

On a recent road trip through parts of BC and Alberta, I did very little stitching, deciding early on that there was too much else to take in and not wanting to miss anything. Of course, I continued finding stitch everywhere - whether tapestried chair cusheons, in quilt shops or where have you. Isn't this a lovely embroidered pillow that graced one of the beds I slept in? Not made by my hostess, though, but found at an antique shop. And here is a heritage linen on display in one of Calgary's old homes:

This thead is actual gold and was part of a liturgical exhibit in a historic church in the town of Yale, BC.

Here is some of the stitching I have been doing - this piece is nearly complete and I will post the whole of it soon.

I also went to the Victoria College of Art's open house to see a textile art exhibition called 'Narrative Articulations', which was interesting and pleasurable. While there, I signed myself up for a course on mark making with stitch taught by Lesley Turner. It's set to begin in a few months time, and I'm glad because I have alot of pieces I want to work further on, as well as past course material to digest.