Scenes From Wintery Bowen Island

Boris and I spent a few days away on Bowen Island at his parents place over the holidays, and it was the winteriest Christmas I’ve experienced in eight years. It’s been way colder than is normal this season and the snow has been sticking when it falls, which is not at all typical for Vancouver. I’m enjoying it though, and continue with my walking habit no matter the weather.

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I feel recharged after the hibernation time on Bowen. Before I get started on new work I’m getting the studio sorted out, and preparing for a sale on older artwork in a few weeks. Stay tuned!

Embellished Jacket with Hand Stitching

I gave a little hint about this clothing upcycling project when I was getting started at the beginning of December, but I had to wait until now to share it because it was a gift for Boris. We picked up this sports jacket from Value Village a few months ago with the idea I would decorate it with stitching, and I decided to get it finished in time for Christmas.

The jacket is 100% wool and I created the design through freehand embroidery with thick cotton floss. The most elaborate stitching is on the two lapels, with two tiny motifs in the corners on the upper collar.

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I skipped the breast pocket and added embroidered designs to the edges of the lower pockets. I figured the pockets could be more understated than the lapels.

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The finished jacket looks fabulous and I’m happy to see Boris looking so good in it.

2016: A Year End Review in Twelve Photos

It’s always good for me to do a year end review in twelve photos at the end of a year, because it gives me the opportunity to reflect on the work I’ve done over the past twelve months. I’ve been feeling like my paper work was stuck in a rut this year, but the photos clearly demonstrate I was experimenting with different shapes and colours. I made lovely wearable pieces from paper, completed another tyvek installation, and stitching projects took a prominent place in the mix.

Paper sketches
January

Off-cut pieces of paper
February

Magnificent pink magnolias
March

Tyvek installation
April

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May

Wearable Art, Red Blooms
June

Starting a new sashiko stitching project
July

Polymer clay beads
August

Sonobe origami office art
September

French knots on paper
October

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November

Mark making with thread
December

Who knows what the new year will bring. I have been cleaning and sorting through my studio in anticipation of a productive 2017.

Best of Nine in 2016

The “best of” listing thing that tends to happen at the end of every year began on Instagram two weeks ago. Everyone does a 2016 Best of Nine post as generated by a sketchy website I will not link to here.

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These are the nine images that were chosen from my last year of Instagram posts. Five of these images are screen shots of timelapse videos, one is a repost of old work, and the centre image is hoar frost taken on a new year’s day walk on the Sunshine Coast. I like that it ties in nicely to everything else.

I need to reflect on what I think is my best work of the past year. I know the list will include stitching projects. I’ll try to get the post written after Christmas.

Recent Commissions: Paper Cut Letter and Wave

I’ve worked on a few small commissions over the last few weeks and have done a bad job of documenting them before they went on their way. I managed to take one quick photo of each of them, but not details.

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I made this custom letter paper cut for a client who came across my work via The Georgia Straight instagram account. They reshared my time lapse video during Culture Crawl weekend, and from there she checked out my work and decided to commission this letter for her son. I don’t do these very often but it’s always nice when someone wants one. Check out the Etsy listing here.

Commission: Wave

The wave is one design in a series I made for a hospitality commission a few years back, and was recently requested to redo because the original was stolen from the client. It’s a bit flattering someone liked it so much they wanted it for themselves, but what a way to go about it. It was lovely to revisit this design and do an even better job of it than years previous. I am much more refined as a paper cutting artist because I have more years of experience under my belt.

I really should make some of these to sell…

French Knots on Paper in Blue

I started working on a fourth French knots in paper piece during Culture Crawl weekend to keep myself occupied during the slow times, and also to demonstrate process to visitors. There are so many people who did not realize the framed embroidery pieces were made with thread, so it was perfect to have something on the go to show them how it’s done. I didn’t get very far with it during the Crawl because I can’t talk and stitch at the same time, but I decided to finish it in the following weeks.

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With this piece I chose blue thread rather than grey as with the previous ones, but continued using Strathmore 90lb mixed media paper as the canvas. I went with a design where I alternated solid circles with dots. I really like making knots close together so there is a dense amount of thread, but it makes it tricky not to tear the paper while sewing. When this happens my solution to repair it is to use archival document repair tape as I do in paper cutting.

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This may be the last of these thread and paper works for awhile as it’s time to get back to concentrating on paper cutting work!

Looking Towards The Moon

I am more focused on thread than paper lately but I have managed to slip in some paper cutting projects as well. This is a piece of work I finished shortly after the Culture Crawl and it framed in record time. I decided to title it Looking Towards The Moon, which at first I thought was too dramatic but now I think it suits it.

The finished size is 11″ x 14″ cut from archival Strathmore Mixed Media paper, and framed in a white shadowbox.

You can find this piece listed in my Etsy shop »

A Weekend to Buy Local, Buy Handmade, and Buy Art

There are so many terrific artists, makers, and craftspeople in this city and the Christmas season is the perfect time of year to support small business by buying locally made goods to give as gifts. This weekend there are studio sales and craft markets galore, so I thought I’d share my favourites.

 

Shiny Fuzzy Muddy is my favourite seasonal market because it is a highly curated collection of fine craft and art, bringing together many of my favourite artists in the city. It’s an excellent place to buy beautiful things for loved ones (or yourself). Check out Dahlhaus, Antipod Worskshop, and Westerly Handmade Shoes.

Heritage Hall, 3102 Main Street
Sat Dec 10th, 11am to 7pm | Sun Dec 11th, 10am to 6pm

 

Got Craft is also a highly curated market that has been around for ten years now. They are a larger market with more to choose from, but still focused on quality indie handmade work. Check out The Beautiful Project, Coconama Chocolate, and Fable Naturals.

Pipe Shop Building, 115 Victory Ship Way, North Vancouver
Sat Dec 10th + Sun Dec 11th, 10am to 5pm

 

Gam Gallery is presenting their third annual group exhibition & holiday pop-up shop, this year inspired by Pantone colour system. They invited artists to contribute works in colours from the collection to create a spectrum of hues through the gallery. Check out works in the show by Sandeep Johal, Caitlin McDonagh, and Trevor Van den Eijnden. The show opens Friday Dec 9th, 7pm to 12am.

110 East Hastings, at Columbia
Fri Dec 9th to Fri Dec 23rd.

 

EEK Studio Sale with artists Christann Kennedy and Gina Miller. It’s a great opportunity to visit artists in their studio, and purchase an amazing piece of art directly from the artists.

EEK Studio, 1888 Main Street, Unit E
Fri Dec 9th, 5pm to 9pm | Sat Dec 10th, 1pm to 5pm

Happy Shopping!

Making Marks with Thread

I’ve been working on another clothing embellishment project in my head over the last few weeks, and when I sat down to finally start it on Monday I realized the idea was not going to work well with the fabric. I wanted to do more sashiko style patterns but the type of fabric doesn’t take well to drawing out the design first. So I threw that idea out the window and started looking through the library books I happen to have on hand at the moment and found a beautiful idea to try. The book is called Mark Making by Helen Parrott and came recommended by my friend, Amanda Wood.

Mark making with thread

I brought out the sampler to practice the style of stitching, and get a feel for how to move around the surface and group the threads together. I did the blue ones first and then the red, and these second set were so much better than the first. It was exciting to see my improvement so quickly.

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Now I’m on to starting the actual project, and can’t wait to get started in the studio today. I’m hoping to get it done it time for Christmas.