Growth Patterns

'I worked on 'Growth' a few months ago - this is the longest gap I've had between posts since I began this blog, but I've continued to create and have more to show. One definition of a gap is a break in continuity - which is only noticeable because of the former regular pattern. So - a change in pattern for me. And I have been thinking about patterns and will soon be taking a course focused on visual patterns at the Victoria College of Art. I have long been interested in patterns in a wider sense and most especially changes in them where something ends along with the emergence of something new. The space between and the death/rebirth cycle - fascinating, surprising and mystifying. I like to follow my inner rhythms and pattern changes and over time I feel more comfortable not knowing very much at all, really, but just trusting the process and the predictability of its unpredictability! So I will dip into blogging now and again as the urge strikes - maybe there will be another long gap or maybe I'll return to daily posts - who knows? Just a choice. I will post a few other things I've done over the past months.

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:

Floating Heart

Can you guess what I used to make this pattern? I added Spanish onion and camellias from my garden to the dye pot, hoping to get a more pinkish beige.

Instead, I have a wave of neutrals that I made using - rickrack! The idea popped into mind because I wanted to change the Shibori's line spacing and thought a thicker kind of tie would also be interesting .

And I am participating in Jude Hill's Whispering Hearts series - not a class per se, but a match to what is very dear to my heart and how I work - noticing process and following it. Jude is sharing her process in real time - which is also my preference, as it is energized and alive, not after the fact. I had started this piece a few months ago and decided some of the flowers could become hearts - maybe flying hearts.

Handstitching is uplifting and I like allowing the breeze to draw me to where I'm going next.

Tonight is the opening of our Mark Making With Machine class exhibition at the Victoria College of Art and if it's like the previous one I was part of, it will be packed!

Texture With Stitch

I decided to work with stitching a small piece of silk for Orinui Shibori. The transformation of the texture on this is amazing - a little bouncy, 3 D and alive! Almost a shame to pull those ties...The stitched side has interesting texture, too. It is now tightly bound into such a small bit that I made sure I placed it in my studio last night instead of leaving it on the coffee table in case someone might mistake it for a kleenex and toss it. I am excited to dye it because yesterday I got more colours of the Colorhue dye.

I also continue to stitch this cloth:

And I completed this - a moment of wonder in the early morning when it was snowing at the cove which you may recognize, as it's based on a photo I took and previously posted on this blog. Other then the rectangular outline, I didn't draw any of it with a marker but used my eye and the machine, as I wanted to keep it fresh and alive - and I wasn't going for an exact rendering:

This will be in the exhibition and sale at the Victoria College of Art beginning this Friday night and continuing in the afternoon on Saturday and Sunday. Our class has covered alot of ground and there will be much to see, as well as all the work done by the other classes in various mediums.

Show Down

The opening of the Victoria College of Art's exhibition and sale was packed on Friday evening - I heard over 600 people were there - and the show also ran throughout the weekend. I enjoyed the raw energy of the atmosphere and the vibrancy of the works in various mediums - there was alot to see! In our textile art area, Dale McEwan demonstrated painting on fabric:

I helped disassemble our class's part of the show today and now I am completely done. None of my art cards sold - but with one week until Christmas and most of my preparations left to do - at least I won't have to buy any!

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.

More 'Carding'

I have been making little pieces and cards to sell at the Victoria College of Art's upcoming exhibition and sale next weekend. Part of the class I'm taking involves preparation of something to sell, as well as tracking our time and exploring different ways of pricing. While I've sold a few items before and had larger pieces for sale in shows, this experience has been interesting because I am making multiples of the same item ( although each is unique) - but it's a concerted effort to have a number available at the same time. This one is in a matte board - new to me and I'm doing it as an experiment although I usually prefer raw edges and the softness being fully available to hold and touch.I have made cards for friends and loved ones ever since I took up sewing, but these will be for sale and were made without a specific person in mind - so - a different approach. Here are some of them:

And I have a few more started and I have ideas for other items to make for sale, but the trees on my cards are the only ones decorated at our house so far, and it's soon time to change that, so I'll see how much more I get done before the exhibiton!

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:

The Final Chapter

When I last posted about 'Butterfly Dreaming' (http://fibreheart.blogspot.com/2010/08/tale-of-roots-and-wings.html ) I thought of adding a story pocket to the back and today I did.

Now the story is printed on silk and will remain safely tucked inside. I also signed up yesterday for a machine stitching course next year at the Victoria College of Art and and a felting workshop at the Vancouver Island School of Art called 'Entangled and Embedded', this fall.

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.