Archives for September 2015

matangwe show at gallery 121

September 18, 2015 by Birdbrain 2 Comments

The show of the hooking created by the women of Matangwe, Kenya, began on Tuesday at Gallery 121 in Belleville, Ontario. The formal opening is not until tomorrow, but as you can see from the pictures below, many of the pieces are already sold. Chair seats, mats and trivets, all hand-hooked in Kenya from recycled materials, make up a portion of the new show. Everyone who visits the gallery seems captivated by the vibrant colours and designs. If you have been following the blog for a while you will know I have been working with this group of women on learning to design and hook for the last three years. It is simply marvellous to see the products displayed so beautifully and in one place. And if you would like to see some of the photos of the steps in the learning process, simply type in Matangwe in the search box above.

I would like to formally thank the members of Gallery 121 who have been so supportive of this project. This is a cooperative gallery powered solely by the talent and hard work of its members. They were wonderful to work with and, in addition, they have waived the regular gallery fee and commission rate so that all the proceeds will go directly to the women in Kenya. We are so fortunate to have such a gallery in our city. The show will be on until October 21, so please visit if you are in the area.

a new Keller bag

September 17, 2015 by Birdbrain Leave a Comment

Meet the latest Keller bag made from same green leather as you saw here and here. As you know, I am a very small design/sewing enterprise and most things are single-run (made from recycled leather like this one) or single hide where I can maybe get two or three bags from the same piece of leather. So this is the last of this green leather and a special order. I know it is not at all clear how to order bags on the blog and I plan to work on that when we are home from Ireland.

This bag is 12″ wide, 13″ tall and 4″ deep with an adjustable cross-body strap, an exterior zipper pocket and three pockets inside. It has a double bottom and reinforced seams for strength. It is lined with green/gold wax print cotton from Kenya. This is a hard colour to capture in a photo; the bottom shot taken last night on the deck is closest to the right shade.

city streets

September 15, 2015 by Birdbrain 1 Comment

This month I’ve been working in a Moleskine A5. This format used to be my favourite, but I am now feeling hemmed in by it. My towers barely fit on the page. These are two street scenes, the first from my car, the second done as I was perched on my stool on the sidewalk. For the Belleville sketch I wanted to be able to see right down the street and my car was a good spot for that. It is relatively private and luckily the view was unobstructed. In Kingston, a busy tourist spot even in September, I thought my spot on the sidewalk next to a bench where I could set my paints and water was good, but I realized too late that I couldn’t see the bottom of the buildings. I did the sketch anyway as well as most of the paint as I sat there, many people stopping to look and comment. I’m getting used to that–and people are invariably encouraging.

It is perspective that I am concentrating on–translating what is in front of me to the page. Shari Blaukopf made this look so easy in her class demo in Montebello last June and I am inspired by her street scenes. We are going on a trip to Ireland soon and I plan to sketch as many buildings and street scenes as I can. And I have a new coil sketchbook, 7″ x 10″ ready to go. This size is compact enough to carry easily, but big enough that I should be able to keep the scene from running off the bottom. Fingers crossed.

a new design feature…side pockets

September 11, 2015 by Birdbrain Leave a Comment

You will remember this bag, the Sage Delta. It is over two years old and going strong. However, its owner, a veteran traveller. wanted more outside pockets to hold boarding pass and other necessities. She asked if I could modify the bag by adding a long pocket on each side. Luckily I had some leather left, so I said I’d give it a try. Remember this bag is fully lined with interior pockets as well as a front pocket–so a little tricky. I’ve been thinking about it for a bit too long, wondering how I would do it. Well, today I got down to it–and here it is. I think the addition works and may try it on the next bag…

matangwe show starts next week

September 10, 2015 by Birdbrain Leave a Comment

I have been writing a profile of each of the 13 rug hookers I worked with in Matangwe, Kenya. We are having a show of their work at a local gallery. The show opens September 15, but the formal opening with reception is September 19th, 2-4 pm. I hope you will come to see the work in person if you are in the eastern Ontario area. I think it’s important that the visitors to the gallery can learn about the world of each of the rug hookers, so I am writing a short description of each rug hooker, just as they told it to me.. This is Everlyne, a veteran of the course, (two years) who hooked five pieces in the three weeks. You can see her here with one of her own designs. All the pieces are hooked with t-shirts and wool — chair seats, mats and coasters–and many will be available for sale. You can see more of the pieces here.

a quick sketch of a historic train station

September 4, 2015 by Birdbrain Leave a Comment

I’ve always been charmed by the train station in Belleville with its jaunty roof and dormers and beautiful stone work. We lived in an 1850 stone house for many years just north of the city and I am still so attracted to stone buildings of that period. This one was built in 1856 for Grand Trunk Railway and it is made of Trenton limestone. Yesterday my train was 20 minutes late so I left the brand new and much less charming replacement station and did a 15 minute sketch of my old love — with only time for a couple of windows. The Montreal train came in as I was sketching so I included it. I finished the sketch up on the jerky journey with some paint added later. My trip to Toronto passes another original station in Cobourg but I’ve always thought that Belleville’s was the best design. I’ve been reading up on these stations today and learned that the Cobourg station along with others in Georgetwon and Napanee are “Type C” while Belleville’s is “Type B” meaning it is larger and has more curved arches. I’ve promised myself that I’ll go back and do a much fuller sketch of the Belleville station, and maybe Cobourg too. Belleville’s is empty now and I do worry about its future. We seem to knock down so many beauties and never learn from our mistakes.

marimekko love

September 4, 2015 by Birdbrain 2 Comments

I have talked before on the blog about my long-term love of Marimekko fabrics. (I have been buying and wearing Marimekko since the 60’s.) A couple of years ago the Textile Museum in Toronto had a great retrospective of Marimekko fabrics and clothing and I wrote about it here. There was a review in MacLeans at the time and if you scroll down you can see a video of many of the iconic fabric designs. Flash forward to 2015 and my trip to Boston in June when I was able to buy the two pieces of Marimekko coated cotton which you see below. We were leaving Boston when we spotted the store and my family waited patiently in the car parked in a loading zone while I ran in and purchased the fabric. There was a whole other floor of clothing and household items that I did not have a chance to see. I have plans to turn the yardage into bags with leather bottoms and straps. What a punch of colour and pattern!

This week, at the Belleville library, I bumped into another lover of Marimekko –well not exactly–I came upon her wonderful machine quilted piece of the very pattern which I bought in June. The quilter is Jane Cunningham and you can see her wall quilt at the bottom of this post.