52 sketches: January

My annual project for this year is to do a sketch each week. I've been good about doing the sketches each week, but less good about posting them regularly. Here's what I did in January: 

Week 1: "Nothing" is two syllables

Week 2: There's a spoon here with your name on it

Week 3: A tablespoon here, a tablespoon there

Week 4: You need a cup of coffee, maybe

Leigh Square residency - reflections

Last fall, I did a three month artist residency at Leigh Square in Port Coquitlam. I had some expectations of what I wanted to accomplish during the residency.

Before I started I made a list of things that I wanted to work on. Here's the list (and my comments on what got done):

✔1. Weave on my rigid heddle looms:

Finish the left over warps from previous classes and projects:

✔AD's white warp

✔white and orange warp

✔ turquoise warp

Reacquaint myself with some rigid heddle weaving techniques: patterns and textures using pickup sticks and using two heddles.

✔ 1/2 twill using two heddles

✔exploring some patterns and textures

✔3. Figure out how the backstrap looms work
Someone gave me three backstrap looms that she found at a thrift store for almost nothing. I've been saving them to play with during this residency.

4. CD and hula hoop weaving
I was planning to base a proposal for a large artwork commission around some circular weaving using cds and hula hoops to create woven mandalas, but in the end I decided to go in another direction. I did do some weaving on CDs though and I'm hoping they will be the start of a large collection of circular weaving.

5. Create a series of three community banners
I had originally planned to use my rigid heddle looms to create the banners, but when I learned that there was a big floor loom at Leigh Square, I decided to use it instead. I wasn't able to convince many people to try weaving on it though, most people who came by just wanted to watch me weaving. I don't usually get that reaction with the rigid heddle looms. Perhaps the big floor loom was to intimidating. We only finished one banner, and it ended up that I did most of the weaving on it myself.

✔6. Make patterns for handwoven garments that I've designed:
I've made quite a few garments from handwoven clothing over the years. I don't usually make patterns. I just take the pieces of fabric and drape and fold them on my body or on a mannequin until I'm pleased with the layout. I don't yet have a plan for these patterns, but it's nice to have them. Who knows what opportunities might come up in the future.

✔7. Warp looms for classes and events that come up during the residency
It was great to have a large space to spread out and do some "direct warping". This a nice, quick and simple way to warp a rigid heddle loom. It is a bit limited though and I don't think I'd want to tackle a very long or complicated warp this way.

✔8. Make samples for mini workshops
As part of the residency I offered a series of three community workshops. I spent some time the week  before each workshop making samples.

✔9. Connect with people in the PoCo area.
This is the thing that did not go at all the way that I had planned. I had thought there there would be more people coming though the centre and that I would build a "following" of people in the PoCo area and start teaching regular classes there. That did not happen. I maybe got one or two visitors a week. Most of them were idly curious and not specifically interested in weaving. I did have a lovely chat with one fellow who came in to tell me about how he enjoyed my exhibit. He told me about a dream he had about following the old trade routes along the coast and seeing Salish weavings made of goat hair. I thought he had seen my Salish style weavings, but I had taken them down to take to another event. It was one of those odd coincidences.

 In the end, I did not build a following in PoCo, but I did make some excellent and very useful connections.

On the first day of my residency, I met one of the previous resident artists who told me that she was opening a gallery with workshop space RIGHT IN MY OWN NEIGHBOURHOOD. I've begun selling things and teaching workshops at the shop which is walking distance from my home. The funny thing is that the things that have been popular at the shop aren't even weaving related. It's all about art journalling.

I joined the Coquitlam Weavers and Spinners Guild mainly because I thought that if I was doing a weaving based residency in the neighbouring community, I should get to know some of the local weavers. As a result of this connection, I've started to teach art and weaving though Place des Arts in Coquitlam, and through Langara College in Vancouver (associated with the Greater Vancouver Weavers and Spinners Guild).

Before I started the residency, I would never have anticipated the chain of events that led to either of these connections.While, I didn't form the type of connections that I had expected, I would say that the connections that I did make have far exceeded my expectations.

Things that got added to the list

 ✔10. Work on samples and prototypes using the Salish loom
I had thought I'd spend most of my time working with my rigid heddle looms, but I hadn't anticipated that I would become intrigued with the Salish loom. I came across a Salish weaving in the little community museum that was in the building where I was based and one of the people working in the museum told me about the meaning of symbols in the weaving. The "red fish in the river" represents Coquitlam and abundance and the stylized geese stand for community and friendship.

 I was already involved with a weaving project at the Dunbar Community Centre in Vancouver with the Vancouver Art Colloquium Society (VACS) using Salish looms. I decided to do some tapestries on this style of loom that told my own stories. I even did my own "red fish in the river" weaving. This is another project that is providing unexpected opportunities. I started out as a participant in the (VACS), but the group was interested using strips of scrap fabric to weave like I did for the red fish weaving, so I was asked to become a mentor for the group which has now become the "Sustainable Weaving:" project.. We are looking at opportunities to expand the program to communities outside the city of Vancouver.

Overall, I am very pleased with the opportunities that have come my way as a result of this residency. I also felt that it was a productive way to get a lot of work done. I will be doing another, shorter, residency this November at the Anvil Centre in New Westminster. I'll be using my time there to design and sew wearable art garments with my handwoven fabric - including some of the weaving I did at Leigh Square.

       

Weaving and clay

I've been experimenting with combining weaving with clay. Mostly that means that I have a bunch of ceramic objects with holes, waiting for me to do something with them. I'm finding it a challenge to manage the lag time between starting on a ceramic piece and finally having the finished glazed result in hand. By that time, I've usually forgotten what I had planned in the first place. I suppose it would help if I made notes, but I prefer to work spontaneously and intuitively.

