2022 Lakeshore Exhibition

Two weeks ago we had our exhibition. This normally occurs every two years, but due to COVID it's been 3 years since our last one. The guild turned 50 last year and since it's a big milestone we didn't want to miss, we decided to do a 50+1 celebration.

Our guild members went all out with advertisements this year. We made the front page of the Montreal Gazette with a full page article in color. You can read the article online here.

We even made it on the local city tv news. My sister came and helped out filming short clips for us as I was busy doing demos.

(click post to see the video below)

Here I am demoing chipwork on the Contrast Color Wheel. I had loads of fun chatting with all the visitors. I even brought my Astrolabe. I'll have to make sure it's framed for the next exhibition.

I submitted a few pieces to the show. I realized as I was going through my finished pieces how many need to be "finished". I'll have to work on that. Still, I'm happy with what I put in.

None of my pieces won anything, but when you see the best in show you'll understand. The quality of stitching this year was amazing!

I have so many media files to get through. I have a video I took of the entire exhibition that needs to be edited and uploaded. I'll share a link once it's ready so you can see the full show.

Exposition at l'Acienne-Lorette

This year I was invited to exhibit with a group of stitchers from Quebec city who decided to hold an exhibition near Quebec city. It was organized by my friend Patricia of l'Atelier de Pénélope in collaboration with the city of l'Ancienne-Lorette.

As it's only about 3 hours away, I decided to drive down and spend the weekend with Patricia. Three days of nothing but embroidery. Heaven! Patricia has a huge personal library at home and I got to spend lots of time in it. For the exhibition, I brought with me three pieces to submit.

Bouquet from the heart of Japan © JEC

Beaded eyeglass case © JEC

Samara

I thought about bringing a piece of whitework but I figured I'll limit myself to techniques I'm sure no one will have seen.

We had a great turnout as the ladies did an excellent job with advertising, including getting an article printed in the local newspaper. Usually most visitors are friends and families, for this exhibition there were many strangers who had heard about it and decided to drop by. However, there are many still who either couldn't make it or lived too far. So for all those who couldn't come, we made a video. I hope you enjoy it!

(click on the post to see the video below)

As far as my current projects are concerned, I'm still stitching when I have time. Mainly on the mermaids and hedebo piece, I just have less and less time to blog about it. It's come to a point where I will need to start scheduling a time slot for "administrative tasks", as otherwise you'll never see anything here.

The Kimono of Itchiku Kubota

Today is another post full of pictures. At my last Japanese embroidery meeting, Nancy mentioned an exhibit being held at the Toronto Textile Museum displaying silk kimonos by a Japanese artist named Itchiku Kubota. A group of them will be going to the exhibit at the end of April. I unfortunately couldn't go as I will be travelling, so I made sure to pass by while I was in Toronto over the weekend.

I did some research on Google, hoping to find a video demonstrating the technique used by Kubota and stumbled on this lecture that explained the history of the technique much better than I could ever have (I recommend watching the video first). There is also this video here that I couldn't link in the post.

(click on the post to see the video below)

If you plan on visiting the exhibit and want to be surprised, I would stop reading here :) The rest of the post is all pictures of the different kimonos. Most of the kimonos are from his Symphony of Lights collection of which there are 40. He planned on making 80 but died before he was able to complete the series. His son and daughter have taken up his work at his studio in Tokyo.

The Universe (from left to right): Ha, Uzu, En, Chuu, Zu, Shu

A close up shot of Ha (A curling wave of Magma). Many of the pieces have floral and leaf motifs drawn on them after the fabric had been dyed and some were also embroidered in silk.

He was fascinated with Mount Fuji. It was possible he was influenced by French Impressionists and hads made many kimonos depicting Mount Fuji at different times of the day and in different seasons trying to capture it's moods. When he finally built a museum to hold his art, he made sure to select a site from which Mount Fuji could be seen.

Fuji standing in burning clouds	Red Fuji at dawn
A tender, cool dawn	Fuji standing against golden layers at clouds

They had some pieces that were individual work and not part of any series. I really love the colors he used in his work. Especially the purples, reds and oranges.

