Another couple of stoles...

My next commission is to create two stoles for Svinda who will be ordained in the United Church of Canada at the end of May. She has collected ties and scarves from members of her congregation and her friends and family. Several of her friends live elsewhere and they sent their ties and scarves separately. What fun it was to receive fat envelopes in the mail!


Svinda's box of materials arrived last Friday, just in time for hockey playoffs--yes, you read that correctly, hockey playoffs.

Here are Svinda's materials spread out on the chesterfield.

And here's my in-house "tie taker-aparter", who masterfully strips out the interfacing and opens the lengthwise seam of every tie using an x-acto knife...all this while watching the hockey playoffs.

How better to use his time while cheering for the Vancouver Canucks?!

The stole is finished!

Here it is...the completed stole. I decided not to embellish with trees afterall. The image became quite abstract--almost as tho' the materials dictated the outcome! I decided that adding trees would be an attempt to make this a more realistic portrayal rather than the abstract image that it has become.





The piping is made from some sparkling green organza, and the lining comprises several scarves plus a pashmina shawl. One scarf was a souvenir from the Edmonton Folk Festival which I laid over the pashmina in the neck and shoulder area for reinforcement. Amongst the ties and scarves sent to me was a charming little Chinese embroidery, and I had the bright idea this morning of converting this into a pocket on the lower inside lining. On the other side is another pocket made from two scarves with musical notes. Anne can use these for a kleenex, key, card...?

I did create an image of the full moon on the back using a little lame and organza--this is one of the few decisions made at the outset that I kept!



I spent a pleasant hour this afternoon drinking tea and chatting with a friend while she was knitting, and I sewed on a multitude of beads to add a little more sparkle. It was a delightful way to finish off the stole.

A new stole in the making...

I'm excited about my next commission for a liturgical stole. This one is for Rev. Anne Barker who was installed on October 24, 2009 as minister of Westwood Unitarian Church in Edmonton. I suggested that neckties and scarves be collected from the congregation, and that perhaps these could be used somehow during the installation ceremony.

Here's Anne's description: "We collected the fabrics at the "Installation Service". In the written Order of Service, we called one section "the fabric of community" and Lorian explained that the collected scarves/ties would be used to create a stole that reflected the very fabric of our community ... and that it would be first worn at our Winter Solstice Service (Dec 21) at Edmonton's City Hall. During the 'charge to the minister', our religious educator read words from the children about "how to be a good minister" ... things like "try to be awesome!" ... while the children themselves draped and tied the scarves/ties all around/over me."

And then on October 27th I received the package of scarves and ties in the mail, and spread them out on a table. There is a lot to work with in this collection! There are florals, geometrics, birds, music, rainbow colours--in fact, all colours are represented although there aren't a lot of brights.

In the conversation I had with Anne about her vision for the stole, the following ideas came up...Winter Solstice, cold, frozen, brilliant blue night sky with sparks of light, naked frozen trees, aspens with skinny empty branches...blues and purples....

Now to get to work on some designs... I plan to post my ideas on this blog so you can follow along!