Welcome to our rotating gallery of work produced by you, our family of customers. We are very proud to present the following textile artists' pieces and congratulate each one of them for their thoughtful, creative and beautiful work. We like to share with you some of the lovely work we are privileged to see at conferences and classes and in our mail.
We will rotate this exciting forum every 4-6 months dependent on the pieces submitted. Please continue to send us your submissions of pieces made using Treenway Silks' Products for the Silkster's Gallery. If we choose your work to be displayed in the gallery we would like to reward you with a $25 gift certificate to Treenway Silks
We require:
- a photo of your work
- a close–up, detail shot of the piece if available
- technical information, e.g., yarn used, sett, 4 or 8 shaft pattern
- artist's comments: anything you you would like to say about the ease or problems, how successful or not, your inspiration, etc.
- your address and or e-mail address: if you want mail, otherwise we will just print your name and city
- Please be sure that your submission uses Treenway Silks products
See our previous Silkster's
Galleries:
February 2011 |
May 2010 |
February 2010 |
February 2009
September 2008 |
May 2008 |
February 2008
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Marguerite Band Marguerite sent us an image of her gorgeous shawl and we could feel her excitement when she wrote, "I would like to share with you my delight in receiving 3rd place prize in the accessories category for my Paua Shell Silk Shawl at the Vancouver Island Fibre Arts Showcase in September 2010." Marguerite says, "The glowing swirl of colours of the New Zealand paua shell was my inspiration for this handwoven shawl. To capture these colours and their luminosity, I hand dyed Treenway Silks 12/2 in blue violet, blue green and blue red using Landscape dyes from Australia. To weave this piece I chose a 6 shaft modified twill draft and a single colour weft to unify the 3 coloured warp and to bring out the swirling flow of colour that I sought. 
Width: 24 inches I love the luxury of silk. As a shawl this piece is both cool and warm, an elegant accessory for evening wear, and with blue jeans for a more casual setting." |
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Nancy Cole It is always a treat for us to see how people have evolved their work and talents. It was inspiring to learn a little about Nan across the continent by words on the screen. 
"My practice has evolved into contemporary and concept based art pieces based on the notions of quilting and other traditional textile techniques. My work has a strong narrative base and contains elements of text. I use silk exclusively and my work is not decorative. I am a fourth generation quilter and come from a line of strong, practical and plain women. Blue Cocoons is the result of an open call for a collaborative art project with the Prince Edward Island Writers Guild and Island visual artists. Island poets were invited to create a piece for random distribution to a visual artist. I believe it was a tight deadline for the poets, about two weeks. I received my poem March 11 and had three weeks to complete a visual art piece with the poem as inspiration. It took me about five days to come up with the initial concept for Blue Cocoon. The poem, The Mother, was about giving birth, something I have never experienced. The elements I wanted to use were silk cocoons as batting, representing the womb and birth canal and sheer silk organza for the back and front, representing skin. I transferred the words of the poem onto ultra sheer silk and cut each word and randomly dropped them onto the heavily brushed cocoon batting. I had been dying to use the cocoons from Treenway Silks but hadn't had the right opportunity until now. I split one cocoon and dyed it red. This is a double metaphor, one representing the red centre of a traditional log cabin quilt block (heart) and the second is to represent the emptying womb. The other fifteen cocoons were a different shade of blue, two reasons, waves and boy babies. I used white quilting thread to quilt the layers with conceptual images of seven moths in flight. Now that my piece is finished, images go to another participating poet for a totally different poem based on my visual piece. Sort of like a circle song. The exhibition of poems and visual art will take place in Charlottetown at the Gallery at the guild sometime in late April or early May. I am now certifiably cocoon crazy. I see a future of an entire solo exhibition of transparent pieces done with cocoon batting and transparent back and front. It has fired my imagination beyond belief. I finished a small sample for my next project, if funded, Sorrowful Songs. I am deeply sorrowful for the terrible losses in the world so to express this sorrow, I plan to create three long, narrow panels, one dealing with natural disasters, the second with man made disasters and the third with extinction. The three pieces will spell SOS, when backlit. This small, conceptual sample shows the first panel with a backlit S. What inspired me to do these pieces was a Polish composer, Gorecki and his symphony number 3. Something sorrowful can also be powerful. I Am A Log Cabin was made with Treenway's sari strips as a log cabin quilt block to celebrate the centenary of International Womens Day. I loved the vibrancy of the silks." |
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Sheila Ehmann Sheila told us, "Honestly, your silk products do crazy things to my imagination. Who knew I had this in me? The only artwork I have done is counted cross stitch so to create something, especially 3-dimenstional is stretching my brain in new directions. It all started when I stumbled upon your website and fell in love with the silk and the colours. I just had to have some, even though at the time I didn't know what I would do." Willa, the Troll Sheila told us this about Willa, "I created several silk fusion papers made of various greens, browns and rusts. The troll form is made out of a used water bottle, cut into shape and stabilized with glue and masking tape. I ripped the silk fusion into strips and applied with glue to the plastic form. Other forms of silk were also used such as carrier rods, strippings, throwsters silk and the fusion made of silk hankies. A feather from a flicker bird added to her personality. Her shoes and face are cocoons. 
