Post CALYX

Great day at CALYX, talking to lots of people, selling lots of art, and having a wonderful time reconnecting with fellow artists! Thanks to everyone for coming out!

I will be adding items to my ETSY shop but it will probably take a month for that to happen - will keep you posted.

Heliotrope update

My cousin came through town this spring and while looking through my art, fell in love with one of my favourite pieces! I had made it last spring for the Calyx sale.

I am glad to say it now has a new home in Vancouver BC and I was even lucky enough to visit and see it in situ. It looks lovely in its new surroundings!

"Heliotrope"

Thanks for your patronage, Tricia!

CALYX 2

For this particular Calyx I have been working on making precious little pieces of art that can be tucked into a birthday card... or hung between doorways... or given as a small gift... or...

I made three different 'fabrics' in blue, red and green by combining various fibres such as silks, chiffons, tulles and fuse them together into many layers. I cover the entire piece with machine embroidery and burn it to reveal different colours. I then add hand stitching and embellishments, then add a handmade cord around the edge to finish the piece.

The progression...

Closeups of some of the thirty-six I made:

And some scale for size comparison!

CALYX 1

I made four different flowers out of copper shim for shows in past years and have one left in my stock. They featured embossed metal and free machine embroidery mounted on different backings.

The one I had left was a poppy mounted on a quilted black linen, and in discussion with my daughter on why we thought it never sold, we decided it was too stark of a contrast between the solid geometric background and the very organic flower.

So I decided to just go for it and pulled out coloured pencil crayons and start adding texture to the background - I love how it turned out!!

The before photo showing the solid background with selection of colours to be added...

  

Me working away...

 

 After I finished it I had to 'fix' the colours onto the cloth and this toned them down slightly. The final results, with detail shot...

 Will see what reaction it gets at the sale this weekend!

after the sale...

Another Calyx Show and Sale is over...

It was a great day and it zipped by with lots of people coming through the hall and keeping me busy with conversations on art.

I had Velvet On Canvas stitched pieces (and would love to know who bought the first piece - I turned around and it was off the shelf and gone!):

I had lots of Eco Dyed scarves (dyed with plant materials from my garden) - that were very popular and flew out the door:

Silk Devore scarves with the rayon top layer for extra shimmer - again, lots of those went to new homes:

and my wall pieces from the Rainforest study on Vancouver Island got some more exposure with my new backgrounds:

 Yellow Cedar

Sitka Spruce

Overall a lovely day visiting with returning customers and friends (old and new) who show up to support me in my work. Thanks to all...

UNESCO World Heritage Site

Yes, another World Heritage Site!
In past years I have created pieces based upon these Canadian UNESCO sites: the Rocky Mountain Parks in Alberta + L'Anse Aux Meadows in Newfoundland + Haida Gwaii (SGand Gwaay) in British Columbia + Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta + Quebec City in Quebec...

My latest interest is JOGGINS FOSSIL CLIFFS in Nova Scotia on the Bay of Fundy.

Employing a technique I have used in other series, I am drawing with free machine embroidery stitch on archival tissue paper.

Piece #1 is fish fossils...

Close up - tea dyed, waxed, black thread...

Piece #2 is the Ammonite shell...
Starting phase - draw and colour

Close up of the stitching...

And the final pieces framed...

I can't wait to present them to the public and hear their comments on them!

Heavy Metals!

In-between the hand stitching, I would swivel my chair around to my sewing machine and work on a few other pieces (okay, 5 of them.)

One of them is being done in metallic threads (always a challenge to get flowing smoothly through all the threadings on the machine) but I am really enjoying how it is coming together and approaching my vision of it.

In the beginning -
a piece of printed gray velvet that I coloured blocks of gold, copper and silver onto...

then I started adding layers of threads...
(I did actually start with a layer of hand stitching between all the colourblocks.)

and layers and layers...

The gold is done:

the silver is halfway:

and the copper is on the first layer:

Still working away (and missing a lot of the gorgeous spring weather outside) but deadlines are calling!

What have I been doing???

Haven't had any blog entries for a while but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy. Here are some photos for a quick glimpse of what the past 2 months have been full of! More details of each to come in the near future...

Making new Keepsake Pouches to show and sell in Banff, at the Whyte Museum for their Small Treaasures show. It runs until January 13, 2010.



Making more small framed art to send to Regina, to the Victorian Treasures art show in support of the Regina Stitchery Guild, at their Government House.



Playing with my dog - or rather, her attempts to get me to play!


Picking colours to start on a new piece for our upcoming show in Victoria on Vancouver Island's Rain Forest. Will open March 18, 2010.


Driving out to Banff to take in their latest exhibition - High Fashion in the Rockies.


Making special anniversary books for 12 years worth of treasured friends who meet monthly to discuss handmade books.


Driving to Regina, Saskatchewan for a two day road trip (9 hours in the car each day!) That was why I brought a friend to help pass the time - on almost the shortest day of the year so couldn't even make it in daylight. They still have some grain elevators left - are disappearing fast in all the small towns throughout the province.



And back to working on Rain Forest...


But Christmas? that isn't even in the picture...

However I do wish everyone a very merry one, surrounded by family and the hopes and joys of the season.

With a special nod to my daughter basking in the sun and waters of the Marlborough Sound, New Zealand.