Arrival and departure

It is early in the morning and I am done sleeping for now anyways.
Yesterday was a big day - which started out with an email notice that our crate is ..... Where it is supposed to be for now, in storage with the shipping company in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Phew, deep breath, now it is time to start thinking seriously about how to and what to pack.

Except there was one more important point before commencing to pack to take care of yesterday. A couple of months ago we had contacted the local CBC Radio Station to let them know that we were up to something exciting, interesting, something worth while informing their listeners about. Yesterday on the programme Close to Home, CBC Radio I had a few minutes in a telephone interview to talk about our adventure and our plans.
I prepared lists, I called around to the SEVEN ladies and asked questions about which words specifically they wanted me to use when/if describing their works,I made lists, plural, mostly because I was doing it on the confounded confuser and so ... In the heat of the moment I deleted the first very exciting and full list. Once I discovered that and I had my breathing under control again I made a new very satisfying list with our general goals and other important stuff.
Then it was time for the interview and ... Time flies when you are having fun they say, even nervous fun I now know is covered by this, for ... In two blinks of an eye Yvonne Colbert was wrapping it up again and I was hanging up the phone.
On the table in front of me was the initial hand drafted list and on the screen was the confuser list and in looking them over I realised that I hadn't really covered one tenth of what I really wanted to express, and talk about. So many points of importance (to us I might ad)so little time, and in real life I suppose that what would suit my needs as an incessant talker would be more like a three hour show featuring a monologue or perhaps a panel discussion with SEVEN.
In hind sight it probably is very good that I only got a few minutes, they took enough planning as it was and overall I think we are ready to start the trip and not interested in anymore time consuming planning sessions in order to make another another large impact statement.
As we are just arriving in Denmark the second of two articles written about us in a Danish arts/craft magazine, Husfliden will be sent out to their membership - we had to make sure we were covered in the Danish Press as well. We have been in contact with the local newspaper covering the area where we are exhibiting at the gallery in København, Østerbroavisen and I know that they are working on making room for our press release as well as the ad we have ordered. It is beyond exciting to be doing this, beyond description to feel the wave of support we have met where ever we have turned, and this is only the beginning, we aren't even there yet. Wow is all I can say!

Group Goals which help us keep focused:
1. Create opportunities/shows together
2. Artistic companionship
3. Professinal Development: artistic and the business of being an artist
4. Yipppeee Factor ... Getting Juiced Up!

We are on our way,

Yeeeehaaaaaww, this is me galloping across the kitchen floor swinging a skein of yarn with glee!
Pia

We're on our Way!

Well, we haven't exactly packed yet, but..... we have started talking about the crate which our works will travel in when we do head out into the world on July 29 at 22.10 in the evening. Awwwww, don't know which leg to stand on thinking about it.
Time to breathe in and out and then do a revision of the priorities on the list which seems to keep growing and growing.   This is all good though, since as the list grows  the section of already done items and priorities have been scratched out. I like to scratch out things on the list with a bold red pen, then I feel like I have really accomplished something, since the list...... at times can be very red. Especially when.... you put even the minutest little items down on the list, not just the overall goals. Ah, the carrots we hang in front of our own noses.

Freia wishing I was done weaving so ...... she and I could go out again, although, as you can see from her paws we had been to the woods once that day  already. Dogs live with lots of hope and love in their lives, every day!







Other than focusing on the list I am heavily engaged in finishing my last tapestry for the exhibit  at Basal Elin Kunst in København and later at VærkstedsGalleriet in Kerteminde.
Tapestry weaving takes lots of time, as I might have mentioned before, but..... I love doing it, I love seeing how the piece progresses, how the type of yarn and colour I choose in the end has an effect on my initial thought and idea. The texture of yarns and colours continue to amaze me and every day I spent in front of the tapestry is a pleasure, often a pleasure which is tempered  by sore muscles when I get too carried away and don't remember to get off the bench to do some stretching and getting the blood circulation going again.
As a matter of fact, I find that I can enter into this very interesting space, where all that matters is .... the movement of the hands as they feed the yarn butterflies through the shed which I open with one foot or the other on this particular upright loom.

