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 the 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/
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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 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. I'll be weaving all weekend to get this shag dress done for Wednesday. The pic on the loom is my colour inspiration; one of the Vancouver Sky photos I took in Abbotsford and manipulated in Photoshop.
I hand-dyed all of this fabulous hand-spun merino/angora that I bought from a lovely local source. The warp is 100% linen and I am using traditional Turkish carpet weaving techniques for structural integrity. |
About me:
I'm a west coast Canadian gal who after completing a BFA in Fibres at Concordia University in Montreal moved to the New York metropolitan area where I am pursuing my art practice while learning the ropes of motherhood.
June 2021
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