Creativity Comes in All Shapes and Sizes

Little girl and heart shaped eye piece

by Leanne on April 15, 2013 · 0 comments

in Strange Material, Writing Life

I’m seeking ideas – wild, unkempt, unusual, cute, and bizarre for my new book. If you are a textile artist who does work grounded in story-telling, please consider submitting a pattern idea for my upcoming book Strange Material. I’m looking for works that focus on specific forms of narrative such as biography, fiction, memoir, or [...]

Tagged as: Call for designers, Submission call

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Thumbnail image for On Breaking ‘Artificial Rules’

On Breaking ‘Artificial Rules’

April 10, 2013

This simple sign outside an antique store made me do a double-take. The statement is kind, but pointed. The things that we often desire to do – such as inviting children and dogs indoors, to photograph freely, aka the joys of life – are often hampered. We’re so used to these common rules they’ve become [...]

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Growing Flax in Urban Spaces

March 25, 2013

Photo caption: Bwmaddog21 via Flickr Creative Commons Last week I had a speaking engagement at a meeting of the Greater Vancouver Weavers and Spinners Guild in Jericho. During the course of the evening, one of the members mentioned that the Urban Weaver’s Studio would be planting flax seeds in a vacant tennis court nearby and [...]

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Thumbnail image for Iviva Olenick’s Embroidered Tweets

Iviva Olenick’s Embroidered Tweets

January 31, 2013

If you’ve read my book Hoopla, you know that I’m a big fan of Iviva Olenick‘s work. Iviva, who is based in Brooklyn, NY, uses people’s personal stories and her local surroundings in her projects. Through her embroidered artwork,she’s diarized her dating life on hankies in ‘embroidered confessionals’, stitched her neighbourhood jogging routes onto plastic [...]

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Thumbnail image for Out with the Old, In with the New

Out with the Old, In with the New

December 30, 2012

I’ve never been one to make new year’s resolutions that have to do with fitness or travel. While I enjoy the idea of a new year being a transition or a time of change, I tend to spend less time thinking of what I want to CHANGE, and more of what I simply want to [...]

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Thumbnail image for How to embroider on paper

How to embroider on paper

December 11, 2012

Rob and Andrea, the masterminds behind Got Craft?, invited me to participate in this year’s Got Craft? Holiday fair which took place at the Croatian Cultural Centre in East Vancouver this past weekend. Since the workshop was a drop-in affair, I created a simple and fun craft project inspired by the Photo Feelism project in [...]

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Cleaning House

November 21, 2012

   

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Thumbnail image for Addie Sinclair: Vortex of Doom

Addie Sinclair: Vortex of Doom

October 27, 2012

Collected iphone pictures from a weekend in Winnipeg. Bottom right hand corner picture by Diane Farnsworth. I was thrilled to be part of my friend Kim Clarke’s book launch at McNally Robinson Winnipeg last weekend.  Addie Sinclaire: Vortex of Doom is the second in a series of books that Kim has written for young adults. [...]

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Got Craft? Holiday Fair

October 17, 2012

It feels like summer has come to an abrupt end here in Vancouver – our long sunny October has morphed into rainy, dark days and there seems to be a Halloween costume pop-up shop on every corner. Now that the leaves on the trees are turning vivid colors and dropping to the ground, true winter [...]

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The Best Commencement Speech Ever

October 11, 2012

This is delightful, funny, and wise. Neil Gaiman Addresses the University of the Arts Class of 2012 from The University of the Arts (Phl) on Vimeo.

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Thumbnail image for The Lady Who Gets the Word Out

The Lady Who Gets the Word Out

September 24, 2012

Isn’t she cute? Cynara and her cat Autumn. A few months ago, I wrote a little post on my experience of being a published craft book author. But, an author’s perspective is only one side of the story – there are many, many others involved in the process of creating a book: my editor, my [...]

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Bicycle Line Drawing

The Summer of the Bike

August 23, 2012

This summer I’ve spent a lot of time offline – far away from blogs and tweets and electronic distraction. I  avoided what I enjoy spending time on the most – knitting and sewing and stitching. I was burnt out on writing and making. I needed time to rest, or  in short, ‘acedia’,  a term that [...]

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Opening in Winnipeg tonight!

August 3, 2012

If you are in the Winnipeg area, do not miss the opening of this fabulous show!  

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Thumbnail image for International Yarn Bombing Day

International Yarn Bombing Day

June 9, 2012

June 9th is International Yarn Bombing Day! Never heard of such a thing? International Yarn Bombing Day was invented by Joanne Matvichuk who lives in Lethbridge, Alberta (Canada). It began last year when knitters from around the world all yarn bombed on the same day on June 11th, and it continues this year on June [...]

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Thumbnail image for Tenugui Towels at Nikkei Place

Tenugui Towels at Nikkei Place

March 19, 2012

A few weekends ago, I traveled with some friends to Nikkei Place in Burnaby to see their exhibit of tenugui towels. I’ve seen cheap tenugui in Japanese dollar stores here but it had never occurred to me they were more than mass-produced tea towels. This exhibit was eye-opening. Tenugui means ‘a hand-wiping cloth’. Since the [...]

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Thumbnail image for How to Pitch Your Craft Book to Publishers

How to Pitch Your Craft Book to Publishers

March 8, 2012

Lately, I’ve received a few emails that have asked me how I secured my book contracts. I thought it would be best to post my answer here so that others who are interested in publishing a DIY book might be able to glean something from my experiences. My first published book, Yarn Bombing, was the [...]

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Dreamy book animation.

January 9, 2012

I love bookstores, and I love stop-motion animation, so I double-love this book trailer that was shot at Type Books in Toronto. (Text link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKVcQnyEIT8&feature=player_embedded) Full disclosure, my book Hoopla: The Art of Unexpected Embroidery has a tiny cameo. See if you can spot it.

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One of a Kind Vancouver, Dec 8 – 11

December 9, 2011

I’ll be at One of a Kind Vancouver tomorrow giving a short talk on Subversive Craft. Find me on the main fashion stage between 2-2:30. Afterwards, I’ll be teaching Siobhan Long’s ‘Photo Feelism’ an embroidery craft from Hoopla: The Art of Unexpected Embroidery which will have participants learning to stitch on photographs. Books, as always, [...]

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Vancouver to Courtenay

November 22, 2011

Photo caption: Cherry Blossom photo by Jeff Christenson I have two free public events this week: Tomorrow night I will be at the Roundhouse with Ann-Marie Metten and Lenore Rowntree discussing the Joy Kogawa House Cherry Blossom Project for the Vancouver Community Arts Council’s ‘Eco Arts Salon’ series. This is a free event held from [...]

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VPL event

November 4, 2011

I’ll be at the Vancouver Public Library (Central Branch) on Monday night talking about subversive craft and demonstrating the ‘Photo Feelism’ project, designed by Siobhan Long, from Hoopla. This is a free public event where you can embellish a postcard with stitching. Here are the official details: November 7, 2011 Vancouver Public Library Central Library, [...]

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