A Show of Textile Art
by Ilse Leader & Karin Millson
Opening wine & cheese reception
July 13 5-8 pm.
Show continues to August 1, 2018
About Ilse Leader
After our arrival on Salt Spring Island in 1975 I became involved with the Arts and Crafts on the Island through my friend and neighbour Judith Mckenzie. She introduced me to weaving, spinning and dyeing yarns and introduced me to the Salt Spring Islands Weavers and Spinners guild. My former training in Germany, where I was born and grew up, was in the fashion industry. There I learned the art of designing, pattern making and the making of garments. With that background I decided to make garments from hand spun, hand dyed and hand woven fabric.
Later on I switched over to commercial yarns. Inspired by the beauty of the island and the range of colours one experiences, colour and the finishing of the garments became my trade mark. After about 35 years of making hand woven garments I had to stop weaving, as my back did not like it. I switched to knitting, which I had used with my woven garments, and created more “one of a kind” garments.
Looking at other ways to make hand made fabric I looked at felting. Judith Dios was giving a workshop in Nuno felting. I was delighted as it promised to give me a new road to travel on. Making garments of hand felted materials. Using the remnants from my hand woven garments. And the next step was not to cut the fabric up into pieces, but use the full size as wall hangings.
About Karin Millson
Karin Millson holds a Ph. D. in micropalaeontology and a Master Craftsman Qualification from the City and Guilds of London. Her Ph D investigated Ostracods of the Palaeogene of Australasia, her collection is housed in the British Museum of Natural History, London.
She creates mixed media art that is predominantly textile-based. Her work marries her interest in the natural world with a fascination for innovative use of materials and design.
Her art has been exhibited and sold world-wide, with works held in Oman, Europe, North America and Africa. She recently moved to Saltspring Island.
Apart from her solo art practise she is currently collaborating on a theatre/installation/adult puppet show with Wendy Passmore Godfrey, an artist and puppeteer in Alberta.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I find my work centres itself on creating abstracted representations of subjects often from the living world. I strive to have the viewer find meaning and pleasure in sculptures, installations and imagery through their own knowledge of the world and, if not, then stimulating their infinite imagination.