SHIFT Canada

Cally Booker is a handweaver based in Dundee and much of her inspiration is drawn from the city: from the grandeur of its waterfront setting to the details of quirky buildings and everyday living. In her handwoven collections she makes extensive use of multi-layered weaves using vibrant, naturally dyed and organic yarns. The interplay of different layers of colour gives her work its distinctive appeal.

Through experimentation with data and digital tools, Cally uses weave both to tell stories and to celebrate the structure of the cloth itself. Cally shares her enthusiasm for interlacement through the Weaving Space, a programme of weaving workshops held online and in her colour-filled studio. She is a member of the Society of Designer Craftsmen and a Past President of Complex Weavers.

‘Much of a weaver’s life is solitary, with long hours spent alone at the loom. To collaborate at all is to expand that identity, to allow myself to be challenged and changed. When I travelled to Nova Scotia in 2019, and first partnered with Andrea, I was expecting challenge and change. I wasn’t expecting them to be ushered in by a global pandemic. In lockdown, the collaboration with Andrea was a lifeline. I was working with hand-knotted pile, which is about as slow as a weaving process can be, and the rhythm was exactly suited to the circumstances of spring 2020. Connecting across the ocean to continue our ongoing conversation suddenly became as easy as connecting locally. Turning fabric into stop motion animation was something I would never have dreamt of doing by myself. It has given me a different perspective on the narratives embedded in woven cloth.’

The view from where Louise Barrington lives overlooks Scapa flow, it’s a continuous moving image, the flow of movement, rhythm and patterns from the changing season informs her artistic practice. She will always be informed by it as she is part of it. Writer Edwin Muir stated of his youth, in Orkney ’A place where there was no great distinction between ordinary and fabulous.’  This everyday ordinary / fabulous allows Louise to reimagine the vast landscapes of Orkney and the in between moment of dust, dawn and twilight, creating a restrained colour palette for her work. This in-between-ness resonates with the Japanese concept of Ma, Orkney is an edge environment that exists in the in-between spaces. Ma underpins this in her creative practice, it takes into consideration the space between two distinct markers of space and time. Observing the everyday,  knowing and unknowingly we experience in our everyday ordinary / fabulous.

‘Over the residency we discussed ideas, interests and found a common ground where we both felt they could move our own creative practices forward. In-between-ness is a shared interest that within both our practices we explore, we are moving this forward using the environment we work in to inform the work. Gathering sounds and moving images from both Orkney and Halifax that interweave sound and everyday ephemeral moments, maximising the use of light, colour and shadows. Conversations with Kiersten have given a completely different perspective on her viewing landscapes, and it’s exciting to explore the possibilities and have an exchange of ideas. I would recommend an opportunity like this to anyone wanting to explore their creative practice. For me being remote on an island can have challenges in talking about my work or ideas, so to not only meet other makers from across Scotland there was the opportunity.’

Susan O’Byrne specialises in the making of ceramic narrative animal forms, with a highly detailed collaged porcelain surface.

Her work not only acknowledges the extraordinary role occupied by the animal in the imagination – populating myth, children’s stories and cultural traditions throughout history – but also the ability of the metaphorical animal to embody, distil and reflect aspects of our own humanity.  

The combined influences of a childhood obsession with making in papier-mâché, an interest in historic domestic craft, folk art and collage, have led Susan to develop a unique set of ceramic making processes aimed at articulating human sensitivity.

These techniques include building in thin sheets of paper-porcelain on a nichrome wire armature and collaging surfaces with veneers of porcelain sheets printed with detailed encaustic pattern. The surfaces of Susan’s work are inspired by traditional craft processes and have celebrated medieval floor tiles, Victorian wallpapers and eighteenth domestic needlepoint. Most recently the surfaces of her work have been inspired by ancient Egyptian stone carving and Chinese silk embroidery.

Applying heritage processes to unexpected materials, basketmaker Sarah Paramor creates playful contemporary pieces for exhibition and for the catwalk. Her award-winning work takes natural and man-made materials out of their everyday context and encourages us to see them afresh: the beauty of an Ordnance Survey map, the glinty, unbridled life of corsetry boning, the tweedy qualities of humble hairmoss. Sarah lives and works in Applecross on the west coast of Scotland. 

Sarah trained on the two-year City Lit Basketry Course in London, commuting from the Scottish Highlands to learn her craft. She won prizes in the Worshipful Company of Basketmakers’ Basketry of the Year competition in 2017 and 2018, had work in Basketry: Function & Ornament (Ruthin Craft Centre, 2019) and was a Craft Scotland Compass Emerging Maker in 2019.

‘Shoes for Mary’ was inspired by Mary Campbell, who in 1803 left Applecross bound for Canada. She ‘took charge of the cows and with a sickle she reaped enough food for the three cows for the winter’. Later, she ‘drowned… She was crossing in a boat alone, taking a tub of butter to a shoemaker in payment for his work’. 

For SHIFT, Sarah was paired with weaver Jennifer; in Halifax they explored ideas, form and materials (moss, bark, pinecones, plastic flowers…). A ‘lockdown residency’ in 2020 saw them folding paper and photos, plaiting and spinning moss, carving beeswax… They studied images of shoes in the V&A, exchanged photos and videos, discussed walking, Gaelic and looms… From this evolved ‘Shoes for Mary’: two makers, two pairs of shoes made on opposite sides of the ocean, celebrating a self-reliant woman who used her Highland skills to forge a fresh identity in Atlantic Canada.

Carol Sinclair is a ceramic artist with more than 30 years experience of running her practice. She explores the theme of memory and it’s role in connecting us to one another and to our environment. Most recently she has been reconsidering the way she uses and processes materials to reduce her carbon footprint and use her work as a catalyst for discussions on responsible consumption.  

For the SHIFT project she has combined her use of porcelain with the other materials from her home and studio to create a ‘closed loop’ approach in which as little as possible is wasted or has a minimal amount of extra energy used in its reformulation. She has recycled the paper from her clay processing, reconstituted clay waste to create a new biodegradable plastic, repurposed paint and ink, and reused the wooden feathers from her tests, leading to exciting new material options and areas for further research.

‘Collaboration is the perfect way to explore and extend ideas, and the discipline of a weekly Zoom exchange with my collaborator, Rebecca Hannon in Nova Scotia gave me a creative focus. Using the colours from our partners living and working environments as means of expressing identity, we each developed our own colour palette and began exploring materials and associated making techniques to achieve those colours. Together we created a set of human scale wings, based on the Siskin, a bird that lives in both countries.  Each of the 59 component feathers per wing became a unit of research. Rebecca experimented with new techniques in metal, textile and ceramic fabrication, suggested by other makers. I began by developing a new colour spectrum in my usual medium, porcelain, and then experimented with a variety of waste materials from my home and studio to push the environmental responsibility of my practice.’