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Tuesday, March 01, 2005
If you've ever been to the McCord museum in Montreal, and visited the gift / craft shop they have in the entry hall, just off to the right, I'm sure that you've seen some of Ms. Dallegret's work. They have some of her small rugs, little hooked chair mats, and this past christmas some charming gants de toilette with simple appliquéd motifs.
Of course, when i saw the tag on her work with her name and address, i was compelled to pick up the phone and call her... tell her how much i appreciated what i had seen... ask her if i could visit her workshop (and eventually, of course, if my whole knitting group could visit her workshop!).
Judith's workshop is on Prince Albert, in Westmount, 1 street over from Victoria. She teaches traditional wool strip rug-hooking technique, quilting, colour theory, you name it... and she quite happily incorporated me into her Tuesday group, made up of 4 or 5 ladies who are her "regular" students, and 3 on-lookers (like myself). When you go down the stairs to where she gives her classes, you understand why Judith does what she does - for the love of colour and its endless possibilities for creation and play. Strips of wool hang from the walls, colour wheels are everywhere, pots and pots of dyes (and Judith's "own" rich, earthy colours), remnants of clothing are folded neatly and stacked by colour, rugs and photos and articles about her and her fellow textile artists... there is so much happening, visually, that you don't know WHERE to look.
i was lucky to have found some pencil crayons at the Papeterie Westmount on my way to the class (pre-sharpened!). And that day, we looked closely at colour - it was an introduction, really, and I got the feeling that Judith was not there to tell us that "X colour and Y colour are a pleasing combination, so you should always... etc" but to show us how her experience has helped her to see colour, and how she uses colour to take the eye here or here. it was great just to be in the workshop itself and listen to her as she got more and more animated about her craft, how visceral colour is for her.
Oh, yeah - she's also a knitter, although she's given up on handknitting as a money-making venture; she has the sweetest machine-knit sweaters that she's been selling for ages: stripey, colourful, with a jolly star on the kangaroo pocket (i don't think they had hoods...) for all sizes.
i definitely don't need another craft obsession - i am already quite incapable of getting rid of old clothes, just need to find something to do with them. but this workshop is quite in keeping with 2 of the books on creativity that i am (still) reading: J. Cameron's "The Artist's Way" and the Wish Jar lady Keri Smith's "Living Out Loud". how necessary is craft to our day-to-day activities?
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Apparently, the Shelburne museum is THE thing to see, if you're looking for traditionally crafted rugs. i'm definitely going this year.
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http://www.greenmountainrughookingguild.org/site/features/features_2004/hooked_mountains_IX/hooked_mountains_IX.html
posted by kelli ann @ 3:26 PM
1 Comments:
At 9:22 AM, Kajin said...
Ooooh how exciting! This sounds like a really interesting experience - I have found this http://homepage.mac.com/judithdallegret/PhotoAlbum1.html, and I am in love!
As for the old clothes, I read somewhere that a mother kept all her daughters' clothes, and made them each a quilt with them. She gave each girl the quilts when they were adults. This was full of memories for the two dautghters - what a great gift! (sorry for the crappy English :-S)
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