Here are the few finished pieces that I've made so far:

52 Sketches, Week 1 Nothing is two syllables

For the last couple of years, I have done an annual weekly creative project. In 2015, I made an art journal each week for the whole year - I've almost finished filling them all up with artwork too. Then last year, I did a textile project for the whole.year.

This year, I've decided to do a sketch each week. I really enjoy sketching on location especially when I'm travelling, but I haven't been finding the time to do much lately and I'm getting rusty. I could really tell on my trip last month. It took a few days to get comfortable sketching.

My first sketch of 2017 is the view from my dining room window. In case you are wondering about the caption. I like to write down something that I hear someone say while I'm sketching. I usually just wait until I hear something "good", but since I was home alone with a lippy teenager today, I had to give her a few prods before she would say anything more than a grunt..

Happy things in January

Are you looking for a fun, creative New Year's resolution? 

2016 has been quite a year. This is the perfect time to start keeping track of all the things that make you smile

Join me each month to make a fun little journal that you can use to keep track of your own happy things.

A few years ago I made a series of junk journals to record all the happy things that happened in my life each month. They are just small simple little booklets made out of random bits of paper that I had lying around in my studio. I decorated them with equally random stickers and other bits and pieces. They were so easy and fun to make. It always makes me smile when I go back and read through all my random happy thoughts.

This year, I'll be running a series of Junk Journalling workshops. We will meet on the first Friday of each month from 6-8 pm at Muckabout Studio (Hastings at Gamma in North Burnaby). I'll have all the materials and supplies you need to make your own "Happy Things of the Month" journal. $18 per session, or buy a 5 session punch card for $75.Contact the studio directly to register.  (They have sessions each week, but I'm only there once a month. The other instructors are all fantastic and will introduce you to other junk journalling ideas.)

If you can't make it to the Friday workshops, I also sell Mini Junk Journal Snack Packs at the Muckabout store. You get a premade mini-journal in a takeout container filled to the brim with fun papery bits that you can use to decorate it. The kits are $10 each.

The couple that weaves together...

On Saturday, I did a workshop for a lovely couple. He bought it for her as a birthday surprise. They spent the day weaving together.

He wove a scarf in the colours of his favourite sports team -the Saskatchewan Roughriders (green, black and white)

She chose a lovely earthy pallette (orange, green, black and white). I had lots of other yarn colours for them to choose, I really did. Even though they made their colour choices for completely different reasons, the two scarfs ended up being very complementary. They even matched the walls of the studio!

They both look very happy with their finished scarves.

Leigh Square residency week 9 - The End*

*yes, that is another "Series of Unfortunate Events" reference. That's two weeks in a row now. I just realized that as much as I enjoyed the series, you might get the impression that I thought of this residency as "unfortunate". Absolutely not! The residency has been a great experience. I've enjoyed the dedicated, productive time, and many opportunities have come my way as a direct result of the residency. I'm planning to do a post reflecting on the whole experience, but for now, this will just be a regular recap of my week.

I had a visitor on Wednesday who popped in to comment on how much he liked the pieces that I had on display. Then he told me a story about a dream he had a few weeks ago. He dreamt that he was following the ancient trade routes along the coast and that while he was somewhere in Oregon (he said he didn't know why, but he was sure this took place in Oregon), he met a weaver who showed him many beautiful and finely woven goat hair blankets. He said he remembered how delicate and soft they were to touch. (I'm not entirely sure that goat hair is particularly soft and delicate. I'd describe it more as coarse and sturdy, but never-the-less, that's the fibre that people along the coast here did use to weave their blankets.) When he told me this story, I thought he had seen the weavings that I had done on the Salish loom, but he seemed confused when  I mentioned them, so we went out to see the display cabinet.

That's when I realized that I had specifically taken those two pieces out to take to the Creative Weaving Project at the Dunbar Community Centre. Oh well. I appreciated his story and I'm glad he shared it with me.

Since this was the last week of my residency, I had made a list of the things I wanted to finish up.

I wanted to get some looms warped for my workshop on Saturday. I'm really enjoying the direct warping method for shortish warps.

Because I've had several workshops and events recently, all my looms had warps on them, so I had to clear some off before I could rewarp them. I decided to play with some pick up stick patterns at the same time: They don't show up too well in this piece, I think they look better in a balanced weave, but this was a practice piece for me. After all, it's only been about 20 years since I've used these techniques.

I also wanted to finish the warp that I had put on the big floor loom.

I managed to get to the end of the warp and when I unrolled the finished piece, I realized that I had woven about 1/2 the full length by myself in the last two weeks of my residency. This piece was supposed to be woven by members of the community. There were a few community members that did some weaving, mainly at the Culture Days event at the start of my residency, and the groups of kindergarten/grade one students who came by for during their field trips. I think this was the only disappointing part to the residency. I'm not sure why, but very few people in the community were interested in weaving. I was going to be a give the finished banner to the centre for them to display, but in the end, I decided to keep it for myself as a souvenir of my time at Leigh Square.

Terri stopped by to remind me to cut the warp off the loom in front of the reed so that the next person to use the loom doesn't have to rethread the whole thing.  I really meant to, but somehow, I ended up cutting it between the heddles and the reed. Oops! It's a pain to rethread everything, but it was my mistake, so I spent the time to leave the loom the way I found it.

One of the things that I've been working on now and then during the residency is making full size patterns for some of the garments that I've designed. I finished up with rough patterns for six garments. I hope to eventually post some tutorials for making handwoven garments.

And just like that, it was time to leave. Overall, it was a really productive and useful experience. I'm glad that I did it. I've realized that I am not ready for a permanent off site studio, but I would like to do more (occasional) short term residencies like this in the future.