![]() It was an intense conference….aren’t they all?! I taught for four and a half days and finished with a half day free to cover ground and explore as much as I could of the campus. ![]() The trip up from southern Washington state was long (on top of a 28-hour journey up from Bolivia!) but, who could complain with such scenery along the way? There was certainly a festive feel as our ferry pulled up at the dock. I loved seeing the tiny water taxis zipping about. Victoria Harbor was set up for a warm welcome with pavilions in place to mark Canada’s 150th anniversary. This second Welcome Post by the same artisan depicts the Traditional Coast Salish Man… My picture shows the child in the mother’s arms. This Welcome Post is titled traditional Coast Salish Wife/Mother. The Welcome Post sculptures were created from red cedar by Coast Salish artisan Doug LaFortune. The site was once a village and holds great cultural and historical significance. The First People’s House sits on traditional territories of the Coast Salish and Strait Salish peoples. Rosie Kerschbaumer & Toby Smith wove it along with the other members of the GVWSG Block Study Group.Īnd then there was the First People’s House on the campus of UVIC building with its interesting Welcome Pole carvings… Once inside the check-in area, this second colorful banner greeted us… It was created using local fleece from Parry Bay Sheep Farm in Metchosin, BC by a spinning/fibre group of the Victoria Handweavers and Spinners Guild. This first banner welcomed us and helped us easily locate the main meeting area and check-in building. They contained a travel mug for water to reduce plastic water-bottle waste on the campus. It was made from an old sail….that task must have required a lot of sail cloth as I heard that conference attendance exceeded 600! The bags were very practical and beautifully constructed. The conference tote bag was really special. We all offered an open house during the lunch break on Day 2 of the pre-conference workshops and several of my students volunteered not only to stay in the room to welcome visitors but also to weave on their backstrap looms so that people could learn a little about how they work. All the instructors were extremely welcoming. I was happy to meet the famous Salt Spring saori artist about whom I had heard so much. I photographed Terri’s conference pouch when I dropped by to see her Saori weaving class….”Saori Weaving – Adventures in Weaving and Cloth Design”. Alison taught a class on this technique at the conference and created a wonderful piece in woven paper for the Instructors’ Exhibit which you can see later in this post. Our conference neck pouches, which were created by my weaving friend Alison Irwin, were cleverly woven in strips of re purposed paper. The conference theme was Treadle Lightly which meant that conference materials, guild booths and displays tended to focus on the use of natural, recycled, low impact and re-purposed materials….tread lightly on this earth. Weavers from various fiber guilds that belong to the north west association (ANWG) made great efforts to welcome us to their 2017 conference on the UVIC campus in Victoria B.C with two lovely banners.
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