Deconstructed Screen Printing

My friend Michelle Sirois Silver very generously hosted a small group of artists in her studio last week to do a quick workshop on deconstructed screen printing. It’s similar to regular screen printing but we made our screens by placing textured surfaces under the screen and then coating the screen until fully saturated with ink. The screens are left to dry and take on the texture of the surfaces underneath.

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My composition of textures before the ink is applied.

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The pot of ink before I applied it to the screen.

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The screen after all the ink is fully loaded into the screen.

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It took ages for the screen to dry, and in the meantime we worked on a freeform version of deconstructed screen printing, which I did not photograph. I used a rust coloured dye to create the screen and then printed it using a dark blue-grey onto fabric. Below is my final print with all the lovely textures.

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I am thinking about what do with these pieces of cloth I have printed. They may end up as patches on clothing or I could use the for a future sashiko stitching project.

Check out the work of Michelle Sirois Silver here.

Sashiko Stitching and Embellishing Clothes

Summer is the time I break out the maker side projects, and often they are textile-related. Last year I made t-shirt yarn and braided rugs, and this year I’m improving my hand stitching. On the weekend I started with repairing a hole in a pair of Boris’ shorts using a piece of fabric and a straight stitch. I love how it turned out. The sugar skull fabric is the same one I used to make him a laptop case for Christmas.

Making the patch was a good warm up for getting back into Sashiko stitching, and it led me to finally get started on a project I’ve had in mind for months. I kept putting off starting it because I felt intimidated, but now I am OBSESSED!

Starting a sashiko stitching project

I have this plain black skirt I bought more than fifteen years ago at a second-hand store in Halifax. I thought it would be interesting to embellish it with stitching. I am making up the design as I go along, working with various sized circles and red thread.

Starting a new sashiko stitching project

It’s going well so far, but I have a lot of work ahead of me because I want to embellish the entire bottom edge. I can hardly wait to finish and wear this! I have a feeling many more pieces of clothing are going to end up with decorative sashiko stitches.

Designed to Speak

Designed to Speak is an outlet of inspiration for designers and design enthusiasts profiling creative people of all disciplines with the objective to help inspire and engage the design community. I did this interview all the way back in April 2014 with Trevor Jansen and Mahyar Saeedi. I was asked to share my thoughts on making by hand and technology.

Designed To Speak – Rachael Ashe from Designed to Speak on Vimeo.

It was filmed on location at Hot Art Wet City during a group show I curated called, Voices From Another Room. In the background you can see work by Sarah Gee Miller, Joseph Wu, Connie Sabo, Alison Woodward, and me.

Watch more Designed to Speak interviews on the website.

Stone Soup and Creative Mornings Vancouver

Trevor Jansen is a long time volunteer with Creative Mornings Vancouver, and he has created many wonderful pieces of video content for the organization over the years. At the recent CMvan event at the beginning of July he premiered his latest video project inspired by the story of Stone Soup as told by some of the past speakers. It was an honour to be included in this group of people, and to get to tell a small part of the story. I discovered it is harder than it looks to say a single line and do multiple takes.

Go check out Trevor’s blog post to see the video of behind the scenes and outtakes. 

A Few Days in Whistler

Boris and I also spent a few days in Whistler on our vacation last week. I haven’t been there in years, and it turned out to be a lovely place to wander the trails.

A few days in Squamish

We went for a walk around Lost Lake one day, and then to check out Train Wreck trail the next. The wreck trail is an unofficial but well known trail that takes visitors to see a train wreck in the woods that has been there since the 1950s. The cars are spread across a kilometre and all of them are covered in layers of graffiti. Read more here about the history of the how the train came to rest in the forest. 

A few days in Squamish

A few days in Squamish

A few days in Squamish

A few days in Squamish

A few days in Squamish

Earlier on the same day we walked Train Wreck trail, I also paid my first visit to the lovely new Audain Art Museum that opened earlier this year in Whistler. The building itself is pretty incredible with elements of wood all over the outer surfaces, and surrounded by the remnants of the forest.

