Canadian Canola Fields and Marsh areas

Recently I attended a guild meeting in Alliston hosted by the Nottawasaga Handweavers and Spinners held at the Gibson Centre for Community, Arts and Culture. Ann Berman introduced herself to me and decided she wanted to return to weaving after reading about the Community Threads project in the local paper. She  explained that she had wove quite a bit of the Community Tapestry shown here. She radiates enthusiasm and pride in the work that is being done on the Community Tapestries.  On her right, we can see the image of the Gibson trucks, transporters for Honda in the area, which is half way completed. Two full  tapestry panels are already completed. Valerie has just started another one. We are always looking for more people to contribute to this exciting tapestry project. On May 3 we will be conducting another painting session to create more images. Below, the most recently completed section depicting a Canola Field, a crop commonly found in the region of New Tecumseth.

A number of people came up to me on separate occassions after having seen the solo exhibition of my tapestries at the Gibson Centre  as well as to view the launch of the Community Threads tapestries and told me how impressed they were that people who had never painted before created these images under my direction and guidance. They were so impressed that they asked me to put on a special workshop.  If you would like to join us here are the details:

DESIGNING FOR TAPESTRY WEAVING
An intensive painting and design course for the tapestry weaver without art training. June 18 - 22 10am to 4pm
Toronto Weaving School, 255 Royal York Road, Toronto, On
$250. plus materials, $300 if you would like to include lunch.
Contact: Line Dufour tapestryline@sympatico.ca or telephone 905 836 1321
Register by May 4 2012 

Walter Rothenburger is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design and was working in a hospital lab prior to starting his second profession as a fibre artist. He's been a participant in my weaving classes for quite a number of years. Here he is shown with one of his just finished tapestries, an interpretation of a photograph he took. Below, the tapestry in more detail.

A number of tapestries are nearing completion at the Toronto Weaving School and we are looking forward to sharing them with you.

Comminity Threads Week 28

It's been a while since I've been back to visit the Nottawasaga Handweavers and Spinners at the Gibson Centre in Alliston and it was nice to see some familiar faces as well as some new ones. Above, a newcomer to the guild: Jackie Teunissen. She's lived the last many years in Geneva, and moved to Caledon a couple of years ago. She's enjoying the tapestry weaving process and looking forward to continuing in participating with the guild's activities. The tapestries are progressing wonderfully. Some of the people that have been weaving on them regularly include Valerie and Elizabeth, who have really dedicated their time and efforts to producing their tapestry banners. They are feeling confident to make changes to the tapestries, both editing out the composition, and changing colours, as they think is appropriate. I applaud that they are taking artistic license. They have even decided that they will make some new paintings, of historic properties in the municipality to include in the tapestry banners, and therefore eliminating images that are duplicated in the some of the tapestries. Excellent and all the while, expanding their knowledge of the history of the muncipality. Sandi had some good stories about the churches in the area and we'll have to post this to the blog because it's intriguing. Their pride of place is coming through as they all work on this project, which they in turn put into the project.

Another new face at the guild is Deb Chandler. She's giving tapestry weaving a try on the 'learners' tapestry loom before moving onto the the large gobelin loom.

Jean and Valerie were back this week working on the finishing of the first completely woven tapestry banner. We'll have to start giving some thought as to what title we want to give each tapestry. Linda and Sandi discussed what new pictures needed to be taken, and then transformed into paintings. Linda felt so confident in their newly acquired artistic skills that she didn't feel she needed me to help them do the paintings! Linda reports that visitors to the weaving studio are frequent, which also means that this encourages traffic at the Gibson Centre. Linda and Sandi also talked about bringing some of the portable tapestry looms to the community libraries, and to the mall in Tottenham to promote the project, the Gibson Centre, and the Nottawasaga Handweavers and Spinners in the months to come. They will be giving a special presentation the Alliston Historical Society March 14.

I'll be visiting the project about once a month for the next year to help out, see what developments there are, and give advice when needed. The group are doing a great job! Don't hesitate to stop by and weave on the Community tapestries...everyone's contribution is welcome.

Perseverance

The president of the Nottawasaga Handweavers and Spinners, Linda Needles, wrote to me recently to update me on the progress of the Community Threads tapestries in Alliston. I'm including what she wrote below. I've also attached the latest tapestries to be completed by assorted members in the group. I'm very proud of them for having the courage to undertake such an ambitious project AND following through with it. What dedication and perserverance, qualities that all weavers and spinners and possess in abundance!

