Compu- Archaeology

I was going through some very old documents in my computer and ran into some images of pieces I made in the last century! There are lots of memories with these Secretive Women. It's funny but I'm drawing the most inspiration for my current basketry focus from those funky pre-Muses! 

I always loved this piece and the photo taken by Genevieve Primeau- the starry glint was caused by sunshine on a crystal and was pure serendipity that delighted both of us!

 

John Garrett- masterpieces

Visit John Garrett's spectacular website and prepare to have all of your mixed media instincts and aspirations  electro-shocked.  His instinctive applications of found objects to create multi levels of texture and colour have me reaching for my sketchbook. I'm on the constant lookout for a class with him- it would be life-altering.

A HUGE Confidence Boost!

I recently joined the Salt spring Basketry Guild and was able to enter some baskets into the Salt Spring Island Fall Fair. I received the baskets back today and was absolutely thrilled to recieve 2nd and 3rd place ribbons  in the Novice and Contemporary Categories. I took my first ever basketry class around one year ago so along with the two pieces that went into the Sooke Fine Arts Show and sold! 

This is a nice way to complete the cycle.
To be continued.....

Open Art Surge- An Inclusive Studio for Victoria Youth

The Open Art Surge workshop is opening again at 3:00 pm this Monday. It's in Fernwood and welcomes youth ages 14-25. Participants are able to show their work in associated exhibitions too!

Crocheted Kelp Basket

I was crocheting wire for the suspended vessels so I had to try my hand at crocheting kelp. Here's the result. Kelp is such a fascinating material  to work with. It's very malleable, a lot like clay in the way it can be noodged into position and there are always exciting surprises with colour and extent of shrinkage after the final drying.

I'll be weaving today!

The Dried Stash

It's hard to believe that when fresh this kelp filled 6 extra large green garbage bags and would easily have weighed over 100 lbs. After a week of sunshine here's my Galiano Island stash all dried, sorted and ready for rinsing and re-soaking.

My weekend involves basketmaking!

New Camera!

After a lot of research I chose my new camera! It's a Canon Power Shot SX260 HS and it's even green! I chose it for the 20x zoo, wide angle and responsive macro. It's got the features I want for travel and for taking close up photographs of my work. Did I mention that it's green? Being on sale at Future Shop was good too. Here's my first photo- a T-shirt from the Alternative Artfest in 1997. I think the message is a nice one for this camera's first photo. Thanks to everyone that suggested good websites for narrowing down the search.

Behind The Kelp Curtain

My family is endlessly patient with me. Here's our sundeck strewn with kelp and with the gazebo frame festooned with a curtain of drying kelp. the very long  green item on the deck is a hose, not kelp!

Thankfully the weather is warm and the kelp is almost dry enough for storing. It dries much more quickly on a rocky shore on a sunny Gulf Island so I have put just such a property on my wish list. I'll only need to make and sell about 200,000 fairly priced baskets to have sufficient funds!
The kelp is up to 6  meters long here on the cooler west coast of Canada. It can be 45 meters in the southern Pacific waters! I always find the drying process to be fascinating as the kelp shrinks to half it's original size and the colours gradually change based on the level of decomposition when the kelp is collected.

 

As the kelp dries it becomes crusted with salt which will be rinsed off when the kelp is re-soaked for weaving. 
To be continued......

The Salt Spring Island Basketry Guild

I've joined The Salt Spring Island Basketry Guild. Take a peek at their new website and see some pictures of the gorgeous work woven on Salt Spring. Planning for the 2013 programs has been completed and will be published on the website shortly. I have had a sneak peek and will be doing some calendar juggling in 2013!

The Guild will have a booth  displaying members' creations at the  Salt Spring Island Fall Fair on September 15 and 16 and I'm entering a few pieces myself! I'm hoping to do an island hop daytrip to see the fair in person and meet some of the members of the guild who were so welcoming and helped this out of towner get her work in the event!.

Well Done Good and Faithful Servant....

My beloved Nikon Coolpix S8000 has broken down. It survived being run over by a car and being ricocheted across a parking lot into a flower pot in July so it was a bit dented and scraped but it worked fine until a casual walk on the beach  on Galiano Island. I took a few shots and then it simply blackened it's screen and went into rigor mortis. My Samsung Galaxy Tab is a good substitute but a bit awkward for carrying on a craggy beach. My scanner is an even poorer substitute as you can see from these images.
The Nikon has taken shots that have been used in this blog, printed out as art cards, submitted for juries and even used for book publication - it's been a good friend. A repair isn't economical so the search for a new camera begins. Some newer models can bump up the zoom from 10x to 20x which will be nice for shoreline whale watching and an upcoming trip to Australia. Wider lenses are a nice addition too, especially with some close up photos of tall pieces. Samsung has wifi, very tempting to get rid of the wires but  I need to research the photo quality. 
I'll reinstate my Consumer Reports subscription, head over the the PCMag and CNet sites and start researching for the new purchase!

Packing Up and Starting Fresh

We're heading home today and I sorted and packed up the kelp for the trip home. My deck is going to be the final dehydration centre so although we're leaving the shore we'll still have the scent of the sea with us for a while.

My sketchbook is full of new ideas combining polymer clay with kelp so ratherthan feeling blue about the close of the vacation I'm revved up to get back to the studio for the Fall season!