Lyell's Amphibious Being

 

Lyell's Amphibious Being, linocut, 10" x 8" by Ele Willoughby

So here's my latest Imaginary Friend of Science: Lyell's Amphibious Being. Dressed like geologist Charles Lyell himself, with sample bag, geological hammer, pick axe and magnifying glass, in front of the geological cross-section from the end papers of Lyell's 'Principles of Geology' and a couple of fossils from terrestrial and marine life (fern and nautiloid respectively). It's a two block linocut on Japanese kozo (or mulberry) paper, 10" x 8" and available here. Read more about the Amphibious Beast in the Imaginary Friend of Geology.

Tips for Craft Sale Season - in Today's Parent, November issue

Today's Parent interviewed me recently about my tips for making a successful craft show display. The resulting article appears in the November issue, page 140, in the Toronto News About Town: shopping, tips & bright ideas section! You can see it electronically and download the issue here. They selected my Frog and Lily linocut (and a tiny head shot by RJH). I'm flattered to see they've identified me as an 'expert'.

On page 144, they have 'to market, to market', a guide to Toronto seasonal craft markets and more, including the Shopcats Pop-Up Winter Show at Scadding Court, which runs through to December. This nifty shipping-container housed shop is one of very few places I'll be showing my prints this season.

New Monograms

I've been making more monograms with the aim of producing a set of soft blocks with every letter of the alphabet included. In the meanwhile, I'm printing on a variety of papers of different colours, textures and patterns.

motion-detector frog

RJH bought me a motion-detector frog* (yes, you read that right) the other day, at the dollar store (yes, believe it or not there are a large number of motion-detector frogs there) to cheer me up. See, this is a pretty demented, simple, electronic product, and its existence and unexpected availabilty amuses me. I mean, who knew there was a demand for motion-detector frogs? He didn't seem very sensitive and at first did not ribbit until poked (the frog that is, not RJH). He was happily sitting, silently in my studio, until he decided that my every tiny move was cause to ribbit. So, I decided to place him outside to scare squirrels from my herb garden. Sadly, he's now responding to every tiny breeze and I think I had better go move him before he drives the neighbours mad.

*Not exactly as illustrated. That's a actual, real-live frog I photographed in NB. The motion detector frog is sort of like that, except more plastic, and prone to sporadically playing a recorded ribbit.**

**'Ribbit' is a Canadian word for the sound made by a frog, used also as a verb. I recall hearing a CBC radio interview with the OED who had recently decided to include it in its new editions. Apparently, outside of Canada, frogs just croak, which is weird if you've ever listened to the wide array of frog song. Strangely it was also the name of our high school mascot.

Trip photos: New Brunswick - The Camp

We stayed at the cottage for a few days, which was a nice escape. In New Brunswick, as in Northern Ontario, they call it the camp, not the cottage. We couldn't even get cell service there (which was, frankly, a treat grumble, grumble, newspapers which call or email journalists at all hours grumble), though we did have a weird assortment of satellite TV, when it was too cold in the evenings, even by a campfire. There was a channel which appeared to play strictly reruns of The Littlest Hobo, complete with vintage ads, for instance.* We went canoeing and took photos on the lake. Let me tell you that trying to position a canoe for a photographer who insists on sitting in the stern and stalking loons is no mean feat. RJH sorted through his old things (photographic equipment, archery supplies and old photos) while I followed a frog around taking his photo.



We went out of a hike in the woods to a place where RJH had found a waterfall. We pulled down an abandoned logging road and - in a very successful instance of animal spotting and identifying - I said, "Bear!" A full grown black bear was in the middle of the road, less than 10 m ahead. RJH stopped the car and said, "Don't get out." It was my turn to think he was crazy. "Of course not. Do you think I'm crazy?" I said, as he got out the drivers' side so he could grab the appropriate camera and lens from the back seat. The bear did not like the looks of this and reluctantly sauntered off before RJH could get a photo. We waited a bit and pulled forward. RJH found the vole that the bear had been eating (and the apparent reason for his reluctance to leave). He asked (RJH, not the bear or dead vole) whether it was such a good idea to go for a hike, since we saw the bear. I said I thought it was fine. Bears don't like people and he knew we were there. Plus he went right and we were headed to the left. So we entered the woods, making sure we weren't too quiet. I shot more photos of frogs, while RJH took long exposures of the small waterfall.

