Rug hooking, chair caning and felted contributions to the Fate Destiny and Self Determination project

This week was the first week of weaving classes has begun at the Toronto Weaving School where the Fate, Destiny and Self-Determination tapestry project is housed. I was delighted to have two men come to the site to put in some weaving time. On the left, Maurice Poon, a professor at the York University and Scott Ford, who works for Hydro One.  Scott wrote:  Thanks for showing us your project and how to do a little tapestry too!  It was fun and an honour to help with your amazing project!  It was also great to see your class and all the looms!  Holy complicated!!!   :) It was good to do something a little (a lot!) out of the ordinary tonight. 

While I was busy with class Scott and Maurice had fun!

This is Maurice's contribution to the project.....

....and Scott wove the two centre shapes. 

Donna Kim from Edge of Your Seat in Toronto (www.edgeofyourseat.ca) wove this shape with natural materials, some of the materials she uses for chair caning.  

Donna Wills, from Guelph Ontario Canada wove these three shapes.

Leonore Johnstone from www.kasmedia.ca created a felted shape.

 Linda Maxwell's submission, employing rug hooking, was carefully thought out. She is from Nova Scotia Canada and she writes:

Being a long standing fibre enthusiast (weaver, spinner, dyer etc...) it was difficult to decide which skill to use in the construction of my submission. Since hooking is both traditional and popular in my community, it seemed appropriate to work in this form instead of traditional tapestry. The piece I have sent uses a sculpted technique which I have recently learned.
 The fibre is 100% wool cloth (strips) for the background and 100% wool yarn for the motif, and these are worked on a linen base.....The subtle colour difference between the background and the design, and the design itself, are significant. The “scribble” of the design is represents two words – Gregg Shorthand symbols – that read, “women’s work”. The symbols fade into the background, just as women’s work, throughout the ages has gone unrecognized despite their huge contribution to their communities and the economy [and families].
 The shorthand symbols were chosen to applaud the women who learned this system which required intelligence, speed and accuracy – enabling them to take down the words someone was speaking, in an abbreviated form (symbols) and later, sometimes weeks later, transcribe them accurately. Really, it was nothing. Just “women’s work”.