The inspiration for Willa came about when I walked through a dead pine forest in the West Chilcotin area of British Columbia. While the forest is 'red and dead', there are many beautiful objects to see, such as cones and mosses that seem to be freeze-dried and still attached to the dead tree. I wanted Willa to show the colours of this forest in her costume, including the lichen brooch she is wearing. Contact Sheila at damara20@hotmail.com. |
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Susan Forsberg Susan's stitching has been part of her recovery after the removal of a very large and painful but benign brain tumour. We were happy to hear once again of the healing and therapeutic qualities connected to working with our hands and nice fibres. Three Dimensional Embroidery with Silk When I first got home from the hospital, I spent my time going through my studio and reorganizing the things I had not been able to put away properly because of the pain in my head. The embroidery was the first project celebrating the joy of my life being extended. I have been embroidering more than fifty years loving the moments I have a needle and thread or ribbon in my hand. My recent embroidery with silk was delightful to work with while it added a new delicious flavour. What joy! I am often asked how long did that take you and as I don't keep a time record my answer is simply 'from beginning to end'. Although I love to see the finished piece, I enjoy embroidering so much I usually wish it could go on and on and not end. Should I not 'get enough' and the piece is finished I can always start another which is the case with the two bags featured here. The smaller bag with the floral three dimensional stitching is used to store the tools I am using. The larger sea shell and shore wave bag, holds both the smaller bag with tools and any new work in progress. I was honoured when Karen chose to use my embroideries for this gallery showing, as I have found so much inspiration from the others who have been featured in the Silkster's Gallery." Contact Susan at warmsunnysmile@shaw.ca. 
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Jean Korus Jean has been a weaver and friend for many years. She also confessed years ago, that she would not take on spinning because there were not enough hours to do all the weaving she had in mind. Well, this is what Jean says about her spinning now, "I use the spinning as a reward for getting other things done. It has really been fun." All of the scarves are woven on a 24 shaft point twill with Treenway's 20/2 spun silk for the warp and handspun silk fibre from Treenway's Salt Spring Island Series for the weft. The sett is 30 epi. The weft is a singles yarn to show off the beautiful colours. It was wonderful to spin! I tried to keep the colors in order when I did the spinning and the weaving. I wound off all the bobbins for the weft and then started with the last one first. It helps to number them. I think I used 3 bobbins per scarf. I hand washed the finished scarves and gave them a hard press to bring out the sheen of the silk." |
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Kay Lange We discussed Kay's helmet project with her while she was working on it and were thrilled when we finally got to see the images she sent us. It was part of a show called Hats – Wise Women Speak. Kay writes, "Wise women embrace adventure! I love hats! I wear hats and I make hats. I have worn hats to church because my mother ordered, 'The good Lord deserves a hat once a week.' I have worn hats for sun, hats for warmth and hats for fun. When I was young, I was a dancer and I wore costume hats. I wore uniform hats as a flight attendant and golf and gardening hats in retirement." BUT – my most memorable hat will always be my motorcycle helmet. Much to everyone's surprise, I donned my first helmet in 2007 (at the ripe old age of 63), and rode on the back of a Gold Wing motorcycle from the beginning to the end of Route 66. Three weeks and 3,500+ miles from Chicago to LA is truly one of the best adventures of my life. Whodathunkit? Smoke on the outside and Fire on the inside."
