J’adore les Canadiens…

What a terrific week I had at the Ontario Handweavers & Spinners Biennial Conference.  The Canadians couldn’t have been more welcoming, more supportive, more good natured, and more enthusiastic.  The conference theme I’m sure, played a wonderful part in the fun.  Since the conference itself was centered at the Quality Inn in Woodstock, Ontario, about an hour and a half west of Toronto, it wasn’t hard to come up with the theme, “Going back to Woodstock…  you’ve come a long way!”  “Bruce” was there to greet us with the love bus, in the lobby of the hotel.  The hotel staff were all pretty good natured about the invasion of the fiber enthusiasts.

Ann Field and I were selected as the keynote speakers, Ann opened the conference, and I closed it yesterday morning.  In between, there were pre-conference workshops, seminars and lectures, vendors, guild exhibits, a fashion show, and a juried show.  That’s a lot for a regional conference with only 150 people.  My two day pre-conference workshop went really well, the 18 women in the class learned to dust off their sewing machines and dive in and be creative in how they approach handwoven clothing.  There were a lot of Hong Kong seam finish and triangular bound buttonhole samples floating around!

Of course the two sessions on Color and Inspiration that I led, were in stark contrast to the horrific rainy windy and occasional snowy weather.  We all hunkered down and played with color, this is always one of my favorite classes as I watch participants make “really ugly warps” on purpose, and go on to make spectacular wrappings influenced and inspired by images they have brought to class.  Here are some of my favorites…

The 60’s theme inspired all the guild displays, and I’m not sure which I loved more, the recreation of Yasgur’s Farm (where the actual 1969 Woodstock took place) complete with cow, or Penelope “Happy in the Grass…”  The felted life size Penelope was smoking something, and she sure looked really happy lying in that grass…

Yasgur Farm was created by Oxford Weavers and Spinners, Penelope was created by Shuttlebug Guild of Weavers and Spinners, and “NOT” Alice’s Restaurant was created by Nottawasaga Handweavers and Spinners.

Sadly I didn’t have my camera with me for the fashion show, the first half was devoted to closet cleaning retro pieces members dug out from the back of their closets, and room erupted in thunderous applause every time a model came out in some classic 60’s oddity, from Jackie Kennedy look a-likes to ponchos and love beads.  Projected behind the moderator were images from the real Woodstock, the 60’s, Peter Max graphics, and a whole slew of wonderful memories…  We all sat at tables labeled with music groups that actually played at Woodstock, I sat at the head table of course, labeled “The Who”!

My keynote counterpart, Ann Field, was an absolute delight, our paths had crossed at previous conferences, but I never got to actually spend quality time with her.  Ann is the definition of true grace in an individual, I was completely humbled by how one individual can carry on in spite of odds that would have completely crushed my spirit I think.  One doesn’t know how one would react to and be able to more forward in such horrific circumstances, but Ann did carry on, rewinding 90 warps for her nine weeks on the road and all of her classes using donated yarn and borrowed equipment.

You see, Ann lives in New Zealand.  With the earthquakes and tsunami in Japan hogging most of the front page of our newspapers in the last month, most of us have forgotten that New Zealand experienced a devastating earthquake February 22 of this year.  Ann has her studio in the Art Centre, a spectacular gothic historical building in Christchurch, New Zealand, along with the local weaving guild.  Both studios were more than likely destroyed by the earthquake, trouble is, no one can get into the building to even assess if there is anything left, and with missing roofs and winter setting in, anything left more than likely won’t survive the elements.  The weaving guild has probably lost all of their looms and spinning and weaving equipment used for classes. Fortunately all got out of the building in time, no one was hurt, but I can’t imagine carrying on after such devastation, heading off around the world for nine weeks of workshops, knowing there is nothing you can do about all of your samples, equipment, work, files, everything left behind and more than likely destroyed.  Here is a PDF file showing some of the devastation, from what I understood from Ann, the guild rooms were in the building pictured on the left.

So I came back very humbled, even my return flight from hell last night and finding my town flooded yet again, from a freak and horrific storm that occurred the night before I returned, have made me incredibly grateful for today, and for the gift of those who possess the gift of grace and can show us how to carry on no matter what happens.  Thank you Ann, for your contribution to the conference, and for your message of strength.

J’adore les Canadiens, and a New Zealander as well….