"Beetle Kill" Blanket #2

Further to my last blog about the "Coming Home" blanket in this year's Artwalk, here is a second blanket I have on display at Raymond James in Williams Lake.  Artwalk is going really well again this year, and the different displays are very good.  Enjoy it if you are here!

OK, here's my second Beetle Kill blanket and its story:

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Lodgepole pine forests in the Cariboo were hard hit by the mountain pine beetle over a decade ago. Bark beetles burrow beneath the tree’s bark and mine through the underlying phloem layer while also introducing a fungus that additionally kills the tree and stains the outer sapwood blue.  Vast areas of the Chilcotin now have many dead pine trees that have decayed and fallen over.  This is all part of the natural cycle.

From the bottom of this blanket, the design depicts the lush greens of the lodgepole pine forest with some scattered darker spruce.  One pine is attacked by the mountain pine beetle and shows red needles, then more trees turn red, and within a year the entire stand is a bright reddish shade. The needles fall to the ground and the forest looks grey.

The trees become standing skeletons that rot and fall over, but the forest responds with the increased light to the forest floor.  New plants pop up and thrive in their brighter environment: lush green shoots of pinegrass, bright golden flowers of heart-leaved arnica and goatsbeard, mauve showy aster with its golden centres, and splashes of bright purple vetch.  As the dead lodgepole pine fall over and their cones release seeds that germinate, the entire stand is renewed to a healthy forest, as shown at the blanket’s opposite end.  

SH244 | Beetle Kill Blanket | 100% wool | 178 cm x 126 cm (70" x 49.5") 

Detail of beetle attack in lodgepole pine

Detail of attacked stand showing new growth of pinegrass and wildflowers

This blanket sold at the UNBC Artisans of the North craft fair in October - thanks!

"Coming Home" Blanket

I set up my Artwalk display this morning and joined the start of the tour to view some of the artists' work in their venues. Artwalk is a month-long exhibit of mostly local artists in various businesses and offices in Williams Lake. My location is Raymond James again this year on 3rd Ave. between the Cariboo Regional District and the Bean Counter (open Monday to Friday, 8:00 am to 4:30 pm).  Thank you for having me back!

I have three blankets in this year's Artwalk and I'll present them in three blogs.  The first is my "Coming Home" blanket:

SH242 | "Coming Home" | 100% wool | 178 cm x 126 cm (70" x 49.5") | Sold

Here's the story that goes with this blanket:

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I grew up in Ontario and my family is still there.  So, in my almost four decades living in Williams Lake, I’ve made many trips east and back west, all by plane.  And once I’m on the plane in Toronto to fly west, I can’t get home fast enough.

I’ve always liked maps, and I can get a bit transfixed with the plane’s route over western Canada.  Prairies and grasslands in Alberta transform to the front ranges of the Rocky Mountains past Calgary.  Mountain ranges are crossed in BC before landing in Vancouver on the edge of the Pacific Ocean.  

This blanket was designed to represent that sequence through western Canada: the soft shades of the prairies and grasslands, over snow-capped mountain ranges separated by wide river valleys, and west to the deep blue Pacific.

No matter how special the family visit was, this scene while in my plane seat comforts me that I’m returning home, home to western Canada and the Cariboo.

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If you get a chance to see this year's Artwalk, I highly recommend it. Take your time and enjoy all the great work.

Cariboo Forests Through the Seasons

Cariboo Handwoven and my email moniker, cariboojane, stem from the Cariboo region of British Columbia, where I've lived (so far) for 36 years. The Cariboo is more or less centred around Williams Lake, with unofficial boundaries to the north, east, south and west, depending on whose opinion you hear. This area has become a special place in my life because of its landscapes, people, culture - and its forests.

My "Oh Canada!" series began with special blankets for the 2015 Canada Winter Games in Prince George, BC. I was selected as an artist for the VIP gifting program, and six of my wool blankets left Prince George last winter for different parts of the province and country. This was a huge honour for me, and it inspired me to design and weave blankets that depicted Canada's forests in winter.

"Canada's Forests in Winter" | Oceans at each end with rock, soil and snowy trees |
Special design for the 2015 Canada Winter Games

Last fall, while staring out the plane window flying south from northern BC to Prince George, I had this neat idea to take that design concept to something more local - Cariboo forests through the seasons. I could show the green conifer forests overlayed with spring flowers, summer blossoms, fall colours and winter's snow. Then I would end with the first sign of spring.

I wove this blanket after a little ecological research to check my proposed species and their colours.

Cariboo Forests Through the Seasons | 100% wool | 185 cm x 127 cm (73" x 50") | Private collection

And I knew who deserved it: a hard-working, very dedicated, very effective volunteer in my community who I wanted to personally recognize with a gift. The recipient loves it!

The "Oh Canada!" series will grow and I already have more ideas. That same flight more recently gave me new inspiration for other designs that depict Cariboo forests and ecology.

Canada's Forests in the Fall

As both a forest lover and weaver, it's intriguing and fulfilling to combine those two special interests of mine. I've woven quite a few blankets by now for my ongoing Autumn Storm series, and then I began a series called "Oh Canada!" to portray different aspects of Canada through handwoven blankets.

"Oh Canada!" began with a custom blanket woven for the 2015 Canada Winter Games, held in Prince George, BC last February. The organizing committee accepted my work for their VIP gifting program, and several of my blankets were purchased as gifts for, I gather, various national and provincial dignitaries who attended the Games for the opening ceremonies and other events. Yes, very exciting for me!

The custom blanket was entitled Canada's Forests in Winter. Each end was woven in shades of blue to represent the oceans. After the oceans was a deep layer of snow, then layers of branches in green and more snow, representing the link of Canada's forests from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

I decided to take this idea a step further recently, and recently wove a blanket entitled Canada's Forests in the Fall. Again, each end of the blanket begins with blues to represent the ocean. From there, one side is predominantly reds, oranges and golds to represent the colourful Acadian and Great Lakes - St. Lawrence forests west of the Atlantic Ocean.

The other half is predominantly rich greens with spots of golds and yellow to represent boreal, montane and coast forests with their dots of bright aspen, birch and shrubs. (Thanks to my ancient university copy of Forest Regions of Canada by J.S. Rowe 1972.)

This blanket measures 170 cm x 130 cm (69" x 51") and ... Update:  It sold at the Medieval Market in November.  The buyer fell in love with it and had to have it - made me happy.