new findings!

Today was one of those amazing mornings at the Fibre Studio. Judith, on her commitment to review our fantastic library which has been stored for quite number of years now, is in search of amazing things.

This time, she found an archive that comes from 1980!

It is a compilation of samples of weaving through coloured paper cuts. Thew were all made by Mala Kennard, one of our former Guild members.

The samples are just fascinating and they are all really inspiring. I am sure they are all excellent to make new weavers jump into the process and start creating wonderful weaving.

Enjoying our new place at QEP CCC

February is the date to have our first Guest at the New facility at QEP CCC

2012 has been a very important year for our Guild. Not only because we finally found a home, but also to bring back memories of all our years that have gone by. Our important and special library was finally unpacked to release the most wonderful collection of books, samples of weaving, technical information, etc.

We are now in the process of organizing, labeling, inventorying and putting our tools to work. Yes, Tools such as our magnificent 100 inch loom that has been like the sleeping beauty waiting patiently to be set u again. Like in the good times!

Here we see Elizabeth-Anne working hard to clean and give maintenance to oone of our spinning wheels.

Or maybe we see

Judith and Mary cataloging our fascinating one of a kind-out of print BOOKS!

All our Guild members will soon take advantage of the place. This dedicated Fibre Room at Queen Elizabeth Park Community and Cultural Centre promises to be a fantastic all-in-one facility. it is up to us to make this space our creative HUB!

Now lets get to weave, spin, dye, and more.

We invite all to join us at the formal opening on March 24 2012,

room 040 at QEP CCC in Bridge Road, Oakville, ON.

Exhibition at Hamilton Place

Tuesday October 4th our Guild was invited to showcase some of the activities and artworks for the Gala during the 2011 Summit organized by the Tourism and Culture provincial representations.

The Summit is an annual forum for the tourism industry to share the latest trends, be exposed to new ideas and best practices, and network with colleagues. Entitled 'Taking Care of Business,' the 2011 conference theme will focus on insightful strategies to help us inspire and engage today's highly sophisticated and connected travellers and will include a series of keynote presentations and hands-on workshops.

Awards Gala Reception - Hosted by Hamilton, Halton, Brant Regional Tourism Association



3 of our members, Yamile Roa and Ixchel Suarez and Stella Tang presented some of her works in weaving and wearable art.

Below we see Yamile with a tapestry she is weaving for her son and will be given to him in December.

Members of the Oakville Art Society also participated in the exhibitions organized for the Halton Region displaying artists on site painting in acrylics.

More than 300 people attended the event. Great comments where given to our Guild, encouraging us to continue to preserve the traditional techniques in spinning and weaving through a contemporary lens.

Even though it was a one day event, which involved setting and picking up all the display, it was really worth the efforts.

September 2011Guest Speaker: LIne Dufour

The past Month of September our Guild had the opportunity to invite one of the few artists in the GTA that still design and weaves tapestry:

Line Dufour is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design. She also obtained her Bachelor of Fine Art at the University of Guelph and a Bachelor of Education at the University of Toronto.

Her tapestries have been exhibited extensively throughout Ontario and in New York. She has received numerous awards, grants and scholarships to pursue her weaving.

Line has extensive teaching experience with people of all ages. Not only has she taught weaving but she has also taught high school art (Waterloo Separate Board) and art history (Wellington County Board, Continuing Education).

Line Dufour creates handwoven tapestries for exhibition, commission and sale. In addition she also creates and designs handwoven, hand knit and fibre constructed scarves, shawls, and capes. Because of her passion for weaving and fibre,Tapestry Line Unlimited was created to encompass all the various aspects of her fibre related activities and weaving, through which she also offers for sale weaving supplies, materials and equipment.

Line shared with us part of her creative process, her philosophy towards the creation and the inspiration that lies behind each and every one of her pieces. Her use of colour as well as her technique shows her wonderful skills due to her background in Design and Art and the skills that are present in each one of her tapestries.

Line brought some samples of her work to share with our Guild members, who participated by asking questions during her wonderful lecture.

Her presentation took place at the facilities of the Oakville Art Society , which for the past year have been so kind to lend us one of its art rooms for our monthly meetings. We truly appreciate this generous gesture on behalf of the Oakville Handweavers and Spinners Guild.

Tapestry weaving in the GTA specifically is not new. Wonderful examples of this medium can be admired all around the TDC (Toronto Dominion Centre)

Names like Tamara Jaworska or Marcel Marois,

was born in Saint-Ephram, Quebec, in 1949. He currently lives and works in Quebec City.

These are some of the examples that are still there in the foyers of some of the buildings.

