Gibsons Landing Fibre Arts Festival

Coast Reporter, Aug. 23/2003 - When fibre becomes art - by Jan DeGrass
Coast Reporter, Aug. 09/2003 - One Stitch at a Time - by Jan DeGrass
Coast Reporter, July 2003 - Artbeat: Silk by Selk - by Jan DeGrass
Coast Reporter, July 2003 - Artbeat: Wood is Fibre Too at Festival - by Jan DeGrass
Coast Reporter, Aug. 26/2001 - Fabric, Fibre, Faux Fur & Fireworks - by Jan DeGrass
Coast Reporter, Aug. 26/2001 - Tapestries, Orangutans Thrive on Gambier - by Jan DeGrass
The Reporter, Jan. 21/2001 - Breathing life into a lump of clay - by Christine Yeomans-Wood
Greater Vancouver Weavers' & Spinners' Guild Newsletter - review of 2000 Festival (edited)
The Reporter, Oct. 12/1998 - Moving and Wearable Art (edited) - by Anna Diehl
Coast Independent, Aug. 20/2000 - Fibre artists weave tradition... (edited) - by Jane Seyd

When fibre becomes art

     The Gibsons Landing Fibre Arts Festival, now in its fourth season, pushed the bar a notch higher last week with a professionally designed and executed gallery show and workshop offering.
     Take, for example, the work of Roberts Creek artisan Edmund Butler, who crafts a stylish table. One of his pieces was on display at the festival last week — a figured yellow maple and cherry side table with arching, elegant legs and a haunting symbol outlined in blue epoxy on its surface. The symbol is drawn from a huge and intricate crop circle design that appeared in a farmer’s field near the standing stones of Stonehenge and Avebury in England. The opportunity to use a symbol that reflects Butler’s beliefs moves the table from functional art into the realm of an artist’s statement.
     The gallery, set up in the Elphinstone Secondary School library, proved to be a professional display of the best that the textile and woodworking arts had to offer, attracting a steady stream of viewers — more than 500 of them — mostly drawn by word of mouth.
     Along with Butler’s table, other pieces crafted in wood included a light and airy cabinet by Thomas Stefanyk that incorporated recycled wood and open lattice work on either side. Gibsons’ Jay Walls also tried for an original coffee table design using a glass top over maple laminate. The glass exposed two pyramids filled with sand lying on their sides. The result seemed to fascinate viewers.
     Rick O’Neill, whose love of the forest is legendary, has crafted some skookum native American wooden flutes. These were love flutes, believed to be used in courting. Later in the day, during his stint at the Holland Park exhibition tents, O’Neill played a melodic tune on one of them.
     One of the best pieces, by Selma Park’s Keith Burdon, was not for sale. Burdon’s Undersea Chess Set and Board was carved from yellow cedar and painted in acrylic. The pawns were sprightly fish, knights became seahorses, the bishops were octopi and the king and queen became mermaids and mermen.
     Some of the finest fabric work on display in the gallery involved creative use of materials, such as the displays from Sharon Cahn of Horsefly, B.C. The many hat and boa (or hat and cape) combinations, fashioned of feathers and hand-spun angora, drew gasps from viewers. The Coast’s felting sculptress, Ursula Bentz, also dazzled. Her felted wall hanging of water lilies had texture; the petals stood out in relief.
     Like bees to flowers, viewers tended to be drawn towards the most colourful displays first — and there were many to be found. The clothes and patterns of local designer Paula Seifred O’Brien were stunning, among them silk dress with image transfers, some coloured in crayon, and the whole embellished with beads.
     Deb Tilley’s kaleidoscope wall hanging dominated the room with its riveting use of colour. Meeting the Alberta quilter and instructor was also a colourful experience, since she dresses as stylishly as her work. She attended the opening night reception in a cherry red, felt brim hat and contrasting outfit.
     The various workshops, offered Wednesday through Saturday, also caught the attention of more than 350 registrants from as far away as Australia, Arkansas and Belgium. A couple from Florida were among the first to register. An Oregon man attended two years ago and took quilting for beginners; this year he returned to take two more classes.
     One English visitor explained that she had spent seven weeks in Canada visiting Toronto and Niagara Falls, but the Fibre Arts Festival was the highlight of her trip. She particularly enjoyed Tilley’s seminar, The Kaleidoscope Trunk Show of Quilts, which the visitor described as “mind blowing.”
     If there was a downside to the festival, it was that fewer demos were held than last year, with some of the instructors giving their demonstrations at evening seminars rather than during the park displays. Also, of course, a participant couldn’t hope to attend all of the interesting workshops, so rumours of the excitement generated by Coralie Swaney’s character doll-making class and of the creative sizzle that occurred during the silk fusion class will have to remain rumours — until next year.

