World of Threads installations and weaving from the USA, Spain, Finland and Canada

Pacific Ocean by Bonnie J Smith, California USA

Indigo dyed  cloth and thread 

While walking along the shore every day I gaze to the west and view the vastness and beautiful Pacific Ocean.   

My thoughts while creating this installation were for the viewer to love the Pacific Ocean as much as I do.  My belief is that when someone loves something they will also want to take care of it.

Ecologically all oceans represent what is happening on this earth.  Let us keep them in great shape for future generations.  Bonnie J. Smith

Hand Woven Tapestries by Anna Kocherovsky from Michigan USA.  Anna used wool, linen, cotton and metallic threads for all these pieces.  

Pictured above:  Travel Diary, Fox and the Forest (two panels). Star Light, Star Bright

Star Light, Star Bright by Anna Kocherovsky 

The Memory of Nature  Jaizkibel III by Lourdes Elizalde from Basque Country, Spain

Handwoven tapestry, plain weave and soumak technique, wool, cotton, silk threads

Inspired by my love and concern for Mother Nature, my desire is to express an intimate, joyful and deep sensation.  Climb those cliffs, enter their hollows, feel the sun on your back and the humidity in the shadiest areas.  Touch the roughness and feel the softness of the sandstone slipping through your hands.   

detail of  Memory of Nature by Lourdes Elizalde

installation by Theda Sandiford from Jersey City, USA.

(made from black zip ties and library ladders)

Her statement:  Racial gaslighting hides in plain sight in everyday conversations.  It subtly shifts dialogue from a raciesst topic at hand onto me, the accuser, forcing me to question and re-assess my response to racism, rather than racism itself.  "are you sure it was about race?"  "I'm sure he/she/they didn't mean it like that."  These comments are a convenient way for people to avoid uncomfortable conversations about race.  The questioning, twisting, and undermining of my truth, manifests in insomnia and anxiety.  In this installation, zip tie blankets draped on library ladders expose the sting of micro-aggressions to dispose of this trauma.

Laurentian Forest

installation by Ixchel Suarez from Oakville, Ontario

cotton, silk, wool, linen, jute, tulle, rope, raffia, human hair, all hand stitched

The soft sculptures presented in Laurentian Forest interconnect trees, forests, and our bodies, visually weaving human-nature bonds.  They reflect on time's juxtaposition with nature, mirroring our evolving, aging, and transient existence within the natural world.  This art prompts contemplation of impermanence and fragile beauty.  It serves as a visual narrative bridging time and nature, inviting viewers ot escape into the timeless harmony between them.  Ixchel Suarez

The Pure Soul in a Dream by Paivi Vaarula, Finland

One morning I woke up and the shade of a dream was still floating in my mind.  There was this person with such a pure soul.  I just had to translate that into a textile.  I chose transparent and white wool yarns and woe these wings to reflect the dream I had.  

Handwoven on a floor loom, the folds  were stabilized by steaming.

 Time of Joy by Paivi Vaarula from Hameenlinna, Finland

Everyday life consists of joys and sorrows.  In this work, I interpret those moments of joy.  My starting point was the joyful times with my sons.  I dyed the yarns with natural dyes, wove the fabric with a traditional floor loom and steamed the folds to stabilize the form.

World of Threads in Oakville, Ontario Canada, is on view until January 14, 2024.  

World of Threads: mixed media and weaving artists

Elizabeth Babyn from Caledon, Ontario, Canada

Jeanette  upcycled textiles assemblage 

This piece is from the series: Her Industry, Reclaimed.  a body pf work that began as an homage to my mother and the generations of other women who have toiled with textiles in our domestic, industrial and creative spaces.  Utilizing various approaches with up-cycled textiles that include deconstructed men's suits, I recast and subvert the meaning of these materials in a more feminine light to create large complex multi-layered wall hangings.   

B R Goldstein  North Carolina and Toronto, Current Conditions

Materials are limited to low quality, often repurposed industrial textiles in their unaltered states. In our everyday lives, such discarded or abandoned objects, the detritus of consumerism, become buried from consciousness as they are stored or disposed out of sight.   

Current Conditions VI  Deer parchment, plastic sheeting, linen, burlap

The materials referenced in these works were manufactured for single use and yet often find their way to providing long term shelter for those displaced by systems of neglect. 

Current Conditions IX  artificial sinew, burlap, canvas, tarp, parchment, rust and steel

The seams create contrasting qualities of line, of borders, or containment.  Irregularities and asymmetries in the found materials have been intentionally unaltered to reference systemic erosions.    B R Goldstein

Tina Poplawski from Tiny, Ontario, Canada

An ongoing group of works have been inspired by the crocheted doilies created by my grandmother during WW 2 while imprisoned in Russia's Gulags.

