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OVWSG 2023 Sale and exhibition (part 1)

OVWSG 2023 Sale and exhibition (part 1)

Vacarious Shopping!!

In November, The local weavers and spinners guild in Ottawa Canada have there annual sale and exhibition (briefly interrupted by the pandemic but running again this year!) The sale is held int the Glebe Community Center, which started out its life as St. James Methodist Church, begun in 1914 and finished in 1924. In the 1970’s it was converted to its present function of community center and rental hall. We take over the hall on Friday after noon to mark out the booths, set up tables then the venders arrive to set up there booths.

we have booths with local guild members and other fiber artists selling there finished items or various sorts of supplies and equipment. We also have a guild coop booth, make and take tables, a demo area and the guild info booth.

There was a large team organizing the event and publicity was mostly on line this year. Ann is the best one to speak to that part of the sale if you are very curious. I was only busy with a few parts of preparations. My jobs are more during the sale, the main one is photo document the sale and to take shots that hopefully will be useful in next years publicity as well as to entice anyone on our guild face book group to come shopping at the show. (I spend a couple hours posting photos to the group on Saturday night after the first day of the sale, I only took 343 photos, but didn’t inflict all of them on the group I promises!

Lets take a look around the sale, We had two booths with felting and a few with fiber that may be of interest. lest start at the guild table, which has the door prize for the surveys, stickers while they last, the Canadian moose skein winder bags, and extras magazines surplus to our collection (2.00 each). (there are also name tags with silly  or odd sheep for those who are working at the sale. you may spot them in various pictures.)

floor plan of booths at the sale1) Font of flyer

doors into the sale and poster with shuttle and spindle2) the doors into the sale, let’s take a look inside

As you went through the doors the Guild info booth was to your Left, we tried to ask everyone to fill out a Survey to enter for the door prizes.

  3) Guild table; Sheep name tags, survey slips, stickers for filling out the survey.

Door Prizes, white and blue handwoven shawl and felted lattern4) The door prizes for filling out the survey, which were drawn at the November guild meeting.

We were wanting to know how people found out about the sale (check our focus for advertising was working) and the aria that shoppers came from by asking for their postal code. This will let us check where most shoppers come from and see if there is a change from year to year. (Ann let me have fun with both the data enters and data analysis last time)

We also had a display of the Moose project bags,

OVWSG Anniversary Moose project bag5 )the 75th anniversary moose bags

And the Magazines that were extra to the guilds collection.

Magazines for sale6) Magazines for sale

in front of the guild tables are the Demo area to the left,

Spinning and weaving demo area7) Spinning and Weaving demo

Pine needle Basket making demo8) Pine needle basket demo

starting needle felting on the canvis moose bag. Felted Bat on a stick is sitting beside the moose bag 9) Felting demo

 The make take tables are on the right.  This was a fun spot that let people try spinning (on a Mayonnaise lid spindle), weaving (on a small frame or on a tapestry loom) and wet felting (acorns).

teaching spinning on a mayonnaise lid drop spindle 10) a spinning lesson with Mayonnaise lid spindles

2 girls weaving on popsical stick frame looms11) weaving on little frames

the Exhibition is in between Make and take table and the Demo area.  The theme was “Safire” this year, which leads into our “Diamond” anniversary theme next year.

2 veiws of the OVWSG Exhibition, the theam is Safires12) the exhibition

Molly's Entery in the exhibit was a wet felted vessel with inclustions of blue beads and rocks  13) Molly’s Wet felted Vessel

I suspect you will be interested in this one which was made by Molly Underhill. I think she said it was inspired by geologic core samples.

The guild had 3 wheels for sale which were displayed near the exhibition. the Louet S60 sold extremely quickly.  Which left the CPW (a fast spinning wheel used for production spinning and  the beautiful little Tyrol Spinning wheel . another wheel was dropped off but after more inspection it has a few repairs needed. It may need to have a spa day with Deborah, the OVWSG rental coordinator. (There are advantages to in person guilds but the commute to our blog or an on line guild is so much faster!)

a CPW and Tyrol wheel14)The wheels

 Canadian Production Wheel (CPW), a double drive wheel with tilt tension and a cast mettle footman.

