Tapestry Exhibiton at Mississippi Valley Textile Museum

From December 20th 2011 to January 28th 2012 the exhibition, Woven Bridges will be at the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum located in Almonte Ontario. The works of six internationally known artists will be displayed. A reception will be held on January 14th 2012 at 2 pm.

For more information please visit the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum website at

 http://mvtm.ca/museum/?page_id=534

Moon Rain Centre wins the Grand Prix d’Excellence at the Culturiads.

LAURÉATS DES PRIX DU GALA D’EXCELLENCE LES CULTURIADES 2011

Pour diffusion immédiate

Gatineau, le 9 novembre 2011 – La Fondation pour les arts, les lettres et la culture en Outaouais (FALCO) a rendu hommage aux artistes de la région hier soir, lors de son événement annuel, qui s’est déroulé à la salle Jean-Despréz de la Maison du citoyen de Gatineau. Douze prix furent remis lors de cette douzième édition du Gala d’excellence Les Culturiades, dont le maître de cérémonie était nul autre que Patrick Voyer, journaliste de l’hebdomadaire La Revue et du quotidien Info07 des Médias Transcontinental.

 Les lauréats 2011 des prix d’excellence remis aux artistes et aux acteurs du développement culturel de l’Outaouais sont :

 Prix d’Excellence Gilles-Gagné – IV^es Jeux de la Francophonie, attribué à un organisme pour l’ensemble de ses réalisations, assorti d’une bourse de 2 500 $ :

 – Centre Moon Rain (métiers d’art)

Artistic Direct of Moon Rain Centre, Thoma Ewen accepting the Grand Prix d’Excellence at the Culturiads

Tapestries Exhibit and artists' lectures

"Tapestries" - an exhibit by Thoma Ewen, Krystyna Sadej, and two guest artists, Ewa Bartosz Mazus from Poland and Thomas Cronenberg from Germany.

Together, their work presents an energetic dialogue of cross-cultural vision and an open-ended approach to contemporary woven art.

City of Ottawa, the Centrepointe Theatre Gallery,

101 Centrepointe Drive

October 27 (after 6pm) to November 30 2011

On Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 7pm, the City of Ottawa will host “Perspectives on Textile Art Today” with the following speakers:

 "Textiles in Europe Today" by Thomas Cronenberg

"Textile Woolen Mills in the Mississippi Valley” by Michael Rikley-Lancaster
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“Moon Rain Centre, the Textile Art Center in the Outaouais” by Thoma Ewen

The reception will follow the talk. We sincerely invite all to join us. The event is free of charge.  (Room 1A in the Ben Franklin Place complex, 101 Centrepointe Drive)

Photos by Justyna Szluinska

Community Quilt

Photo Jamie Cruickshank

This large community quilt, 16'high x 6'wide, is a project which Moon Rain Centre directed for the Canadian Tulip Festival.

The project was designed and directed by Gabby Ewen, who is project co-ordinator for Moon Rain Centre. Textile artists, Owen Tuf, Phyllis Wedding, Jocelyne Ladouceur, Andie Haltrich and Thoma Ewen, artistic director of Moon Rain Centre, all assisted on the quilt project.

Community participants and visitors to the Canadian Tulip Festival wrote messages of peace and friendship onto ribbons that were appliqued to make the tulip flower, stem and leaves. One message I found significant is, "peace is not a solo activity". The signatures of participants are on the green rectangles that make the border. This is part of Moon Rain Centre's large "Vision Weave Project". www.visionweaveproject.blogspot.com

The Canadian Tulip Festival, now in it's 59th year, commemorates Holland's gift of tulip bulbs as thanks for Canada's hospitality to the Dutch Royal Family during the Second World War.

The Quilt was made on site at the festival in Major's Hill Park in Ottawa in

May 2011.
It has now been delivered to the Canadian Tulip Festival offices in Ottawa.

Tapestry Workshops Summer 2011

Moon Rain Centre offers two summer workshops in tapestry weaving

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July 23 & 24

beginners weekend workshop

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July 25 to 29

5-day intermediate course in design and technique
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Moon Rain Centre, situated in the Gatineau Hills near the village of Poltimore, is an ideal place for immersion in creativity and the beauty of nature. The instructor is Thoma Ewen, an internationally known textile artist.

Classes are small. All looms and materials are provided. Camping and accommodation available.

