Starting in balance....

The Valhallas- the view from our cabin....

In my book of everything (my special black book that some of you will know!) this year is looking just fantastic, and got off to a wonderful beginning with some quiet personal time in a most beautiful place. The Valhalla Ranges in British Columbia. (I honestly did not appreciate the name of the place in looking for a perfect retreat until writing this!).  
 

Our cabin in the woods...I'm in the middle- almost a head shorter than my youngest two boys!

 My family was in need of some snow time, so we headed up into the mountains where we had rented a log cabin in the woods looking out over gorgeous lake towards snow topped mountains. Idyllic. Quiet. Peaceful. Restorative...as were the natural hot springs we visited in the area...within our creative practises we need some soul nourishment....inspiration that has nothing to do directly with art, craft and design.

I've been working non-stop since returning on my sculptural pieces for my upcoming solo exhibition in Vancouver next month.  More pictures and blog posts of this will come in the next few weeks! It's coming together...at least I tell myself that and believe it (a little) having worked on a few exhibitions now...it feels very tenuous at the moment, but I recognize this as part of the process and normal for this stage.

And I gave an artist talk and workshop to the Victoria Weavers and Spinners Guild this past weekend. They are a vibrant, rich group. It was truly an honour to be invited. They have such full life experiences and a wealth of knowledge and skill in the fibre arts that is deeply humbling and inspiring to be around.

The workshop was in a beautiful space. Lots of light, and a great group of women willing to laugh, explore, get excited about new techniques! It is so energising and enlightening to teach these workshops. I love it.

Hi Leola! She is a dear friend, and I'm looking forward to visiting her in her studio this spring....

A great start to the new year with a trinity in balance that I hope will continue as a theme through 2015. Some time in the natural world, relaxing, dreaming, thinking, breathing (heart); some personal art development time (hands), and some teaching and demonstrating (head).  Each one feeds me in different but equally important ways.  If I can keep the the ratios right, I hope to move through this year in a much more healthy way than the last two.  It feels like a promising start!

Warm wishes, 
Fiona

Terra Textures-Surface Design in Felt Workshops

 Katia Mokeyeva and I are absolutely delighted to announce a workshop series to be offered this April at the Okanagan School of the Arts in Penticton, BC.

 The idea is to create a mix and match workshop combination where students can chose an assortment of classes, learn very different felting styles from two enthusiastic, supportive teachers, while creating a complimentary collection of felt wearables. We work from a similar starting point...nature as our inspiration and the space that feeds our creative spirits....and from this core, we then work quite differently in every way...in design, layout and felting process....but both with an emphasis on surface design.   We will both be offering  two  x one day accessory classes, plus a three day garment class on the weekend.

The Okanagan School of the Arts at the Shatford Centre in Penticton is a perfect location for our workshops. Lots of room and a very supportive space, in a beautiful natural setting. Lake, mountains, orchards in bloom, vineyards...it's quite idyllic....


Full workshop information and registration through the Okanagan School of the Arts will be available On December 15th, 2015. I'll send you the links when that happens.

It really is very exciting! 



Warm wishes, 
Fiona



 

Okanagan School of the Arts Workshops 1

  I have been working in one version of my most perfect place... there are several variations on this... but this is definitely a good one. The Okanagan is beautiful. And home to Canada's best wines, including some amazing reds. I'm staying on the Naramata bench, right on the KVR walking trail, in a vineyard... overlooking the lake.... with fine sunrises and sunsets. It is heavenly...and that is just my mornings and evenings.

  All day I spend at the Shatford Centre, home of the Okanagan School of the Arts. Some days I am teaching... and then others I am there as Artist in Residence. I'm using this time to tidy up some old work, refine my plans and goals for 2015/2016 and then start to enter into the mindspace for my upcoming exhibition in February. It is a wonderful world! Even with a separate studio space at home, and older children now, who are pretty self-sufficient, it is still a unique experience to go to a different space and focus. I think that is the key....to have clear goals to work towards in this special time set aside....with some breathing spaces allowed for...of course...and a fine glass of local red wine.

  This weekend was a three day session on Joomchi Feltmaking. We had a small class, due to a few cancellations, so I had the opportunity to make my own piece as a demonstration. With experienced feltmakers in the class, we delved deeper into perfect fit in garment construction and with a focus on lots of surfaces and composition techniques. 
All of the pieces were beautiful and perfect for their individual wearer and creator...

 

  And my own, red study....working with a single colour to really highlight the textures in the piece.

