Come join SUMMER SCHOOL FOR THE ARTS students at St. Lawrence College in Kingston, ON as they expand their Fibre Arts/Design skills in a full week of classroom play!

St. Lawrence College

1000 Islands

Summer School of the Arts 

Fibre Arts: Design, Technique and Practice (Kingston Campus)

ARTS 91 

Mon - Fri July 27 - July 31, 9:00AM - 5:00PM

Course Fee: $239

$30 Materials Fee to Instructor covers comprehensive course binder and dye/paint supplies
 

Course Registration Link 

 Course Catalogue
Accommodation at the Kingston Campus College Residences 

Dyeing, painting and printing on cloth...a full week of devoted studio practice 

This journey will help you to step ‘out of the box’, away from the familiar, and start to create contemporary, one of a kind art quilts or “Modern” bed quilts as you study the foundations of design. Your focus will be on creating art work that can be used in your studio practice, developing  that new  commitment to a series that can carry on long after our week together.

You will explore color, work every morning into a course sketchbook with art and design techniques, and explore hands on sampling of MANY techniques for special effects on fabrics including the creation/stitching of all new small pieces of art work each afternoon in the classroom... lots of time to STITCH! Machine or hand work - your choice! 

Day One:      Flat and immersion dyeing of fabric (see photo above)

Day Two:     Indigo dye instruction including shibori (see photo below)

Day Three:   Soy wax batik, and art quilt design time in afternoon

Day Four:     Fabric painting using COLOUR VIE and acrylics, gel and screen printing

Day Five:      Experiment with nuno/wet felting

As you create, choose your own favourite techniques to develop all new, original art. You will enjoy working along with your classmates, sharing ideas, and  developing confidence in “design wall” exercises while you take this opportunity to stitch up a storm!

During this 5 full days of studio art play you will listen to your intuition and find the confidence to make independent decisions that will produce art/quilts strong in colour and design. The goal is creating new work, using fibre as your medium and having a great and fun filled week with old and new friends along the way.. 

Supplies list provided with paid registration... and we encourage you to use your STASH!

Come play!

Date(s): 7/27/2015 - 7/31/2015.
Days of Week: Monday through Friday   Time: 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM  Room 00060

Main Campus, Green Wing, Lower Level

Instructor: Bethany Garner

More Information:  garner@kingston.net

This is Beth''s nineteenth year in the classroom with the Summer School of the Arts at St.Lawrence College. She welcomes new and returning students and encourages you to book a stay in SLC Kingston Residence at the college and enjoy the beauty of the Kingston Community during summer 2015!

GORDANA BRELIH, award winning Fibre Artist, opens the season for FIBREWORKS KINGSTON Weekend Workshops Series, Sept 18-20, 2016

          

 

Putting It All Together…Connecting Fragments

 

Gordana Brelih, Instructor

 

September 18-20, 2015

 

St. Lawrence College

945 Portsmouth Ave

Kingston, ON

 

Friday evening Lecture/Trunk Show 7-9 pm

 

Two Full Workshop Days 

 

Saturday and Sunday 9:30 - 4 pm

 

 

The Sunken Palace, Gordana Brelih

Traveling with THREADWORKS 2013 

 

 

Do you ever wonder what to do with your many samples from different workshops, fabric scraps, lace, eco-dyed silk, wool, beads, metal finds? You will work closely with Gordana over this weekend of stitch and design play to develop the plans to create all new work as you "put it all together". Your work may be collaged onto black felt while planning  one special dimensional piece, or you might consider mounting your design stretched onto a frame…

 

There are so many options this dynamic artist uses in her own prize-winning art that will be shared during this fun-filled, design focused workshop. Time to explore, plan, sketch, dream and stitch!!!

 

detail, CIRCLE OF MEMORIES, Gordana Brelih

Free motion machine and hand stitching will complement your  stitched designs which might include techniques shared in class: heat modified/burned felt, stamping, wax resist printing, stitching onto water soluble film, painting Stitch-witchery or Wonder Under fusible , mono-printing on fabric,  gold foil, and so much more. In this fast paced, technique-packed weekend, there will be time to learn many new skills and practice laying out several new designs for your upcoming exhibition entries or just personal satisfaction and artistic growth! 