Tiny Tyrol Spinning wheel, screw tension, peg for flyer,  Slow ratio, large mettle insert for orifice. There is a larger but very similar wheel in the Museum collection of Canadian Museum of history (previously M. of Civilization)

the two wheels sitting beside eachother showing how much smaller the Tyrol wheel is when comparied to a CPW15) Size comparison of CPW and Tyrol wheels

We had a small exhibit on the theme Safire this year, which leads into our Diamond anniversary theme next year.

Lets have a quick tour around the booths, starting with the co op booth. This allows guild members who have only a few things to sell or those with jobs at the sale who cant have a booth participate in the sale.

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16) Co-op booth

I hope this give you a suggestion of the diversity of the guild members work.

Since we are already on page 24 I think I should save the rest of the booths for the next post! Are you already shopping vicariously? (Save a bit of your Vicarious shopping money for the booths from the next post!!)

more shopping for the Mer’s, again looking for Hair

more shopping for the Mer’s, again looking for Hair

As is the way with my life, I have had another change of plans.

My goal was to find hair for two more of the Mer family. My plan was to look for long locks at the fibre festival “For the love of Fibre”, in Spencerville and if that didn’t work out I would look at the Peterborough Weavers Guild fibre fest on the following weekend. We had also discovered that because of the Coronation Upper Canada Village would have free admission the same Saturday as the event in Spencerville (much closer to UCV than Ottawa.)

So part one of my plan was on May 6th to head to Spencerville. Then if I felt up to it, on to the Historical 1860s village at Upper Canada Village. I had a couple of friends who were working there last summer and have wanted to see it for quite a while. Let me show you how the first part of the plan went.

Last year “For the Love of Fibre” was the first post pandemic fiber festival that I got to attend. It was held in Johnstown, just a bit further south than this year. I am pretty sure I showed you that exciting.

May 6th arrived looking like it might be a sunny day with big puffy clouds to add to the photographic opportunities. We got up extra early to gather the couple of things we would need to bring. I had planned to bring Mrs Mer as well as her son Shark Boy to look for long locks for their hair. I discovered she was…. ummmm, busy canoodling (aggressive cuddling, enthusiastic hugging?) with her husband, so I just turned their project bag around and went to find her son. I picked up my camera and Shark Boy’s1q project bag and headed to the car.

It was a nice drive down. The trees are in the budding to early leaf stage and I was suspecting we might see the first trillium as we headed south. We got there early, arriving just before Ann. She took a picture of us getting Shark Boy settled and us ready for shopping (Glenn brought a book). You can see how excited Sharkboy looks! It must be the thought of getting his hair. I think he has decided on a Mohawk with long hair down his back, sort of an extra-long mullet. I think the Mohawk is to complement his front Dorsal fin.

1) Sharkboy standing in his project beg attached to Jan’s black walker with her husband (and the back of my Grey Kea Soul, I am sure you were expecting I possessed a black soul!).1) Sharkboy standing in his project beg attached to Jan’s black walker with her husband (and the back of my Grey Kea Soul, I am sure you were expecting I possessed a black soul!).

There were 3 outside vendors, with the rest inside.

2) Stone Spindle Farm Booth; with alpaca yarn, fiber and hats. The vender is hanging up suit cages full of low-grade alpaca to provide the birds as nesting material.2) Stone Spindle Farm Booth; with alpaca yarn, fibre and hats. The vendor is hanging up suit cages full of low-grade alpaca to provide the birds as nesting material.

 I was admiring some indigo-dyed alpaca but wanted to wait until I found out if there were any locks inside. (OH the not-buying remorse I felt later!!! I do know who bought it and that it will be well enjoyed.)

3) baskets strewn artistically under a pule trees with an E-Bike near the front with panions baskets.3) baskets are strewn artistically under a few trees with an E-Bike near the front with pannier baskets.