   This is first class I have taught in years that was not full. It was a tiny ego hit...being honest with you... but not for long...this smaller class size opened up opportunity to go much farther with my students and create something alongside them. We had more time for discussion and even a short "felt clinic" looking at past projects and tips for improving each work. It was a great gift of space and time.... These were three calm, creative, wonderful days, in an incredible setting and facility. It was pure pleasure.

And there are still 4 more days to go....
Warm wishes, 
Fiona

Experimental Garment Construction Workshop

  I'm really looking forward to this workshop. We have a great space- very large, open airy and bright. Lots of room to move and work and think.  Plus it takes place at the same time as the opening of my upcoming exhibition at ArtCraft.  This exhibition is a collection of sculptural garments, accessories and small sculpture. The elements I am working with now in creating these pieces, will be those we'll view and explore in creating interesting shaping in our garments in the workshop. 

  Here's the workshop description:

  Sculpture for the Body explores the manipulation of the surface of a garment; building up organic shaping that alters the structural lines, beautifully, dynamically and unexpectedly.  We’ll create highly wearable art pieces exploring architectural and sculptural design in wool. Layers and shaping will be created with prefelts, cords and gathers, shibori, folding, cutting and stitching. We’ll cover seamless garment construction while making a garment design of the student’s choice-dress, jacket, vest or skirt.

  I am most excited about the range of possibilities in this class. You could come just for the basic garment construction and learn how to make a fit-to-you jacket, dress, skirt, vest, or....
  And then as much and deeply as you want to, we will cut and shape and manipulate to add new form and architecture to the garment. Clean, wild or elegant... 3 days of creative feltmaking.

  I'm so looking forward to sharing this time with some of you!
 
Dates: July 10, 11, 12
Location : ArtSpring, 100 Jackson Ave, Salt Spring Island
Fee:  $325.00 plus materials fee: $65.00

For more information and to register:
www.fionaduthie.com/experimental-garment-construction/

Warm wishes, 
Fiona

Felting in the Rocky Mountains

view from my classroom

I've just arrived home from a very beautiful trip. As mentioned before, Texas was fantastic- such a great group of creative people.  I had a few days before the beginning of the Felters Rendezvous and I had some writing to complete, so I created a little writer's retreat for myself in lovely Estes Park, Colorado. I had four days of felting, writing, good coffee, beautiful views, and silence. It was delightful! The sunshine, snow, mountain vistas and crisp but not cold temperatures were invigorating. 

Chapter 5 of the book complete, I headed further into the mountains to Rocky Mountain National Park and the Felters Rendezvous. After four days of silence I chatted (far too long and late) with felting friends, Heather and Tylar, as well as new friends, Cathy and Marsha. It was lovely to be with them all, and a highlight of my week to finally meet Heather in person!
 

before the classes, set up and ready....what a great space!

My first class was in felt bags. It was a full house and a very creative and exploratory group. In construction we had a variety of shapes, inner pockets, inner divisions, and outer pockets, and delved into some surface design play. There was a range of experience from beginner to master, and everyone challenged themselves to stretch their boundaries. That's a great thing in a class. No restraint was exercised and everyone made beautiful work.

Gorgeous and elaborate bags...it was such a fun class! For Dayle, in the top picture, this was her second felt project ever! Bags make such a perfect canvas for exploration of resists and surface design forms.

In days 3 and 4 we moved on to Surface Design.  Another full room, with some students continuing after the bag making, and some new faces to join our group.

 

A few of the extraordinary surfaces created on Day 3.  Over the two days, each student made two large felt tapestries, created as samplers to hold the multitude of techniques.

This whole event was extremely well co-ordinated by Deb Tewell of The Felting Source. Thank you Deb, for all your assistance, and the time and effort that goes into creating such an event! Next years dates and teachers are all set- It promises to be wonderful...and always a beautiful and inspiring location!

And now here I am...back again in my little studio on this little island.... gearing up for Surface Design Online-Spring and creating a new body of work for my exhibition this summer.  Life does not get better than this, and I thank you all for being a part of it!

Warm wishes, 
Fiona

Surface Design Online: Spring Session

Registration for my Surface Design Online- Spring Session is now open!
The class will start on April 5th and run until May 17th. 

All of the workshop information is available on my website:
http://www.fionaduthie.com/surface-design-in-feltmaking-online-workshop/

I'm holding a little draw to thank everyone for their enthusiastic support of this new class.
There will be two opportunities to win a free class:

One winner will be drawn from those who:
Like my Facebook page, and share the link to the class information on their timeline. Leave me a comment on FB to let me know you have shared.
The name will be drawn from those comments.

One winner will be drawn from those who subscribe to my workshop information newsletter using the link on my website or at the bottom of this post.

