A Totally wonderful week of FIBRE FOCUSED ART CAMP with about 26 friends over 7 days...

 FIBRE FOCUSED ARTS CAMP/RETREAT

Bethany Garner, Instructor and Resident Artist 

Tett Centre for Creativity and Learning, Studio 214D, Creativity Studios, Level 2

Here sharing the fun I had with amazing friends old and new...a week of 7 terrific days together

For the love of art.... we gathered at the Tett Centre in Kingston where I have my Resident Artist Studio and began the adventure of working with 6 different techniques over the days we had together.

Artists came from all across Ontario and we shared the fun-filled days of working on new projects - Flat Dyeing with 16 gallons of Procion MX Dyes, Mark Making, Gelli Printing, Eco-Printing, Wet Felted Art, and Indigo dyeing... all full days and full of excitement and joyful banter as the artists worked.

After introductions, the students were anxious to grab a favourite table space and get started. Their carts and bags were unloaded, and the morning "class-like" project start sharing from me, and with just a bit of demonstration, I spent the rest of each day doing individual chats, technique support, finding the right tools for the 'newbies' and providing individual table assistance as the artists began their adventures... all great fun for me!

I look forward to bringing another round of this great workshop week to more students as the months fly by - imagine the surprise as the students got home and rinsed out all of their fabrics - did the minor clean-up of all they went home with for transient dyes and bits of fibres that might just work in new projects... we had so much fun!!

Just a few photos - more to come when I get a minute to post!! THANK YOU to all of the students who made this move from Pandemic Lockdown days a treat for ME!!

         

                                           Carole Jane Treggett art cloth - hand dyed

Eco-Printing - Shirley MacGregor

My "drop sheets" from the students Indigo play that I will use in MY artwork (great idea)

Wet Felted art in the start mode - this turned out to be a beautiful colour block when finished

Indigo Dyeing Workshop with Bethany Garner, July 30 and 31st, 2022 at the TETT Centre in Kingston, ON

 

INDIGO DYEING and ARTWORK CREATIVITY

Together Again... "FOR THE LOVE OF BLUE"

Tett Centre for Creativity and Learning, 370 King St. West, Kingston, ON

JULY 30 and 31st, 9:30 am to 5 pm 

( Saturday and Sunday, two full play days)

Our beautiful Arts Hub welcomes you to enjoy time in our Activity Room/Half Gallery

with rooms on Level One, ground level near the Juniper Cafe (for your lunches if you like)

Registration link below:

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/indigo-for-the-love-of-blue-a-retreat-weekend-tickets-368659168497

I am busy these summer days preparing to share my two-day Indigo Dye Play Retreat Workshop at the Tett Centre for Creativity and Learning. Our Centre is steps away from the Lake Ontario Waterfront shoreline and is certainly an inspiration for students coming to enjoy learning and creating with our Resident Artists and instructors.

I have planned a fun-filled opportunity for you to come and enjoy an opportunity to learn about working with friends in our Community of Fibre Artists and those who are learning the art of creating with Natural Dyes (we will be using Jacquard Natural Indigo in this workshop weekend).

Mark your calendars and visit the Eventbrite link above to join me for these two days as our students will dye their pre-scoured cloth (2 metres of the beautiful white cotton lawn I use in all of my dyeing work will be provided to each student) or yarns of their choice with INDIGO dye the first day. 

On Day Two, students will enjoy time and space for creating new artwork at their own tables and with their cloth or yarns that were created on day one. A supplies list for what you need to bring for the workshop weekend will be supplied with confirmed registration. Sewing machines and related accessories including rotary cutting tools, scissors, and threads are needed. (or stitch by hand - your choice)

Hope you will join me as we share two great creative days together... dye play is exciting and learning the many various techniques for folding, clamping, tying, and stitching designs for your samples. The fun of dipping your cloth into the dye vats is a valuable skill. 

On Day Two, we will find students creating a new piece of their own original artwork... or perhaps a small garment or other items like Jornal covers, home decor items of your choice.

Seats are LIMITED to 10 participants and so, please don't wait! Do contact me with questions and I look forward to seeing YOU soon.

