The Source, farm and fibre.

Often, in my busy life, I loose touch with my beginnings and why I started working with fibre in the first place.  Our annual Back to Back International Wool Challenge, brings me back to working with fibre in the raw state, just off the sheep and smelling so heavenly barnny.  It also brings me once again into the company of other fibre enthusists and other farmers growing fibre animals. 

On June 5th, our B2B Team Sheep Thrills, gathered at Gaspereau Valley Fibres for a fun filled day of shearing, spinning and knitting.  Teams from around the world compete each year in this challenge and funds are raised for Cancer Research.  Our team beat our own record by over an hour, we are nowhere near beating the Canadian record nor the International record, but we are all winners for such a great cause. 

Photo: Sheep Thrills Team

 I love working with these women, and meeting so many friends, both old and new.  I love getting

 that  wonderful feeling of belonging to a society with respect for our natural world, and the

 creatures that depend on us and on whom we depend on.

Once back into raw fibre, I decided that it was time to sort my wool crop.  I picked out fleeces for the mill at MacAuslands, choice fleeces to sell to other spinners and my favorite ones for me to use for my own handspun and felting projects.  As one thing leads to another, I also cleaned out the lambing pens and hay storage areas in the barn to prepare and make room for this years hay crop.

                                                                                                                                                                                              

 Photo of my youngest grandchild, Keith enjoying the late day sun and newly dyed wool.

I spent the rest of the week getting ready for the Wolfville Farmers' Market, which I have started

attending again as a vendor.  I was missing the one on one contact with people that I have always

enjoyed.  I rarely go out without meeting someone new and saying to myself, that was an interesting

person, I am glad I met them.

This week I am back to prepareing for Denmark.  I am sure that when I have been there and return,                            

I will say "That was an interesting Country, I am glad I went there."         

Marilyn Rand

Working Along

Today marks the six week countdown for all work to be finished to ship to Denmark.  My focus will be to do about twenty pieces and choose my favorite from that work to send.
The last few days I have been fusing silk in both sculpture and hanging art.

My exchange for Denmark will involve taking as much of my home, community and province with me as I am able through my work.   From my living room window I look out upon the shores of Minas.  When the tide is in, it is beautiful blues against the clay banks and dyke grasses.  When the tide is out I see miles of marshy mud and smell the musty odor of briny ocean.  These are the things I miss when I leave my home.

Today I worked on a canvas of silk fusion, and now have the background layers done. This was done directly from the view from my window.  I will continue to work on this piece alternately with others, to try to catch the essence of the almost full tide.  Of necessity it will be done an hour later every day until I loose the lights with the shifting of the tide.

Another piece is sculptured silk influenced by the tangle of Boston Ivy growing on the side of my house.   Ivy is my favorite of all plant life.  The layers developing over the years and the intersections and paths followed by the vines, bring to mind the relationships over years of people and the paths and connections made by us.

Like everything else the Ivy is just coming into leaf, new beginnings, re-awakenings and rebirth that is spring.



Our group Seven is like spring, eternally evolving, renewing and exciting me on to bigger pursuits.
Marilyn Rand, The senior of SEVEN,  Lambs Run Farm...

Let's Do The Time Warp...

Because our blog is new and our artist collective is 3 years old, it seems appropriate to take jump into our time machine and visit some of our past creations.  In no particular order...

a bit of sculpture from Pam Frail...


... silk fusion with encaustic from Marilyn...

...acorns from Pia...

...Marie's copperwork...

...a painting by Angela...

... Deborah's digital serigraph...
















and, last, but certainly not least some of Kelly's poetry...

Staying Awake

by Kelly Marie Redcliffe

i . sleep

Awake? No, please, begin with sleep

a crow on murkied ice tugged out with tide. Bye

bye to time its hazards

no questions no accomodations

a herd of cloud-animals

galloping off to moon.

Quiet, the wingflap's darkling

I recognize as love.

ii wakesleeping

Waking is emergence, a yellow scope

poking from Calla Lily spathe.

Peek-a-boo I see you

squash-blossom horns delivering

pitch-perfect hellos

crayon streaks for sunshine

Now up

how to stay awake?

Gooped corners needing

excavation folding socks dirtied in a day.

Manners a white cane prattling pavement

safe across minutes.

Action a game of checkmarks

ta-dah! Cha-ching.

Washing machine is musac slish-sloshing upstairs

down. A sigh wants an excuse

a deep breath wants time

a trapped truth hates pretending

white lies white noise clutter

an aggressive unspoken wanting

forging forward

people aside

animal

human.

Don't walk away from it.

If you do you'll pay for it.

Shame an upturned tree

roots groping moss dangling.

Midday hoot of an owl

clear cylindrical.

Even ants build highways a pencil mark

through sand to get where they are going.

iii. waking up

If you want to change

you can! Vigilence

splayed under brush

chin stiffed into hand-heals pshaw

truthsayers and mimics here yea

hear yea stop waving exclamations at me

(please). Do not tease with aphorisms crowd

fear with sensations a throng of Cedar Waxwings

gorge fruit half-eaten spluttering to ground

red planets sweet squished

not an ounce of beauty wasted: eyes meet

in shared caring know that I love

doing as I said I would. Want

this.

Squash palms may ponder growth meanwhile

collect sunshine.

I lay on lawn on hand-stitched quilt from a friend's ex-partner's mother

sky-story writing shadows the universe on my back.

Being awake is what I do when

rested.

Skip routines try

a tidied entrance

soup made creamy with béchamel

spoon clunked in empty bowl. Satisfaction

yet incomplete weed-root

half in hand.

Learn flight

from reocurring dreams.

iv. awake again and again

It's so quiet I hear thirst lies

carelessly scrawled on chalkboard

sponged clean. A sunflower's root

drawing dew.

I am one who has not yet fallen

in love with herself believes it possible.

Squiggles of half-formed words

piled up falling asleep elongate into

stories lived in moonlit day. Sadness

turns orange is harvested. A last

yellow leaf twitches teardroplets plunk

in pond a harmonica note shudders

still a kiss is soft pucker blow

dandelion seed-darts are bubbles

encoded with hope

… poof

Great beginnings and thoughts of world travels!

This is the year of exploration, the year of great expectations, the year of keeping ourselves on our toes from early morn 'till the moon comes up.

In August 2010 six of Seven, (Pam, Marilyn, Marie, Deborah, Angela and Pia) will travel over the ocean to Denmark to explore, exchange and experience ourselves and our work in a completely new setting - a different culture, a different language, different food habits and bicycle paths. 

Kelly will stay back in Nova Scotia holding the fort and preparing herself for sensory overload when we return and the next part of exchange and the talking starts.

We endeavour to keep ourselves and other interested parties up to date with our progess and plans on this blog.
Any and all of the participants: Pam, Kelly, Deborah, Angela, Marilyn, Marie and Pia will be updating this blog when we feel the whim to express and share our excitement of this upcoming adventure.  

We work as a group and separately - and here is an example of what  happened when we all got together with brushes, paint and a nice large canvas for an afternoon in a sun-filled greenhouse  working on our 2009 exhibit Awakenings.