Gifts For Myself and Others- Sunday- final day

I was on shift at our Group booth at the Gifts for Myself and Others Show yesterday. Our booth showcases the work of nine artisans and it's really fun to represent other artists!

The entire show is of the usual high standard that has been exemplified many years and it's a pleasure to stroll around the booths to see what everyone has been doing over the last year as well as see the work of several artisans who are new to the event. The show closes at 5:00 pm today.

Gifts for Myself and Others- 2011

Gifts for Myself and Others starts at noon today! If you are in Victoria this is the place to be! Top quality jurored fine island-made craft, outstanding food by the International Womens' Co-Op and Brad Prevedoros supplying  beautiful music. I'll be on shift on Satuday and Sunday mornings so look for me in Booth 31.

My Micro Booth!

While I've been building foundation skills with basketry I have continued making clay items for sale in shops and galleries although not on the scale as in previous years. When I heard that my favourite craft event- Gifts for Myself and Others was offering space in a cooperative booth I signed up right away! It will be my only show this year...my booth has shrunk from last years corner 8x10' booth to a svelte 2x3' section of a table. No grids or wall backing! Here's my ubiquitous pre-show dining room set up with art cards, earrings, Fusion Bangles and rings being my sole offerings. No baskets or woven projects this year.

I love my new 3 sectioned table top sized shutters- our neighbours tossed them on the boulevard during a home renovation and I snagged them along with several others - after a rejuvenating spray of copper paint they look very spiffy.

Today we'll set up the booth. The shelves and displays will be "loaded" tomorrow morning and the show starts TOMORROW! My feet will appreciate that a group booth means we work in shifts so we'll have time outs through the show.

To be continued....

Joan Carrigan- Bark Basketry Workshop

Some of Joan's Baskets

This past weekend I ferried over to Salt Spring Island to take a 2 day bark basketry course with Joan Carrigan. It was a small class of six- and we all enjoyed ourselves immensely. The class began with a demonstration on preparing cedar and willow bark and we all had a chance for hands on use of the bark.

Joan demonstrates how to prepare cedar bark

Cutting willow bark strips

Work begins!
We were taught how to use various plaiting techniques to make three different pouches.. The bark was absolutely gorgeous in colour and texture and it was  hard to decide which side of the willow bark should be on the inside or outside of the basket!

 Joan teaches at her home studio on Saltspring as well as at the Horticultural Centre of the Pacific 
in Victoria.

Chicago- my kind of town.

My first visit to Chicago was in July and we managed to fall in love with the city in spite of a humid 105F. Our friends there reminded us that their door is always open for hosting a return visit to see a Canucks game. A few months later I spotted that the SOFA show was in Chicago in November and on a whim I checked the NHL schedule and was astonished to see that both events were on the same weekend! Calendars were synchronised, airmile points were applied and the trip was on!


The SOFA and INTUIT show were beautifully overwhelming.  

The exhibitors are primarily galleries from the US but many Canadian artists were in evidence.  I have to say there was a modest showing of polymer clay but I wasn't looking at the many jewelry booths so I may have missed a lot. The RAM book was on a table for perusal and there was a lady there giving an enthusuastic  explanation of what polymer clay actually is.
As there was so much to see my focus was polymer clay, basketry and mixed media. I was over the moon when I found out that I could take pictures!!!! 
My two favourite booths were The Jane Sauer and the Tai Gallery which are both from Santa Fe and have a powerful focus on  basketry. The bamboo work in the Tai Gallery was fascinating.

TAI GALLERY 

NAGAKURA Kenichi - TAI GALLERY

JANE SAUR EXPLAINS A BASKETRY TECHNIQUE

Blackboard backgrounds were used in several booths- on walls or table tops

By the way- the Canucks won 6-2!

Another Fantastic Mixed Media Basketry Artisan

My Google searches led me to many wonderful basketmakers and I have to say when I found Shannon Weber's earthquakingly fantasmagically amazing work on her website.  I believe I yelped "WOW!!" out loud!  I emailed her right away a. to ask about workshops- especially since she's in Oregon- one of my favourite states- and b. if I could have permission to bedeck a blog page with images of her work. She's a fun email correspondent who I look forward to meeting in person!

Pictures are worth a thousand words-

You can see how she has made this polymer clayer want to continue combining clay with fibre! Even better than pictures you can view her at work here!

Thanks Shannon-- and um, when is that next workshop?