Did you notice the cool bike baskets, some have lids.

Inside we found a few of our guild members had booths! I did a fast wheel around the venue looking for long locks but to no avail. Sorry, Sharkboy! We will have to try plan 2, next weekend. Even with not having the long locks I was looking for there was a good selection of vendors having Yarn, fibre, baskets, bags, and fibre tools. I didn’t get every booth but here are some of the highlights.

4) A quick over view of part of the venders.4) A quick overview of part of the vendors.

5) digging for colours in balls of hand died Super wash Marino fiber.5) digging for colours in balls of hand died Superwash Marino fibre.

6) More fiber from the Black Lamb booth.6) More fibre from the Black Lamb booth.

7) Beautiful project bags and peruses7) Beautiful project bags and purses

8) Moose hill woodworks had lots of fiber tools, all beautifully made. (Yes, I got another spindle of a type I didn’t have.)8) Moose Hill Woodworks had lots of fibre tools, all beautifully made. (Yes, I got another spindle of a type I didn’t have.)

9) Odd new spindle, I was trying it with some of the new extremely soft Finn wool I also purchased. The back of the tag says Yellow Birch, 1.3oz/39g9) Odd new spindle, I was trying it with some of the new extremely soft Finn wool I also purchased. The back of the tag says Yellow Birch, 1.3oz/39g

10) Beaux Arbres booth had basketry10) Beaux Arbres booth had basketry

11) This booth had fiber samples you could feel (the bags of them are behind the table.)11) This booth had fibre samples you could feel (the bags of them are behind the table.)

12) This is the side table of the same booth with the fiber. Check out her fine ponies!12) This is the side table of the same booth with the fibre. Check out her fine ponies!

 13) Fin roving it is actually semi-worsted the vender has her own mill!!! I have never felt such a soft finn sheep.13) Fin roving is actually semi-worsted the vendor has her own mill!!! I have never felt such a soft Finn sheep.

Ann investigated further and found out it was from a lamb. I only bot 2oz I should have bout more! Ann also got some to make her trees with.

14) This was an ingenious support spindle case.14) This was an ingenious support spindle case.

15) The booth the support spindle bag came from had more spindles and lots of rolages. 15) The booth the support spindle bag came from had more spindles and lots of rolags.

16) A couple booths had yarn for weaving and knitting.16) A couple of booths had yarn for weaving and knitting.

17) This Was Susan Allen’s Booth with weaving yarns, I think this was a Cotton or a Cottolin that Ann was looking at.17) This Was Susan Allen’s Booth with weaving yarns, I think this was a Cotton or a Cottolin that Ann was looking at.

18-19) Janet's Basketry, hand made basket with handwoven fabric presented in rolls18-19) Janet's Basketry, handwoven baskets one with antler in it.18-19) Janet’s Basketry

20) Janet’s booth, she is just finishing setup as the first customers arrive20) Janet’s booth, she is just finishing setup as the first customers arrive

 I wandered into Janet Whittam’s booth, she has a combination of weaving and basketry, and she also has beautiful woven jackets and wraps.

21) sharkboy standing in his project bag, attached to my walker.21) Shark Boy standing in his project bag, attached to my walker.

Even though he didn’t have any luck finding hair I think Shark Boy enjoyed his outing. It was still a worthwhile shopping trip with new fibre and spindle.

I was still feeling pretty good so we decided to head on to UCV, maybe it would cheer up Shark Boy! There is a mill, the blacksmith shop, the weaving house (with spinning) and the dressmaker’s house. We packed up the car and headed a bit further south and east arriving at a very busy Upper Canada village parking lot. We found a good parking spot in the mostly empty handicapped section (I was very glad for that parking permit by the time we made it back to the car!)

22) Sharkboy checks out the special parking for Mer-people (and those with walkers) as we arrive at UCV.22) Shark Boy checks out the special parking for Mer-people (and those with walkers) as we arrive at UCV.

Unfortunately, that change of plans thing I mentioned at the beginning happened Tuesday morning and is preventing me from telling you about the rest of my visit. As soon as I can I will tell you all about the fun we had visiting the village, and a bit of its background.