Bethany

Contact link for questions : www.bethanygarner.com

 NOTE: A Special thank you to everyone who registered - Our Fibre Arts Summer Retreat is FULL... I am so excited to see our students!

Please do enjoy a two day with me focusing on INDIGO DYEING July 30 and 31st if you can! See my post from June 16th for details.

(Note the beautiful Inspiration in the red FINE ART quilt by SAQA Artist Heather Pregger above)

Hi everyone…

 INSPIRATION happens when everyone in a classroom is up for just some design play that has no rules and offers them the chance to create as they go... sharing, caring, and trying new things, open to improvisation and either the hand or by machine... what could be better!.  

The plans are underway for our Tett Centre  7-day FIBRE ARTS CAMP Retreat in late July, and it is to be the celebrated "return to almost normal" workshop series to be launched in late July!

INSPIRATION: A FIBRE ARTS RETREAT... 

Scheduled at the TETT Centre for Creativity and Learning the week of July 25-31st and the EVENTBRITE post for registration will be found this week on the TETT Events pages and on Eventbrite: (Check your calendar as only 12 seats are available)

Plans include my Hosting/Instruction over five days of sharing five days of different technique classes and a SPECIAL two-day INDIGO Dyeing Party the last two days... and these FIVE DAYS are open to everyone who loves experimental art classes, sharing what we all love the most about fibre art with friends and focused play with various play time cloth activities ... no pre-requisites. 

We will start with a full day of  FLAT DYEING (Monday), followed by Mark Making/Print work (Tuesday), Natural Dyes, Rust and Eco-printing (on Wednesday), Wet/Embellisher felting/ demos, and Hand Stitching (Thursday), and we will create an Improvisational, Original Art Quilt (Friday). 

I will start each day with the demo of the slated techniques during the week, with the goal to get you excited about using all new and some of our fibre art friends' favourite techniques ... including overlays of dyed cheesecloth, embellishing machine accents (I would love you to bring your embellishing machine - time to get them going again!), exploration of yarn inserts, and yes, all the thread and needle play I can convince you to bring together with your imagination...

On the 30th and 31st of July, we will have a separate event: INDIGO DYE WORK

A separate Registration will be on EVENTBRITE for the weekend event… or add it into your plans for all 7 days!

SUMMER CAMP Rocks!!!

TWO Indigo Dye Days - one day for the dye play and the second for creating your own artwork with samples of the cloth you dye...

Everyone, regardless of experience, is welcome at my 2022 Fibre Arts Camp... and you have every chance to take new steps toward art play or just time to be with friends and learn from each other!

Lots of room in the classrooms will include our use of the Activity Room and 1/2 of the TETT Art Gallery space on the ground level... and parking is available nearby...

Distance participants could stay with friends or drive back and forth if close by or living in the County... but there are many Hotels (and I suggest the "summer accommodations"  at the very close by Queen's University  Dorms...).

https://eventservices.queensu.ca/accommodations/

 So if summer days allow, consider a drive to Lake Ontario's Beautiful TETT Centre for Creativity and Learning and join me for 7 wonderful days if possible, or at least 5!

Cheers,

Bethany

 Contact: bethanygarner.art[at]gmail.com   or 613-893-0529 for mobile calls/messages/texts

( I have a pdf that I can send you with more information about each day's project work if you email me, and the Course Student Supplies lists will be provided to registrants after I have received news from Eventbrite.)

 

KINGSTON FIBRE ARTISTS

 Please join the artists from the Kingston area 

for their ART THREADS Exhibition and Sale of artwork

Tett Centre for Creativity and Learning

Level One Gallery

April 2 - 30, 2022

Opening Day and Meet the Artists is April 2nd 10-5 pm

Demonstrations by several artists April 27-29th in the Activity Room next to the Gallery.

Everyone welcome...

 

Hi everyone... hope you will make time to stop by my Facebook Page for some updates as spring moves closer here in Kingston...

Classes will resume at the Tett Centre and beyond soon. https://www.facebook.com/garnerbethany/

Here is a little post to let you know what I am up to in my Tett Centre for Creativity and Learning Studio 214D art creation space these days!