Tamara Jaworska

Immigrated to Toronto, Ontario in 1969. B.F.A., Honors, State Academy of Fine Arts, Poland (1950); M.F.A. Faculty of Design and Weaving, State Academy of Fine Arts, Lodz, Poland (1952)

Specter in Silver, 1984
Tapestry-gobelin: linen, hand-spun wool, mohair, silver thread, 2.15 x 1.8 m

Iridescent Marsh/Marais Irisé, 1985 by Paulette-Marie Sauve, Toronto Dominion Center, Canadian Pacific Tower: York Street entrance

“Paulette-Marie Sauvé’s Gobelin tapestry “Iridescent Marsh", is installed on adjacent walls of the west lobby of the Canadian Pacific Tower. Borrowing from elements of Bauhaus design, she has created irregular triangles of exuberant color, representing her interpretation of the Canadian landscape (Flora growing in marsh areas).

Seen from outside, these shapes provide an interesting diagonal play with the horizontal and vertical framework of the Mies van der Roe architecture.

In this four building complex, there are two other pieces: Sun Ascending, 1985 by Kaija Sanelma Harris in the TD Tower and Grande Ville, 1985 Joanna Staniszki in the Royal Trust Tower. Both of who have busy well established careers are easily accessible through their dealers and websites. Joanna Staniszki metal work was profiled in the Summer 2005 Surface Design, Journal of the Surface Design Association. As of this posting date have yet get the information about their pieces or images.

More tapestries in the central lobby north of the elevator core of this building, Infinity by Sofia Dlugopolska (west side of lobby) Untitled by Jacqueline Lescott off the balcony to the south of Infinity and an untitled tapestry by Maria Ciechomska on the east side. Information about these artists has not been found and the obvious source of it, building management often considerate nothing more then decoration if they notice it at all. This is unfortunately indicative of attitudes about public art in general. [1]

I would like to invite all the textile lovers to come out sometime to Toronto and take a look at these pieces before they are gone. We know by some members of the textile Museum of Canada that years ago there where even more. Some were removed while the building was under remodeling or for maintenance, but some never went back to their places where they where hung.

Tapestry is an ancestral technique yet a contemporary medium to transcend in art. By appreciating this medium we encourage young artists to pursue working into this wonderful technique. Spinners have also a very important role in all of this productions. Traditional and/or orthodox weavers still like to work only on natural materials. If hand spun available is definitely the best choice. By creating original hand spun yarns, tapestry weavers have even more materials into their palette to work with.

[1] Quote from the TD Centre brochure

Fascinating use of new textiles!

Amy Dover, one of the Docents at the Textile Museum of Canada shared with us this fascinating link on new fibres. Just couldnt wait to share it with you all. Enjoy it!

http://www.ted.com/talks/suzanne_lee_grow_your_own_clothes.html

Artist Talk: Peter Harris and defining Tapestry

An afternoon with Peter Harris at the Oakville Art Society.

Display of technique and skills in the art of Tapestry weaving!

Members of the Guild and guests from Cambridge, Mississauga, Burlington and Georgetown enjoyed the visit and the interesting lecture:

A tapestry is like a unicorn… nobody has actually seen one,

but everybody knows what one looks like. by Peter Harris

Friday April 29 the Guild had the opportunity to challenge all our definitions of tapestry though the insight view and research of Peter Harris, wonderful tapestry weaver from Ayton, Ontario, who kindly accepted our invitation to share a bit of his expertise in tapestry.

Peter Harris has been interested in the weaving of Kashmir for a long time. The relation of techniques like embroidered, patched, or woven into one same garment. He also offers workshops for those interested in this fascinating technique of historical importance.

Quote from Peter from the beginning, when we started to get immerse in the theme"I don’t remember having any particular awareness or understanding of the word “tapestry” until I learned how to weave tapestry in the early 1980’s. Then when I’d begun to make tapestry my own, I noticed how frequently this word for a rare and arcane practice appeared in all kinds of commentaries about all kinds of non-textile things, and often with some additional reference to weaving thrown in as a bonus. The word “tapestry” has a currency and commonly-understood meaning far out of proportion to its actual production in the present era. Now for me it’s always accompanied by a flash of recognition, like a familiar face in a subway-train window. One of my favourite sightings is in an interview by Studs Terkel with Bob Dylan: “There’s one song, the only way I can describe it is as a great tapestry – ‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall’.” All true, but how does the word for an anachronistic craft come to be used today with such confidence and respect?".

Peter is a fantastic tapestry weaver who started in this art and craft almost 30 years ago. His backgroud though is in philosophy and literature, so we could understand his interest in the readings of visual images through different mediums, and it was through tapestry that he developed his main interest.

