The West Coast Dream Squid

Saori Residency- Day 7

Quote of the day
"There are things you can't see without throwing away, but also you can get something as a result of discarding."

What a perfect quote for my last studio working day here in the island. Both Terri and I on the cusp of change and transformation. It has been nice to work alongside one another in the studio.

At the cottage, I have been working on the small loom to create a circle of weaving. I am happy to be learning so many new techniques while I am here.

Many of my pieces are about he passages of time and I am usually weaving about he passage of time, but with this piece, time is determining what will become. The circle piece will be only as long as I have time to make it…

The remainder of the Terri- warp will have to be woven by Terri. I kind of like that idea as well and I look forward to what it will become...

In the studio, it was time to take the fabric and sew it into something. Terri showed me how the patterns would work out by having me make them out of paper first. The fabric just did not want to be a west coast dream coat, so it became a west coast dream squid. The squid pattern takes a rectangle of cloth and by making a triangular fold and cutting arm holes creates a garment that Lynn told me, "Looks flattering on everyone." It also requires only a little bit of sewing and can be worn various ways. That's the garment for me.

The west coast fabric

The paper mock-ups

It decided it wanted to be a squid

The arm hole trick, thanks Lynn! 

As I worked on the squid, Terri worked on the weaving out of paper yarn. Finishing the edges with a hem stitch. the piece is beautiful and includes some parts where combing is done to create these open spaces into the fabric. Terri told me Eiji gave her this yarn and he does a lot of combing in his weavings as well, like the one hanging in the window in the background of the photo below.

the hem stitch

Terri's weaving in the foreground and Eiji's hanging in the window in the background.

"Little Terri" is still a work in progress, but I wanted to share how it looks when the cool cross comes off the loom. The pictures do not do the pictures do not do it justice, but here is Terri hanging around in her natural habitat.

We took a little afternoon field trip to visit Lorrie and her sheep. Some adorable little lambs had just been born and were very springy, friendly and absolutely adorable. It is nice to know that the woolen locks that I have been weaving into many of my pieces while I was here come from these happy and well-cared for sheep. I also bought some woolen locks from Lorrie to bring home and weave with.

Back in the studio, it was time to complete the squid… Here are the results…

the front

the back

another way to wear it…

I will end today's post with a quote I saw in the Salt Spring Island Studio Tour Guidebook….

"If I had known about the richness of this island, I definitely would have planned to stay longer." -a happy visitor