You will try your hand at drawing and stitching on a muslin base and preparing it for inclusion in your art work after painting or other colouration techniques including embellishment with shiva sticks, artists inks or gel pens etc.  Gordana loves to share her best loved tools and will work with her students one-on-one to share favourite stitch rhythms, and encourage practice over the two days to help with free motion design play using many types of threads and stitches.
 

 

 

Lets be creative!

So many techniques to explore that are the specialty of this dynamic and inspirational artist. Please plan a visit to Gordana's website at  http://www.brelihart.com and take the time to walk though her galleries for inspiration.


Artist Profile:

Gordana Brelih studied at the Academy of Applied Art and Design in Belgrade before immigrating to Canada in 1991. Following a successful career in fashion design, Gordana discovered quilting in 2002.  After receiving a strong grounding in traditional quilting she began experimenting with different techniques. These experiments cultivated a devotion to all forms of quilting and a love of hand-embellishment, free motion embroidery and machine piecing.

Her work has been in many, many exhibitions and she continues to experiment and stretch her talent in many new directions. Experimenting with all new techniques keeps her busy in the studio when not traveling the world with her family and friends.

Gordana has put many hundreds of hours into her work, stitch-by-stitch, adding lustrous threads, beads and non-traditional materials like paper and metal. Her art definitively takes on a life of its own. Please enjoy!

 

Three Leaves, THREADWORKS, Gordana Brelih

 

 In 2010 she received the Grand Prize at Threadworks and Curator's Choice Award at renowned Canadian "The Grand National" Quilt Exhibition. Her work has traveled across Ontario and Canada.

Please mark your calendar NOW and register for this exciting workshop soon, seats will fill quickly...

Registration information is on the side bar here at FIBREWORKS KINGSTON Blog and REGISTRATION IS OPEN... as final plans are underway for several additional dynamic workshop weekends this next year.

Mail Registrations to:

Bethany Garner, FW Coordinator
3275 Orser Road
Elginburg, ON K0H1M0

Information: fibreworkskingston@gmail.com

And just for inspirations sake, please enjoy a few more photos of Gordana's beautiful art work:

 

 

Triptych, World of Threads, Gordana Brelih

 

Shield of Colour, 2011, Gordana Brelih



SHIMMER, Gordana Brelih, at CELEBRATING THE SEVEN, 2014
Wellington County Museum

Please join in on the fun this weekend at KINGSTON'S PREMIER QUILT SHOW... open all weekend!

SAQA members with work in show are  

ELIZABETH ABBOTT, FEATURED QUILTER 

Bethany Garner

Donna Hamilton

Diane Hogan

Sally Hutson

Darlene Moritz

Jeanne Stoness

SAQA's 25th Anniversary ART QUILT TRUNK SHOW "E" is on display

As you tour the Show Floor you will find spectacular hand and machine quilted Quilts... over 300 actually! The Show has a lovely MERCHANTS MALL with  favourite Quilt and Specialty shops and OUTSTANDING specials on Sewing machines including JANOME and BABYLOCK, BERNINA and  Representation by QUILTS OF VALOR Special theme areas include Miniatures, Postcard Quilts, Children's Quilts , Members Boutique, demonstrations of quilt assembly, hand quilting and great TEA ROOM... Free Parking, Accessible.

Follow Sir John A Boulevard off the 401, driving straight through to King Street at the Kingston Penitentary, turn right onto King Street and drive along past St. Lawrence College and the Dupont Plant. Watch for the lights at DAYS ROAD and turn right onto Days. The Royal Kingston Curling Club Arena will be on the right...COME JOIN IN ON THE FUN!

Friday June 12, 2015 - 10 am to 7 pm

Saturday, June 13 - 10 am - 6 pm

Sunday, June 14th - 10 am - 4 pm

Come out and enjoy many QUILTS and Fibre Art pieces at upcoming Shows this summer, and start making art for next spring's THREADWORKS Exhibit!

