Sarah Clement just launched a new series on her blog called, Studio Visits, which will feature photos and interviews with Vancouver artists. I am featured in the first post in the series, along with beautiful photos of my work Sarah took when she visited my studio in November.
It’s an honour and a thrill to be included in this project. I can’t wait to see more from the Studio Visit series.
Read the blog post here »
I mistakenly thought I’d shared a photo of this on Instagram or my blog ages ago, but at some point (I can’t remember how long) I customized my red iPhone case with adhesive vinyl. I made up the composition of triangles as I went along.
Pictured here is the new version as I redid some of the work over the weekend because pieces have been peeling off over time. It was a simple project but so satisfying to do. The colours make me happy on these dreary days.
It’s been a long stretch of depressing days of non-stop rain for the last two weeks, coupled with a few nights in a row of terrible sleeps. I felt like I was barely functioning by the end of last week. But Friday afternoon the sun came out and the day transformed into a sunny summer’s day, one where I wished I was wearing sandals and short sleeves.
I came across these crocuses in the neighbourhood and was surprised to find a bee collecting pollen. All the early spring flowers are out including snowdrops, hellebore, and even cherry blossoms in a few places. I guess we all needed a break from the rain before it returned again the next day.
For months I have been itching to tackle the staggeringly large project of purging my apartment, and Christmas finally put me over the edge. There’s something about this time of year when there is this sudden influx of stuff into my home that makes me want to reorganize and purge.
I got to it last weekend starting with the metal trunk we use as a coffee table in the living room that is full of random art supplies. There were ridiculous things in there, like a wall calendar from the year 2000 which I had apparently brought with me from Ontario when I moved here in 2004. Nutso! When I eventually made my way into the kitchen drawers I found all sorts of useless things including an object one uses to core a pineapple (I have a multi-purpose tool called Boris for that), and three extra vegetable peelers I didn’t even know were in there.
The only area I wasn’t able to get into on the weekend was my studio. By the time I’d gone through almost everywhere else in the apartment it was late afternoon on Sunday, and I knew the studio needed an entire day dedicated to it in order to properly sort it out. It needs it badly too, because my studio has become far too cluttered to keep tidy, and it effects how I think and work in there.
Other people I know have done the same thing recently, so it must be something about this time or year. A need to have less stuff in a time of excess, and a desire to make room for new things (not materials things) in the coming year.
I’m not sure why, but when it comes to scheduling workshops every year I struggle to get it done. For months I’ve been procrastinating putting together a number of workshop descriptions, and also reaching out to potential venues. It’s driving me crazy, but it made me realize it’s one of the areas where I am blocked and I want to figure out why.
I like teaching, and the more techniques I learn, the more knowledge I have to share with others. There are way more places in Vancouver that offer workshops then there used to be, which means more opportunities for teachers. It’s also one of the many ways I can make money from my art. It’s win win really.
I think part of the block is a reluctance to share all of my knowledge because I am self-taught. I have earned what I know through many hours of work, and it seems weird to hand this off to students I barely know. Shouldn’t they have to earn it too? And the answer is yes! They’re starting with me to guide them but they still have to put the time in to become good.
It could be I am blocked because of all the work involved with putting together a teaching plan, especially when developing a new one from scratch. To date I’ve mostly taught altered book workshops, but I’m working out how to teach paper cutting, as well as a class on braided rugs.
If you’re interested, stay tuned over here…
It was super cold (for the West Coast) between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, and the amazing thick frost returned. I am fascinated with it because the frost does interesting things depending on the shape and surface of the objects it’s forming upon.
Why yes, I did make another braided rug before the end of last year. My sister Kathy loves my previously made braided rugs and hinted about how it would make a great handmade gift, and so I decided to make one as a Christmas present for her.
I think I started this in early November and finished on the 1st of December, with plenty of time to get it into the mail. I used a few of the leftover balls of t-shirt yarn from previous projects, but had to make a bunch of new ones out of shirts sourced at Value Village.
When I started making braided rugs in the summer I never thought I’d make three of them, and still be jonesing to make more.
It’s the nearing the end of the year so of course it’s time to dig through my photo archive and share twelve images taken within the past year. I’m glad I did this because it reminded me how many things I made in 2015, and it was a lot. For some strange reason I’ve been feeling as if I hadn’t been up to much this year, and the photographic evidence is assuring me that I am wrong.
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
I hope to make 2016 an even more productive and creative year. Huzzah!
This is not an interior design blog where you get to see the ugly before version of these chairs to compare to the beautiful new version. Trust me when I say the fabric covering these chairs was in bad shape, and I was completely disgusted looking at them up close as I removed them.
I’ve been wanted to do this project for years, and only recently did I finally commit to doing it. The first step was meauring the chairs, and then taking a look at fabric. I bought the crazy patterned 100% cotton fabric from Dressew, along with two rolls of fibre fill to add more padding.
The chairs are not well made and could actually use a lot more work to make them better overall, but I decided I would only replace the fabric and add a bit more padding rather than do a complete overhaul. I don’t think they are worth the effort.
The chairs look amazing now. I’m very happy with the intense blast of crazy colour and pattern in the dining room. We need to have guests over soon for dinner to try them out.
A huge thank you to my friend Arnt, who helped me with the final stages of stapling the fabric to the chairs. I was totally freaked out by the industrial stapler he has in his studio, and I probably would have stapled my hand to the seat.
It’s been cold in Vancouver and last week the most magnificent frost formations began to appear over everything first thing in the morning. I’ve been photographing it like crazy, because the frost has a different effect depending on the shape of the object on which it forms.
These photos were taken in my neighbourhood and on Bowen Island.
The final photo was taken in the meadow on Bowen, which is one of the few open areas in the forest. There was a thick layer of frost covering the ground like snow. It was so beautiful.