Come away, O human child!  To the waters and the wild, With a Faery, hand in hand, For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.  (sing the Chickadees)

Tina Poplawski

These sculptural paintings are made from crocheted rough-hewn jute, embedded with earth, dried botanical matter, acrylic mediums, glitter and winter stone, a self-setting clay.

Tina Popawski

paintings of chickadees, Fishers, squirrels, Ontario Turtles with botanical matter and crochet.

For me, these pieces bear witness to lives in peril and can be read as reliquaries and evocations of protection for the displaced persons, animals and natural world I venerate.  Tina Poplawski

The work is informed by the decorative folk painting and ornamentation of early Eastern European cultures who worshipped Matka Ziema - Mother of  Plants and Animals.  Tina Poplawski

Tuija Hansen, Thunder Bay, Ontario Canada

A selection of works from my research and practice documenting regional plant dyes through foraging, dyeing, record-keeping, and then displaying via the traditional Finnish weaving method known as Raanu.  The series begins in Finland using regional plants to connect with my family history, followed by exploring Northeastern and Northwestern Ontario plant colours during the pandemic.  

Raanu Vier Blanda / Mapping Via Plant Dyes                                                                                         foraged plant dyes, cotton, wool handweaving by Tuija Hansen

Tuija Hansen, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada

Raanu Old Roots New Seeds Community Dye Garden, cotton and wool,  fraged plant dyes, digital jacquard hand weaving.
 

Note to my blog readers:  Thank you for sticking with this blog.  I am going to try to put another World of Threads post up for before the New Year.

World of Threads: three solo shows 2023

The Seventh Jacket by Victoria Carley
upholstery and fashion fabrics, embroidery floss

This post highlights the work of three artists who have solo exhibitions at this year's world of threads.  

The first artist  is Victoria Carley from Toronto, Canada.  Carley is showing three of her new Fairy Tale series.  You can view more of this body of work on her website.    All these quilt-like artworks are large wall pieces, similar in size to a child's 'big kid' bed.  (often called a twin bed)

The Beanstalk by Victoria Carley
upholstery and fashion fabrics, embroidery floss

"My illustrations of fairy tales are personal meditations on the stories.  I compare my recollections to other literary and visual retellings of the fairy tale.  Every version is a reflection of its era, artistically and morally."  Victoria Carley

Hansel and Gretel by Victoria Carley
upholstery and fashion fabrics, embroidery floss

"With the image the story presents to me in mind I start.  I select, cut and sew my fabrics, without preliminary drawings.  The final composition and the size develop as I sew.  My process is slow and intuitive.  I use a wide variety of fabrics.  My sewing machine is a vintage international and I hand-embroider to complete the image. "  Victoria Carley

Hansel and Gretel, detail of the witch's house by Victoria Carley

The second artist in this post is Roxanna Kantarjian, also from Toronto, Canada.  Her solo show highlights her Mysterious Veils series.  Kantarjian uses solid colours of cotton in bold original shapes, sewn together and then densely quilted using a sewing machine.  Each piece is as big as a large painting - about 45 x 35 inches in most cases.  

Mysterious Veil I by Roxanna Kantarjian, machine pieced and quilted cotton

"Energy and healing have always been the foundation of my life - especially evident in my artwork.  I am acutely aware of the energy around me in nature - trees, stones, water, and mountains.  There is a specific vibration in every colour. How the colours live together side by side presents a different vibration.  I try to express this energy with colours and shapes."   Roxanna Kantarjian  

Mysterious Veil III, cotton that is machine pieced and quilted

"The Mysterious Veils were an exploration of that fine line between life and death. This series was prompted by my husband's death.  To explore, it was soothing and healing."  Roxanna Kantarjian  

Stones by Roxanna Kantarjian, machine pieced and quilted cotton

The third artist in this post is Karen Thiessen from Hamilton, Canada.   Thiessen's Hope Series of hand stitched wall pieces is highlighted in the World of Threads solo exhibition.   Most pieces are large wall pieces, although Lull is large enough to cover two people.    To visit her website, click here. 

Lull by Karen Thiessen  Cotton fabrics,
hand pieced using the English paper method and then hand quilted.

 

"The Hope Series explores post-traumatic growth - the gifts of difficult circumstances."  Karen Thiessen

In a Dark Time the Eye Begins to See (for Theodore Roethke) by Karen Thiessen. 
Dyed cotton, hand and machine stitched, with applique.

"Some people are able to emerge from difficult times with greater resilience and more compassion, wisdom and awareness."  Karen Thiessen

Circles of Hope by Karen Thiessen 
 Dyed cotton and rayon, hand and machine stitched, with applique

"Difficulties disrupt our lives and can create openings and pauses for new ways of thinking and living."  K.T.