 

 
QUILTS KINGSTON 2015 is fast approaching and I have been very happily working with Heather Buchan to let everyone know about the Show and what we have to share! We have been busy doing outreach and Publicity - contacting the many players that will help to make this the BEST EVER Show for the Kingston Heirloom Quilters and Limestone Quilters Guild members.

Over 250 beautiful quilts and wall quilts will be on display, along with several very special exhibits including the Guild's Challenge project "Sir John A/Sir John, eh?" exhibit and "Quilts by Children". We will also share displays by the 'Limestone Loopers' Rug Hooking group and the Cataraqui Guild of Needle Arts (Kingston Embroidery Guild).

The Show floor at the Royal Kingston Curling Club will also be home for the many exciting Vendors from across Ontario, and some special theme areas for the delight of the visitors to the Show.

Parking is FREE, we will have an awesome TEA ROOM for our visitors and we have collected hundreds of exciting handmade items for our  Members Boutique... a very popular spot for shopping at the Show!

Admission is just $6 - so mark your Calendar and join us for the Show JUNE 12-14, 2015!

More information at http://quiltskingston.blogspot.ca/ and www.quiltskingston.org/



THREADWORKS 2016 
The call to create YOUR Art is open... Start Now!

Maybe you have a favourite memory of girlfriends in High School... or a trip on your honeymoon. Perhaps a favourite vista as you traveled to a very special destination with Art friends. Perhaps it is a magical painting or a corridor that you walked through. It could have been a "light bulb" moment when a new technique clicked and you created your BEST EVER piece of art!

 

THREADWORKS  is a project of the Ontario Network of Needleworkers and the amazing exhibition opportunity offered to ALL Canadian Fibre Artists to participate and see their work hanging at the Opening Event at the Wellington County Museum and Archives Gallery! The actual online entry for the show will be in early April 2016... so the clock is ticking.

 

Hoping YOU will be creating your art around a "FLASHBACK" moment in your life, or the event that sparked a whole new path in your creative pass time - FABRIC and STITCH!

 



THREADWORKS HAS A WEBSITE! www.threadworksart.ca

 

And, for the first time, the jurying process will be online ... the art will be considered TWO phases:

 

- preliminary selection online by the Jury

- a final jurying, on site at the Wellington County Museum and Archives by the three jurors
 

                                JANE DAMS, LORRAINE ROY and DICK MARVIN

(you can read about the three jurors at the Threadworks website)  

 

and your summer is not over until you visit the two Kingston Fibre Artists Shows:

Hanging By A Thread is open NOW at the Window Art Gallery, corner of Victoria and Princess Streets in downtown Kingston... and the door is on Victoria Street... look for the red awning! The show is there for you to visit until May 31st.  Please take friends and enjoy the al through the many amazing works hanging there just for you!

And, mark your calendar now for the Opening of the Kingston Fibre Artists wonderful retrospective exhibition of their beautiful work in Almonte on August 1st. Sixteen Artists sharing their stunnig fibr art pieces in the Norah Rosamond Hughes Gallery on the main floor.

Do plan to join us to meet the artists and enjoy their work and some treats too!

KINGSTON FIBRE ARTISTS EXHIBITION

TIMELESS TEXTILES

Mississippi Mills Textile Museum

July 28-September 5, 2015

VERNISSAGE  August 1,

2:00-4:00 pm



Please mark your calendar and visit SLASH, Solo Exhibition for Kingson area artist ELINOR RUSH May 1- June 7, 2015....

Join Elinor Rush and friends at CORNERSTONE Fine Art and Craft Gallery at the intersection of Princess Street and Ontario Street in downtown Kingston, ON for

 

ART AFTER DARK,

Friday, May 23, 2015

7-10 pm

 

The whole downtown will be sharing art in Gallery Locations throughout the city centre.

 

CORNERSTONE GALLERY and GIFTS
255 Ontario Street
Kingston, ON
 

           Open Monday to Thursday

10am-5pm

Friday

10am-7pm

Saturday

                                                                            10am-6pm

                                                                                                 Sunday

                                                                               12noon-5pm

FIBREWORKS Kingston welcomes our Spring 2015 Weekend Workshops Series Artists... HOLLY DEAN, The Muse Journal, April 17-19th and DIANNE GIBSON, "Mixed Media Assemblages" on the weekend of May 22-24th, 2015... Come Play!