The draw will take place on Wednesday, February 19th, at 9:00pm PST. I'll post the winner here, and on Facebook.

I love sharing this material with you. It forms to soul of my work, and it is like a dream to get to run these classes in this way!
Thank you again!

February 19th update:

FaceBook winner is......Nell Burns
The newsletter winner has been contacted by email and I am just waiting to hear back from them, before announcing!

Thank you everyone who took part in this! Your support is very much appreciated.

Watch for lots more felt happening around here in the coming weeks!

Warm wishes, 
Fiona

Workshop information Newsletter:

Email Address

First Name

Last Name

Surface Design in Feltmaking Online Workshop

  I'm so excited to be able to offer the Surface Design in Feltmaking workshop  in an online format.  It's taken many months of thinking and planning to get everything in place, with the teaching materials presented in a way that I feel best meets the needs of the students. 
  It's so important that each idea is well covered, with every question answered, every pitfall troubleshooted. I've gotten there, I hope, with a combination of instructional PDF's with lots of pictures and detailed, clear text, a video demonstration, plus private blog area to share finished projects, questions, answers and inspiration.  

  This is an intermediate level class-for those with some feltmaking experience. If you are a beginning feltmaker, I will have a free introductory mini class available in the last week of January that will prepare you for this workshop. 

  This workshop is for people interested in deepening their knowledge of fibres, learning new techniques to add to their craft or art practise, or those just wanting to have some fun exploring new ideas.  We make a 6 x 6 inch sample for each new technique to build a fantastic resource library, or inspiration board and then implement these techniques in a finished felting project in the last week.

The class is six weeks long and is delivered in one week modules for this session:

Week 1:Fibres and Surfaces
short and long fibres, combining felting and non felting fibres, shadowing,silks and cottons-quilting, folds and ripples, photos and text
Week 2: Surface Resists
wool breeds, plastics and foams,  craters, pockets, loops and bridges, gems and beads, tape,
Week 3:Nuno Felting Inclusions and Resists

Week 4: Wool and Prefelt Additions

prefelt, pencil rovings, yarns, locks, spikes, cones, blossoms
Week 5:Surface Alterations
holes, multilayered hills and ridges,carving, lace, shibori stitching and anemones
Week 6: Individual project
Each student will pick out the elements that they most want to explore further and integrate these surface design elements in a felt project like a scarf, bag, wall piece, sculpture. 

New material will be available each Sunday, with about 4-6 hours of student time required for design and feltmaking. You can decide when you work on each module. Work on one design element each day, or dedicate a day to work through the material all at once. As well as by email, I will be answering questions and giving comments throughout the course on the private blog, allowing all participating students to learn through one another's projects.

  The full materials list will be sent out with confirmation of your registration.
Materials kits with everything required for the workshop can be ordered up until January 15th, for delivery in time for the workshop starting date. 

If you have any questions about this class please just email me! 

Please note: This class is now full. 
Only use the registration link below if you have already contacted me regarding the workshop.
I will be offering this class again in April and September 2014! Thank you to everyone for the enthusiastic response!

Workshop Dates:
February 2nd- March 9th,
Online materials and resources will be available to students until August 1st, 2014

Workshop Fee: $125.00

Surface Design, now and in 2014

 

These last two weeks I've been making the last arrangements and samples for my 2014 classes, which will have a strong emphasis in surface design.  This is such an exciting topic, and my favourite theme for exploration in the studio. 
The spikes above are a new addition to the curriculum and one I love...sharp metallic gleamings in a landscape of soft, matte fibre.

 It is a challenge to fit in all the design elements covered in the course in a single piece. Just in the actual physicality of making it all fit, but also from the design aesthetic of having some cohesion and a beautiful finished project. These island samplers really do feel like maps of mythical worlds....

The Surface Design book will be at the printers by the first week of February (I shudder to say anything about this project after picking it up and leaving it multiple times over the last two years...but this time- it is for certain!) I'm finishing one chapter per week over the next two months.... I'm also building online classes that will be available next spring.

 This was my 30 minute felt project for this week...playing with surfaces and resists....I think I'll call it Territory.  A little soft and welcoming, a little threatening and unknown...a space to be navigated with attention.

  Next year is coming together beautifully, with a nice mix of teaching, exhibitions and creative breathing spaces.  
Surface Design classes upcoming in Texas, Colorado (Full),  Vancouver, Salt Spring, Wisconsin, and Ontario so far...
A post is coming with all the dates, details and links....