One Stitch at a Time

     The great Kutch desert between India and the Pakistan border is a treeless, inhospitable place subject to severe drought. Nomadic tribes survive by mining the salt flats, tending livestock and hauling water long distances from the few wells. It is hardly the climate to foster a rich artistic tradition, yet the women of the Kutch earn a livelihood through their art, by stitching textiles in elaborate, colourful patterns.
     The story of the success of their embroidery kicks off the Gibsons Landing Fibre Arts Festival this August 12 in the form of a film, a book, and a talk from Charllotte Kwon, a textile business owner of Vancouver's Maiwa Handprints.
     The film Through the Eye of a Needle documents the art and craft of embroidery as practised by these tribal cultures as they prepared for their first international exhibition of their work which opened at the Vancouver Museum in July 2002. The show has been such a success and was so heavily booked by schools and colleges that it has been extended until December of this year. The idea of a needlework exhibit is an interesting concept in itself since the women who were long practised in preparing their embroidery for sale were intrigued by the idea of preparing work for display only. What was a museum and why would people just look and not buy? they asked Kwon on one of her buying trips. Once they had embraced the concept, they produced exhibition quality work with pride, calling them "art frames" to distinguish them from their regular work.
     A book, Through the Eye of a Needle: Stories from an Indian Desert, was released this May written by Kwon and Meena Raste, Maiwa's representative in India.
     "Meena works closely with the women," says Kwon, "and I was constantly documenting while she was talking with them."
     The book features design and editing work by Grantham's Landing resident Tim McLaughlin and the exhibit photography of the Coast's Diego Samper. It recounts the saga of survival by the people of the desert and how they have formed a co-operative, Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan (KMVS) to sell their goods abroad at a fair price.
     The full colour illustrations of the many intricate designs are complemented by pages of motif diagrams with descriptions of their symbolism. The text tells the story-as described by Kwon and Raste and in the quotes of the women-in clear, informative style that touches on some of the caste and cultural differences that find their way in to the work.
     Without a written language, tribal communities use embroidery to record their experiences. Somewhat like the Scottish clans, some of the patterns of stitches identify the "tartan" of the tribe and may date back to ancient times: for example, the symbol of the shraven, an historic figure stitched into the work of the Rabari tribe or the use of tiny mirrors in the work of the Mutwa tribe. The finished embroidery often becomes wedding gifts and is passed on to the next tribe who become familiar with the patterns.
     These days, given the business acumen of the co-operative and an increased awareness of the importance of their work, the five tribes have resisted the efforts of the international textile importers to have them produce only popular patterns easily recognized by tourists for quick sale.
     Kwon and her staff have played a big part in keeping the original patterns alive. "We can't dictate colour or change design," Kwon says. "We can only exert quality control."
     Kwon makes the trip to this hot part of India five times a year. On her last trip in June, the temperature never dropped below 50 degrees, but she says the trips are necessary in order to work closely with the artisans. She believes that more clients are needed who understand the challenges of craftspeople in finding the right markets. A foundation, also called Maiwa, assists rural people by raising money for loans to small community projects.
     The 30-minute film, edited by McLaughlin, is sponsored by the Sunshine Coast Film Society and will be shown at the Heritage Playhouse at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, August 12. Tickets at the door are $10 or $12.50. The film is followed by a talk from Kwon, who guest curated the exhibition at the Vancouver Museum. A selection of exhibition textiles will be on display that evening, including some for sale. Copies of the book will also be on sale.

Silk by Selk

Workshops for the forthcoming Fibre Arts Festival in Gibsons are filling up briskly even though the sessions don’t take place until August 13 through 16. Two classes of interest that are not yet full are described here. A two day workshop on August 14 and 15 called Simply Elegant Spindling features Michelle Boyd from Alberta who teaches an easy and elegant approach to the ancient art of drop spindling. Festival organizer Louise Hume says that many people would like to learn to spin but find that the cost of a wheel puts them off. This version of spindling is very portable and in a pinch the spinner can use an old CD and dowel for a spindle. Boyd’s course teaches how to make a balanced drop spindle plus gives a range of techniques to make yarns.
Also that same week, Karen Selk of Treenway Silks on Saltspring Island brings her love of the fabric that is “delicate, strong, and dyed 1,000 colours.” The women of Treenway like silk so much they carefully tend silkworm and mulberry leaves beside their office. For this three-day workshop, August 14-16, Selk will teach the process of silk fusion—a technique that bonds silk fibres into a lustrous felt that can be gossamer and transparent or thick and opaque. The fused silk can be hand or machine stitched. Selk will also be giving an evening seminar, A Story of Survival in Laos, on August 14 at 7:30 p.m., based on her experiences with Laotian women weavers. To register for any of the Festival’s workshops and the evening seminars log on the website at www.gibsonslandingfibrearts.com, phone 740-1229 or pick up one of the fat, interesting brochures available about town that give many details.