 Taking a break in the sheep pen an early spring day just a few months ago with my special good friend Sam.

Now although my eyes feast on the work and progress in front of me my brain wants its own input and starts saying:  feed me too, feed me too please! I accomplish this by listening to audio tapes or cds which I get at our local library. Thank goodness for the library. Sometimes I come home with grand literature, sometimes I am not sure what it is and other times it is just total entertainment and lots of laughs are intermingled in the weaving.
So when people ask me if I read a lot, well, I do have to say no, but..... I sure listen well!
And as for now, right this moment, I can feel the thoughts starting to also circulate around where I would like to take the group when we do arrive in Copenhagen.
The Round Tower, with the most magnificent view of the city, the main pedestrian walkway in the centre of Copenhagen, oh, Tivoli Gardens, yes, we must go to Tivoli Gardens, and I have heard there are special fireworks on August 15th. When I was a kid in the last century there was fireworks twice a week, but that has been changed now and there are lazer light shows going on instead twice a week, but..... I want to see the real fireworks and so I guess we have to make it there on August 15th, a fine finale for the group trip since many of our participants are heading home to our beautiful Canada the next day. 
Off to the looms, Pia             

Resistance, reluctance - patience!

Time is running - Departure Date is coming closer .... the lists are getting longer...... excitement is sending uneasy and joyful currents through my body and soul.
I had a good friend visiting on the weekend. We always end up talking and talking and our ideas and thoughts on business, artwork, and execution of same is never ending.
Some of the things on my to-do list for this particular trip to Denmark are very business related. There are papers to read, sign, send off, all in time for everything to be in place by the time I have to start packing my suitcase.
This seems to create a certain resistance in my head, a reluctance in my body to move and get what needs to be done done - and why is that???
I have asked that question again and again. Some sort of a answer has shown the first little leaves of its nature.
There is a lot of uncertainty in my head about how my business model fits into the great system of tax and government regulations which one has to abide and model a business by in order to legally and easily export/import goods from Canada to Denmark.
Pam described some of this very eloquently in her earlier blog post from May 6th 2010.
Breath in, Breath out ........  I just have to saddle the horse and tackle it all one step at a time.

And so on this bright day where the barn swallow on the lines outside the bedroom window enticed me to get up with the sun I am in great luck, since it is a holiday and I cannot possibly call around to agencies to get answers to my questions.
I have to be patient and this in turn will allow me to work on the red tapestry some more. Right now the sun is shining on the bench by the loom so I had better go in and feel the warmth and the joy.

Comments about other grand ways of coping with growing pains are very welcome, or..... other comments in general.
Input is always appreciated!

Pia, the Warped One, who was also the Twisted One for a little while this morning (some final spinning had to be done for another project before the words for this blog would arrive and line up)

Inspired SEVEN member and tapestry weaver on the loose!

July/August is coming up at an incredible speed. Well, speed is relative, but the days do keep disappearing and very soon it is not longer March but April. This means that I have to turn up the heat under myself in the effort of making my ideas for our EXCHANGE exhibit come to life sooner than three days before I have to board the plane and head for Copenhagen.
Today I picked up the glauber salts and the dyes which I had ordered at Gaspereau Valley Fibres, a much visited local yarn and fibre place.


It is not as if I had no dyes already, but it is important to always replenish your stash before you start another big production.
I had spun three ply skeins with different fibres represented in each skein. The original hue or colour of each yarn chosen for the ply was decided upon intentionally for its effect on the final dye result.

The skeins of yarn soaked in the tub  while I was out doing errands and thus when I returned home just before lunch it was nice and easy to put on the big dye-pots and all I had to do was wait for the water to get to a boil

When the two post started steaming I added dyes mixed to my liking and dumped the skeins into the bubbling liquid. I use two large pots at a time since once I am in it, it seems it just cannot go swiftly enough for me.

