What is a Fibre Addict to Do?

Morning Madness Mohair Locks 4 oz

I purchased a mohair fleece from Vancouver Island and I have been spending my days dyeing it one pot at a time. I like vat dyeing...I begin with one colour, dye the fibre, then add another colour, then another, then another...I end up with way too much.
Right now, I have 21 acid dyes and I am almost finished the set. I have had to refrain, of course, from purchasing more colours....I decided I would finish this set and then I was free to experiment with different colours.
I actually take notes and samples and I have found that the colours are really consistent.
I have realized that the dyeing part is what fascinates me the most...its like magic...you fill a pot of water, put in a powder...add your
wool...and voila...colour.
The colour witch is alive and well and living in Kelowna...ha ha.

The mixtures pictured here are available in my etsy store
ColourSparks on Etsy

Dawn's Finest Hour Mohair Locks 4 oz

Perfect Hair Mohair Locks 4 oz

Blue Danube Mohair Locks 4 oz

Playing with Wool

 I was in my studio the other day and realized that I could spend everyday cleaning up my supplies...I have a ton...but its been awhile since I worked on anything and it was time to get to work. So I started to felt....and like I am...I didn't really have a plan. Through my degree I realized I liked to start on projects and decide along the way what they would become and deal with the editing as I went. So here I realized I wanted to practice some of the techniques I had learned in the webcam workshop I had done...so off I went.
I have looked at this piece in many different ways and realized it is open to interpretation. My idea was to create pieces that may work in an Annette Messager type installation. My goal was to go bigger than the purple piece..which I achieved but was alot of work. So the idea of filling a room, as she does, is daunting...but doable. Her works are usually suspended, but I still love the idea of felt and metal so I placed it on one of my metal stands. They would also look awesome attached to a metal piece which is free standing on the floor.
Any its a start and we will see where it will go.

One Hundred Felted Soaps

I did a 100 felted soaps to be used  in gift packages for the opening of the BO.TTEGA The Bottega is a modern farm inn set against the backdrop of beautiful South East Kelowna. I was given  a white alpaca fleece from their herd to use. I mixed it with some fibres that I had in the colours green and teal. The alpaca was beautiful, soft and fluffy. It would be awesome to spin up and knit into something.
This was a fun project to do. 100 soaps seemed like a lot while I was felting them...took quite some time..but in the end they all fit into a shoe box. 

What Colour Are You?

Yesterday, I was blue and red, You were green and yellow, She was pink and purple, He was brown and green, They were black and red.

Today, I am pink and purple, You are red and blue, She is yellow and blue, He is red and pink, They are brown and orange.

Tomorrow, I will be yellow and orange, You will be brown and pink, She will be black and green, He will be blue and yellow, and They will be white and pink.

What colour are you?

People, though they may look different and believe different things are all human beings made of flesh and soul and spirit. The idea that your life does not affect mine is for me an illusion and construe of society to allow bad things to happen to justify the concept of the greater good. I believe that even though you live in a far away country and I have no visible relationship to you...your life affects mine in the matrix of mankind. The reality that you live will change the reality that I live in and vice versa.

Do you love hats as much as I do?

 Well, I think I am a hat addict....I can't stop knitting them. I used to say I would knit about 10 per winter season....But I knit 4 since yesterday so I think I have surpassed that number already. My problem began when I started working in a yarn store....how can I try all these wonderful yarns in a short period of time. It takes me forever to knit a sweater...so that won't work. The only solution is something small and fun. Growing up in a cold climate has made me realize that if you dress for the cold you won't mind it as much. I wear hats...yes it does ruin my curls, but it keeps my ears from stinging. I actually wear the hats I knit, well except for the last bunch, they are baby hats...I had to photograph them on my felted heads as I have no babies to try them on.