Today, a blogger's didactic.... on the state of the fibre arts in our neighborhood and beyond! Your thoughts?

A few years ago, dear friend and forever mentor, HILARY SCANLON, passed the candle to me as FIBREWORKS Coordinator, asking that I carry on her 33 year commitment to delivering Creative Workshops to friends near and far who were committed to the Fibre Arts. Hilary had spent the best years of her life (after raising her children and standing beside her husband through his education and working career) building a small business which she so fondly called FIBREWORKS Kingston.

In 1979, while she was teaching at St. Lawrence College and creating the most beautiful fibre art pieces herself, Hilary committed to not only share her skills with others, but to bring the very best of the best Instructors in Textile Art - the history, diversity and technique to Kingston and provide a venue where their skills, shared through a workshops format could be available for like-minded arts enthusiasts throughout Southern Ontario. In all of her 33 years as Fibreworks Coordinator, Hilary ensured that the FIBREWORKS classrooms were filled with creative fun, exciting Instructor-led technique demonstration and inspiration for the students who attended the Workshops Series.

Starting in 1997, I was very proud to assist Hilary as a classroom assistant, Registrar and helpful friend in fibre until 2008. I stepped out of the team with Hilary's blessing and Donna Hamilton stepped in until the end of the 2012 season, with my goal being to devote time to my own art work and teaching at St. Lawrence College as a Professor in the Textile Design Program... only one of three in all of Canada. Several years have passed since the candle passed as FIBREWORKS COORDINATOR  to me in 2013, and I am still as excited to bring our area and distance Canadian artists opportunities to study with wonderfully multi-talented Guest Instructors, and have the chance to learn the new techniques that are supporting the Textile Arts in Canada today as I was nearly eighteen years ago....

We have two truly amazing artists visiting with us this spring - HOLLY DEAN from Merrickville, ON and DIANNE GIBSON of Fonthill, ON - both well recognized exhibition artists and designers. Both are active in the arts community and provide not only sharing experiences in their studios and beyond, but are leaders in the arts fields through the exhibition art they share with the world. The workshops will run this spring and the small numbers of student participants will be afforded the wonders of study with these two Master Artists, and I will be there to observe the wonder and excitement as new art work evolves...the role continues. 

For me... the commitment to FIBREWORKS is serious and a labour of love. We would really love to have you join us and spend time with these two beautiful and talented women artists.... do please make time to check them out! 

Holly Dean's website:  https://www.HollyDean.com

Dianne's Artist page at http://www.Connectionsfibreartsists.com

So, I decided today to use this forum to speak out...sharing the only thing that is troubling me about the role I serve in as your friend in the arts and Coordinator for FIBREWORKS Kingston. There is really a changing dimension in the communities of artists I support and serve. On one hand I understand it - but who is going to carry on the traditions and joy of sharing art in textile if we can't support the new ones walking into the field by encouraging them to participate and providing the venues for their learning? While years ago, we were a strong network and partnership of friends and colleagues in the arts, so many of our artist friends have decided to step back, to pull in... to work on their own once again as so many others did in the distant past. 

Workshop interest and enrollment has dropped off, not only for FIBREWORKS, but we are seeing/hearing about it indeed all around the globe - in Guilds and Shops, at Retreats, online, and both at the national and international level . This can be attributed partly to the financial constraints many of us are feeling as we move from the working world of the adult partners in our homes, to suddenly feeling the impact of fixed incomes in retirement years... it just costs more to be a homeowner and support a family. But the changes are also attributable to the fact that many of our artists friends are now finding they are seemingly more content to work at home in their studios, and to share in smaller, more intimate settings, choosing to be with just their closest friends and sharing skills with each other at invitation only in-studio stitch days. 