Constellation of Hope by Karen Thiessen 
Dyed cotton and cotton/polyester fabrics that have been stitched with hand and machine 

"The pandemic forced me to use materials that I had on hand and the Hope quilts were made from failed or abandoned textiles.  Over three years, I slowly stitched them during incessant pandemic lockdowns: I rescued and transformed the textiles while they rescued and transformed me."   Karen Thiessen

Beyond the Curtain by Karen Thiessen. 
Hand embroidered cotton fabric mounted on felt

Beyond the Curtain by Karen Thiessen, detail of hand stitch

The Seventh Jacket by Victoria Carley, detail of machine piecing

The World of Threads has more than fifty solo shows this year.  They are around every corner and in several open room type spaces that one can find in the Queen Elizabeth Park and Community Cultural Centre building, 2302 Bridge Road, Oakville, Ontario.  Plan to spend two days visiting this festival, you will feel rewarded and renewed.  I hope to post about more solo shows over the next few weeks.  xo

UPDATE: NOVEMBER 1:  the venue for World of Threads Festival will close to the public on November 2 until further notice as the staff that run the building work for the city of Oakville, and they will be on strike.  I will keep this notice updated and will let you know when the building will be open again.  The exhibitions of World of Threads are set to continue until December 17, so we hope that the strike is resolved soon.  

World of Threads festival 2018, some highlights

Lorraine Roy (Canada):   Integration
cotton, acrylic paint, machine applique, embroidery and quilting

"Tree rings record time and events in the life of a tree by building layer upon layer of fresh cells, leaving the marks of its life forever preserved within.  Similarily, we move through our lives, collecting and sometimes burying our own memories"  Lorraine Roy

 Lorraine Roy (Canada):  Call of the Heart
cotton, acrylic paint, machine applique, embroidery and quilting

Lorraine Roy (Canada):   Through the Woods
cotton, acrylic paint, machine applique, embroidery and quilting

The three circles above are 36 inches diameter.
a SOLO exhibition at World of Threads

Ragnhild Monsen (Norway):  Defragmentation I: white  and Defragmentation II: black
two hand woven tapestries, jute wool nylon
each about 7 feet square

Included in the FLOW exhibition at World of Threads 2018  Oakville Ontario
curated by Dawne Rudman and Gareth Bate

masterful tapestry weaving

Ragnhild Monsen (Norway):  Butterfly Days
hand woven tapestry, jute, wool, nylon
part of Botanical Realm exhibition, World of Threads

Hazel Bruce (Northern Ireland):  Space Pattern Place  2
Linen and silk
machine embroidery, applique, hand stitching

part of the FLOW exhibition at World of Threads this year (2018)

Anna Lefsrud (Canada):  One Full Stride
24 horses, woven copper wire
part of the Fibre 3D exhibition at World of Threads

World of Threads Festival (Canada) opened October 13 2018 and continues until December 31.  However, the group exhibition in the gallery space entitled FLOW will close November 25

Elise Vazelakis (USA): Enlightenment

woven steel and wire, about 9 feet x 8.3 feet

included in FLOW exhibition World of Threads

The World of Threads festival is a biennial exhibition that has grown over the years.  The two curatoris, Dawne Rudman and Gareth Bate, allow the work that is submitted by the artists to guide them.  They do not begin with pre-determined ideas, and each festival is a blank slate that is formed from the newest and best work that the artists send in.

Elise Vazelakis (USA):  Repetitive Stillness
woven fiber, steel, and copper
about 10 feet high, 7 1/2 feet wide, included in FLOW exhibition at World of Threads

The festival is hosted in Oakville Ontario at a single venue, the Queen Elizabeth Park Community and Cultural Centre

Sun Young Kang (USA):  In Between Presence and Absence
cast paper - hundreds of vessels from everyday life
The main INSTALLATION at World of Threads festival this year

Sun Young Kang explores themes such as emptiness, the visible and the invisible.

Sun Young Kang (USA):  Freezing Moments to Turn Them into Eternity  Study 1 - 18
canvas, cotton thread, artist's hair, glue  wrapped
a SOLO exhibition at World of Threads

"I try to visualize the invisible ideas in our life in a very minimal but obsessive way.  I question how past experiences and forgotten momemories become the strong force that connect individuals in different times and space subconsciously."  Sun Young Kang

Eva Ennist (Canada):  Nesting - Entangled   and  Nesting - Commit
cast resin,  reed, steel, wood, paint  120" x 21.5"and cold-cast bronze, reed, steel, wood, paint 84" x 20" part of the 3D exhibition at World of Threads

Eva Ennist (Canada):  Nesting - Tolerance 
cold-cast bronze, reed, steel, wood, paint
77" x 21.5"

"Nests, fish traps and spires are forms that shelter, confine and contain.  I am drawn to the conical shapes of these things, some of them open and some of them closed, acting as metaphors for either an abundance of faith, trust or survival - or the absence of it."  Eva Ennist

There are 365 pieces of art at this year's festival and 65 artists from around the world
All exhibitions except for the FLOW exhibition will remain up until December 31, so if you are close to the area, it is well worth your time.