If I Told You My Story...Would You Listen? 4th Year Show

 My pieces are now in the Fina Gallery at UBCO as part of the 4th year graduating class. The piece with the steel sculpture and felt balls is called What Colour Are You? and the piece with the felted heads is called If I Told You My Story Would You Listen. 
What is not visible hear in the picture is that one of the heads has a speaker in it and it repeatedly asks the same questions...trying to call attention to the viewer. The colourful ball sculpture has a motor in the middle which stirs the balls.

What Colour Are You?

Welded Steel and Wool Fleece

My work has dealt with the exploration of combining wool and steel and trying to find a balance between the two. I have concluded that the steel often ends up being a support or container for the wool. The idea that the steel could be construed as masculine and the wool as female was my original starting point. I felt the need to defend the idea that working in wool and using it as a sculpture tool is not to be designated as craft but serious art. In the end I was lead to the conclusion of “who cares”. The steel is stronger and holds the wool and that’s okay....just as the wool is soft and colourful and allows the steel to shine.

This piece is my attempt to display a visual reference for the oneness of mankind. People, though they may look different and believe different things are all human beings made of flesh and soul and spirit.

The idea that your life does not affect mine is for me an illusion and construe of society to allow bad things to happen in the name of the greater good. I believe that even though you live in a far away country and I have no visible relationship to you...your life affects mine in the matrix of mankind. The reality that you live in will change the reality that I live in and vice versa

If I Told You My Story...Would You Listen?

Wool Fleece and Media

This installation piece is the beginning of a larger piece that will explore the stories we tell about the lives we live. The faces are the untold stories of women as they meet and interrelate with one another. I want the viewer to listen to the stories that are told but I also want the viewer to imagine and hear the story themselves by looking at the faces and listening to what they hear.

My Studio

It is really fun to finally have a studio...I can leave my mess and no one can complain because its my space. This picture is at the beginning before I got all my stuff into it. I have collected a fair amount of metal and have eased out into the middle space. Avery...my visa a vie studio partner doesn't mind as she has moved out and we meet in the middle.
My faces are coming along...I have quite a few more now and intend to have alot by April...watch for pictures from the 4th year mid term show

Felting Workshop with Jorie

I went to a felting workshop with Jorie Johnson in Vancouver this past weekend. It was fun to take an early morning flight out of Kelowna .....you sure know you live in a small place when you meet 2 people you know at the airport at 5:15 a.m.

I learned alot...especially on how to be more careful with my initial setting up. It sometimes is easier to take the time in the beginning than spend time fixing your mistakes. I learned some new techniques and I learned how other people teach felting and how the equipment you use is a sure sign on where you learned to felt. My teacher, Franziska, learned in Sweden...so bubble wrap and all that rolling is knew to me. Though I understand that my felting board is not good for everything I sure wouldn't part with it.

Sculpture and Hats

I am still fascinated by faces sculptured in wool. I really have no desire to make them look like someone or some character, I prefer to leave them vague so that the viewer can do the interpreting. I want the faces to invoke in the viewer an idea of what this face is about...the stories behind the face. As I begin my 4th year project, I find myself enjoying the vagueness of what these faces could be or what stories they will tell. As I finished this blue hat...a combo of my stash...think I will make more for Fabulous Finds...I put it on my face to photograph and all of a sudden the story was there. My challenge is how to get this face to talk....though Alek, my professor, has given me some ideas...I don't know if I'll get there this fall.

Random acts of kindness

 This is the bench, that the people who own Sunrise Vineyards, put beside the bus stop that is in front of their driveway. I stand at this bus stop numerous times in the week, the only lady in my neighbourhood who does, and was awed by the presence of this bench.  I saw the gentleman on Thursday and thanked him for putting it there and he said that he sees people standing at the stop and thought it would be a good idea..
Yess...its a good idea and thank you for putting it there. Since I live in a neighbourhood where people don't take the bus, the bus stop is...like on the side of the road...and if the bus driver sees you and stops that's great. One day I was wearing a hot

 pink top and an orange skirt and he drove right by me....he did hear my screams and eventually stopped.
Anyway, thank you Mr. Mueller for your random act of kindness.
p.s. Luka wasn't really that grumpy, it was 8 a.m. but the weather was warm and the view was great and in the end...life isn't that bad

