Category: Good things

Developing Workshops & Teaching

Last month I spent a whole lot of time preparing for workshops and teaching. I’ve been reflecting on whether or not that was a good thing. I’ve never had the desire to be a teacher, but offering classes felt like one of the many things I should do as part of my professional art practise. I realized early on that I could share some of my hard earned knowledge in exchange for money. That’s really my whole driver for offering workshops.

I’m on the fence about whether or not I enjoy teaching workshops, and if the amount of work I need to put into them actually pays off. Due to poor planning of my schedule last month I ended up teaching three different classes over three consecutive weekends. That turned out to be a terrible idea. Because two of the classes were new offerings, I had to dedicate precious studio time to workshop preparations instead of making art. When the thing I’m doing to support my art gets in the way of it instead, I have to question why I am doing it.

I keep struggling with this whole workshop thing, and have been for years. I think because it’s something I feel I should do, rather than 100% something I want to do, or even love to do. I’m reflecting on this now as I consider the next few months and when or if I’ll schedule more workshops.

2019 Year End Review In Twelve Photos

I usually put together my year end review in the final days of the year but blogging hasn’t been much of priority over the past few months, and I let it go. Better late than never though.

I’ve continued to struggle with the same issues as the past two years, not feeling like I was doing enough, and that I’d lost momentum with my art career. My part-time job almost completely took over my mental energy, and much of my time in the later part of 2019. I moved my studio outside of my home, and had to learn to find balance in a new way. I feel I am starting this year with a clearer idea of what I want to do.

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

That last one isn’t something I made, but is something I was proud to work on in collaboration with my friend Barb.

Refashioning A One-Of-A-Kind Thrifted Find

I buy second-hand clothes as often as I can find what I need, but I also can’t resist when I find something unique at the thrift store. I picked up this dress from a consignment store on Salt Spring Island over the summer. It’s made from a silky smooth black nylon with a large piece of vintage kimono fabric sewn across the front. I tried it on despite the fact that the size was XL and not my size. I figured I could wear it as-is or figure out how to alter it. That vintage kimono fabric had to come home with me.

Flash forward six months and I’m in need of something to wear to my office Christmas party, and I decide now Is the time to alter that dress! I was fairly confident I could figure out how to do it, but not at all confident about my ability to sew it. Thank goodness my good friend Barb was up for the challenge, and is also a WAY better sewist than I am.

The alteration was pretty simple. First I unstitched the kimono fabric so that it wasn’t overlapping the seam on one side, and pinned it out of the way. Barb took the side seams in 1.25 inches on each side, trimmed the excess fabric after reinforcing the seams, and then I ironed them flat. The finishing touch was re-sewing the side of the kimono fabric back into place.

The dress fit so much better after the alteration, though the bodice is still a bit too large because it needs the darts adjusted. I may try that another time.

I wore the dress to my Christmas party and felt super awesome wearing it. Yay for thrifting and refashioning.

Advent Calendar in Green

I have a thing for Advent Calendars apparently, as this is the third one I’ve made in the past four years. The first one is here (still in use), the second is here (now retired), and number three is looking gorgeous in green and white.

What’s with all the different Advent Calendars, you may be asking? Well the first one was supposed to be shared between Boris and I, but its drawers were too tiny to hold treats for two people. The second one was something I threw together quickly for Boris and never quite liked. The envelopes were also awkwardly tiny for holding certain treats. (What’s with all the large Christmas chocolates?!?!)

This gorgeous green number started out as an unadorned raw pine drawer unit purchased at Deserres. I lightly sanded it before Boris helped me paint it with Hooker Green. I used a Posca white acrylic pen with a fine nib to draw leafy vines on each drawer, which BTW, are more than large enough to accommodate all sorts of tasty Christmas treats.

I’m happy with how well this turned out. I can’t wait to count down to Christmas with our lovely homemade advent calendars.

Art & Craft Social – September 2019

Join us for an evening of Art & Craft Social on Wednesday September 25th, 5:30pm to 8pm. Bring a small creative project to work on in a social setting. The event is FREE but you must RSVP through eventbrite as space is limited.