23) The entrance buildings of Upper Canada village.23) The entrance buildings of Upper Canada village.

A new spindle

A new spindle

Both Jan and Bernadette have told you about our guild sale and exhibition. Now it’s my turn. I didn’t have my own booth this year so I got to wander around and fill in and help out wherever I was needed. It was really nice to not be assigned anywhere and just enjoy the show and chat with everyone after not seeing so many in person for a couple of years.

I am not a big spender at these things. I look for new fibres and add-ons and how people are combining things. Then I  go looking for the ingredients to make my own.

The one thing I do buy is spindles. I bought a new spindle from Judy Kavanaugh. https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/JudyKavanagh  She makes all kinds of tools and patterns.  This one is a bedouin-style spindle.  It has 4 arms and is a top whorl spindle instead of a bottom whorl spindle I usually use.  The wood is beautiful.

 

Bedouin Spindle

People kept asking if it was a Turkish spindle but you can’t take the arms off this one and you don’t wrap your yarn around them. this is the other way up so you can see the wool cob on it. The angle makes it look small.

close up of the wool yarn on spindle

I am enjoying spinning on it. and that brings up to the other things I bought. I bought 2 batts from Bernadette. I like to buy them from Bernadette because she isn’t recarding wool tops. She is using wool she processed herself and it is really nice to spin.

blue wool batts for spinning. a bedouin spindle

The Darker blue is what I am spinning on my new spindle and it’s marked as mixed fibre. It’s soft and a little shiny.

The brighter blue I am spinning on another spindle.

bright blue wool batt and drop spindle close up of yarn of a drop spindle

The wool is much spongier and I have lost the label but I am betting it’s Coopworth. It’s very nice to spin too.

This post is a bit backward because I bought the wool first and the spindle second. The new spindle is more exciting to chat about so it got top billing. It really went like this. I started to spin the bright blue batt first. Then I decided that a blue spindle that Judy had for sale really was calling my name. When I went to get it, someone had already bought it. You snooze you lose. then standing there chatting with Judy I saw her spinning on a Bedouin spindle and gave it a try and decided it was just as well the other one was sold. I picked out the lovely one at the top. So then I abandoned this lovely fibre and started spinning on my new spindle with the other batt.

All in all, I think I was very restrained in my buying. There were so many pretty things I could have bought.

Here is a picture of me spinning at the show. And yes I really did chop my hair off. It was time for a change and it will grow again.

28 Ann took her new spindle for a spin!

 

 

The Show is Over

The Show is Over

The show is over. It was a really good show with lots of people. I was really pleased with how I did.  Now a day or two to recover and I have to start thinking of what to make for the next one.

This was my booth. Jan took the picture. I am hoping using the embed link from One drive will work.

I need more than a 10×10 booth but not 10 by 20, so I take two and My friend Bernadette takes half of one.

I sold one of my art pieces. My First Quarter Challenge piece. that made me very happy and sad at the same time.   https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2019/03/27/first-quarter-challange-finished/

 

So far I am failing at my third-quarter challenge. I hade a couple of ideas and then changed my mind then picked something else and even did a layout but nope, I am not feeling it.  It was another planet sort of thing. I have another idea but we will see.

This was the other planet one. The white domes are paper.

 

I wanted to remind people that World Wide Spin in Public Day is coming up, September 21, 2019. Are you Planning to spin with friends or by yourself? Or at a shop or other event? If you have been thinking about trying spinning this would be a great day to do it. I will be at the farmers market with my spindle. Here is a facebook group. There are lots of posts about places to participate.   facebook.com/groups/wwsipday/

 

A show and Picture Progress

A show and Picture Progress

I had a show on the weekend. It was quite good. We put a big push on advertising on Facebook and Instagram and it looks like it paid off. There were more customers this year. It’s nice that everyone’s efforts paid off.

This is what my booth looked like.

I sat in the back near the mirror and worked on my Moy MacKay class picture. You can see it on the left of the table.  People were very interested and it helped to start conversations.

