The woven Journal day 21

The day in the attic developed really fast because as crazy as December can be, of course we had to leave earlier tha usual. I am still with my moving things but hopefully soon I will finish unpacking everything. Stella came along with a little girl who was fascinated with the snow we started to have early in the week.




Natasha Sim is one of our visitors to the Attic. She is 10 years old and lives in Singapore with her mom Katherina. She will be in Grade 5 next year (they call it Primary 5 in Singapore, so not sure if its the same as grade 5 here in Canada). She loves the cold weather in Canada and loves to play in the snow. She had a brief skiing lesson in Mt Tremblant and also tried to skate. Nice to have visitors here from all around. Nice to see you here Natasha and have a safe trip back home.

New Studio!!!

It gives me great pleasure to share with you this news: our New location for the Tapestry Studio.




3 weeks ago we moved and the Tapestry studio has now a comfortable hub to create larger tapestries! Now I can have all together my library


in the same place for our members to learn and share and expand our knowledge.



This studio shares the space with the Oakville Painting Studio some other days,


but it makes the space a creative and fascinating space for inspiration. Here

Of course, I had to put a little bit of my essence ( my Mexican Corner: a kind of "Cantina" style place for all to have a snack or refreshment during an intense day).



Alebrijes, molcajetes, tequila and mascaras are just some of our traditional toys, arctifacts and decorative elements Mexico offers, and I love them because of their colour and vibrant imagery.


I was so excited to set up all the yarns and different materials all around that I immediately went to buy all the necessary stuff to build up a large frame loom that will allow me to weave a tapestry as big as 5 meters wide by 2.80 meters tall.




I started already a new project for the Series of the Exhibition in 2012. It is a picture from a bark from a Maple tree.



The materials of course vary from raw thick materials to silks, raffias or bamboo fibres.


Keep up to the development of this new project. It already looks interesting and I am so happy to start in this new space.

Congratulations to All the Members and thank you for your support.

Woven journal day 19

Interesting and fascinating as always.

This day 19 we where just starting the day with a shinny, beautiful day when suddenly one of the members of the Friday Group showed into the Attic: Artist Sonja Hidas (www.sonjahidas.com).
Not only we shared some interesting exchange of ideas regarding the visual project and the need to explore each medium as independent languages, but also the need to respect each form of expression to have their own communicative process with the spectator.
In her home page, I found this quote from James LoParo:

The compositions of Sonja Hidas are at once linear and spontaneous. The result is a visceral experience that invites you to participate in the intellect of nature.

And going through her artwork, you can understad the meaning of it.

The day passes, weaving, singing and listening to music. This time Christmas Harp soft music is the one that creates this ambiance of Winter Holiday Season soon to come.

Sybil, lovely as always, invites the weavers for lunch, which we did gladly.

It is such a feast for all the delicious food there is alwasy around the table.

We were many at the table, even some special textile guests:

We had some visitors: Sybils 8 wild cats. Some decided to pose for the photo, some where just hiding, but they were all invited to share this wonderful day at Joshua Creek.

The Attic was really lucky because has been visited by all different kinds of artists and interesting people. At the end of the week I had some artists friend from Quebec visiting me, and of course we had to bring them to the Attic.

Owen Tuf one of my friends,textile artist and landscaper (below one of her pieces that participated in the International Encounter of Textile Arts in Moon Rain Centre las Summer: When thirteen Moon Entwine)

also has been teaching yoga, dance and creative movement in the Wakefield area for several years. Her own practice is about discovering what it means to be a good human-animal and emphasizes creativity and a strong connection with the Body Earth. owen's classes follow the unique combination of Kripalu Yoga - blending traditional postures and breathwork - with the technology of modern kinesthetics. Students not only benefit from the centering, strength and flexibility that yoga brings, but are also encouraged to deepen their relationship to the wisdom of their own bodies. owen@centredelapaix.com

And what can I say about Gabby, she is also an awesome person. We had so much fun together and thinking all the possible ways we can create more and more ideas in this world to get us even closer!

TThank you to all the wonderful people who are making this tapestry Attic a place of gathering ideas and sharing a wonderful space through Sybil. It will be an unforgettable experience!

Day 18 of the Woven Journal

Day 18 of the Woven journal at the Attic.
It was one of those really cold cold windy days. Really cold and dark. Seemed like almost dusk and yet it was 10 am. But, here we where: Stella, Yamile and I, and for the first time to visit came along Irma, one of my friend's Mom who wanted to participate today in this creative process.



The day I must say was really productive! it was one of those weaving days when you can say: Hey, today I had a great advance! and I guess it happened to all of us.







As always, the energy of the place fills the hearts and warms the Soul of anyone who comes here.

Sybil had left some gorgeous collection tapestry related books for us to look through. Then she came up the stairs to let me know they were a gift from me.





Some of these books have really interesting tapestries from the origins of the traditional school of tapestries from Jean Lurcat, the French weaver-designer that revolutionized the vision of traditional tapestries into contemporary language.


Thank you Sybil. As always you keep amazing me. I will cherrish these books forever!

Mission Accomplished!

Well, after a bit of delays for many reasons, I finally finished my Bark project. First of the series for the Burlington Exhibit in 2012!
I really enjoyed working in this hues and especially with the mixing of materials, helped me create all kinds of textures and interesting places to focus at.

Woven Journal update.Day 16 in the attic!

Hi again. My life has been hectic these past weeks. I moved from one house to another (partially), then went to Mexico to help my Mom with the closing of our family home...sad and too many memories going on. Then coming back to make other moves. Anyway, here we are again in the Attic and the progress now it really is coming along.