Aoi	Kasanenichrin

The next kimonos are all part of the Symphony of Lights: Seasons collection. Some of the names do repeat themselves, so those are not a mistake. I'm not super crazy about the pale colors, but when you look at the kimonos up close the work that went into them is amazing.

Seasons (from left to right): Shoujoutou, Rurikon, Kougaki, Benigara, Kamimurasaki, Jo

Seasons (from left to right): Ryou, Kou, Hin

Seasons (from left to right): Hou, Kou, Ei, Sei

Seasons: Shou, Ai

Seasons: Byou, Bou

Seasons (from left to right): Kyoku, Ryou, Chou, Kan, Jo

I really like the next three kimonos. Looking at them is like looking at a Japanese ink painting.


Here is an animation of close up shots of the various kimonos just to give you an idea of the detail that went into them.

(click on the post to see the animation below)

There was a catalog available to purchase as part of the exhibition. It is available to purchase online from the textile museum here. It contains pictures of all of Kubota's works, with some close up pictures and a section on his creative process.

A plus, I also found a Japanese embroidery issue that's published in Japan by Kurenai-Kai in the used books section at the museum gift shop. It was a little expensive, but the pictures are lovely and it also includes a booklet with English translations.

Dior at the ROM

Last year the house of Christian Dior celebrated their 70th year. To celebrate this occasion, the Musée des Art Décoratifs in Paris had a special exhibition. I obviously couldn't go all the way to Paris to attend, so I was very happy when the Royal Ontario Museum announced their own Dior exhibit in partnership with Holt Renfrew. We managed to make it for the last weekend it was opened for.

The exhibit didn't only have clothes but accessories as well as perfumes that were sold at Holt Renfrew. The shoes were borrowed from the BATA Shoe museum in Toronto (must visit this museum one day). These two were my favorite. Apparently, the black ones could be bought lined with fur specially made for Canadian winters.


Sample book of swatches.

Holt Renfrew had special labels made that they used to identify Dior products bought from them.

Pearl necklace with fantastical beast motif. I especially loved the earrings.


More pearl necklaces. The necklace on the right showcases Dior's favorite flower, the lily of the valley, a bouquet of which was always worn by at least one model in every couture show.


There was this very extravagant perfume bottle with a bouquet of flowers at the top. I loved the display they had for one of the perfume bottles.


Before a dress is made, samples are gathered. This also includes embroidery. They had many pieces of embroidered fabric, some of which were later used in the making of a dress. The one below was stitched with boucle gilt lame thread, sequins and gold rocaille beads with with a luneville hook.

This one was my favorite. I loved the dark blue with the ivory and pearl. It was embroidered with both a needle and lunville hook. In some places, sequins (see the blue square sequins below) were stacked on top of each other to add relief.


This embroidery was used for a strapless dress called Palmyre. All of Dior's dresses had a name.


The next sample was a piece of layered lace embroidered by Maison Hurel for an evening dress. Not sure if it was ever made into one, but I loved the peonies that were created using fancy pearlized beads.

This next one is another sample done with a luneville hook. The motifs were eventually used with a different color way on a coat (see the next image).

Embroidered coat

The embroidery was done with a lunville hook using a metal thread. Some areas were padded, you can see some of it peeking out, which was not part of the original sample.


It's not just the outside that was heavily decorated. This lace with a lily of the valley motif was used to line the inside of a coat.

Here is a dress that was also bought by Sophia Loren but in a darker fabric. Back then, dresses were not only tailored to your size but also to your preference of colors and fabrics.

I really liked the beading on this dress but not so much the top of it, too loose. The silhouette was made for a much older woman. The beading on it was gorgeous and shined brightly. I couldn't get a good look at it but I suspect cut beads were used.

Not super crazy about this one but the beading at the collar looks amazing.


Another lace dress. This one was worn by a socialite for her daughter's wedding. I thought only the bride wore white?

More beading with paillettes, both colored and clear, pearls and chaton crystals.

I really enjoyed the exhibit but was surprised by how small it was. It felt like it was hastily put together to coincide with the Paris exhibition as there weren't a lot of pieces. There were some that were on loan from Paris but the bulk of them were donated by Canadian women who had purchased and worn the dresses in the 1950s. Really wish I could have gone to the one in Paris. Just to give you an idea of how large it was, I found this video on Youtube (it's very loud from crowds!).