I fully understand, as this is a place I too have settled into...no longer bringing in a "working wage", and wanting to have the time to relax, with needle in hand, and stitch while enjoying the quietude in my home or with friends. This conflicts strongly with my goal of supporting FIBREWORKS in the Coordinator's role, and the commitments I have made to my quilting Guild(s), the new roles I have taken on with The Tett Centre Board of Directors and with my new friends at the Kingston Handloom Weavers and Spinners Guild.  I really cherish time with  my new friends in the CONNECTIONS Fibre Artists Group and with my long time colleagues in fibre art, the members of the Kingston Fibre Artists. I do enjoy sharing what I know and especially watching my students grow, so I will stay on at St. Lawrence College as long as  there are students to share with and strive to encourage area artists to continue to support our Textile Design Program. I am a proud and honoured teaching partner and supporter of those who have stepped out of our classrooms -like DENISE SOKOLSKY, a graduate of the Textile Design Program at SLC, and who has moved on in the arts, and is now preparing her Thesis for her Masters in Fine Arts - Textiles at UMass Boston... how much prouder could an Instructor be?

So I would love to hear from you - how do you see the future of the Fibre Arts in Canada? In your towns and cities? What role do you play and what do you need to see your involvement in the Arts continue to evolve and be recognized? Please do keep the lines of communication open - be a part f the dialogue and don't forget to share your skills with friends - old and new.

And if you have time, come join us at the Spring FIBREWORKS workshops... all the details are here at www.fibreworkskingston.blogspot.ca (on the right sidebar). Come PLAY!

Bethany

Please mark your calendar and make time to visit the MISSISSIPPI VALLEY TEXTILE MUSEUM in Almonte for HOOKED ON RUGS Exhibition

HOOKED ON RUGS

MISSISSIPPI VALLEY TEXTILE MUSEUM

3 Rosamond Street, Almonte, ON

MARCH 3- April 11, 2015

 

 Tuesday to Saturday: 10 am to 4 pm.

$5 admission. MVTM members, free.

 



Artists Loretta Moore and Lesli Zanetti welcomed friends and visitors to the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum on Saturday March 7th for their Vernissage and opening of their  HOOKED ON RUGS Exhibition in the  Norah Rosamond Hughes Gallery. Their hooked rugs display beautifully with artful designs from primitive to modern.

 

Both artists will be conducting demonstrations in the Gallery today, March 12th from 11 am to 2 pm.

 

 

Visitors at the Opening of Hooked on Rugs Exhibition

 

 

Lesli’s interest in rug hooking began with a 1992 visit to Cape Breton, where she was struck by the unique and complex Acadian scenes depicted on beautiful rugs. On a subsequent trip to Newfoundland she was drawn to the vibrant colours and simple scenes of their rugs.

 

Stunning Contemporary and Primitive Hooked Art abounds in the Gallery

 

 

With one of Deanne Fitzpatrick’s rug hooking kits, Lesli taught herself to hook, and her passion for the craft was firmly entrenched. After 10 years, Lesli has found her own style.  She prefers to use recycled wool from garments donated by friends or found at second hand shops.  Imagining the history embedded in a wool garment as it is ripped apart and refashioned into a new rug is an important part of her creative process. 

 

She describes her rugs as simple in style, bordering on the primitive, but without a traditional palette.  Somehow, she just has to inject bright colours into her designs. ( and the COLOUR... amazing!)

 

 

 

 

Loretta’s passion for fibre arts developed at an early age, sitting in her mom’s sewing room and making doll’s clothes from scraps. She later made her own clothing and learned to quilt. It was in a quilt shop that she discovered her first rug hooking kit.

 

“After the first few loops I pulled, I realized that I had discovered a fibre art that appealed to every creative bone in my body. I loved the almost zen-like feel of pulling loops, loved playing with colour and developing my own through dyeing, and loved the final product,” says Loretta. You will often find Loretta in her booth at Ottawa and area Quilt Shows and Needle Arts Fairs. She maintains a studio in her home near Westport

 

 

More of Loretta's Rug Art...beautiful.

 

 

While Loretta's preferred style is primitive, folk art wide-cut rugs, she loves playing with various fibres and techniques. She also teaches and sells supplies through her business “Hooked on the Lake.”  Do visit Loretta's blog at https://hookedonthelake.wordpress.com/

 

 

Don’t miss a chance to enjoy these wonderful rugs. You may well become “hooked” yourself.

 

 

Note: Some text from the Event Posting  announcement at Mississippi Valley Textile Museum website HERE