Settling in Montreal

me and my new city, taken from Mount Royal

Moving to Montreal to be in the Fibres program at Concordia was a really big thing for us.  My husband, Danny, and I, and our cat Lily, uprooted our comfy life in Vancouver all so I could finish my degree in Textiles. So, I'm happy to announce that I'm loving the program.  Right away I got involved with the Fibres Student Association and of course my first contribution was to make sure we had a web presence; hence a new website, Facebook group and twitter page, oh and of course we're on Ravelry (thanks Ali)  I decided that my talents would be best used in the realm of fundraising, so I joined that group and soon after launched our first initiative of the year, the fsa Yarn Club.  Check it out and subscribe if you happen to care for luscious hand-dyed yarn and supporting textile students.  Our Yarn Club blog will document the lovely yarn we make for each shipment, so please follow us.

In terms of projects I've been a little slow at getting started, even though I was super eager to warp up a loom, any loom, in the first week.  I lost my mojo at some point. It may be related to getting sick as well as losing direction a bit in terms of inspiration.  On the first day of Sculpture we were given the challenge of making a piece using found material.  I did an homage to my late grandmother Clara and was really pleased at the outcome.  I've been really missing her lately. Read more about this piece on my blog here.

homage to Clara

In my structures class we've been experimenting with all sorts of textile techniques and last week we did natural dyeing.  I was glad to get back to working in that pallet, it's always been something I've known I'd go back to and possibly stick to.

front to back: marigold, tumeric, henna

The facilities at Concordia are beautiful, I've turned my loom so I'm looking out these huge windows with this amazing view (bellow) facing south.  I've warped on a mixture of silk and cotton for devore and have printed on the warp and plan to print on the finished fabric too.  I'm pretty excited.  I'll be posting pictures on my blog as get further into it. 

Missing you Vancouver,

Luv Janna