Earth & Pine

They came . . they saw . . they ate. The Pine Beetle. They came to our valley in swarms with the prevailing winds. They ate our ponderosa pine trees. They burrowed all through the trunks.

When their food ran out they left. The trees died and the following year turned red, dead red.

The wind broke them off as the insides had been turned to mush.

They were so dry them became the perfect fuel for fire.

Linda’s sister Lynnette is also an artist. One of her arts is weaving. On one of her visits from Fort Nelson they were looking at the long dead ponderosa needles from one of our trees and wondered if they could be woven.

They then wondered if they could combine their arts of weaving and pottery.

The two sisters decided they could work together to create a tribute to the majestic ponderosa pine trees, falling with grace. They gathered needles from the dead trees . .

. . dyed them different colours . .

. . and sorted them into lengths and colours.

Linda started designing and making pottery which would be one part of all of the creations.

She glazed them and fired them, some high reduction in a gas kiln, some in a wood fired kiln, some soda fired, some pit fired and some were raku fired.

Linda sent her pottery by bus to Lynnette in Fort Nelson and they shared their design thoughts via telephone.

Lynnette would then do the stitching, creating the second part of the work and shipped them back to Stump Lake.

The needle work was waxed and shaped.

Together, via Greyhound bus back and forth between Stump Lake and Fort Nelson, they have created over 265 works of art to-date. They’ve had 1 major show on Granville Island at the Circle Craft Gallery and are organizing others throughout BC.

Green & Tan Wood-Fired Bowl Natural brown & green dyed pine needles with split stitched sinew

Soda Fired oval bowl with needle handles. Natural green needles with waxed linen stitched in a diamond pattern.

Reduction high fired squared bowl with lapis beads and blue dyed needles and diamond stitchedwith waxed linen

Round brown reduction hight fired bun basket with natural brown needles plain stitched with waxed linen

Reduction high fired blue oval basket with needle handle with blue dyed needles plain stitched with waxed linen

Red brown soda fired squared bowl with wooden beads, brown needles waxed linen in a wheat stitch

Pit fired vase with black glass beads, black dyed needles and plain stitched with black cord

Sawdust fired burnished stoneware vase with black dyed needles and waxed linen in a plain stitch

Reduction high fired ash blue glazed lidded bowl with blue dyed needles and v-stitched with fish line