Linda writes: “After receiving the “Artist in the Community” grant from the Ontario Arts Council in the Spring of 2011, Line got us into high gear to begin our “Community Threads” project. This was a project with a timeline of 2 years and, with her enthusiasm and energetic approach to begin the project, we all thought, “My Goodness, what have we gotten our guild into”?
We photographed local sites, painted pictures, made cartoons, sorted wool, gathered looms and began. Newbies we were but oh, what Line helped us learn.


Well 6 months have passed and our fears have been dissipated and our enthusiasm engaged because, we are well on the way.

We’ve come a long way from July, when we began by taking photos of the New Tecumseth area, of activities and places of interest. These photos have now been realized in the paintings and cartoons and are coming to life in the few sections of the tapestries that have been finished.

Elisabeth and Libby are working on one loom (a Penelope), having taken it home Dec 1 and now have finished 2 sections of one tapestry - a golfer and a guitar player.


Valerie also took home a Penelope loom and finished four sections to complete a whole tapestry. Yay, only 11 more to go!

The large Gobelin loom at the Gibson Centre is busy each Thursday during our open studio day. Ann has been working on one of the tapestries and has 1 ½ sections complete. Corrie, Nellie and Linda have been working on the other one and are starting the second section. Nellie, our senior member wants to work on some tapestries at home so she bought herself a new Kromski harp loom to work on during the winter.


Other members gather each week to weave on the tapestry looms and floor looms, to spin, sort wool colours, plan new projects and provide encouragement to all as we move forward with the Community Threads. Our turnout is usually about 12 people, considerably increased from 6 months ago.

This project has generated a lot of excitement and curiosity in the community and consequently has brought in many visitors to our studio, many of whom are directed there by the Gibson Centre staff who are great promoters of the project. In addition, as a result of this project, we have gained a few new guild members who are willing to try their hand on our sampler loom. Recently the Canadian Tapestry Network Newsletter featured the project with lots of pictures and a lengthy article. An article was also written up for the Ontario Handweavers and Spinners Fibre Focus.

We hope to engage more community members and start to make presentations to community groups as well as demonstrate in public places to share our enthusiasm with others.

Community Threads: Day Six

On the way into set up the Community Threads activities in Alice's Attic at the Gibson Centre, I rode up the elevator with Lynda Mitchell-Reynolds, who I believe is the Executive Director of the South Simcoe Arts Council. She has been very supportive of the Community Threads project and very accommodating. How she gets any work done with us making so much noise is a wonder as her office is very nearby!
Things often don't go as planned and so in those situations one makes adjustments and accommodations to the changing circumstances. We had hoped to continue creating the cartoons for the remaining ten tapestries, alas, the bulbs that Sandi Nemenyi ordered for the overhead projector had not arrived for today. One of the tasks we continued doing this week was matching the yarns with the colors in the paintings, and creating 'butterflies' for the various colour shapes in the design and then coding them for easy access and weaving, sort of like a paint by number idea. Nicolas Rodriogo and his mother Sharon, shown here in this photo, assisted me in this task. We talked about many things together and one of the things that Nicolas and I discussed was mastery when he commented how quickly I was getting the task done. According to Malcolm Gladwell in his book 'Outliers', where he discusses what makes individuals successful, the magic number is 10,000. This is how many hours one needs to be practicing a skill set before one has reached mastery. Then it becomes like breathing....like a second nature.
Because we couldn't continue with the tracing the cartoons with the overhead projector, we focused on other tasks. I am really grateful for all the help doing the finishing work on my own tapestries, that just might be ready in time for the exhibition! I wasn't expecting it but it seems like it might be a real possibility. In tapestry studios of the past, and some current ones, many hands would be working on all stages of the tapesties. So it's a continuation of a historical practice. Helping out at this task today was Nellie Waterman, Valerie Splaine, Betty C, Nathalia Smugden, Sandi Nemenyi, Janet Dryden, Allanah Bishof and Janet Fayle....I think that was it.

