St Valentines, Dionysus and  all follies

St Valentine's Art and concept Niki Collier Photo Ivaylo Petrov

This year I look into celebrations with the help of the Bulgarian community. The project argued change as growth by looking into positive community blending as a consequence of geographical, career or personal move.

It is my way to understand why and how people choose 'special and spectacular' days. Also why and how we define and redefine us and them through cultural, geographical and demo-graphical boundaries. This month and in particular 14th of February is an interesting one from my perspective. I grew up celebrating the God of Wine on the 14th February.  It is the day the vineyards cut the vines in Bulgaria to secure healthy crop of grapes. But then I came to Ireland and it was as if the God of wine has yielded its reign to the God of Love. Arguably they both cause an array of follies. And arguably we love falling for both. Throughout the years I came to realise that we have developed a complicated relationship with both wine and love. So I started asking as a joke: ''What do you celebrate today? The god of wine or the god of love?'' I have chosen love. I knew I wanted to present love as an elevating rather than smug experience so I comment here on gay love.  The acceptance that love is love is something that my current home has proudly embraced and  regrettably something my original home Bulgaria still struggles to accept with open heart.  As the whole inspiration in the project Celebrations comes from the conviction that we can only move forward I chose a Bulgarian gay activist to help me tell the story.  Finding her was a journey that proved a learning experience. I found her through a mutual Irish friend as it turned out that Bulgarian community has not accepted its gay representatives. So I chose the narrative, which shows love in all colours and shapes with the firm stance that  as community we all need to accept that love is love. For the sake of live.

The fascination with love and its power to destroy or save us is as old as humanity. The festival of love arose from the ancient Greek tradition that gave the month its name- February.  The customs of today to smother ourselves with chocolate and pre-written cards is a product of consumerism and Middle Ages views.

The desire to say that love is love has inspired the choice of our gay activist - Vessi to be the model.  At the time Vessi was in between relationships so the felt art of rainbow coloured hearts is developed in different surfaces showing the multiple ways of breaking and putting together of ones heart. 

For the month of February the work was showcased in The Constant Knitter, Studio Space.

Celebrations The Evolution of the Bulgarian Community in Ireland

The work profiles the evolving make up of a community through geographical, cultural and personal  change.  The artistic conversation is how festivals and customs reflect and manifest this.

The models in each visual narrative are authentic members of the Bulgarian community. They are selected on the basis of their personal connection to a festival, holiday or custom. 

For each scene the artwork in felt is purposely created by Niki to reflect the message about growth, change and strength which is connecting to others. It is a research into what shifts our personal and collective boundaries of empathy, acceptance and strength.

This is a collaborative project between Niki Collier- an award winning visual artist and designer based in Dublin and Ivaylo Petrov a photographer from the Bulgarian community based in Kildare.

Teaching and Other Remedies

Introduction

The week after Easter seems to be a good week to do something different. With children holidays and generally more free time to us we look for things that we do when we have the indulgence of time to ourselves.  So it is a really busy time for me as other people's time usually translates into bookings for teaching textile making.

I thought three very different classes and took my girl to learn a new skill herself.

The Fibre Club- Teaching Craft as a Group Development Excersise

I did my usual Tuesday Felting class with starts around 19 and finishes between 21 and 22.30 depending on the project and time we need to catch up with each other. It is a small class of 2-4 people and I love teaching it because for me it is great way to share skills in a long stretch of time. I have found that talent and ambition are just one of the ingredients in our practices.  Perseverance, is just as important. Seeing a student of mine coming to my classes with many ideas, but not great passion to develop skills and seeing the progress in the last three years from holey shapes of uncertain bird nests to imaginative hats which consist of strong designs and balanced use of colours and fibres is a thrill. Look for yourselves:

Niki Collier Workshops

It is a different dynamic when the size or the complexity of the project is not an issue. It allows for quality and expression that gives great results. It also allows to achieve results much closer to your vision as the level of trust on both sides allows for a jumping start.

The Fun Activity -Doing Craft as a Team Experience

The thrill of teaching people that have never seen or done what you are showing them is different. It allows you to revisit everything that you have felt at the beginning when you started discovering the medium- wonder, possibilities inspiration and loads of fun. Loads of fun!

So it was great to get a 'thank you' letter from my team building group that I taught in The Constant Knitter. I love showing beginners how to cover bad stuff with handmade wool. 

So my favourite class to teach for beginners is a solid felted ball. 

1. You just take an orphan sock, scarps of yarn and remnants of fibre. 

2. Put the scaps in the centre, colver them with laid wool fibres

3. Dunk them in soapy water.

4. Now start felting them. Just massage the wet tangle in your hands till t transforms from hairy wet mess to smooth felted ball. Sometimes you need to add more fibres at the end stage if you do not want your ball to have a face on it, but sometimes it turns out perfectly smooth from the start. 

5. The great thing about this project is that you could embellish it at any stage, by adding beading, embroidery or taking away some of the fibres.

Showing it to people always feel more offering a therapeutic strategy rather than teaching craft....

The Master Class- Training Advanced Craft Lovers

This the one that comes great rewards. It aslo comes with great challenges as a teacher. There is a lot of problem solving and often significant amount of soul searching before and sometimes after the event- would I mange to achieve the vision of the person, would I be able to maintain the level of quality that we are all aiming at in a new project that would offer me unexpected challenges? 

I have to admit that some projects end up further south than is healthy for relentless optimism.. I am currently on sample 5th of the Shouting and Shaking scarf that I described in the previous blog.  And although being through this process more than once I know some tricks- 1)I have asked for help from experienced maker, 2)I have got some learning sources to find out more about the technique I am still not sure how it is going to go...

But when you are teaching others you need to be able for all these pitfalls. Learning through others mistakes is dangerous game.

So I am delighted that Ruth, who came to make a top with me ended up with a great top. She was not mad about the project that I had in mind (oops!) so she suggested a tunic which we designed on the spot, then using a pattern that she had I devised a felting pattern- most areas increased by 30% apart from neck- no increase and sleeves just 15% increase. It was very exciting that Ruth loved the Blue Faced Leicester and mixed it with superfine Merino.  Believe me I know how nerdy this sounds, but cannot help it- Blue Faced Leicester is not celebrated as much as it deserves. I was really interested to see also her account on the experience in a wet felting group. It is interesting to see the day through her eyes.

This week my daughter had her first lesson in knitting and it was very emotional experience for me. I hope she gets to love making things just like me. It is a great way of discovering.