The next step includes lots of patient stirring and waiting for the water in the dye pots to go clear = for all the dye to be absorbed in the fibres. This can take quite a while so the trick is to have something on the go in your head or a good radio show in your ear.

Sometimes I pour the skeins into 11 liter icecream containers for their cooling period, that way I can get back to dyeing the next lot. It is interesting to watch the un-dyed wetted fibres up close to the newly dyed and vibrant skeins.

 I had  dyed some very small samples of yarn last week in order to see if I was headed down the right path with the dyes and the yarns. I checked it out by weaving and trying out techniques on my small tapestry copper frame  and this is what the sample looks like at this moment in time.

And as a little 'pre-view' to the larger not yet finished tapestry,  this is the initial idea put down with water colours to get a clearer vision of where I really wanted to go with the EXCHANGE exhibit in Denmark at Basal Elin Kunst in Copenhagen, and VærkstedsGalleriet, Kerteminde, my view of walls and surfaces which I have observed and felt inspired by here in Nova Scotia, Canada.



Cheers, Pia
Wonderous Woolerie

International Transplant

Hi, I am Pia, the transplanted Dane in the group who has had the immense fortune of landing in this beautiful spot on earth, Nova Scotia, Canada. I am a textile artist, a weaver of shawls and scarves, and a tapestry weaver from the inner core of my being.

Barn wall, inspiration for Tapestry #1
I have lived here since July 1989 and have enjoyed each day, every day, all day. Watched my kids grow up and fly away from our comfy nest on strong Canadian wings with a feather or two of their Danish genes shining through.
So many opportunities have shown themselves and one of the biggest ones I would say is when life took a turn of its own and I suddenly found myself with this group of fun, interesting and inspiring women. We are all full of passion about what we do. I think we dream it at night, and float away on thoughts about projects in the middle of the day. Our creativity is pervasive in our every breath and........ it is lovely, exhausting and very inspiring.
I grew up in Copenhagen, Østerbro to be more precise, and it is lovely that our first exhibit in Denmark will take place in Trepkasgade at Galleri Basal Elin, just a few blocks away from where some of my siblings still live and bring up their families. Big City surroundings, lots of buses, cars, bicycles, and bicycle paths, trains galore to get from A to B or just strong legs, used to getting from here to there at a brisk walk.

Living here in the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia is something I would never trade - I cannot easily see myself anywhere else now. It has to be added though that when Seven decided to travel with me to Denmark and we were given the opportunity to exhibit our artwork, not only in one or two places, but a third place turned up - well, then I did get rather and extra excited about the whole plan.
National pride is something funny, you never know when it will turn up and how it will express itself. As it is for me right now, I have so may interesting places I would like to take my group to when we arrive in Copenhagen - Cannot wait to take them all to the top of Rundetaarn, so they can look at the city roofs, new and old, a place which I usually go to when I do go back for visits. Art museums - Statens Museum for Kunst, where I remember doing an essay about a most humongous painting when I was 17 and getting a good grade for it. I spent hours in front of that painting - do not know if it is still there, but ...... I know the museum was renovated some years ago and so there will be so much more and other pieces of art for us to look at and to get inspired by.
My approach to "Exchange" is to study and get inspired by the surfaces, textures and colours on buildings surrounding me where I live, and when I go to Copenhagen I will study the surfaces surrounding me where I grew up - back then I may not exactly have noticed them.

This is a steaming pot of newly dyed yarn for the first project which is off the loom already.

Piece #1 came of last Sunday, it still needs to be finished up for hanging, but it is off the loom and the warp has been re-tied and tightened so when the yarn has been dyed I can sit down and start to weave this next expression of joy which is galloping around in my brain.
Today I will start organizing wool and yarn for the next tapestry piece which I will bring to Denmark. 
 
Until next time I have an overflow of words spilling out of my fingers,
Pia