 

When we repeated the story about the bear, everyone seemed surprised I agreed to go in the woods. I think they suspected a city girl would be afraid of a bear. But, it was a black bear, which are pretty common in Ontario - it's not like it was a brown bear (Ursus arctos horribilis, the Grizzly bear) or a polar bear, neither of which I would like to meet in the wild**. I mean, I wouldn't like to get within a couple of metres of a black bear, or find one in my home, but when I was a kid, we used to go to the dump, in cottage country, simply to go watch the bears. It's not like it was a moose, I joked to RJH. We had dinner at his sister's place, which is basically in the woods. On our way home, in the dark, we saw five deer, a fox and of course, a moose. I was pretty good with the animal spotting. I said, "Deer!" and "Fox!" on cue (and, for that matter, "Cat!"), but mostly I said, "There!" and pointed. We we ended up on a narrow gravel road and came across the moose, what I actually said was "Whoa, whoa!" which was pretty inarticulate, but RJH saw it as soon as I did and we weren't driving very fast. The moose was pretty surprised to see us, in the middle of nowhere, after dark. She looked over her shoulder incredulously and took off. We told his family how we had seen the bear, the moose, five deer, the fox and four frogs, all in one day. RJH seemed to think it was hilarious I included the frogs on this list. I don't know why. Small amphibians are animals too. Though, I suppose I didn't list all the birds. Like ducks and woodpeckers are a given.

 *For non-Canadian readers, this was a show of my youth, about a stray German Shepherd who wandered around saving lives and solving problems (low-risk 80's TV show type problems). I'm not even kidding. "Maybe tomorrow, I'll want to settle down... until tomorrow, I'll just keep going on..."

 **Yes, I do know that the chances of meeting either in New Brunswick are essentially nil.

Roaming Victoria

This is my favorite store. That's it. The entire store was once a windowfront. It isn't very deep, but it is high and they are very agile with hooks and poles to reach clothing displayed 10 ft off the ground.





This building has great bones. I cannot understand why it isn't renovated yet. It has been like this for years and it's on the water, for heaven's sake. Great location.


The flowers are everywhere.


Capital Iron parking lot. I love Capital Iron. Apparently, it's genetic. My grandmother (who died when I was only three) loved Capital Iron.





This is the view from Dallas Rd. The dark shadow behind the Straight of Georgia is the Olympic mountains in Washington state.


This is a crow on the beach at Cadboro Bay. I did not see the Cadborosaurus.

waterlily

InkySpider, textile artist extraordinaire has featured my Frog and Lily print in her Trans-Canada Etsy Team round-up of gifts for CANCER - The Crab. Thanks Inky!

Edit: Oh, I wish I could spell.

minouette is out there

Minouette products can now be found at Freedom Clothing, 939 Bloor St W., Toronto, M6H 1L5, a cute little shop between Ossington and Dovercourt. blogTO says, Freedom Clothing Collective "is a fun scavenger adventure into a realm where random eclectic finds are plenty and affordable designer pieces deviate from the mass market and their questionable labour practices." They have clothing for both men and women, accessories, some art and other lovely indie products. I was particularly taken with some of the screenprinted, re-worked vintage jackets.

Amanda, one of the Collective, invited me to stop by next Sunday when they are having a craft swap. You should stop by, if you are in the neighbourhood.

Looks like my things are in good company. I am really pleased!

Frog and Lily Cushion

This whimsical, one of a kind, throw pillow: the wetlands for the living room. It has a hard-carved linoleum block print of a frog and lily pads with lotus flower, printed on pin-striped lime green cotton fabric with a stripe of faux-bois fabric below. The reverse is a patchwork of cotton prints; another pond scene with frogs, lily pads and turtles in olive green, a very modern circle pattern in pistachio and robin's egg blue and patterned hot pink and fuschia.

The pillow is 35 cm or 14 inches wide by 28 cm or 11 inches tall by 8 cm or 3 inches thick (at its widest).

I is for iguana, and insect, and indigo

This is the latest panel in my alphabet quilt-in-progress. It is a hand-block printed iguana in green ink on an old (though high thread count) cotton shirt in gray. The 'I' is printed with a vintage letterpress block. The insects were screenprinted by Smoking Lily - they sell scraps of fabric with prints they don't use in their clothing line. The insects in blue (on tee shirt material) are reverse appliqued onto the black fabric with one white fly.

What do you think? Maybe 2009 will be the year and I will actually finish this quilt.

I need to finish the 'N' and 'O' panels, which are in progress. I have to start 'Q', 'U', 'V', 'X', 'Y' and 'Z'. Then the actual quilting process can begin.