On the second day, I changed the table around a little to see if the little bags would go better.  It might have been a little better. people look at them a lot but they are not selling. Maybe the price is a bit high. I need to get my webpage set up to sell or get my Etsy page up and working.

This is what it looked like at the beginning of the day.

I added some more to the fences and some shadows for the ones on the left as the sun is on that side. added some purple to the left backfield to tone it down as it farther away.  The big thing I worked on mountains. The wool colours were running across, So they really didn’t look like trees. I added a thin layer of wool going the other way to make it look more like it is covered in trees. I used a greyer green so they will reseed more.

 

Now I need to add some shading to give the mountains some definition and mountainy shape. It’s coming along. At the moment I am working on the holiday card exchange. What are you working on?

 

A brief glimpse into the Knitting & Stitching Show in London

A brief glimpse into the Knitting & Stitching Show in London

This weekend the biggest fibre and fabric-related event in Europe happened right here in London. Every year I volunteer for my spinning guild and, in return, I get a free pass for all days.

Although the Knitting & Stitching Show is mostly about the sales, there’s always a section dedicated to textile arts. Established artists as well as art school finalists exhibit their work every year, so that’s what I’m sharing with you today.

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Let’s admire this larger-than-life crocheted cow by TOFT. They also had a giant lobster and other animals. How many hours went into each?

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The artist Jenni Dutton had an exhibit about her Mother, called Dementia Darnings. You can imagine by the title how poignant each portrait was – we see this woman depicted from a young age to her final, frail days. I was very moved by it.
Look closely – can you tell how each work was created?

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It’s yarn. You can see it hanging down on the portrait above. Isn’t it wonderful? All this hard work, you can tell the artist loved her mother very much. I felt like hugging her for this dedication.

Next, quilts. I’m not a particular fan of the “traditional” ones but when this technique is applied to create something unusual, you have my full attention.

I’m afraid the pictures don’t do these works justice. Both artists are American I think you can feel a lovely sort of vintage US vibe to these images.

Finally, something that made me smile, by Libby Vale.

IMG_3564

Ironing is definitely not on my list of priorities, so I connected perfectly with the sentiments depicted in this board!

There was a lot more to show, but I’ll leave that to my next blog post. I hope you enjoyed my choice of art. Have you ever been to the Knitting & Stitching Show, or a similar event where textile art is shown? Let me know all about it in the comments section.

Joseph Banks Challenge

Joseph Banks Challenge

This weekend sees the launch of the latest body of work by Lincolnshire based textile group LINQS.  The group, which welcomes any gender and any ability, is now in its fourth year.  The only criteria for becoming a member is that you must reside in the county of Lincolnshire.  Members are given an annual challenge to make a quilt, or quilts, based on a particular famous person, place or theme.  It was being invited to join LINQS in 2014 that first got me started on the path to textile art so I have a lot to thank them for!

Our first challenge was Inspired by David Hockney.  The group had a terrific response from local ladies and secured a national tour with Grosvenor Shows with our quilts being displayed up and down the country.  Our work visited venues from Ardingley in the south to Edinburgh in the north and various places in between.

These are just a tiny number of the quilts in the first exhibition…..

By Wendy Skinner
By Mary Jackson
By Textile Lincs
By Carol Parkinson

Being completely new to this medium I was fired with enthusiasm and produced four quilts.  The first was a small black and white take on the painting “Woldgate Woods”….

My next attempt was based on a photograph taken by the river in Horncastle, keeping with Hockneys recurring theme of “trees”.

The third one was my take on a 1954 mixed Media self-portrait….

By now I was gaining confidence and moved on from making small quilts (30cm x 40cm) to making my fifth quilt which was 30” x 40”…..

The following year it was decided that in future we would make our person, place or thing “Lincolnshire” based and Isaac Newton, being born in the county, was selected.  These are a few of the quilts from that show created by four of the members…..