Blue, and green and gold in woven wool cloth yardage for new garments - off the loom at home, created for jackets down the line, with silk painted by hand once again... and here I am at home today, hand stitching on wool going round and round in circles.

The winter days are still cold and wet some days, but today the SUNSHINE is reigning winner - blue skies are getting me excited to get some Indigo pots going.

I mixed two gallons of different Procion MX dyes and added in another half-gallon of chartreuse dye that is ready to go onto silk noil fabric. Finished stitching a piece of indigo printed fabric on the Janome 6100 (never fails) with bits of "LIGHT" streaming through to go into a new art quilt plan... and just making some steps toward finish lines.

The Kingston Fibre Artists Show is coming along soon...

“Art Threads 2022"

The Kingston Fibre Artists are so pleased to announce that we will hold our SPRING SHOW in the Gallery, Level One, The Tett Centre for Creativity and Learning in Kingston, Ontario from April 2 to April 29, 2022.

Until then you can check out the images from our October 2021 show in the Gallery on our website!

https://kingstonfibreartists.ca/

We welcome all of our friends and neighbors, from our Community and visitors across southern Ontario to join us at the Tett Centre for Creativity and Learning for our Resident Artists Exhibition in the Gallery, Lower Level from December 9 thru December 20th.

Come see what we have been up to this past year! Nine Tett Artists will be participating, including two new resident artists.

Mark your calendars for a unique holiday shopping experience.

Thank you to the Tett Centre for Creativity & Learning for donating the Gallery space.

Date: December 9-20, 2021

Mon. to Thurs. 11am - 5pm

Fri. & Sat. 12pm - 7pm

Sun. 11am - 5pm

Meet the Artists Friday, December 10th, 7-9pm

TETT Resident Artists:

Sasha French

Michelle Reid Art

Adele Webster Art

Natalie Bohnen-Twiddy

Bethany Lise Garner

Floriana Ehninger-Cuervo

Pengyuan Wang

Alice Melo Fine Art

Rhonda Evans

Location: Tett Centre for Creativity and Learning, 370 King St. W.

www.tettcentre.org

The ponds are refreshed with the rain waters that arrived in force last week. Traveling birds, fowl celebrate and lands are happily coming to life once again

So here we are in November and the days are getting shorter, the time clocks have changed to the FALL BACK range and we in Eastern Standard Time are struggling to try to remember that! The leaves are down and the trees are starkly grey and lonesome looking... with many gatherings of the birds and squirrels and small animals seeking shelter as the days are cooling.

Along the Catarquit Trail, Perth Road Village link, Ontario

The Kingston Fibre Artists Show at the TETT was a huge success with many of our art pieces finding new homes, and I have a wonderful new piece from Janet Elliott hanging in my home...

Her's is a story of angst and fires raging through Western Canada, but a reminder that we are not immune to tragedy and are the keepers of the land. This artwork will be passed along to my son and his son and hopefully, the message will travel forward - the EARTH is our responsibility! The trees, the fields, the birds, and the small and large animals.. all on our collective responsibility list! (Janet's piece is on the left in this show photo below).

Other works on this wall of beautiful art were created by Robin Law's Field, Seymone Armstrong Lori Everett and Wilma Kenny. Well done ladies - so beautiful.

The Kingston Weavers and Spinners had a wonderfully attended show from Thursday Nov. 4th through Sunday the 7th and we extend so many thanks to all of the many visitors - some who had never been inside the TETT Centre for Creativity and Learning and happened by, as well as the devoted fans that can't wait to shop the KHWS Sale each fall. Congratulations ladies.

Laurentian Lake #8, Joan Reive, Belleville, ON 2021

I had the pleasure of visiting with friends in the Quinte Fibre Artists group a week or so ago, and while on my way to Belleville, stopped to pick up my treasured artwork painted by pal, JOAN REIVE, and bring it home to add to my collection. This work is a treasure as Joan is a renowned Ontario and Canadian Artist - I am blessed.