This tapestry, Enchanted Forest is full of weaving challenges, symbolisms, colour changes and blends and intricate design that alltogther creat a piece of Art.

Peter analyzes the medium and quotes:

"Tapestry has come under modernist critique for being a derivative art form, because of the historical specialization between artists and weavers, and the extent to which a modern artist-weaver’s design is pre-planned before the weaving begins, so that it resembles a process of translation or adaptation. But in fact, seldom is the weaver’s work so subservient to the designer’s that the weaving does not transform it in some way expressive of both. Tapestry weaving has a repertoire of effects that eloquently bespeak textile, as well as limitations for mimicking some sorts of mark-making in other media.

Peter finishes his talk with an interesting reflection:

"So much for the most commonly asked question, “How long did it take you to do this?” to which the answer should be, “It was over too soon”. The perennial issue among weavers – the internalized version of the second question we hear most often, “Can you make a living at this?” – is, how can we gain the critical acceptance for tapestry as work-of-art that would offer the possibility of professional success? In my view, that is to chase a receding, capricious, increasingly irrelevant prize. Historically, tapestry participated in cultural expression in ways that don’t necessarily conform to the occasion of modern gallery-going, where people expect to find certain kinds of objects enshrined. These same people, if they went to view stained-glass church windows, whether as tourists or as part of their religious observance, would have very different expectations. Everyone who seeks to give cultural expression through their skills, needn’t try to beat their way into the art world, but should try to situate their contribution as naturally and easily as they can in their personal and community lives. We should not be trying to alter our coat of many colours into a skimpy but fashionable accessory. The fact that tapestry has its own rich and widely recognized meaning is a tremendous advantage. "

Thank you Peter. We sure can take many reflections reading "between the warps".

We wish you luck with your piece which will be presented in Mexico during the events from the VI International Bienial of Textile Art hosted in Mexico.

The exhibition Encounter Mexico-Canada: Contemporary Textile Art will be presented in the Anahuac University, School of Design.

Come back soon and share with us your wonderful tapestries.

Welcome Peter Harris

Come join the Oakville Handweavers and Spinners Guild to our monthly meeting on April 29 at 2:00 pm. where we will be glad to share with you a wonderful artist talk by Tapestry weaver:.
Peter Harris
http://tapadesi.com/
http://tapadesi.com/tapestry-gallery-tour-slideshow/

in his own words:

As a blog is supposed to be written in the present tense, I get just one chance to explain how it begins. Longer even than my dedication to tapestryweaving, has been my affinity for South Asia. I first travelled there overland in 1972-73, through many places now more difficult. The photo of me was taken in 1978 by my Nepali host on the front step of a farmhouse, on a hill overlooking

Pokhara on one side, and the Annapurna range on the other. I homed in on one of my photos of the mountains, for my first journey through a woven tapestry wallhanging a few years after. It felt like I had climbed the mountain, stitch by stitch. Years later when I revisited the same vantage point, all the details of the view clicked into place

Come join the Oakville Handweavers and Spinners Guild to our monthly meeting on April 29 at 2:00 pm. where we will be glad to share with you a wonderful artist talk by Tapestry weaver:.

Peter Harris

http://tapadesi.com/

http://tapadesi.com/tapestry-gallery-tour-slideshow/

Tapestry weaver since 1982, better known for his study of the tapestry design and weaving techniques used in the historic Kashmir shawl. Tapestry is also a great metaphor for connecting the world meaningfully.

Talk:

"A Tapestry is like a Unicorn...Everybody knows what one looks like, but nobody has ever seen one."

The essential character of tapestry, and why the word is so widely understood and used metaphorically, but rarely about woven textile. Peter Harris will share lots of illustrations from some artists and from his own work. Two excerpts have since been published (about the definition of tapestry in the CTN newsletter, and the modern tapestry artist's dilemma, in Fibre Focus) but not the main thesis, which is about visual storytelling strategies.

RSVP. Free for members.

$ 10.00 CAN Non-Members

where: Oakville Art Society, (to whom we thank the support to the OHS for our Monthly meetings)

Time: 2:00 - 3:00 pm

Oakville Art SocietyOakville Art Society Place page

560 Bronte Rd

Oakville, ON L6L 6S1

(905) 827-5711

Get directions

Hoping you will share this with your Guilds and fibre friends I sendyou my best regards.

Ixchel Suárez

Oakville Handweavers and Spinners Guild

President

http://oakvilleweaversandspinners.blogspot.com/

“As long as we have memories, we have yesterday. As long as we have hope, tomorrow awaits.

As long as we have ART today is beautiful.”