Dye Pots are On

 Well, finally got organized and am ready to do my dyeing. I have been waiting all this past school year to add to my colour collection. I got a new fleece of BFL from Ranfurly Farm and what beautiful soft and curly wool it is. I will use it to both felt and spin.There is silk noil and spun silk and icicle and mohair in the dye pot. I don't do alot at a time as my goal is to get a colour stash. Whatever I don't use, I will share, but once I get it in my stash, its hard to let it go.
Today there is Gun Metal and Gold Ochre.... yummy

Trading Talents

 Amy and I did a trade. I loved her Tulip vases and she my hats, so we each made what we are good at and shared it with the other. The trade happened at the Art of Yarn, so we didn't have any tulips. I thought her vases would also make great needle holders, so here it is. It looks beautiful with a tulip, but I could also imagine it on my desk holding my needles.

The hat was made with Noro yarn, a wonderful cotton and silk blend. Amy picked the colour which just happens to be my favourite colour and it matches my hair perfectly. Was a hard hat to give up as it look great on me too.
I loved the idea of trading and it was great to share our talents and bring joy to Amy and Amy to me

Painting was Awesome

It was a great year for painting. When I began the year I was incredibly insecure and unsure of myself. Through the direction of my professor Shawn and my great classmates, I learned so much and progressed and development x fold. It was fun to work in the studio, except, of course, for the terrible mess in there.
Shawn helped me find architecture in my abstract paintings and this procedure helped immensely in my narrative painting. It isn't that easy to spend weeks on a painting only to be told to edit 80% of it out. The first time is a little painful, but you get used to it and the paintings improve. Of the six that I did since January, a few still need to be edited, but, hey, that's what the summers for.

Summer here we come

Third year is almost over. One more paper and one more take home exam and I am done. This time next Thursday, I am free to do whatever I want. All those projects I put on the back burner while I was writing papers, studying for exams, doing the Mad Hatter and painting, 7 paintings.

The theme of my narrative painting was Fasnacht and here is one of the Waggis that is part of the painting. He was my favourite and probably most successful. The painting is 8 feet by 5 feet and though I handed it in, it is not quite done.

Mad Hatter art exhibit unique - Kelowna News - Castanet.net

Mad Hatter art exhibit unique - Kelowna News - Castanet.net

Cabinet of Curiosities

This is one of my sculptures in the cabinet. They weren't that easy to photograph in the cabinet and they were changed up a little bit in order to fit in the small space. They were really fun to make. I had found perfect circle cut outs at Action Metal. I went back when there was snow in order to find more as there is no way I could plasma cut the steel into such perfect circles. They are perfect to use in my classical sculpture podium pieces.
I didn't use all of them yet and will probably make a few more for the show next year. This is the first time that the wool and the steel complimented each other.
It wasn't the steel was holding the felt or vice versa but they are beginning to have a conversation with each other.

Connected

My room installation at the Mad Hatter's Extreme Tea Party was called Connected. After some trials and tribulations I got the room completed though not as I had originally planned. Last minute oops I forgot to do my work by another person forced me to find quick solutions. I wasn't that thrilled with them at first, but they have grown on me.
This is my favourite picture. My friend Kathryn is posing in her costume and she totally fits into my room. She is playing with the wands that have magnets on them that either connect or repel the magnets on the balls. The room was about being to connected and one with everyone else even though we are all different colours and wear different hats. Though in essence we are all the same.

VB Studios Graffiti

This is the VB Studios Graffiti on the back wall of the motel, part of the Mad Hatter's Tea Party. The sign has now been taken done and all that is left is the light bulbs. VB Studios image, when completed will be going up there. Right now, work in progress