The last main task that was accomplished today was getting the headers woven on the tapestry looms. First priority was the gobelin loom which will be featured in the exhibition and will remain for its duration.
Here Corrie Parsons and Lucy Tavares are doing this task. I found out from Libby that the gobelin tapestry loom was lent to us by Elaine Bresselier who hails from Penetang.

Libby Hoffman prepares a smaller tapestry loom. I believe she said it was Dutch and it has the most lovely little metal tapestry fork I've ever seen.

Gayle Wheeler, Elisabeth Bishof and Jean K were also in attendance and assisting us in various ways.

In this photo, myself and Lucy Tavares continuing to work on the headers. At the end of todays session, we are now ready to start weaving the first two tapestries. How exciting!

Community Threads Day Three

My drive to the Gibson Centre for Culture, Art and Culture takes me through pastoral farmland. It's always pleasant to get there no matter what time of year. Everyone is eager to contribute to the Community Threads tapestries project and everyone's contribution is welcomed and finds its way into this absorbing endeavour. Much of the project depends on their contribution and their contribution is one of the reasons we are fostering this artistic and creative undertaking. Donations of time, materials, expertise and labour. In the picture above, just some of the yarn we've collected from many. One of the activities we did today, headed by Chris H, was sorting the piles of yarn we received into colour groupings. Chris was helped by Sharon Robinson-Rodrigo and Linda Needles, the President of the Nottawasaga Weavers and Spinners.















The first thing we did today was collect up all the paintings that had been done. I shared with the group how we were going about editing the paintings and abstracting from them the designs that we would be using for the tapestries. It was hard at first for participants to imagine the purpose of this exercise, but as it evolved, they 'got it'! Creativity, for those who were brave enough to venture there, was/is very much about relingquishing control and having somewhat of a blind faith as to where you feel you are being led. In the above picture, Sharon Robinson-Rodrigo with her son, Nicolas.














Linda Needles, president of the Nottawasaga Weavers and Spinners editing the paintings.














I admired many of the participants who, despite having no confidence in their own artistic abilities, put their fear aside and jumped in feet first! Here, Janet Dryden and Valerie Splaine. Yes, I'm sure many of us had to beat back our inner self critical voices and allow ourselves to find some beauty in the marks on that page that are distinctly and uniquely our own.














Gayle Wheeler is herself a talented tapestry weaver. Her husband Norm Wheeler is a well reknowned potter. Gayle will be lead technical assitant for the bulk of the weaving of the tapestries.














Dawna Beatty (I think I spelled your name right this time!) at work editing her painting.














Today saw a few new participants. Corrie Parsons, shown above at the left, sitting beside Elizabeth Bishof.

We also had a visit from Maija Hoggett, a journalist from The Herald, the newspaper for South Simcoe and based in Alliston. She took all kinds of notes and will be writing an article in the near future about the project.














We were very glad to be graced with the every graceful and abundantly enthusiastic and creative Executive Director of the Gibson Centre, Angela Drainville shown here third from left, wearing black. She came up with the name of the project, Community Threads, which of course, is such a perfect metaphor for what is happening at different levels as well as captures the artisinal aspect of the project. She also donated the space and administrative resources to undertake this Ontario Arts Council funded undertaking. She has lined up an exciting list of entertainers that will be coming to the Gibson Centre soon. To know more go to http://www.gibsoncentre.com/













All the pieces of the edited paintings come together. We are taking the sections of paintings and reorganizing them into strips that work together aesthetically. From left to right, Corrie Parsons, Gayle Wheeler, Elizabeth Bishof and Nicolas Robinson-Rodrigo.












So we designed our tapetries, 12 altogether. We won't let you see the final designs because we like to maintain some surprise and make you curious enough to come to the official launch of the Community Threads project on September 11 2011 between 2-5pm when I will also be having a solo exhibition of my tapestries.














And finally, another task that got done today is creating the warps for the tapestry looms. Above, Janet Fayle and Elizabeth working on the 10 yd warp for the gobelin loom and below, Betty (who I think would like to remain annonymous...if not please let me know)














We all felt really enlivened and invigorated after todays events. Nothing is as exciting to me as sparking the creativity in others. I know how much joy I derive from my artistic and creative endeavours but its even more electifying when its shared with others. I am also in awe and admiration when I look at a group of people who have so much talent and skill and are so humble about it. The participants must be applauded! Thank you all for another great day!