Me - well I have been housebound due to a back injury for almost a week now, but mending nicely. 

Hoping to have some additional walking photos to share soon... see below... Cataraqui Trail. Until then... lots of HGTV, some reading including some new planning for weaving when I can get back to my looms. Looking forward to the last of fall days watching the weather change and my Lake Ontario view outside my Studio window tell her story!

Bethany

 Good news from our KINGSTON HANDLOOM WEAVERS AND SPINNERS GUILD Sales Team.

https://www.khws.ca/

TETT Centre for Creativity and Learning

370 King Street West, Kingston, ON

just east of Sir John A Boulevard and the Kingston Penitentiary (your landmark)

Our KHWS MEMBERS are invited to an 'early' opening on Thursday, November 4 beginning at 3:00 p.m. MEMBERS only - so this special two-hour event is a wonderful reminder to join in the fun of seeing the gorgeous displays and adding some amazing artwork pieces to your gifting (or personal stash).

And, we would love to have you consider joining our active and very wonderful Guildm at the TETT if you are not a member!! There is so much to learn and many wonderful, sharing members to teach and support you as you learn to weave, spin, make felt, and dye your cloth/fibre...It will be great to see you!

For everyone else in our Community of Fibre and Weaving lovers:

Our Annual KHWS Sale is the Rehearsal Hall on the second floor at the TETT Centre Art's Hub at 370 King Street West, just off Sir John A Blvd. in Kingston, and doors open at 5 pm Thursday!

- NO admission fee - we accept cash/cheque/credit/debit

- proof of full vaccine required with ID and sign in for contact tracing

Public hours are here below...

Thursday Nov. 4 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m

Friday Nov. 5 10:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.

Saturday Nov. 6 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Sunday Nov. 7 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 pm

For Guild News updates... follow us at:

https://www.facebook.com/kingstonhandloomweaversandspinners/posts/1865037040366460

The objectives of the Kingston Handloom Weavers & Spinners Guild are, to promote interest and education in weaving, spinning, and related fiber arts.

Monthly meetings that feature guest speakers, demonstrations, show and tell, take place on the second Wednesday of each month, except July and August. There is a social time at 6:30 pm, followed by the general meeting at 7:00 pm. Members of the general public are very welcome to attend.

Members may take advantage of our workshops, equipment rentals, a fully equipped weaving, and spinning studio, and an extensive library that includes hundreds of books, magazines, and videos that cover topics such as spinning, weaving, knitting, dyeing, and basketry.

The Guild welcomes all levels of interest in traditional and contemporary weaving, spinning, and other textile arts and crafts.

Come see what we’re all about!

 

ART THREADS 

is open at the TETT CENTRE

370 King Street West, just off Sir John A Blvd. 

in the west end of downtown Kingston 

October 24-November 4, 2021

10 am to 4 pm, with artists in the Gallery for greetings

To our friends and always to visitors to the SAQA area across Ontario, the Kingston Fibre Artists welcome you to enjoy our Annual Show this next two weeks if you need a lovely ride to Kingston.

14 members, all creating the most beautiful art have finally had the opportunity to come back to the Gallery on the lower level of the TETT Centre for Creativity and Learning a located on the Lake Ontario Waterfront.  Our Opening was wonderful yesterday, and we enjoyed seeing many friends, community neighbors and distance visitors enjoying our art over the 10 am to 5 pm first day to visit the Gallery.  

Many of our members are or have been members of SAQA and we certainly have all benefitted from our associations with each of you along the way!

Please share and bring a friend for a lovely walk-through - the artworks are beautiful!! Just a little peek here... starting with the stunning artwork of DENISE SOKOLSKY... above. 

Artwork from left to right: Janet Elliott. Robin Laws Field (top), Seymone Armstrong, Lori Everett, center and far-right, and Wilma Kenny (two floral pieces)

Artwork above by Linda Coulter, Denise Sokolsky, top, Lori Everett, lower, followed by Hilary Scanlon (2 pieces one above the other), Lori Everett (pink and red/circles), and Carolyn Barnett, felted vest.