Warm wishes, 
Fiona

Trickster Tales

Last week was the last week in our Storytelling and Arts day in the studio. This was a weekly series of classes I have been running since the early Fall. So much fun! What a sweet, talented, and creative group of children!

In our Spring session we studied Trickster Tales, and we explored these through storytelling, painting, drawing, plant dyeing, and of course, feltmaking! 

 The children each chose the Trickster they most identified with, and slowly transformed themselves....This picture was taken on the last day of our classes- introducing Squirrel, Fox, Coyote and Monkey....I was Raven, but also photographer! They did wonderful work...on all of their projects!

It was truly a pleasure to get to have these afternoons together.... 

And now the studio is cleaned up and transformed once again into my full time adult space ...ready for visitors and for me to focus on my exhibition work and book....here we go!

Happy summertime....
Fiona

Spring Holiday Camp

The week after getting back from FibresWest, I hosted two fibre art camps for children in the studio.

It was great fun, and such a pleasure to share my passion for fibres with enthusiastic young people and get to know some of the island's children a little better. They are just so sweet....and sometimes left me nostalgic for my own boys younger years...

We did some plant dyeing on silks, making a mystery bath from the children's garden collections, and then  eco-printed them with golden rod, rose leaves and petals, carnation flowers and cinnamon sticks (deliciously scented bundles!).... left to age until the last day of camp...

 We felted, of course! Needle felted figures and animals...wet felted flowers and pictures....experiencing some roving, batting, prefelts and inclusions, like magic mirrors! Which made for fibre adventures to try and find them and make them shine again!

 

  
One of the groups also made fine nuno felted scarves, sharing the rolling process....we also did some sewing, wool fiber paintings...and on the last day we opened our eco-printed bundles, and the children danced under the plum tree blossoms, flying with golden silks behind them....

 The days were glorious and sunny, and went by so fast. It is a nice balance to have some time working with children, in amongst all the more adult fiber pursuits....A truly enjoyable week... thank you all for joining me in my studio!

Warm wishes,
Fiona

ps..for those wondering...the rose leaves, golden rod flowers and cinnamon sticks all gave nice prints....the rose petals left no trace...but the red carnation flowers were a very pleasing surprise- the deep purple marks on the silks above are all from the carnations....

Kattikloo @ FibresWest

As usual, it's been a very busy few weeks!

I've rebranded my handyed yarn and fibre company, Kattikloo, all ready for FibresWest in Vancouver last week.  I still have to make all the website changes and load up the shop, now that I'm back...but it still feels like a major accomplishment to have gotten this far!

I was able to use most of my display units from the studio at the show...so wonderful and easy....and the show was a great success.....we doubled our sales from last year, with equal sales in yarns and felting fibres. I was so happy to bring all of the felting wools and prefelts....to have the intensely coloured yarns that I dye, and also the walls of felting supplies, which is most true to my creative heart! This was a dream from last years show...and so great to have realized that goal!

I hardly spent a minute in the booth though, as I was teaching all day on both days of the show. My wonderful friend Rachel talked with all of our fabulous customers, and I am so grateful for her company! Every other year all of my boys have come with me, and they don't enjoy fibre talk half as much as Rachel does...so all around a good plan! 

 I have no pictures from my first class in nuno felted vests....but my 10 students were wonderful, and their finished vests, amazing....We used sheer, handdyed silk gauze and extra fine 19 micron merino rovings in a vast array of colours....the finished results were superb and I think everyone was pleased with their results...and a little surprised at the ease of construction. Great students, great fibres and great felting.....

(In the getting to this class there was a little incident with a long train and a very large roll of bubble wrap that I may tell you about separately!)

The second class was a shibori class of 12. It is an idea I developed for an article in Living Crafts magazine last year.  It was quite delightful to teach....a refreshing departure from full on felting or dyeing, but a process which certainly has applications in both.  The last 30 minutes of fulling provided a fun balance to the time spent stitching traditional nui shibori patterns in the habotai and chiffon silk scarves. 

In addition to feltable yarns, we added silk organza, prefelt and silk ribbon elements. Experimented with shibori and yarn to create three dimensional shaping and texture.  One of the best parts of workshops- the new directions that emerge as we share...Lots of fun- room for creativity and application in other textile crafts.   The finished results were fantastic. No finished pictures- I'm sorry...It is a challenge to get picures while teaching, and also of finished items in thses short, one day classes.

Thank you to everyone who came...to my classes and to my booth at the show. Thank you to Rachel for being my super salesperson! And thanks to Brenda from Penelope Fibre Arts for organizing such a warm, friendly, and inspiring show once again!

Warm wishes,
Fiona