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February 2011Current Gallery |
February 2011 |
May 2010 |
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Debbie Baier Debbie's purses were a treat to our eyes. Following is some further information from Debbie. 
Many years ago, and I emphasize many, I purchased a white brick of silk at a Handweavers, Spinners and Dyers of Alberta, conference. I dyed it using a weak acid dye. I made the silk fusion and Bertha Pisarchuk from the Edmonton Weavers Guild assembled it. The burgundy bag is fusion, the others are dyed silk fabric using textile medium to stiffen them. |
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Janice Dowthwaite We were very enthralled with the project Janice is working on, Roses from the Heart. She has been using Treenway Silks for the embroidery of the project. She has written an article for Embroidery Canada magazine. We will include excerpts from that article, so you can also enjoy the story behind the beautiful work. One in four Australians today can be traced to a convict ancestry. Due to the Transportation Act of 1718, Britain was in the habit of sending her convicts to the American colonies because her gaols (jails) were filled to overflowing. The country was seriously over populated, poverty and famine were widespread, especially in the cities, and Britain just had to get rid of some of the populace. 
Until the War of Independene began in 1775 in the US, Britain had been sending convicts to its American colonies. But when America won their independence this ceased and there was a tremendous overflow problem in British gaols. Captain James Cook had claimed possession of part of the continent of Australia on behalf of the British Crown and this distant colony was a very attractive prison solution for the British government. Over a period of about 80 years, beginning in 1788, approximately 160,000 people were herded onto ships and sent on long perilous sea voyages to a land 12,000 miles away on the other side of the world. In addition to New South Wales, Tasmania was also a prime location for prisons. Both male and female convicts were transported. 25,566 convict women are recorded being sent on this treacherous journey and those who survived the trip were used basically as slaves, many working for male colonists. Female convicts provided household services such as housemaids, cooks, laundresses and seamstresses. They were also in demand as wives and mistresses. For the most part they were not prostitutes, just desperate, ordinary women trying to survive in terrible conditions. 
Becoming pregnant was deemed a punishable crime, usually resulting in being sent back to the prison and six months of hard labour. They were usually separated from their babies soon after birth and sent back out into the work force. The babies were housed in a nursery dormitory where the hardiest survived. Those that did live were sent away to Orphan Schools. Christina Henri, a conceptual artist from Tasmania, has conceived a project called Roses from the Heart that pays tribute to the lives of the 25,566 convict women transported from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales to Australia. Women from around the world are making bonnets, fashioned on a pattern of an 1800's servant's bonnet, for each of the convict women recorded. The bonnets are being made with empathy and love for these exiled women. To date, over 16,000 women's bonnets have been made as well as over 1,800 infants' bonnets to commemorate the babies who died without their mothers. Some Blessing of the Bonnets ceremonies have already been held in Australian states. 
I, personally, became aware of this project through an article in Inspirations magazine. After contacting Christina by email and learning how to access the convict records, I went on to make three bonnets, one with my Irish grandmother's maiden name (Adams), one with my maiden name (Johns), and a third for Jane Donaghey because we have the same initials. Reading over their conduct records in the prison record books is a very powerful glimpse into the past. The sparse details written so coldly in old-fashioned script does little to describe the harsh conditions of the lives of these women or the hopeless desperation they must have endured, both before they were transported, on the terrible journey and at their final destination. A commemorative cloth will also accompany this special art exhibit. The names of women from around the world who have made bonnets will be embroidered on this cloth. In the centre is a heart which will have been worked on by a number of women from different countries. It was begun by Antonia Lai of Queensland who fashioned a heart covered in Hardanger surrounded by stars of the Southern Cross, a ship and lovely bullion roses and rose buds. I was honoured to do the second section of the heart and chose to do it in the language of flowers. At the top of the heart is a Tudor rose (representing Britain) and flowing down each curve are sweet peas for departure and goodbye, white roses for innocence, secrecy and silence, yellow roses for friendship (or jealousy), pink roses for please believe me, and dark crimson for mourning. There are also rosebuds which signify beauty and youth (lost to many of these unfortunate women), forget-me-nots for memories and rosemary for remembrance. After showing the bonnets and cloth to various groups in my area and speaking about these convict women, other members of Tulip Tree Needlearts, my chapter of the Embroiderer's Association of Canada, and even some local women, have contributed bonnets to this project. I am very proud to have been able to participate in this project commemorating these women who ultimately contributed so much to the development of their new world. |
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Karen Ely Six months ago I started work at Treenway Silks where a new world opened up to me. With the job I got the bonus of learning how to weave from Karen. The shawl is my second piece of weaving. I found a pattern called Swedish Lace which I altered by sleying one thread per dent rather than two per dent. The warp and weft are both 20/10, sett at 10 epi. While twisting the fringe I added some shells which have given a nice weight to the drape. I am sending the shawl to my 80 year old mother for her birthday. 
What an honour it is to have been taught such a wonderful skill and to be able to create a thing of beauty with your own hands to become a loving gift. It is with loving kindness I also thank my teacher. |
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Akaleka OwlEye We could certainly see the luxury of Akaleka's scarf, and we could almost feel how soft and supple it was from the photos. This is what Akaleka had to say about her scarf. 
This nuno scarf was wet felted with a generous amount of love, a silk scarf, merino wool and tussah silk. The silk was magically dyed by Treenway and I hand dyed most of the merino wool. The texture and colours of this neck scarf are enchanting and it is ealy to get lost in the fusion of the blended merino and silk. The scarf is easily manipulated into different shapes depending on what yu are feeling that day. I added a bone carving fro the button that I received from a fisherman in Indonesia. Felting has been my passion for years and I love that I am still surprised by the beauty of the end result. |
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Ida Marie Threadkell We were all very impressed by the creativity of Ida Marie's necklace. She gives us some information of her journey. I created this necklace for a wedding that didn't happen. But, I will wear it to a class reunion in the hope that people will look at it instead of at my rather strange new hair do. The idea came from seeing a similar piece in leather – the necklace not the do. First I cut out different sized paper squares and moved them around until they please me. Then I drew a diagram and a layout, numbered every piece accordingly and added a seam allowance. The silk was from Treenway's Salt Spring Island Series, which was laid out in a single layer to minimize bulk. Trying to plan each little square to be interesting and unique was quite the challenge as was cutting out the mat board backing. Fortunately my friend let me use her cutter. My precision folding, trimming and gluing skills improved greatly as each of the 18 squares had silk sewing threads attached to them and then a silk fusion backing which was added after the squares had been sewn to the hand braided kumihimo chain. Purchased silver findings and .25 carats of pink, something that I'd purchases about 20 years ago, were used to finish the piece. It was an incredibly time consuming project, but one that was so satisfying that I tried another variation of it in a darker colour scheme. Unfortunately, this was not successful, so I will try it again in another light colour scheme. |