Wood is Fibre Too at Festival

     Last year, the Fibre Arts Festival in Gibsons offered woodworking courses along with the fabric arts. Many of the favourite wood workshops return to the Festival (August 13-16)—in fact, several of them are fully booked already. One class still seeking participants is that of master carver Les Jozsa. Last year, he spoke about the properties of wood and exhibited his many carved pieces, from arbours to water fountains, often carved in the folk motifs of his native Hungary. A skilled artisan, Jozsa will teach an introductory workshop in wood carving on Saturday, August 16. Also available is an intermediate course in “Bowl Turning” with Gibsons’ woodworker Gary Kelly on August 15. On August 16, Kelly leads a course in “Wood Turning Projects” that welcomes the enthusiastic beginner. Participants can bring their own project or choose from simple ideas such as a spinning top, wooden mushroom or candleholder.
     When visitors look at our local beaches they are often struck by the abundance of raw materials available for woodworking. But can anyone simply take the wood? What should be left behind? What pieces would be suitable to make driftwood furniture? “Beachcombing 101” on the afternoon of August 13 invites more students who want to take a walk on a local beach and hear some answers to these questions from driftwood furniture artisan Will Cummer. He promises a relaxing ramble suitable for all ages and abilities.
     Unfortunately, two of the woodworking courses had to be cancelled: Vacuum Veneer Pressing and Native American Flute Making. Don’t hesitate to sign up. Check out www.gibsonslandingfibrearts.com or phone 604-740-1229.

Fabric, Fibre, Faux Fur & Fireworks

     Vests were de rigueur, patchwork jackets were fun, batiks were stunning. The wearable art fashion show that officially opened the Fibre Arts Festival on August 17 drew an enthusiastic crowd to The Club in Gibsons Landing. Arbutus Sounds Chorus doubled as fashion models in a lengthy show featuring works by mostly local designers. The obvious exception was the easily crafted, fun clothing by Edmonton's Linda MacPhee whose face is well known from her TV show.
     It was truly a night for locals to display their talent. Pender Harbour's Eric Langley showed a stunning silk jacket worked with 8,000 beads in a blaze of colour called "Fireworks." Appropriately, the crowd oohed and aahed. Langley later picked up a Jurors Award of Excellence for his batik clothing designs.
     Gibsons resident Diane Williams showed a wedding dress, traditional and elegant, made for her daughter; also a hand knitted, lacy crew neck which looked terrific with a Barby Paulus scarf "Pretty in Pink."
     Pavelka Design (Paula O'Brien) showed many patchwork jackets, jumpers and kids' clothes. In the stylish and retro design department O'Brien featured a shantung silk top in sky blue with antique jet bead trim. O'Brien also won a Jurors Award for creative design.
     Some other highlights were a reversible faux fur vest in black with soft grey trim from Vera Fullopp, and a series of crocheted and felted hats in wool from Ursula Bentz.
     Commentator Patricia Hetherington pointed out the many instances in the show in which designers had first to make the fabric before the garment. For example, Patricia MacKay of Wooly for Ewe had hand spun and hand dyed wool from her own sheep and goats before knitting her "Pratt Road Sweater." She also felts her own hats.
     One of the highlights was a gorgeous blue kimono, hand woven in cotton and linen and sewn with metallic threads. It was the creation of 89-year-old Sylvia John who was given an honorary award for lifetime achievement. She began weaving at age 65.
     There were no awards for one garment, but it was a truly appropriate word from the sponsor. The model wore a white, overall jumpsuit composed of fibre from Howe Sound Pulp & Paper. It looked great worn with a gold belt.
     Muriel Prior and her display of vests earned a Jurors Award for composition. Other technical awards went to Ursula Bentz, weaver Barby Paulus, and Vera Nelson for quilting.