Visit the website at www.moonrain.ca

Information: call 819 457 9711 or email info@moonrain.ca

The Kaleidoscope Community Quilt on stage at closing ceremonies

Six artists from Moon Rain Centre participated in the Kaleidoscope Community Quilt Project on-site at the Tulip Festival: Gabby Ewen, owen tuf, Phyllis Wedding, Andie Haltrich,  Jocelyne Ladouceur and Thoma Ewen.This picture was taken on stage at the Tulip Festival during the closing ceremonies on May 23. Shown are the quilt and the director of the project Gabby Ewen. She is currently working on the finishing touches of this large quilt.

Encounter Mexico-Canada, Contemporary Textile Art

Anahuac University North through the The School of Design invites you to the Encounter Mexico-Canada, Contemporary Textile Art.

May 25, 2011. CAD Auditorium

Round table at 12:30

Panelists:

Thoma Ewen

Ana Paula Fuentes

Miguel Peraza

Sergio Rasgado

Ixchel Suarez

Martha Turok

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La Escuela de Diseño de la Universidad Anáhuac, de la que tú eres pieza clave, semestre a semestre dirige sus esfuerzos hacia la formación integral de sus estudiantes y la vinculación con lo mejor del gremio profesional.

Clara muestra de ello se dará el próximo 25 de mayo, en cada uno de nuestros magnos eventos:

9:00 hrs. Entrega de Medalla Liderazgo Anáhuac en Diseño / Mtro. Ricardo Rosas / Auditorio de Rectoría

11:00 hrs. Inauguración de Expo Diseño / Hacia la sustentabilidad y el ecodiseño / Hall del CAD

11.00 Opening Expo-Design / towards a sustainability and eco-design/ CAD Hall

12:00 hrs. Inauguración de la Exposición / Arte Textil Contemporáneo: Encuentro México Canadá / Salón del Diseño

12:00 Hrs. Opening Exhibition/ Contemporary textile Art: encounter Mexico-Canada/ Design hall

12:30 hrs. Mesa redonda / Arte Textil Contemporáneo: Encuentro México Canadá / Auditorio del CAD

12:30 hrs Round Table / Contemporary textile Art: Encounter Mexico, Canada / CAD Auditorium

Photographs of The Kaleidoscope Community Quilt Project in progress

This project is progressing so amazingly. To see some of the photographs of the community quilt please follow the link to the Canadaian Tulip Festival website.

http://www.tulipfestival.ca/gallery/?album=6&gallery=6

Mothers Celebrate at the Tulip Festival

The following article appeared in the May 9 2011 edition of the Ottawa Citizen

Mothers celebrate at the Tulip Festival

 Event has flowers, music and ice sculptures

 By Kelly Patterson, Ottawa Citizen May 9, 2011
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The rain held off for the festival at Major's Hill Park.Photograph by: Pat McGrath, The Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa Citizen

OTTAWA — t's the ultimate Mother's Day combo: Tulips, quilting, flower-arranging, sweetvoiced choirs and outdoor art. Even the glowering Ottawa skies held off from their deluge as hundreds of moms and their admirers turned out for the Canadian Tulip Festival.
Becky Cronin was emerging from a tent where a bizarre combination of ice carvers and flower arrangers shared the stage before a rapt audience, in simultaneous but separate demonstrations of their crafts.
"It's fantastic," said Cronin, a bouquet of artfully arranged flowers over one arm. As her husband and son took off in the direction of the Lego booth, she remarked that "the ice carver had a chainsaw going, so I could get the boys to sit with me" while she watched the flower arranging.
"There's no way they would have done that otherwise."
Once finished, the bouquets were given at random to audience members. Cronin scored hers after her seven-year-old son Ben popped up from his seat to follow the performer.
"And he tapped him on the bum!" she laughed, part tickled, part mortified.
Cronin found the ice carving a compelling sight: "It was very dramatic. There was ice flying all over the place . Then the guy took out a huge blowtorch at the very end," to 'polish' the carving.
Meanwhile, business was booming at the Lego Community Garden, a booth where youngsters knee-deep in Lego pieces were free to create whatever they wanted.
"I have Lego at home and I love playing with it." said nine-year-old Zakary Michel-Hoisak.
"Sometimes I can make the instructions for it in my head. It's fun," he said.
His creation today? A blue tulip, more than half-a-metre tall.
"It's my dream to go to Legoland and go on the Lego boats," said Zakary, who was at the festival with his grandmother, Cynthia Hoisak.
A few steps away, the talk was of turkey-tracks and herringbone stitches as people took in the Kaleidoscope Community Quilt, where a lively spread of vivid diamond-shaped squares is quickly taking shape as a wallcovering designed to celebrate peace and friendship.
The quilt is a work of "community art," in which any member of the public who knows a stitch or two is welcome to walk up and help sew, explains Gabby Ewen, one of three artists with the Moon Rain Centre, which conceived the project.
Based in Val des Monts, the non-profit centre is dedicated to strengthening community bonds through tapestry and fabric art projects.
"Weaving transmits the energy of peace -that is an ancient indigenous belief," says Thoma Ewen, artistic director of the centre.
A tapestry artist for 37 years, Ewen has directed projects across Canada as well as in France and Britain.
When it's completed, the Tulip Festival quilt will feature an orange-red tulip rising up against a background of hundreds of diamondshaped patches.
Appliquéd to the quilt will be hundreds of ribbons, on which people have written messages.
"They can write anything they want as long as it's related to the theme," says Gabby Ewen, adding that the kids' messages are particularly striking.
On a side-table, several ribbons await their moment to be added to the quilt.
One reads, "Ottawa is a beautiful city filled with kind and loving people. Peace. -Mariza."
Another reads, "Peace is using The Force for good, not evil. Long live the Jedi."
Ewen says that as many as 25,000 people may have added to the quilt before it's finished, explaining that -at almost five metres long and a metre-and-a-half wide -the piece should be large enough to accommodate the contribution of everyone who is interested.
The finished quilt will then become part of the festival's fine art collection, and may be hung in a public venue such as the new conference centre, City Hall or the airport, she says.