But not everything was sad news and crazy times, we also had a wonderful visit from the Director of the Textile Museum of Oaxaca in Mexico: Ana Paula Fuentes, who came to Toronto to offer some presentations on contemporary textiles through the Textile Museum of Canada, and also in the Sheridan College. Visit the website to see how gorgeos this private owned, community Museum operates. Just fantastic!


http://www.museotextildeoaxaca.org.mx/

Here she stands with Catherine Sicot, Director of Education and Public Programmes,
develops all educational programmes for Og2. She outlines outreach strategies and oversees a team of Animateurs who design and deliver programmes that reflect the community's varied audiences. http://www.oakvillegalleries.com

And as always we couldnt leave the Heritage Centre without going to Sybils house and have a bit of History shared through some of her far interesting books.

The Pocket Eden was a compilation of watercolours by Caroline Salvin on her journeys through Guatemala. She then gave us some books in Spanish, since Ana Paula and me speak the language. Thank you Sybil!

So the day went by listening to great music, enjoying conversations with great sensitive people and sunny bright day to complete the scene!

Until next day!

Exhibition at Visual Arts Mississauga

The Exhibition on Tapestries and Painting with Ning Zhao, Stella Tang and Me was a great success. For a weekend we had visitors coming in and out. Some pieces were sold which was good, but for me was a bit sad because in my case, weird as it sounds, It is so difficult to let go any of my tapestries. They are part of me and become me.....Anyway, I had to let them go, especially a piece I love!
Here in this wall we could see Stella"s work in painting, tapestry ande of course, woven needle jewellery. She is such a multi-talented artist!


I was so impressed at Ning Zhao's oil paintings. Because I have been immersed into textures, his work just spoke to me and caught my eyes and soul!


This is one of my favourite pieces:Man of a Thousand Faces. It was one of the tapestries I had to let go. Award winner for best in Show two times, this piece was almost all natural dyed with cochineal, indigo, marigold, black tea, campeche wood,brazilian wood.....I just loved it and only a few times I have had it for sale, not wanting it to go away from me.

There it goes! giving space to new pre-colombian themes to weave ahead!


These are Stellas Poppies! one of her sold pieces! Beautiful work and lovely colours. Congratulations my Dear Stella!

Woven journal days # 10,11,12,13

So sorry if i had completely left this task behind. My life, as always is going crazy, especially because I am preparing an exhibition together with Stella, another exhibition for Burlington Art Centre, classes, Studio, and on top of everything....I am moving in 2 weeks!!!!
Anyway I would like to thank all the wonderful and lovely people who have dropped by the Attic to say hi, share cookies, take pictures, chat for a while or just to say hi! To ALL, thanks on behalf of what people are calling us now:
Ladies of the Attic! isn't it fantastic? Ladies of the Attic! It sounds like the princess of the Tower...jiji

Sybil came, together with her Art Connections Group. Read below and you will definitely understand why weaving in an attic where just amazing and creative people surround you, cant be but just as magnificent as it is! I really thank Sybil the opportunity to do this project here.

Back row (fourth step), left to right: Sybil Rampen, Sharron Begg (waving), Dianne Gibson, Ann Sanders, Gail Rhynard
Third step, left to right: Anne Luxton, Chris Kummer, Sandra Meech
Seond step, left to right: Johnnene Maddison, Maggie Vanderweit, Jan Taylor, Susan Strachan Johnson (with mascot), Bev White
Front row, left to right: Linda Janzen, Helen Hughes
Kneeling: John Willard

Missing: Ralph Beney, Penny Berens, Gordana Brelih, Martha Cole, Laura Dobrindt, Elizabeth Duggan Litch, Joan Fraser, Susan Martin, Eileen Neill, Laura Thompson, Jacqueline Venus

Find more info by clicking into Joshua Creek Heritage art éCentre or visit their webpages.

Please click on underlined names to see a sampling of our members' work.
	Sharron Begg		Linda Janzen		Ann Sanders
	Penny Berens		Chris Kummer		Evita Schvallbe
	Gordana Brelih		Anne Luxton		Marion Spanjerdt
	Elizabeth Duggan Litch		Johnnene Maddison		Susan Strachan Johnson
	Martha Cole		Susan Martin		Jan Taylor
	Joan Fraser		Sandra Meech		Maggie Vanderweit
	Dianne Gibson		Eileen Neill		Jacqueline Venus
	Andrea Graham		Sybil Rampen		Bev White
	Helen Hughes		Gail Rhynard		John Willard

Here,
Yamile and Delta my cousin who recently moved to oakville, Jenny, one of the members of my Studio who paints lovely (visit http://oakvillepaintingstudio.blogspot.com) and you can also see the work of her lovely daughter, Vicky who paints and weaves!
One of the artists brought an interesting article from the National Post from Wednesday October 20, 2010 about Rogue Weave....We commented about it and the thin line of art and craft!
It has been such nice sunny days.



Day 13, which is already today Wednesday Nov. 3rd.
Cold Cold morning. Everything was frozen and yet the sun blessed the day. The frozen pond and dead flowers create a lovely scenery of sparkling lights!

Wendy Weaver,

and artist from Toronto commented:" You've brought the outside colours in! it is a magnificent day today and you are locking that into your threads...Glorious Tapestry!

Today only Stella and I where the only weavers. I had to leave early, so did she. Minutes passed by and we hardly spoke or took breath!
We where just soooo immersed into our weaving..plus the renaissance music that it completed our inner silence!
details of the weaving so far:



Until next time.