Tapestries, Orangutans Thrive on Gambier

We meet by George. The bronze statue of George Gibson cast by the late Jack Harman is a central meeting place in Gibsons for those undertaking an Artworks studio tour. It allows tour operator Cindy Buis to talk a bit about George, about Jack, and to throw in some history of the Doctor Inglis house that overlooks Pioneer Park.
     Buis has been delivering these tours of artists' studios since 1997 and there's always an element of surprise. Today, even more so. The five of us know only that we're going to Gambier Island. Because the Fibre Arts Festival is in full tilt this week, we also know that Buis has incorporated weavers and quilters into the itinerary. One of the tourists, a woman from Prince George who has just completed a weaving course with the mysterious title of Twill Explosion, questions me.
     "You live in Gibsons and you've never been to Gambier?" she says with surprise.
     "Uh, yes, but it was quite a while ago and ...it's a big place," I finish lamely. Today, I'll be just a tourist in my own neighbourhood.
     As we walk down to the wharf we pick up two more participants, Dieter and Gerhilde Stulken. A watercolour artist from Sechelt, Gerhilde's studio has been on the receiving end of these Artworks tours. Buis also hosts an "eclectic" tour for busloads of 25-30 visitors. The tour is likely to include a stop at a gallery, or a quick visit to Axel Stenzel's garden with its metallic creatures, before ending up at Stulken's studio to see her Tuscan landscapes or vivid still life.
     Today, it's a small group–the Thursday Marine Tour–that boards the Winsome with Skipper Fred. And that's the first surprise–we're not taking the foot passenger ferry out of Langdale. This is a real cruise. The lady from the Prince is truly surprised; she thought she was touring in a van.
     The boat chugs over to Keats and hugs the shoreline, before heading to Gambier Island's West Bay wharf.
     "Our first stop on Gambier is at 'Bed, Book & Breakfast,' announces Buis, "where gourmet chef and caterer Margaret Gabriel has prepared a light meal just for us."
     Anticipating lunch, most of us walk from the dock into a scene of pastoral tranquility. Just beyond the wharf the rugged coastline is transformed into a rural countryside crossed by dusty roads and profuse in wildflowers.
     "This is more like it. I could live here," announces the Prince George lady, relieved to be off the rocking boat.
     The B & B is funky. When Gabriel and her husband moved to Gambier they brought with them their remaining inventory from an antiquarian book store. Though they've sold many books, there are still thousands for guests to read.
     We sit at the rustic dining table in the farm kitchen. In between running the B & B, catering for island events, taking art classes, writing, gardening and working on the house, Gabriel says she has plenty of spare time. We don't believe her for a minute. Just acquiring fresh ingredients for her meals is a full time job on Gambier where there is only one store and restaurant.
     Today, she is fascinated by a purple bean from her neighbour's garden. When you steam it, it turns green, she says, and demonstrates. By this time we are already tucked in to our first course, a chilled basil tomato soup with garlic toast. It is followed by a salad Nicoise, with the sliced potato lightly dressed, fresh beans, tomatoes and a scoop of tuna. For dessert, there is an elegant presentation, tiny lavender cream puddings garnished with blackberries and a sprig of the scented herb. But there's no time for post prandial chat. We're due to visit tapestry weaver Lois Kennedy, not far up the road.
     Kennedy greets us at the door–her home is her gallery, she tells us. Indeed, her weaving covers the walls and one of her finest, award-winning works hangs over the fireplace. The tapestry, "Redberry Country," depicts the prairie skyline, rolling hills and shifting clouds. To give the piece dimension she has surface embroidered grasses and wheat into the foreground until the texture leaps out of the landscape.
     In Kennedy's studio, just through the woods, we view a current piece of work on the loom. Weaving is a long, slow process occupying one solid week–about 40 hours–to weave one square foot. Kennedy is unhappy with this piece initiated years ago because it was supposed to be a garden and now looks like a teapot. Stulken, in her element, is suddenly animated with suggestions for its recovery using Kennedy's technique of applying embroidery after the weave. While the pair discuss the tapestry's future, the others admire the soft hues of Kennedy's woven dog hair wall hanging.
     We set out on foot once more, art lovers on a pilgrim's journey through the hot August afternoon. The next stop is the diminutive studio of petite Gloria Massé. The venue may be small but the works are big–in scope, colour and imagination. Massé paints animals. She describes a time in India when she literally painted animals, making handprints and decorative painting on a bullock, but now she's known for her depiction of wolves. Though she also paints grasses and lupins, it is the wolves that stand out–and in the last few years, the orangutans. Why animals is not entirely clear, though she speaks of a book about wolves that changed her life. Her paintings of orangutans are realistic though she's never been to Borneo. They are based mainly on photographs acquired from the international expert Birute Galdikas.
     I become fascinated by a painting of a young orangutan swimming, raising his woolly arm in a crawl stroke through a dark sea not yet lit by the rising sun. With the outline of his ribs across a barrel torso, his human eyes and intelligent expression, he looks like everyone's Uncle Henry–our primate relative bound for the primordial jungle.
     Massé's latest series, Wolves with Treats, is an imaginative leap that defies the art critics. A wholesome, fresh baked apple pie sits in the foreground; a predatory wolf skulks behind. A pair of beady eyes peer through a Martha Stewart style lace curtain at a plate of brownies. What brings these disparate elements together is beyond speculation.
     Though our time is running out, Masse's work, as well as that of other Gambier artists, will be on show at the Gambier Island Arts Fair September 1 and 2. We're all invited. There's just enough time to drop in at Sheila Weaver, photographer, painter and writer, for a quick look before heading back to the Winsome.
     Artworks Tours can be reached at 886-1200 (or www.artworkstours.ca). The 5-hour art and marine tour for $75 per person takes place on Thursdays. If, like the Prince George visitor, you think you'd be happier in a van, try the regularly scheduled 3-hour mini bus tour of the Coast.

