When the sun shines

Piece of the action

Here's a little glimpse into the May 12 gallery opening. I received some great feedback from the visitors to the exhibit. Most people thought I had made a pretty pink skirt that was artistic. The woman pictured in the first image with the look of shock on her face is learning that the skirt is made from real love letters that I had collected. She proceeded to tell me that she had a bundle of love notes herself - and her husband told her she had to get rid of them. The two of us mourned this fact and read one of the letters I received from my high school sweetheart, at age 17. It was a moment I'll remember well.

The 2nd image captures more of this feeling of surprise and desire to touch and read and dive into the memories of the letters, into the love. Everyone wants a piece of the action.

A big thank you to Greg for being in the right place at the right time with a camera, and knowing when that time was.

It's really all about Love.

Come see the Love Tutu!

For more information, contact:

Reisa Smiley Schneider
Art Gallery Director
Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery
Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver
950 West 41st Avenue
604 638 7277; 604 257 5111
reisa@jccgv.bc.ca

www.jccgv.com

Dharma Threads and Dancing Light

This afternoon I had the pleasure of spending a couple of hours in a magical garden with old friends and new. We photographed the lovely Tangachee, of Dancing Light Cottage adorned in Dharma Threads.

Craft Bazaar round two!

Excitement builds as I gear up for my second time participating in Salt Spring's Craft Bazaar at Mahon Hall. I'll have more nuno felted scarves there and will also be featuring unscented kama soap felted with natural merino fibres, un-dyed for sensitive skin.

Here's a photo of my dear friend Sandra wearing a scarf I made recently, looking very scholarly indeed:

Mail call!

A while ago, I went on a clothes tag cutting frenzy and sent a pile of them to Lea at Leafcutter designs. She's been working on this really smart project called changing clothes where she investigates the politics and ecology of clothes - and for her work on "care instructions", she invites the public to change the tags in their clothes to this tag she designed. I recently received a glittering pile of these tags in the mail the other day from Lea. I'm excited to sew them into my wearables and share them with friends so that they may do the same.

Wrapped in rainbows

Once upon a time there was a girl who liked the colour fuschia. She enjoyed wearing fuschia lip stain and donning a fuschia attitude. She was especially happy when wrapped in her fuschia rainbow stole. She felt like she caught the sky.

Fulford Fair in December

Here I am, wearing one of my scarves and peddlin' the woolywash at the Fulford Market. Woolywash is made by hand using natural soap by Kama felted with natural wool fleece fibres, all on Salt Spring Island. It makes a nice soapy scrub. Mechanics and jewelers alike attest to its excellent hand cleansing and softening qualities.

Cheers to all the sudsy love this holiday season! Bring on the squeaky clean of 2011.

A dance with needle and thread

Butterfly Dream

length: 237cm

materials: silk-rayon woven gauze fabric, felted with merino wool fleece and raw silk roving; embellished with silk and cotton embroidery floss

dye: material dyed with fuscia procion mx cellulose fibre reactive dye; fleece and silk roving dyed with cochineal* from Maiwa Supply on Granville Island (imported from Mexico, Central and South America and the Canary Islands).

Inspiration: femininity, universal love and diffusing disorder

CrackerJack 2010

My first sale: CrackerJack 2010. What an honour and a pleasure to have participated amongst some seriously great artisans, artists and craftspeople.

All that preparation was well worth my while. I appreciated the feedback, the chance to meet with old and dear friends and to share my nuno felting art process. What a great learning experience on this artisan journey I find myself continuing on.

Now, back to the studio.

Out in the world

I cropped some imagery to give myself an idea of what colour relationships people enjoy adorning their bodies with. Since the summer, I have released 9 scarves into the wild.

Inspired by this lovely lady, the naming of the scarves happened at a craft night in a yurt on Salt Spring. They are:

Snow Walker

Radiant Comet
Fire Tree
Whispy Fanfare
Undersea Rosegarden
Birdpath
Indigo Lagoon
Summer Storm
Coral Dragon

Ecsquisite jacquard.

A beautiful memory from the summer. This couch lived upstairs in all its art nouveau revival gorgeousness. Thank you, William Morris.

Craft Bazaar: check!

Piled on a clothes dryer, the scarves for the Craft Bazaar and for the upcoming show in West Vancouver, CrackerJack. The lighting that evening was picturesque, so I stepped outside for some photos.

Also rustled up some felted soap that I made in summer and painted the tosies on the paper mache bathtub I made for display purposes.

The sale at Mahon hall was a success! lots of good feedback and a great opportunity to meet more of the kind folk that dwell on this beautiful little island.

Craft Bazaar!

I'm excited to participate in a 'not so average' craft bazaar at Mahon Hall on Salt Spring this weekend. See you there!

A bowl of madder matter. Some logwood-drenched cloth hanging to dry. A peek into my world in Long Harbour. I'm so lucky to have the space to create and dance in colour and fibre. I'll be working at it each day until Remembrance Day...preparing for a show. My first show.

designing for mini moo

I just ordered some moo cards to go with the scarves I've been making. Here are some samples. When cropping the photos, I was immediately drawn back to my design class with mentor and design super hero, Eleanor Hannan. Under her instruction, choosing imagery, seeing colour relationships and finding the art all around us was fun and fabulous.

I'll have these cards with the scarves on display at the upcoming Capilano University Textile Arts Student Sale:

November 23, 2010
Arbutus Building 201, Capilano University
11:30 am-7:30 pm

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Osage Orange celulose meets Cedar chip protein

Here, laid out on a stone patio is my first attempt at a long stole. The 'nuno' or ground material was dyed using Osage Orange to give it its golden yellow-orange hue. The yellowish collaged fleece on top was dyed using cedar chips found on the floor from a wood carver at last year's Circle Craft Market, while the grey, navy and burgundy were dyed with acid dyes.

The dyeing happened in a little house on the north end of Salt Spring. It was felted in a garden in the south of the island.

pink and green

This planned conglomeration of pink and green fleece reminds me of a day when I hopped on a bus in Kyoto.

More flamingo photos here.

Colour way, sourced.

Here's the tail end of a scarf I put together recently. I've used both chemically and naturally dyed fibres (Procion MX, CIBA Acid dye, cedar bark and cochineal). It was a real step back in time to rainbow it up with all kinds of pink.

..and on a random note, I wonder if a my little pony brush could work as a hand carder in a jam.

what's for dinner?

I've been residing in the Northern Shuswap area of BC for the past two weeks and have encountered the following: 1 cougar, 1 eagle, 4 mule deer with big fluffy, flappy tails, three bears and two nephews. I get to drive a big truck, sometimes an atv, and I live with a cat named Jonah. It's one of those wild adventures I've always dreamed of.