Art & Craft Social is a FREE community event welcoming a diverse group of adult artists, makers, designers, and craftspeople of all levels of experience to share and create their work in a social setting. Each attendee should bring their own small creative project such as stitching, sketching, crocheting, collage, etc, to work on at Art & Craft Social. The event is inspired by crafternoons, stitching bees, and art jams people host as private get togethers in their homes with friends. We’re turning it into a publicly hosted meet up where all are welcome. The Social provides an opportunity to meet new people, get inspired, and learn something new through exposure to the creative work of each person’s project.

Visit eventbrite to RSVP.

Art & Craft Social
Date: Wednesday September 25th, 2019
Time: 5:30pm to 8pm
Cost: FREE
Location: VPL, nə́c̓aʔmat ct Strathcona Branch, 730 East Hastings Street

Exploring Embroidery in a Sampler

This summer has been a time for focusing on stitching work, with two completed sashiko pieces, and now this embroidery sampler. I’ve continued working on this small piece which I started in the Katy Biele workshop at the beginning of July, and recently finally finished it.

I don’t think I’ve ever worked with so much colour before, or texture for that matter. I really enjoyed making layers of dense French Knots in a few sections, and also layers of the Picot Stitch. The fuzzy pink bit is a pom pom I attached during the workshop, and cut down very short to fit better with the composition.

It was a terrific learning experience to work on this, and it has definitely reignited my love of embroidery. I am considering a new daily project idea around stitching, to keep building on the momentum of this, but I need to figure out the parameters.

I’m so pleased with this little piece that I’m going to add it to the salon wall in my living room.

Learning Techniques for Contemporary Embroidery

Last week I was excited to attend an embroidery workshop, along with my friend Simone, taught by Katy Biele. She is a Chilean textile artist living in Victoria, and she creates elaborate and brightly coloured embroidered pieces inspired by her culture.

Work sample by Katy Biele

Work sample by Katy Biele

In the class she talked about learning embroidery while travelling in India, figuring out how to embrace a more free-form approach to her stitching, and breaking the rules. She taught us a basic repertoire of stitches, such as the French Knot (my fav), seed stitch, back stitch, and a few others I cannot recall the names of, and left it up to us to experiment with our samplers.

We worked with a bright colour palette, which was very fun, and used fibres and yarns that are thicker than traditional embroidery thread. I have a passionate dislike for the eight strand threads, so I really loved this part. We were all so absorbed in our work that the three and a half hour class flew by in no time.

My work-in-progress sampler

Samplers made by the entire class

The final stitch Katy taught us was the picot, which is like a tiny weaving in the shape of a petal. I ran out of time for trying it in the class, but have continued working on my sampler at home and am now obsessed with this new stitch. IT. IS. ADDICTIVE!

I am left feeling inspired by this wonderful learning experience and will continue working on my sampler until it is “finished”.

Work In Progress: Sashiko Stitched Runner

I started working on this new sashiko stitching project a few days after I finished the previous one I made for my friend Barb. I needed a new project to work on in time for Art & Craft Social.

I’ve wanted a unique custom runner for the side table I refinished in December, and decided this was a good opportunity to work on more sashiko stitching. I’m using the same cotton/linen blend fabric in indigo for this new project, and trying out a new-to-me style of stitching.

I measured out and drew a quarter inch grid over half of the fabric to guide the pattern, and then started stitching across the length of it with staggered lines. This part of things went surprisingly fast.

When all of the stitches going along the length were finished, I started a series of shorter ones crossing over each of the first layer of stitches. I’ve always wanted to try this pattern but it seems so much more complicated for some reason than it actually is.

I completed the last few rows of stitching over the long weekend, and now I need to figure out how to do the finishing. When I cut the fabric I left enough material attached to become a backing piece to hide the stitches and to sew the two sections together. I’m not following a pattern so will have to wing it to figure it out.

I’ll share the finished runner in another post.

The Completed Sashiko Stitching Project

I’ve been much more productive in my spare time than in the studio lately, which is why this sashiko stitching project got finished in under a month. I guess I was also SO HAPPY to get back to stitching that I managed to squeeze in time to work on this whenever I could.

The finished square with borders is 13.25″ x 13.25″ cotton linen blend fabric, hand-stitched with cotton sashiko thread. It has a backing piece of fabric attached so that my friend Barb has the option of turning it into a throw pillow. I made this for her as part of a trade.

I finished it off with a border around the design, and it weirdly felt like it took the most time to do. I’m thrilled this turned out so well, and I started a new sashiko project a few days later.