Breathing life into a lump of clay

     Coralie Swaney isn't the kind of artist you see every day.
     She creates characters from a world in her mind where anything is possible, and people are revealed in the most quirky ways.
     In her living room sits one of her characters, Cynthia, who is "on the prowl again" looking for husband number five during an intermission at an opera. She has the look of a rich woman in a blue dress who has been to the doctor for a few "enhancing" surgeries.
     Also present in her living room is the Prime Minister of Whyse which is a fictional hobbit-type world that Swaney conjured up. The Prime Minister is dressed superbly with bits of jewels and golden embroidery adorning his royal clothing. He looks as if he is unamused and suits well the prestigious position Swaney has given him. He was her first character.
     "I had found some polymer clay in a flesh color and I thought to myself why would it be this color unless it was meant to make a face out of. So I bought a pound of the clay and played with it, not knowing at all what I was doing, but I found I could achieve a realism with it. I started creating this fantasy world in my head, the world of Whyse and then the Prime Minister was created from that world," Swaney said.
     The Prime Minister was brought to life about three years ago, and since his birth Swaney has created 50 or more characters in a variety of situations, each with their own story to tell.
     "I start with the story and then the character develops around that," Swaney said, showing one of her works of a teenager offering a bottle of coke to an elderly woman sitting with him at a bus stop.
     "This one came out of a conversation that I had with some students who said they are never being recognized for doing anything good," Swaney, who is also a teacher's aide, related.
     She has always loved to make dolls and by the time she was 12 she was creating little people that were quite elaborate to give to friends and family.
     In later years she took a drawing course that she says may have helped her to get familiar with the human face and how to create it, and from there she gradually fell into her current love, creating dolls (or characters) as an art form.
     "I belong to a club called the Canadian Doll Artist Association, in Ottawa, and there are about 100 members, but I'd say there are only about six people doing this kind of artwork in Western Canada. It is really very new here still," Swaney said, explaining she had no idea other people were creating pieces like hers until she did some research and found the club.
     The same type of dolls that Swaney creates are selling for upwards of $4,000 in U.S. magazines, but Swaney only charges around $300 for her figures right now, which makes them a perfect buy for the collectors.
     She creates and sells the characters in her spare time, but hopes some day to be able to make her living with the dolls.
     "It is just something that I really love to do, and wouldn't it be the most wonderful thing to be able to make your living that way?" Swaney said.

C. Yeomans-Wood photo

     She puts a lot of time into each character, first coming up with a story about them, or situation they should be in, then molding the doll from the skeleton outwards, sewing the clothing and shoes, creating the right expression and positioning of the body and then touching the character off with tiny glasses, or a handbag or hat, all of which she searches to find in exactly the right scale.
     Swaney says she has to become the characters while she is creating them so there is a little piece of her in each doll.
     You can find her creations at the Gibsons Landing Gallery or on Granville Island at Circle Craft and Dragon Space, and you may find her in the future on the Internet. She is already having a Japanese website created for her and there may be a Canadian site in the cards for her as well.
     Right now she has a faithful following of locals in Gibsons who visit the Gibsons Landing Gallery weekly to see her latest character and read about their personal story, written on a card accompanying the doll. They laugh and smile and shake their head before continuing past the window the doll is displayed in, and Swaney says that is exactly why she makes them.
     "I don't know, it's just something about them that people can relate to and it makes them smile, which is what it's all about. I love to put humour into each of them. I don't take myself too seriously," Swaney added.