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Jan Massie Jan the spiderlady has created some more fabulously funky and spectacularly creative necklaces. She tells us a little about them. Changes "This thoughtful piece is being entered into a fiber show. It depicts the changing life of the silkworm from caterpillar to moth. The necklace base was made with hand dyed Treenway silk roving which was spun into a fingering weight yarn and wrapped over a core. The silk moth is made from habatoi silk which was hand dyed and machine stitched. The caterpillar is handspun white silk with beads sewn on for the legs. The white mulberry leaf is throwsters silk dyed and mixed with wool then felted. Holes were burned into it to simulate having been eaten by the caterpillar. I used one whole cocoon which the caterpillar spins as its metamorphosis home and one cut cocoon to show how the caterpillar escapes when it has turned into a moth. Alice The second piece used hand dyed cashmere. I loved the colors and decided to dye the cocoons to match. I did a core wrap necklace base and inserted whole cocoons into spots and wrapped yarn to secure them. I cut other cocoons open to make flowers and layered them with another cocoon. This was the first of my necklaces and I love the color and feel of the soft wearable art."
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Barbara Nichols (aka Frankie) It was a lovely to learn about how Frankie's Chickadee came into being. "I started the Master Spinning Program at Olds College in Olds, Alberta, in 2007. It is a six year program with classroom instruction for one week a year, followed by months of intensive practice perfecting the techniques learned, by completing set homework assignments. Level 2 had a section on spinning for embroidery. I had never embroidered anything in my life let alone spun for embroidery, but I jumped right in not knowing what to expect. My first experience with spinning for embroidery was with wool, however, in level 3 there was an intensive section on spinning silk for embroidery. A few years ago, I was lucky enough to receive a gift certificate from Treenway Silks that some friends gave to me for my birthday. I chose Bombyx silk roving for its beautiful sheen and tussah silk roving because of the richness of the champagne colour. It had been waiting in my stash for the right project, which would be something for level 3. The object was to spin the fibre in such a way that it would be able to withstand the continuous abrasion of passing through the fabric without it breaking down. I saw an etched bird on a mirror in a local store and loved the scene, it inspired me to use my favourite bird, the Chickadee, as the subject of the embroidery project. The bird and pinecone are stitched in the hand spun tussah silk and the branches and snow are stitched in hand spun Bombyx silk. The whole project has wetted my appetite for more silk embroidery. I am hoping to get some muga silk for my next project which is an owl. Since then I have discovered another embroidery technique that intrigues me called Swedish Weave and I am now working on woven hand spun tussah silk as the background and handspun Bombyx silk for the embroidery. I think I've been seriously bitten by the bug... or the silkworm, as the case may be." |
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Nicole Norman We are grateful to Nicole's boyfriend who prompted her to send us some photos of her work. She is proud that the corset is embellished with real butterflies, but is quick to point out they were found after dying of natural causes. My Nature "I started out with this idea while attending the Anna Templeton Centre for Craft, Art and Design in St. Johns, NL. This school is one of the most amazing places in Newfoundland you can ever find to stimulate your creativity and be encouraged to create the most amazing pieces. They highly promote the use of natural products and introduced me to Treenway Silks I made my first butterfly corset in 2006 and it has become a staple of my collection of designs. There have been more to follow, and each one is unique and beautiful in its own way. Explaining the process of how it is made, peaks everyone's interest. The lining is dyed woven silk, with a riveted back and seashell accents on the back."
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after one of our first assignments with silk fusion. Needless to say, I fell in love.
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Cards 
4¼" x 5½" (Detail from card. )
4¼" x 5½" (Detail from card.)
16 3/8" x 13 3/8" |
Suzanne Williams Suzanne takes her work to her local farmers market and enjoys educating interested people about silk, its sustainability and the fact that it employs a lot of people. She has always had a passion for fibers, the feel and colors of them, the flexibility of their application. "Over the past several years I've discovered both wet and Nuno felting and most recently silk fusion. All of these techniques allow me to explore an incredible number of applications using some or all of these fibers along with others to create both cards and framed art. Some of my cards are made entirely of silk fusion. In these cases, more card stock is included in the envelopes, allowing the recipient to tie in a fresh sheet and mail the card to someone else. Many of my customers buy these cards for framing. My cards incorporate fabric scraps, Angelina fibers, Merino wool and other fibers. My framed art is made entirely of fibers in any number of combinations, silk always predominating. Living in rural West Virginia, the guiding force of this art is the natural world. I call these pieces "silk-scapes". I am moving into usage of silk ribbon embroidery, silk cocoons, silk rods and other elements that allow for a more three dimensional approach. My preference is selling all my work through a local Farmers Market. This gives me a personal contact with my customers, many of whom want to know the process for how I make the cards and framed art and how silk is made by the silkworm. This season I am going to be using the wonderful poster from Treenway that gives the history of silk and its busy little producer. I have found people and sources to expand my horizons. As for time, I'll go out kicking and screaming saying, "Lord, I have another project I want to work on!" Contact Suzanne at fabrics-threads@hotmail.com.
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