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

Culture Days/Journees de la Culture

When Thirteen Moons Entwine

International textile arts event in the Outaouais

Aug 15 to Oct 10, 2010

Moon Rain Centre, Val-des-Monts, Quebec.

September 25, 26, 2010

Textile Arts Discovery Bus Tour

Circuit Decouvert Arts Textiles

On Saturday, September 25^th, Galerie Montcalm and the Ville de Gatineau organized a bus tour that visited the textile arts exhibitions organized by Moon Rain Centre in collaboration with the international textile arts event in the Outaouais, “When Thirteen Moons Entwine”.

The bus started in the morning at Galerie Montcalm in Gatineau after visiting the 9^th International Triennale of Mini-textiles from Angers, France. It then visited Espace Pierre Debain in Aylmer to see the exhibition Fibres Boreales, then drove to Moon Rain Centre to see the outdoor textile arts installations in situ and the studio exhibition, The Thirteen Moons. A gourmet picnic lunch was prepared by chef Chris Hudson, that bus tour participants and artists enjoyed at the waterfall along the scenic walking path at Moon Rain Centre.

On the drive home to Gatineau, the bus stopped to visit the international tapestry exhibit, Fils Lumineux at the Val-Des-Monts municipal hall.

It was a very enjoyable day for the bus tour participants. The word most frequently spoken was “inspirational”.

Photos by Ken Ewen

Tissage-Metissage

Community Weaving Project

The Agora, Maison du Citoyen, Gatineau, Quebec

On Sunday, September 26^th was Tissage-Metissage, a community weaving project organized by Galerie Montcalm and the Ville de Gatineau and directed by Thoma and Gabby Ewen of Moon Rain Centre.

Moon Rain Centre's “Collective Cloth” project provided the core of this fabric project that had an amazing resulting immense fabric art work. Over 200 community members participated in the weaving of “Tissage-Metissage”, and a permanent public location is being sought to display the weaving.

Photos by Dominique Laurent

When Thirteen Moons Entwine

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When Thirteen Moons Entwine

International textile arts event in the Outaouais

Aug 15 to Oct 10, 2010

Moon Rain Centre, Val-des-Monts, Quebec.

The integration of textile arts into the natural environment and the mythology of the thirteen moons

When Thirteen Moons Entwine

was an international textile event, inspired by the thirteen moons of the lunar calendar. It was an outdoor laboratory that brought together established professional textile artists with emerging artists in the creation of outdoor textile art installations at thirteen sites along a scenic walking path in nature at Moon Rain Centre, in the Gatineau Hills.

The number thirteen has very ancient and mystical significance, representing the unification of life, creation and the cosmos. In many cultures, the Wise Woman is referred to as a "Woman of the Thirteenth Moon".

When thirteen Moons Entwine included a spectrum of textile arts exhibitions presented in collaboration with major exhibition centres in the region, and offered hands on workshops by internationally known textile artists.

Quand les treize lunes s'entrelacent

When Thirteen Moons Entwine

Three minute video

Video courtesy of Aisha Productions, Gatineau, Quebec

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Outdoor Textile Art INSTALLATIONS

International textile arts event in the Outaouais

Aug 15 to Oct 10, 2010

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When Thirteen Moons Entwine was an international textile event, inspired by the thirteen moons of the lunar calendar. It was an outdoor laboratory that brought together established professional textile artists with emerging artists in the creation of 13 outdoor textile art installations at thirteen sites along a scenic walking path in nature at Moon Rain Centre, in the Gatineau Hills.

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Map of Sites

Click to enlarge

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Image by Gary Stuber, Artzu

Site 1 Hope Maclean,Edith Meusnier

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When Thirteen Moons Entwine

International textile arts event in the Outaouais

Aug 15 to Oct 10, 2010

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Hope Maclean (QUEBEC)

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Edith Meusnier (FRANCE)

 

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J'oublie les mots, les mythes et légendes pour savourer pleinement le silence et le mystère de l'illusion lunaire.- Edith Meusnier

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Photos by Ken Ewen, Ken Ewen, Joanne de Nobriga, Ken Ewen

Site 2 Ewa Bartosz-Mazus, Claire Guerette

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When Thirteen Moons Entwine

International textile arts event in the Outaouais

Aug 15 to Oct 10, 2010

.Ewa Bartosz-Mazus (POLAND)

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Claire Guerette (QUEBEC)

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Part of my installation "The Cleansing" represents spirituality and positive thoughts: this optimism overflows out of me and into my tapestry; it is my aspiration that everyone can achieve this fragment of positive energy. - Ewa Bartosz-Mazus

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Photos by Ken Ewen, Joanne de Nobriga, Ken Ewen, Ken Ewen

Site 3

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When Thirteen Moons Entwine

International textile arts event in the Outaouais

Aug 15 to Oct 10, 2010

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Krystyna Sadej (CANADA)

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Ali Rabjohns (UK)

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All this love and these threads of my creative journey have been wooven into the final pieces, red spider's web reminds us that we are all connected. - Ali Rabjohns

Photos by Ken Ewen