     Congratulations to the folks at Gibsons Landing and surrounding areas for the successful hosting of the First Annual Gibsons Landing Fibre Arts
Festival.
     Many areas in town were involved, with workshops, quilt, tapestry, and
antique lace displays, guild booths, craft vendors, and a merchant mall.
     Shops and restaurants were open, and music played in the street - a very
festive atmosphere. I got to see many old friends, meet new friends, and
put faces to names.
     I can hardly wait for next year!

Moving and Wearable Art

     Weaver Barby Paulus heard that philosophy from an artist years ago, and it's stuck with her.
     So much, in fact, that she creates wearable art – hand-woven scarves and shawls of silk, wool, and rayon.
     "All my scarves are either silk or rayon," says Paulus. "I buy it natural and paint the fibre before it's put on the loom."
     The process may seem tedious, but it's one of Paulus' favourite aspects of her work.
     "I have to do it outside on a table covered with tarps," she explains. "I mix the dyes as a painter mixes colours on a palette. I'll have 20 cups of dyes and I'll be mixing and testing colours."
     Paulus actually uses a brush to paint the fibres. Once the colours have set and the fibres have dried, it's weaving time.
     "I usually do three at a time," she says. "It takes about three to five hours to weave a scarf. The more complicated ones take longer."
     The next step is to take the weaving off the loom. Paulus finishes the fringes, and then the scarves are washed, dried, and ironed.
     Creating a shawl is a completely different process, and Paulus uses wool from her own sheep. "I do hand-spinning, but I couldn't possibly do it all. I use mill-spun yarn, too."
     Paulus has been weaving for about 18 years, and she says the craft has changed in that time. "I started in the days of big chunky yarn and dying with onion skins," she recalls. "Weaving has become far more sophisticated.
     She also does functional weaving – placemats and runners – but scarves and shawls are her favourite.
     "This is my love," she declares while handling a richly-hued silk scarf. "Colour is my life."

Fibre Artists weave tradition, fine craftsmanship

     Inside the Gibsons Kinsmen Hall, the rhythmic sound of spinning wheels beats the summer air.
     Soft loops of wool scatter the floor, in tufts of turquoise, purple, and creamy white.
     The key to a good yarn is to start with a nice fibre, says Dianne Cross, one of the instructors at Gibsons first Fibre Arts Festival. The softest wool fibres come from merino and Ramoulet sheep.
     Slightly more unusual raw material comes from rabbit, llamas and even dog hair – or synthetics like polar fleece made out of recycled plastic.
     Spinning fibre into thread or yarn is one of the most basic fibre arts that goes back centuries. There's a meditative quality to spinning.
     "You cannot spin a nice yarn if you're all tensed up and churning inside," says Cross.
     For some spinners, the activity is also decidedly practical. "I do it because I have sheep," says Jerry Lowe who's come from Vancouver Island for the fibre arts workshops this week. "I know my wool intimately!"
     Next door at the United Church Hall, a group of weavers was concentrating on the finer points of weft and setting under instructor Jane Stafford. There, a variety of table and floor looms were threaded with chenille, cotton, and linen. Diagrams drawn on a blackboard resembled a musical score. Richly-coloured scarves and table linens draped over a railing – examples of finished weaving.
     "The general population never stops to think that every piece of cloth they're wearing is made by someone," says Stafford.
     Silk, chenille, and mohair are some of her favourite materials to work with. "They have marvelous drape and create luxurious fabrics you want to roll in."
     Colour, drape, and stability are all important in a finished product. "So many people think handwoven cloth should be loose," says Stafford. "I'm trying to teach people to make sophisticated cloth."
     The spinning and weaving sessions last week were one of several workshops for fibre arts featured during the festival that also included block printing, knitting, rug hooking, and applique. Over 90 women from all over the province, and even Washington and Oregon signed up for the festival.
     As part of the festival, an exhibition by quilters and weavers in the former [supermarket] building provided a sample of just how intricate the work can be. The forest scene in Val Haine's "A Peaceful Place" appeared to be painted with hundreds of tiny pieces of fabric. Other quilts, like Marion Shellborn's "Starry Night" were beautiful renditions of more traditional patterns.

Festival In the News

Media Information :: Festival In the News

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