My move in date for the exhibit has changed to May 18th. Sorry if this messes up anyone's plans to visit the market earlier. It turned out that there wasn't a gallery wall available for me to display my art. All the artist's renting wall space decided to renew their contracts for another month. The market had some portable walls available on the 17th so I postponed my move in. It was challenging to figure out how to display my work in a 4x4 foot floor space but I think I have a figured an effective and attractive way to do it. Please come by and let me know what you think. I have learned a lot.

Art is ready for the exhibit at Pacific Arts Market:
1448 W. Broadway in Vancouver: www.pacificartsmarket.ca
May 17 to June 11
You will enjoy the many other artists who have their work on display and for sale.

It has been a good experience for me to plan my display and get all the bits ready like labels, hanging devices, signage,etc.

Tonight is the opening for the Textiles Translation exhibit, our annual cherry blossom show. I decided to do something different than a wall hanging this year. Aunt Sylvie, who loves the cherry blossom festival, arrived. She was fun to create and I was able to practice some new skills.
I booked a space at the Pacific Arts Market for a month, May 16 to June 12th. I will be exhibiting and selling my Art. This has meant reframing and tweaking some of my work..

Hi everyone. I appreciate you coming back to my blog. Apparently keeping this habit current is not a strong suit for me. I would rather stitch! I do want to let you know what I have been up to though.
Fancy Nancy found a new home at Christmas with a young lady who is an FN fan. Very satisfying for me.
Sylvie, the eccentric auntie, was created and moved to join a lovely family in Rossland. She helped me develop some new dollmaking skills and was a step up in refinement of details. Thank you to the doll group for those wonderful finger-turning tools.

 
The June market was successful for me thanks to my faithful friends who bought cards! The weather and location for the market were not great but we were encouraged enough to plan something again for this coming June. TBA The quality and variety of work was excellent and those who attended the dollmaking workshop had a good time.

I made a collage in honour of the Mingei Museum that is closed this year for renovation (about 15 in. square). I made images of items that have inspired me in exhibits there. There is a little nod to the magnificent Chihuly chandelier that I hope returns in the new space. This piece is available at the Visions Museum in San Diego.

Once my cherry blossom project was done I worked on a doll for the Coast Character doll display at Parkgate Library in North Vancouver in May. We each chose a character from a children's book to create. I chose Fancy Nancy. It was fun to try some new techniques and as expected there is more to learn! After Nancy was done I began making Art cards for the VGFA "Made by Hand" market on June 30th, our first ever. At the same time I was creating a submission for the "Lace" members' challenge at Visions Art Museum in San Diego.  The market will be a new venture for me. I designed the poster and learned a lot doing that too! Big lesson was find out what the printer wants for specifications if you are having someone else print it! I will now post a bunch of pictures Fancy Nancy and a couple of my cards.the cards are all hand dyed and hand stitched by me.

I am exhibiting again this year in the "Cherry Blossom: A Textile Translation" show at the Silk Purse Gallery in West Vancouver, BC;  March 27 to April 15th. I have posted photos on my Gallery 2018 page.

I have been so focussed on Instagram that my website has been neglected.  Find me at  @tempestm2017. The summer and fall were busy with textile related activities.  My Canada 150 is finished and on my wall. It ended up being a triptych. Maiwa Symposium came and went, wonderful as usual. The workshop I took on thickening natural dyes was so inspiring and practical. I finished a project using one of my samples  created there. I am currently doing another using thickened dyes. I entered the  fall challenge at Visions Museum in San Diego and my entry "Mingei" sold! Selling will never cease to be a thrill.   See Canada 150 and Mingei in my gallery. See the project from my sample using the thickened dyes below. I was amazed at the rich colors produced. My idea came from a vase of tulips. Of course I had to hand and machine embroider.

The members of my fibre arts group are creating projects that represent what Canada means to each of us. The main criteria was to not buy anything new, to just use what we had in our stash. No problem. I have a ton of stuff! We will bring our finished creations to our September meeting.
The landscape of Canada is the first image that came to mind; its vastness and diverse geography. I see Canada as the West, the middle, and the East so my project became a triptych. I had a box full of batiks in every colour I needed so that became the basis for the landscape. Here are some of the parts in progress. I will post the finished project as soon as I get the sections mounted on the canvases. (note to self: make your projects a standard size so you don't have to get canvases made!)