Category — Inspiration

Again, along the line of a picture is worth a thousand words, here is the lovely Halyma spreading some silk wings that we created together. I dye and fret about details, construction and functionality; she’s an ingenious and nimble seamstress (who also frets about details) ; the relationship works!

I hope you’re all having a wonderful summer. It’s pretty steamy in the workshop!

… just one : stunning.

This great shot of Oklahoma dancer Arastya with her “Mythical” silk veil is brought to you by photographer Ryan Potter of Lrn2Go.Photo.

It has to be loved the way a laundress loves her linens,  
 the way she moves her hands caressing the fine muslins  
 knowing their warp and woof,  
 like a lover coaxing, or a mother praising.  
 It has to be loved as if it were embroidered 
 with flowers and birds and two joined hearts upon it.  
 It has to be stretched and stroked.  
 It has to be celebrated.  
 O this great beloved world and all the creatures in it. 
 It has to be spread out, the skin of this planet.

The trees must be washed, and the grasses and mosses.  
 They have to be polished as if made of green brass.  
 The rivers and little streams with their hidden cresses  
 and pale-coloured pebbles  
 and their fool’s gold  
 must be washed and starched or shined into brightness,  
 the sheets of lake water  
 smoothed with the hand  
 and the foam of the oceans pressed into neatness.  
 It has to be ironed, the sea in its whiteness.

and pleated and goffered, the flower-blue sea  
 the protean, wine-dark, grey, green, sea  
 with its metres of satin and bolts of brocade.  
 And sky – such an 0! overhead – night and day  
 must be burnished and rubbed  
 by hands that are loving  
 so the blue blazons forth  
 and the stars keep on shining  
 within and above  
 and the hands keep on moving.

 It has to be made bright, the skin of this planet  
 till it shines in the sun like gold leaf.  
 Archangels then will attend to its metals  
 and polish the rods of its rain.  
 Seraphim will stop singing hosannas 
 to shower it with blessings and blisses and praises  
 and, newly in love,  
 we must draw it and paint it  
 our pencils and brushes and loving caresses  
 smoothing the holy surfaces.   – “The Planet” © 1994 P.K. Page

Celebrated poet P.K. Page died January 14th, 2010 at the age of 93 in Victoria, B.C.  She will be missed.

Enough with all the doom and gloom out there! Upon the eve of this holiday weekend Thanksgiving, I’d like to take this slight pause to give thanks. Yes, Thanksgiving comes earlier in Canada.

I give thanks to my friends and extended family who are supportive and loving to me everyday. They support me in ways they are not even aware of and that I cannot even put into words. I owe it to them that I was able to transform myself and my life in these late forties. I give special thanks to my son who doesn’t take things for granted and appreciates both his parents, quirks, creative madness, warts and all.

I also give special thanks to all of you who have supported my art, my craft.

How lovely to get this in my mail box this morning. It is people like Elise who create great beauty with their own art and allow me to do what I love over and over again.

How wonderful. It makes me want to take a little leap in the air too …

P.S. Canadians : don’t eat too much and on Tuesday, October 14th, get out and VOTE!

OMG! What fun, but how exhausting! I have survived a weekend of being the guest artist at the Canadian Children’s Museum’s Japan and Nature Matsuri. I didn’t think I had it in me, but eleven (11!) one hour sessions later, I am still alive, exhausted but exhilarated.

So you’re probably wondering what can be done in less than an hour with a studio full of 2 year olds and up? Something simple, of course, but with the objective of big fun and high impact. Yes, you heard me right : 2 year olds. I think there was even one that was hardly old enough to be able to sit on a chair without wobbling and teetering like a weeble. Talk about living dangerously! Of course, parents were close at hand to help out the very little ones as well as the museum providing me at least 2 animators at all times.

So yes … what can one do with very limited time and limited dexterity? I decided that the biggest impact would come from combining the concepts of some very basic origami folds with 1 silk pocket square, a single rubber band and the 3 primary colours. Throw a little citric acid into some Procion MX dyes, wet your silk in advance to facilitate keeping the silk folded for little hands, find yourself a microwave oven to speed up the process, some running water and you’re ready to roll. The magic number of students per session seemed to be a maximum of 15; they could be finished in about 45 minutes from lesson to leaving with their freshly made, washed and ironed silk project, and leave me about 15 minutes before the next group came into the studio to do it all over again. In both official languages, I might add. Phew.

Imagine them leaving, each with a variation of something that looked like this. Imagine a hundred +plus+ different variations of the origami kaleidoscope. Whatever their age, the results (10″ x 10″ pocket square) were nothing but sensational!

I’ve never seen so much pride, joy and pure amazement in my life. The look in their eyes was priceless. I didn’t know the word “WOW” and “COOL” could be exclaimed as often by anybody but myself.

And what else did I learn? I knew this to be true with adults, but it was interesting to see it evolve as the children grew older, more reserved : they had more difficulty with the concept of “now, just squirt colours anywhere in any way on your project, then lets see what happens.” I was surprised to witness disdain and fear at touching their projects after the dyes had been applied when I said “now squish it so the colours mix together.”

Just to confirm my suspicions, I had many parents ask later if the results could be controlled. Of course, they can.

But isn’t just so much more fun to just squish it and see what happens?