Hibernation can reveal buried treasure.

‘Hibernation’ textile art – screenprinted, hand dyed and machine embroidered.

I grew up in a warm climate where the idea of hibernation didn’t really exist. Winter was not something we really experienced and it was only after I moved to Canada that I understood that the shorter days and cold weather of winter months meant more time spent indoors. Don’t get me wrong, I love to be outdoors even in the winter, walking, skiing or snowshoeing, but reality is that more time is spent at home in the cave. For someone like me, an artist who works at home, the cave is my studio.
Usually at this time of the year I spend some time reorganizing my studio. As a typical fiber artist I have way too much fabric. Much of it I have dyed or surface designed and not yet used for a project. Some pieces are large and neatly folded on shelves or in drawers but some pieces are small and spill over boxes on my studio floor. It has been mostly amongst these little bits that I have discovered my treasure. It began with me making small textile art cards as thank-you’s to my customers. A friend who was visiting my studio pointed out that I should consider making more of these little textile ‘paintings’ and offering them for sale. I gave up painting a number of years ago to pursue my interest in fiber art so these new pieces have become a nice meeting of the medias for me. It’s also a great way to explore some of these images, textures and colours as ideas for integrating into garments later.

‘Karamatsu Shibori Flower series – two’ – Shibori resist dyed, screenprinted and machine appliqued 5″ x 7″

‘Whirled in a Tree series – two’ – hand dyed, screenprinted and machine embroidered – 5″ x 7″

‘Primitive’ – ACEO (2.5″ x3.5″) – dyed, screenprinted and machine embroidered

Detail of ‘Whirled in a Tree series – one’

These small surface designed artworks are available in my Inkyspider shop on Etsy.

Most of these pieces have been mounted on mat board and are ready to put into a frame.