A few days in Squamish

A few days in Squamish

These are some of my favourite pieces on display at the museum, and below is a lovely long window in an upper gallery.

A few days in Squamish

A few days in Squamish

I enjoyed our time in Whistler, and I’m so glad the two of us finally had a bit of a vacation. We both really needed it.

Scenes from a July Long Weekend on Bowen Island

Boris and I were on a much needed vacation last week. We left town on the previous Thursday night to start the July long weekend on Bowen Island with friends and family. We did the usual things when we are on the island, walking, reading, eating, and napping. It was glorious.

July long weekend on Bowen Island

The Elephant Tree

July long weekend on Bowen Island

July long weekend on Bowen Island

The flooded wetland that used to be a forest, near the beaver dam.

July long weekend on Bowen Island

Water plants on Killarney Lake

July long weekend on Bowen Island

A small group of friends joined us on Bowen for the day last Sunday for an open house hosted by Boris’ parents. It was lovely to take them on a long walk through the forest and introduce them to the magic that is walking out into Killarney Lake along the Secret Log. It’s really at its best at this time of year.

Wearable Art, Red Blooms

This piece was the first of the wearable art work I began in the spring, and it ended up getting finished last because I got caught up in making the other two pieces. For a long time I was stuck on how to create a base or attach the flowers together in a way that would flow around the wearers neck. I made a few different mock ups of potential bases before eventually settling on a curved collar piece.

The base is made from white mixed media paper and then covered in a beautiful lacy Japanese paper I’ve had stashed away for years. It was a material I bought on impulse years ago, and really had no use for in the work I made usually. I attached the flowers using Yamato Sticking Paste, which is another material I bought ages ago on impulse and have never used. It was the perfect adhesive for this project because it dried fast and clear.

Wearable Art, Red Blooms

Wearable Art, Red Blooms

The last thing I need to do for this show is a photo shoot with friends or with myself as the model to showcase the wearable pieces on people. They look even better when worn.

Playing Monopoly in Vancouver

Last week these small red houses began popping up in vacant lots around the east side of Vancouver. The one pictured here is located at Hastings and Commercial Drive, and I’ve seen one on Main near Prior, and another at Clark and 1st. When I shared the photo on Twitter a friend pointed out that this is a large-scale hotel piece from the game Monopoly. I didn’t realize this because I’ve only played it once or twice, and it was a million years ago.

It’s a brilliant comment on the state of the housing market in Vancouver. I would love to discover who is behind this clever street art project.

Photographing Recent Work

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In preparation for Hammer Cut Stitch Repeat in September I’ve been photographing work for the show. I have a deadline at the end of this week where photos are due, and it’s been a good excuse to get a few things documented.

I love this detail photo of me behind a close-up of one of my cut tyvek scroll installation pieces, taken by my friend Ryan Mah. I needed help photographing these large pieces, and he really came through. Now I can add both to my portfolio, which is long overdue as a to do.

I Belong Here… By Pilar Mehlis

I made the long trek to UBC last week to see I Belong Here…, a show of recent work by Pilar Mehlis at Regent College’s Lookout Gallery. This was my first visit to the gallery, as I’d never heard of it previous to learning about Pilar’s show. It’s a small bright space with lots of natural light.

Work by Pilar Mehlis

Work by Pilar Mehlis

 

Work by Pilar Mehlis

The show featured a mix of framed paintings and sculpture all featuring the half-human, half-fish figures.

Work by Pilar Mehlis

Work by Pilar Mehlis

I am familiar with Pilar’s work through visits to her studio during the Culture Crawl, and I like her style of magic realism. With the current body of work she is “exploring the transformative effect of immigration by juxtaposing elements of human and animal migration. In this instance I chose the Chinook salmon as it has migratory patterns which echo my own trajectories up and down the Pacific Coast and also for its significant place in West Coast culture.” Read more about these pieces in the artist statement on her website.