Friday, September 14, 2018

being there: Maiwa

 Maiwa was a watershed for me.
leaving Ottawa and arriving 'two' hours later in
vancouver surprised me, 
having three hours eaten by the time zones is a weird experience.
Linda (Washi Arts) picked me up and off we went to a seaside town closeby for lunch. 
found a weird skipper along the way.
 and then she took me to Granville Island, 
location of two of the three Maiwa Vancouver spots.
 notice the pedestrians...
 my air b&b was minimal
which was all i needed
(there were snacks, including bananas!) 
except the last night when the building's water got turned off...
and was a close walk to:
restaurants
Granville Island
the buses
which I learned to use!
and then wednesday morning arrived, 
and so did I, early as usual.
above crows greeted and guided me
and inside there was treasure
some chemistry
 and dyestuff
 Elys, who drove me home several days, my table partner
and myself monitored our dyepots
first one: madder (yay yay yay)
we worked with simple math porportions to prep
then dye our samples.
 things to remember
and we started another dyepot
and another
and another
it was fantastic.
the repetition and wonder of it all
reinforced learning and remembering.
our final learning was indigo, three types of vats,
and then we did our own thing for a day.
 all samples were placed
in an orderly fashion for us to 
quietly and with concentration
take one from each.
two kinds of wool yarn here,
Sophena explaining how to arrange them for us to easily sort.
 and cloth, protein and cellulose,
wool, silk, rayon, hemp, cotton, linen 
 and there was indigo 
10 dips
 and personal exploration projects.
in front is Charllotte and behind Sophena
mother and daughter who work beautifully together.
not their first rodeo.
 the Maiwa staff was delightful and full of talent, 
knowledge, 
and were always always there for the students.
Linda picked me up after class and took me to see town and eat supper.
 my wonderful hostess Linda Marshall
catching the pretties.
 we foraged for supper
and it was delicious!
returning home on a red eye flight, 
from 11:30 in Vancouver to 7ish in Montreal and
a 17 minute flight later to Ottawa, 
and then a drive home, 
a shower thankfully, 
and a meal 
and then back to school to teach my papermaking class just after noon...well, 
i did it. 
wednesday night i finally caught up on sleep-
12 hours, delicious!
sometimes it's difficult to write the words that will tell the tale.
i go on about the time traveling, 
the inconvenience and embarrassment of no apartment water,
the fun of a restaurant that calls itself by what i so naturally do,
but i can hardly capture
the personality of 16 students that constitute a well orchestrated class,
the noted and much appreciated kindness and courtesy of Canada,
of Vancouver,
and the wealth of knowledge 
freely shared for the love of the thing itself.
natural dye, fiber, good living, family.
how a community can thrive all exemplified 
in a small business that serves
as well as inspires.
i have not mentioned all the folks who inspired me, 
here are more:
Linda and Linda, Sachi, Tim, Liberty, the list continues
but here I'll stop. 
and I will end with this:
when I am inspired to be a better
maker
artist
human
I know I've been place in the right place at the right time.
Thank you Maiwa.

15 comments:

  1. This is all brilliant, especially your observations.

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  2. donna, it was, indeed.
    hazel, thank you. it was amazing.
    mo, thank you. i was so stressed because i didn't take very many and none with anything besides the phone!

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  3. Oh V - I can sense the awe and wonder of the whole time away. The travel bits stick out for us for a bit, but the depth of experience will truly stay with you for a long long time. It looks stunning and the teachers sound just right. Wow.

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  4. V - so much beauty in colour, people and experiences. B

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  5. fiona and barry, travellers, too (two?) isn't it grand to have experiences that ARE watershed for us? so glad i took the chance to do this thing!

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  6. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH ... SUCH COLOURS !!!!!!!!!!!!!
    A DELIGHT !

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  7. oh, now you have me well and truly dreaming ... what a wonderful gift to self

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  8. liz, it was a wonderful gift, a totally necessary piece that I now have much better understanding of.

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  9. kathy, i am so grateful because it was awesome. this time that word is spot-on

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  10. it is difficult to find the words to describe the Maiwa/Granville Is. experience. Although I've taken several workshops over the years the magic is always there.

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  11. you're absolutely right, Jean, but I'll go for the word "rich"

    ReplyDelete

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