Texture in Silence | Window Gallery Exhibit

It's been a long hiatus ...

Nearly a decade to be precise.

The time is ripe for the revival of this old time favourite ...

Absolutely delighted to return with this post and so looking forward to our upcoming collaboration.

 

Opportunity for contemplation

The Little Green Dress Projekt by local artist Nicole Dextras is a stunning creation. Nicole happened to be at the garden when I visited the exhibition - allowing for a fortuitous conversation on the project, the process and the materials.

The aim of Nicole's project is to promote awareness on the enormous impact the clothing industry has on our environment and the need for change. For these reasons, the dresses are entirely created with organic materials. By the end of September, The Little Green Dress Projekt will feature 21 dresses all made of botanical material left to decompose back into nature.

If you are in Vancouver, don't miss the Earth Art 2012 exhibition at the VanDusen Botanical Garden - only 10 days left.  And if living far away, take a detour to Nicole's dresses online.  There's much to contemplate!

An abundance of sage for colouring

Inspiration from the Garden

Salvia officinalis - our culinary sage bush of 7 years

Solar Dye Magic

 Three concoctions (left to right) - sage dye liquid, sage dye liquid with

old copper mesh (previously used to repel slugs in the veggie patch) and 

sage dye liquid with rusty bits of iron found in the garden's soil

Colour Wonders

Dye colour liquid only on all fibres - no mordant

dye with copper (top left), dye on its own (top right)

dye with iron (bottom)

Weaving Beyond Cloth

For a few months now, I've been taking part in The Urban Weaver Project - an environmental art project led by artist-weavers Todd DeVries and Sharon Kallis.  Sharon and I met three years ago - when attending her Autumn shade retreat workshop at MOPARCC - and she introduced me to blackberry vine as a weaving material.  Since then Sharon has been working on some amazing projects in our local communities and abroad - and the Himalayan Blackberry is only but one of several species on her list of invasive plants for weaving.

The Urban Weaver Project has been a great opportunity for me to learn more about "invasive" species and to get involved in the harvest and preparation of these plants for weaving.  I have learned a tremendous amount from Sharon and Todd's teachings on traditional weaving techniques using English Ivy, Himalayan Blackberry, Flag Iris and Miscanthus giganteus.  The Stanley Park Ecology Society offers a great guide with the descriptive of these "invasive" plants.  As a permaculturist, I rather label them as  "opportunistic" species, but that's a different post all together.

The Urban Weaver Project also included Master Class Technique Exchanges with other local artists.  I feel very privilege to have learned new skills from Haida weaver Giihlgiigaa (cedar),  Squamish spinner and weaver Sesemiya Tracy Williams (cedar and fibre), and traditional wheat weaver Brian Jones.

Since June, the field-house at Maclean Park has been a second studio space and to be part of a new community of weavers has invigorated my own practice.  The Urban Weaver Project is soon coming to an end with our final celebration this week, but the field-house at Maclean Park will continue to offer community projects.

To all these wonderful people,  I dedicate this page "At The Urban Weaver Studio".

A Saori Wind Chime

My Saori wind chime came together before traveling to the Oregon Coast ... and only recently was it installed outside near by our kitchen window.  In creating this visual display of colors, my desire was to weave several Saori pieces that would dance in the wind.  What I did not expect is the glowing of these colors in the morning sun.

The weaving part of my project was inspired by the Tibetan prayer flags fluttering in the wind, and so I chose to weave with the five colors representing the five elements of nature: blue symbolizing sky/space, followed by white for air/wind, then red for the fire element, green for water, and finally yellow symbolizing earth.


I very much enjoyed creating this piece and really like that it is now part of nature.  The weaving is very colorful when basking in the sun and dancing in the wind ... it is also a gentle reminder for more kindness, compassion and peace for ourselves, others and the earth.

Nature ... a source of inspiration

Today, while gathering lavender, I sat in the garden and watched the bumblebees dance between flowers. The vibrant yellow of their bodies was such a beautiful contrast to the dark purple of the lavender flowers. And as I bunched up the sprigs of lavender to dry in the sun, a multitude of greys and purples suddenly revealed themselves.