Janna Maria

For me it's important to engage in the local business and craft community here in Vancouver by keeping up on things like following blogs, visiting shops and attending events.   I also like to blog every once and a while about particular artists or businesses that I've discovered, been thinking about or engaged with recently.  Part of that for me is being optimistic that a few readers every once and a while might be inspired to do the same, on their own terms. 

I have a pretty obvious 'stay in the loop' routine ; for me part of weekly browsing involves checking in with Blogger Reader to see the recent posts on blogs which I've subscribed to, as well as hitting up the 'shop local' section on Etsy ( I also just joined Yelp).  Invariably I wind up 'favouriting' a multitude of great finds , but often wish I could spread the love in a more efficient way than by emailing or facebooking my friends individually about some hot items that I think they'd enjoy (I'm beginning to wonder if I might be one of those ' SPAM friends ').  So, I thought of a creative way in which to share my weekly local finds; I've added an Etsy 'local finds' block on the right side of my blog------->

As I browse, so too will you.
Enjoy!

Janna

My great aunt Agatha on my fathers polish side was a seamstress.  She designed and sewed her sisters (my grandmother) wedding dress by hand.  I wore that same dress on my wedding day and later embroidered the dress history on a keepsake handkerchief to accompany it.

It has been brought to my attention that the contact form on this site has been configured incorrectly since the new year.  If you have sent me a message via the contact form unfortunately I have not received it.  The problems have now been fixed and it is working fine.

Sorry for any inconvenience

Thanks, Janna

I have successfully completed a number of samples on my Singer LK 100 knitting machine, one of which is a brown vest made with hand-spun wool.  The blocking process is necessary for knitted pieces that you would like to have lay flat; when you knit in stockinette stitch the edges roll under quite a lot.  In the case of the vest, where I'll be sewing seams, this is necessary as is in the case of samples which I will be documenting in a book.  Blocking is a process whereby you pin the pieces to a surface (a soft surface printing table in my case), spray them with water and then apply weight with a towel.  When the pieces have dried they will stay flat.

I received an amazing gift from my great-aunt Franca for Christmas last year; she printed and framed about 20 pictures of my maternal italian side of the family for me (she did the same for both my brothers and mom too.  she's pretty amazing).  Since being in textile art school I've been a lot more interested in the beautiful clothes I see worn by my ancestors in family photos. I can't help but wonder, every time I look at them, who must have made the clothes they are wearing.  When I called Franca last night I learned a lot, and then today, after franca confirmed some information with bisnonna Vera (my great grandmother), I received some emails with even more information.  Here's what she told me.

from left to right the above photos are (click for enlargement):

1.   Bisnonna on her confirmation day(age 12, 1930)  standing beside her sponsor Maria, who is only 17 in this photo.  She later became her aunt.  Bisnonna's dress was made by a dress maker, no one in the family.

2.  My great-aunt Franca dressed for Marti Gras as Mimi from La Boheme.  This outfit was sewn by her grandmother.

3.  Again Bisnonna, age 7 (1925).  She is wearing a Marti Gras costume that her father originally wore at around age 9.  He also had five sisters who wore it as well.  Bisnonna remembers  it was silky (probably silk) with black pants and a green jacket.  She doesn't know who sewed the outfit but it was probably a family affair since Bisnonna's grandmother was very good at sewing along with the other girls too. The wig was made by her mother who was a seamstress and a gentleman's tailor whose specialty was vests. She didn't like finishing the vests by sewing machine so she used to sneak the vests out of the shop and finish them by hand at home. 

4.  Bisnonna's nona, which makes her my great great great grandma.  This was her obituary photo.

Bisnonna was never allowed to meet her nonna on her papa's side because her aunts were apparently uptight about the fact that she was born out of wedlock (they never did get married).  She didn't get to meet her grandma but instead received gifts of hand-made dresses from her on a regular basis.  She says she remembers the tiny hand-done stitches.

Franca is a textile artist as well.  She specializes in quilting and is a proficient doll maker.  Like most textile artists she is skillful in many areas of textiles including embroidery, sewing, knitting, weaving, spinning and dyeing.  When I entered into the textiles program she was extremely supportive and thoughtful and has been on the lookout at thrift stores for equipment for me ever since.  She was the bearer of my knitting machine, my huge button and yarn collection as well as a lot of other useful textiley things.