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

Working on the Kaleidoscope Community Quilt Day 3

Here we are on day three.Peoples messages of peace and friendship are being written on the ribbons which will be placed into the quilt.

VIth WTA International Biennal of Contemporary Textile Art AIR

Thoma Ewen is invited to exhibit in a group tapestry exhibition with Ixchel Suarez, Krystyna Sadej, Peter Harris and Stella Tung in the Art Gallery of the School of Design, Anahuac University, in Mexico City from May 23 to June 2, 2011. Four Mexican tapestry artists will also be exhibiting in this exhibition.Thoma and Ixchel will participate in the conference, "Textil Mexico-Canada" on May 25th at 10 am, in the School of Design.
Thoma and Ixchel will then travel to Oaxaca, Mexico to speak at the International Textile Encounter, a conference at Museo Textil d'Oaxaca on May 31 at 7pm.
These events are in collaboration with the VI WTA International Biennal of Contemporary Textile Art AIR. which takes place in three cities in Mexico: Mexico City, Veracruz and Oaxaca.

http://www.wta-online.org/

The tapestry below will be exhibited at Anahuac University

Ribbons of Light

2003

pototgraph Jamie Cruickshank

Invitation for Fibres Boreales at the Musee des Maitres et Artisans du Quebec, Montreal

May 12, 2011 at 6:00 P.M.

The exhibition will run until June 05, 2011

Volunteers Invited to Participate in Kaleidoscope Quilt Project, Canadian Tulip Festival

The Kaleidoscope Community Quilt Project

May 6 to 23, 2011

The Kaleidoscope Quilt is the Canadian Tulip Festival's visual celebration of Peace and Friendship through Colours, Culture and Community.This unique piece of textile art will be created by the Canadian Tulip Festival's 25,000 community members, in partnership with Moon Rain Centre (www.moonrain.ca) and the direction of textile artist Gabby Ewen.

The Kaleidoscope Quilt will be created using appliqué, crazy quilting and contemporary textile techniques, working with satin ribbons which will be hand-sewn into the image of a radiant tulip in full bloom with a
background of brilliantly coloured fabric diamonds pieced, embroidered along the seams in the crazy quilt style and embellished to form a radiating kaleidoscopic image.

The Kaleidoscope Community Quilt Project is a hands-on intercultural, intergenerational participatory art activity that will be set up on the festival site for the duration of the Canadian Tulip Festival.
Participants are invited to personalize a piece of fabric or ribbon by contributing a positive message of Peace and Friendship.

Messages of Peace and Friendship will be recorded and displayed, and all participants will be invited to sign, along the border of the quilt. The incorporation of these signatures into the art piece creates an active "living" record of all the community contributors and attests to the iconic quality of this legacy project.


The Canadian Tulip Festival is seeking skilled individuals to facilitate the hands-on creation as well as the integration of members of the public into this exciting large scale community quilt project.

For more information please e-mail..
workshops@tulipfestival.ca

The Kaleidoscope Community Quilt Project

Moon Rain and Gabby Ewen are excited to present  The Kaleidoscope Community Quilt Project, FUNtasia, Major’s Hill Park, Ottawa, May 6-23 2011.

The Kaleidoscope Quilt is the Canadian Tulip Festival’s visual celebration of Peace and Friendship through Colours, Culture and Community.

This unique piece of textile art will be created by the Canadian Tulip Festival’s 25,000 community members, in partnership with Moon Rain Centre www.moonrain.ca with textile artist Gabby Ewen’s direction.