By Karen Lane
By Mary Jackson
By Jean Proud

 

By Pat Cave

Our third challenge was to make quilts inspired by the famous Botanist and Explorer Sir Joseph Banks whose family estate was at Revesby.  The first showing of this body of work will be this Friday at “The Village”, Lincolnshire’s only living museum, which is in Skegness.

Banks became the president of the Royal Society in 1777, where he remained until his death in 1820. He was known as a prominent endorser of travelers and scientific men. Many voyages of discovery were approved and carried out under his supervision. He was the first person to introduce the Western world to acacia, mimosa, eucalyptus and Banksia, a genus named after him. About 80 other species of plants were also named after him.

While researching Banks I came across an image of a Banksia Seed Pod which had been charred in a bush fire.  Anyone who knows my preferred colour palette will recognise why this provided the inspiration I needed for my Banks quilt!

I began by making a background using cotton fabric and painted tea bag paper……

Next came the individual “pods” (no idea of the proper technical term for these bits!) which were cut from painted interfacing free machine embroidered and wadded with thick felt…..

The main body of the Seed Pod was wet Felted Norwegian fibres, free motion stitched before adding the “bits” on top.  My finished piece measures 48cm x 30cm.

I can‘t show you anyone else’s work as I don’t have photos as yet but if you are in the Skeggy area this weekend why not drop in and see them for yourself.  For everyone else I will post an update very soon.

Connected Paths

Connected Paths

I told you in another piece about an art show my guild is having to celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday . This is another piece I made for it. It is called connected.

As usual I started with  2 pieces of prefelt with a piece of cheese cloth in the middle for strength without bulk.

Then I added some multi coloured top I had. I didn’t want the path to be a solid colour.

I cut out prefelt pieces to make all the different houses. I tried to get houses from around the world. I didn’t place them in any particular order and every section got an apartment. I tacked all the pieces down using  felting needles. I didn’t want them to move.

Then bushes and trees were added.

I started this project back in December. I spend along time hand stitching ( and unpicking and redoiong) the windows and doors. I tried to use different yarns for every house and apartment. Then I signed up for Ruth’s free motion embroidery class.  I didn’t have much time to practice before I had to do the trees and bushes so it could go to be made ready for the guild show. The stitching is perhaps not the greatest but I think it goes well with the style of the picture.

 

I did get it in, in time and it has now been catalogued and properly photographed. The Guild art show celebrating Canada’s 150th birthday will be open on May 9, 2017 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Here’s a link to the invitation. https://www.facebook.com/events/282526522160719/?active_tab=about

Unfortunately Facebook will not let you create a 3 week event so it only shows as a 2 week event. The actual dates to see all 150 12×12 pieces ( many are for sale)   are May 9-28. We are having a reception on the last day so if you would like to meet some of the artists join us for refreshments on the 28th  between 1:00 and 3:00.

 

Out of the Box Part 2

Out of the Box Part 2

Last time I showed you a sub set of the Out of the Box Show.  https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2017/01/18/colour-unboxed-by-out-of-the-box/

This time I am going to show you about half of the rest of the show. It was a really big show. Some of the shots are not great but it was so crowded that there were a few that always had someone in front of them and I never got a picture. I made them into a slideshow  so you wouldn’t have to scroll down to far..  If there is any artworks you would like the artist info on let me know I took a picture of all the cards that went with the artworks so I can get the info for you.

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Guild Show and Sale

Guild Show and Sale

Just home form 2 days as a vendor at my guilds annual show and sale. It was a busy weekend. we stayed open late on Saturday night but with it being the first time it wasn’t busy. It did give us time to look at each others things and have some good chats with fellow vendors, so not all bad. It did make for a very long day, 10am to 8 pm. Sunday morning before everyone got there I took some movies of the show so you can see it. They are not grate but I am doing better at moving slower and smoother. I hope you enjoy them.

My both is the second one you see, in the corner.

I don’t seem to have any programs on my computer that edit video. I thought I did but the programs that will show me the video want me to buy and upgrade to be able to do anything with the video. these videos were done with my iPhone What do you use to edit video?

 

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