The group created small fabric boxes (about 30 of them) for support for next year's Gallery Rental and they were very popular - many going home to distances far beyond Kingston as gifts.

Many visitors stopped to chat and share their love of the artwork they were enjoying throughout the day. Our Artists were all there to share the stories of working through 18 months of pandemic lockdowns and staying creative and busy through those long months. 

All in all, Opening was a great day and very inspirational for the visitors and artists alike to be together in person once again - all COVID protocols in place, masks on, and QR codes checked at the door... a big change over the many years we have shared art with guests.

Artwork shared here created by Robin Laws Field, Bethany Garner, and Janet Elliott!

Many more wonderful pieces awaiting your visit! Hope to see you before November 4th... Everyone WELCOME!

I am so pleased to be a new member of the CLOTH IN COMMON Artists group...learn more about the Group and celebrate these amazing Artists along with me!

QUESTIONING, What's Next, Bethany Garner, 2021, Art Quilt

CLOTH IN COMMON

https://clothincommon.com/

Summer is flying by and it has been a busy albeit fairly locked down summer... and being able to create ARTWORK is all the fun I need to just keep working away during these days when we all are still pretty well homebound. We arts practitioners are busy enjoying walks, taking solace in the world around us, and yes, setting calendar dates for possible openings for galleries and shows. MAYBE even being together with the friends and relatives we all love so very much to be with... LIVE, in the same room or at least out of doors... a few feet apart!

Living in the beautiful City of Kingston, ON, and sharing the water views from Lake Ontario through my Studio window with a few visitors is wonderful! As the Tett Centre for Creativity and Learning opened its doors once again to the public - all Kingston Frontenac Health Unit rules in place and being observed so well, we are seeing a few visitors now and then. Many folks are just staying close to home and immediate family!!

I recently accepted an invitation to become a member of CLOTH IN COMMON, a tremendous 12 Artist Collective of the most amazing artists, living and practicing their art worldwide. Having followed this group for MANY years now as they shared their new artwork, created in the homes/studios that I would dearly love to be able to step into one day... I am honored to have this opportunity. Over the past few weeks, I finished my first contribution to the group's ROUND 3 Series. Each year, 6 quilts, created by each member, working on the agreed STRUCTURES theme and with a prompt by Karol Kusmaul to work on FACES.

My 40"h x 26"w quilt started with the base fabric from Cultured Expressions and owner Lisa Shepherd in New Jersey, USA. Her cloth lines are original, created by young artists in Africa, and are a group I have supported with cloth coming into my collection over many years. This piece is Jacquard linen, hand-dyed and purchased as a 2 m. piece. It speaks to me of the virus that is circulating through the background of our lives... and while yes, I know this piece was created long before we knew about the Covid-19 virus, the artist who created the cloth may have had experience with circulating. deep visions in her own creative mind.

I selected fabrics from my growing Marcia Derse collection, and drafted some small line figures and card stock patterns, and got going... creating a group of ten figures with BLANK faces - unknown but collective friends I may know, but perhaps are gathered somewhere about the world during these pandemic days. What are they considering - "QUESTIONING, What's Next". Africa has billions of humans who have not even seen a vaccine... no shots in arms, no outdoor vaccination centres, drive-throughs, health unit walk-in centres... AND SO MANY LIVES LOST TO THE PANDEMIC..

The people gathered here in my workspace... each little figure a bit different and giving me the time to think about where we are, and who we could be if we just all pitched in to save the world!

The finish line was set by a "prompt sharing" on the 27th-31st of  July, when each member of the collective shared their work and story on our blog: (have a good peek and enjoy all of the series and artwork, and if you have time, go into Rounds 1 and 2 and see what has happened as the artists worked through the various themes and prompts over the years.

https://clothincommon.com/category/musings/

Finally, I added a series of hand-stitches and may add more now that the piece is "finished and framed (and yes, I can do that now, filling empty spaces carefully by hand). Hope you enjoyed the story!

See you along the way - at my Studio 214D the TETT Centre for Creativity and Learning on W. King Street in Kingston, or here at the blog. I will try harder to get back to posting along the way! Hard to believe we are walking into August!