The Kaleidoscope Quilt will be created using appliqué quilting and contemporary textile techniques and working with satin ribbons and brilliantly coloured fabrics which will be pieced and hand-sewn into the image of a radiant tulip in full bloom.

The Kaleidoscope Community Quilt Project is a hands-on intercultural, intergenerational participatory art activity that will be set up on the festival site for the duration of the Canadian Tulip Festival. Participants are invited to personalize a piece of fabric or ribbon by contributing a positive message of Peace and Friendship.

Messages of Peace and Friendship will be recorded and displayed, and all participants will be invited to sign, along the border of the quilt. The incorporation of these signatures into the art piece creates an active “living” record of all the community contributors and attests to the iconic quality of this legacy project.
For more information check out the offical website at

http://www.tulipfestival.ca/2011/03/21/the-kaleidoscope-community-quilt-project/

The Vision Weave Project

Vision Weave is an interactive community arts project that integrates fibre arts, text messages and community visioning in the creation of woven public art.

In Vision Weave, each community participant is given a strip of fabric on which they write their message or vision for a peaceful future and then interweave it into a collective tapestry.

info@moonrain.ca     http://www.moonrain.ca/   visionweaveproject@gmail.com

Le projet « Tissage visionnaire »

Le tissage visionnaire est un projet d’art communautaire interactif qui intègre les arts textiles, des messages textes et une approche communautaire dans la création d’un art public.


Dans un tissage visionnaire, chaque participant reçoit une bandelette de tissu sur laquelle on écrit un message destiné à la communauté et à la Terre. Le message est ensuite entrelacé dans le tissage collectif.

Tapestry Workshops at Moon Rain Centre 2011

“During the process of designing and weaving each tapestry, I attune to ancient mysteries of the weaver’s path. The repetition of over and under, followed by under and over, meditatively connects me to Navajo, Mayan and Buddhist beliefs where weaving, or the union of warp, or tantra, with weft, or sutra, creates harmony.” Thoma Ewen, artistic director

Photography by Ken Ewen

Inspired by the natural environment, workshop participants explore and develop their own creativity, immersed in techniques and practices developed at Moon Rain Centre that demystify tapestry weaving, making it accessible to everyone.

Level One: workshops for beginners

July 23 & 24

August 6 & 7

This weekend workshop is an introduction to the art and craft of tapestry weaving. Basic techniques are explored and practiced on small frame looms. While learning to blend colours and build woven shapes and lines, participants create a small tapestry to take home.

$225 includes materials

Level Two: weaving tapestry

July 25 to 29

August 8 to 12

During this week workshop, the patterns of nature inspire woven tapestries, as each participant explores in depth the tapestry weaving process, developing and weaving a visual idea into a finished tapestry.

$475 includes materials prerequisite: Level One

Level Three: mentoring

Mentoring responds to the unique questions and concerns of individual advanced students. Emerging tapestry weavers are shown how to recognize and develop their own unique creative gifts, while learning to become active creative members of their own communities.

prerequisite: Level Two and portfolio

Level Four: weaving and culture

A workshop for teachers, arts educators and cultural facilitators

Weaving transmits the energy of Peace. It has a calming, harmonizing effect on people, especially on children, so is an excellent tool for today’s classrooms and community centers. This workshop teaches simple creative weaving skills and projects that are suitable for all ages, abilities, and cultural programming budgets. In this workshop participants learn how to turn the family ragbin into woven fabric art projects, how to make simple frame looms and weave on them, how to make cloth looms and more.

prerequisite: Level Two

workshop fees include all materials

camping and accommodation available on-site

For more information please contact Moon Rain Centre at

info@moonrain.ca

http://www.moonrain.ca/

819 457 9711



The Living Tapestry Workbook reviewed in Britain’s The Journal for Weavers, Spinners and Dyers

The Living Tapestry Workbook received a glowing review from Jean Woods of the New Forest Guild in issue number 236 Winter 2010 of Great Britain’s The Journal for Weavers, Spinners and Dyers.

Among the reviewer’s comments were, “a joy to view” , “encouragement to get started” and “inspire the belief you can do this too”.

The Workbook can be ordered online through the Moon Rain Centre website at

http://www.moonrain.ca/TapestryWorkBook.html

Also please check the December 11, 2009 posting on this blog for more information

Moon Rain 2011

Happy New Year and thank you for all of the interest in Moon Rain Centre. In addition to this blog please check our website at http://www.moonrain.ca/
For questions and comments info@moonrain.ca is one of the best ways to reach us.
There are quite a few really exciting happenings coming up. More details to come.
Once again thank you