Needless to say I come from a textile background, and that's just one side of the italian family. So, I have some more research to do.  Franca filled me in a bit on my paternal Italian side already....

She wrote:

The Tomasi family (my grandfather's side) also has a history of sewing.  Floriano's brother was a tailor and his sister became a pattern maker in New York ,they all knew how to do something to be self sufficient.  If I remember correctly Floriano worked for a Quilter.  The mother was very good at sewing and business. You should ask Mama.  
Franca

I posted my love seat (mentioned in my last post) on Craigslist.  I left it on my front lawn with directions to my home in the ad.  My hope was that I might find a home for it sooner this way.  When I noticed it was taken I kindly left a 'GONE' message on the ad just in case someone had intended on trekking down to my hood, just to warn them it had been taken.  I did this with the intention of completely removing the ad soon after.  Well, I must confess that I forgot, and if not for a brazen local gal by the name of Mandy L, I may not have remembered to remove it at all.  Here is the email I received tonight:

 i don't know why people like you go on to your posting on craigslist and edit it bu saying sorry gone or just put gone why don't you just delete it your very rude it even says in the beginning delete your posting when your done i think you very rude and your lazy RUDE RUDE RUDE RUDE DELETE YOUR AD LAZY ASS

I couldn't help but reply to this unrestrained request.  I would normally let it be but was too tempted to create a dialogue with this sassy gal.

Dear Mandy,

I have deleted my ad.  Thank you for bringing to my attention how lazy I am indeed.  Your email has been most educational and I have learned much through receiving it; namely that receiving emails that are meant to be offensive can contrarily enliven an otherwise uneventful evening.

Thank you for taking the time to entertain me.

Janna

I may be getting ahead of myself, since I only sent off my application to Concordia last week, but I have begun to de-stash in preparation for the move.  This week I have successfully given away 4 garbage bags of fabric, mostly wool, 5 garbage bags of yarn, a love seat, some pillows and a foamy as well as some random textile stuff including a dress form.

Now don't get me wrong, I know that technically I am counting my chickens before they've hatched, but I feel pretty confident about getting into Concordia.  Danny and visited in November and met a few of the faculty in the Fibres program who assured me I should have no problem.

Stay tuned for the final de-stash which will happen closer to June.  I've kept all the best stuff for last since I wanted to keep my place stocked with stuff to keep be busy until the summer.

My husband Danny has also applied to Concordia to take some general sciences.  Our hope is that on our days off we can both venture into surrounding cities like Ottowa and Toronto to play some shows and enjoy the music scene while we're out east.

I have been blessed with having beautiful friends who graciously agree to model my garments for me.  These gals, Jem and Sasha, are particularly special because we see each other every day of week at school (yes, we do sometimes spend EVERY day in the weaving and surface design studios).  I have shared so many wonderful times with these gals and have great respect for them as artists.   

Sasha is the Indigo queen, she is such a specialist that she is braving dyeing her wedding dress as well as her fiances wedding attire in indigo (very exciting).  She is also a master quilter, breaking traditional barriers by dyeing her own fabrics and drawing meaning from the materials, techniques and images that she uses. 

Jem masters all techniques with great precision.  She tends to mix her mediums with nostalgic conceptual references to create eloquent masterpieces.

Both Sash and Jem have recently started blogging which is very exciting to me.
Check out their blogs bellow:

http://imperialindigo.blogspot.com/

http://dharmathreads.blogspot.com/

Normally I would be avoiding blogging about the Olympics at all costs, but I did find one thing to celebrate despite my grievances:  Barbara Layne's visit form Montreal. She came to participate in the Cultural Olympiads at Emily Carr's Code Live exhibition.  On the opening night I modeled one of her fabulous hand-woven electronic jackets which had scrolling messages and images in LED lights, one of which was the Olympic rings. Barbara, with the help of her team, has patented the design for these flexible LED lights which can be woven into fabric without breaking or greatly affecting the drape of the fabric.  She weaves them into a special weave structure which she designed especially for the purpose of keeping the wires from making contact with each other and short circuiting despite being woven together, along with other fibres, as one fabric.  Pretty amazing stuff!

Barbara's studio at Concordia University
http://subtela.hexagram.ca/

P.S.  I still feel a little dirty for wearing Olympic rings.