flora

A pretty little bunch of flower petals I've been working on.

Issuu

You can now view my portfolios of paintings and of textiles on Issuu!  You don't have to be a member to view them.

New toy!

The newest issue of Cloth Paper Scissors arrived in my mailbox today.  Always fun!

Printing

Even though I know that images on the computer screen can look quite different when they are printed, it often surprises me when I get copies.  Still, most of them look rather good, and I'm happy about that.

FAT x 3

It's absolutely amazing the response to our dresses at Toronto Alternative Arts and Fashion Week.  Check these links out: here for a glowing review of the collection and the dancers, and here for a great photo!

Butterflies

My lovely machine embroidery butterflies as they were in the campus gallery for critiques.  Needs a little tweaking, but not bad! The photo doesn't do it justice, but with it going in shows coming up, why would I want to give it all away?!

Critiques

Last night I installed (with help!) my machine embroidered butterflies project in the campus gallery for our class critiques today.  They will need a little tweaking before installing for our grad show, but overall they look great!  No pictures yet though.

FAT x 2

FAT, otherwise known as Toronto Alternative Arts and Fashion Week -- Just another link, this time a youtube video of our dancers on the runway.  Enjoy!

Alternative Fashion Week

Last evening my classmates and I presented a beautiful collection of silk dresses at Toronto's Alternative Arts and Fashion Week.  Our collection, titled Seda Ferida, which means 'bruised silk' in Portuguese, was gracefully danced down the runway by ten dancers from the Toronto Dance Theatre, to a soulful, introspective piece of music. Based around the theme of longing, we developed a soft, meditative palette reflecting influences from the natural environment. 

The collection was a collaborative project for our third and final year of college studies. 

If you'd like to read more about this, I suggest you start here and here and here.

Oh, and a happy Earth Day to you!

Wednesday

Another piece in progress.  I've been working on a few different things, and enjoying some of the nice weather, smelling the flowers, and watching a bunny visit our yard. 

Ouchies

So this week I have managed, in the process of working on crafty things, to stick myself in the finger with a sewing pin, and then cut another finger with a pair of scissors.
And, had a thread worry, when I ran almost out of a colour, and discovered that the thread of that number is now a bright pink ( which is not what I was working with).  However, did manage to find a thread that is so close it doesn't show.  :)
I haven't got new pictures to show just yet of what I've been working on.  Should do soon though.

!!

haha... So the realisation that there are less than 2 weeks remaining of term has hit.  It was already there in the back of my mind, but reared its ugly head yesterday. I'm working on assignments like a PDF of my portfolio, and I don't have with me the dimensions of half my textile pieces!  Plan B is to create a portfolio of my paintings, and I don't think it's a problem for the assignment. 

April Showers

It has become clear I haven't mastered the art of daily posting.  Today's efforts revolve around the framing issues, putting the silk on the inside backing and such.  That doesn't make for a very interesting photo.  I need to do more machine embroidering soon, that will give me something neat to show, I think.

Tuesday

In contrast to yesterday, it's cooler and raining a little.  Still, everything outside smells so fresh.


I ironed my silk yardages today, disturbed the cat and got a minor steam burn in the process.  I've cut foam board for the frames that didn't come with something of that nature in them - shadow boxes for the butterfly project.  Currently I'm organizing all the sketchbook material, which is on loose sheets of paper, so that I can get it spiral bound soon.  Here's a little teaser of a piece under construction. 

Mess!

Clearing up weeks of accumulated piles of things so that we can move in this room again.  Tea stained a piece of silk yardage a little while ago and took it outside to dry, which was the first time I'd been outside today.  It's so nice out!  These are another element of the butterfly project.  They're wet felted 'cocoons' made from wool and silk fibres.

Sunday

Spending some time today making some changes to the look of the blog, and cleaning up my work space while watching a soccer game on TV.

Happy Easter!

Just an example of my current project -- a series of these butterflies.  There's going to be 12 or so for the time being.  I just have 4 or so to finish, but then it's a matter of figuring out the other components - the bodies for example.  

My work hasn't used any real bugs, but one site I came across researching for it is this one: 

http://www.insectlabstudio.com/ which is pretty neat. 

Thanks for reading!

Welcome to my new blog!  Please excuse the slow start while I get used to the whole thing.  :)