Discover This: Handustry

Three words sum up today's Discover This featured artist and shop: Wow. Love. Want. The artist is Michel Belisle of Montreal and the shop is Handustry on Etsy. Michel gives such a soulful interview that I'm just going to get on with it. I hope you are just as inspired after reading as I was. Please be sure to visit Michel's Etsy shop when you're done. I'm telling you, you'll be wowed.

Name: Michel Belisle
Location: Montreal, Canada
Description of work: creating handmade objects at the crossroads of fashion, art, and crafts

How long have you been creating? I started about 30 years ago. Back then I studied fashion design and started a business. But life took me in different directions since. About two years ago I started contemplating what I could do when I retire to prevent boredom. It suddenly struck me that I could make good use of my creative self, making things and selling them online. My online adventure started last year. It is still pretty timid but I am slowly putting more and more energy into it. I find it quite rewarding receiving compliments about the work I do. It is a renewed sense of purpose also to create items when I know my followers will appreciate, as they are always wondering what will I come up with next!


Metallic Silver Pencil Pouch

 How did you get started? When I was young I was fascinated by the New Wave fashion movement, but had no money to buy any of the wonderful futuristic garments available. So I thought, well, maybe I can make those? After a few trials and errors I decided it was something I could do for a living and went to fashion school. And there I discovered something extraordinary: the knitting machine. That thing is amazing and can do wonders. Through knitting I developed a passion for fibres. Knitting is giving me the ability to create shapes, patterns and fabrics. I feel totally free when I use this medium. I started exploring crochet techniques and leather last year. I am working on various projects and experiments in order to blend all those materials and techniques together, trying to find my own niche.

Where do you find inspiration? Partly from avant-garde fashion designers like Rei Kawakubo, Junya Watanabe, Issey Miyake and Walter van Beirendonck, and especially from contemporary architecture. Space, volume, perspective, unusual use of materials play a key role in triggering my creativity. I spend a huge amount of time experimenting with fibres, fabrics and, recently, leather. I want my designs to reflect structural properties even though they are made of soft and fluid materials. I also like my creations to have a purpose. I understand, though, that my current offerings do not exactly reflect my abstract creative process but it is also a characteristic of my process to be progressive. I am taking my followers with me on the path to discovery.

Where can we find your items for sale? I currently only sell online. I have two shops, both with the same name, one is www.etsy.com/shop/handustry, the well known handmade and vintage online venue, and the other one is www.cargoh.com/store/handustry. This one is a Canadian curated online marketplace and is where I offer my more experimental creations.



Buffalo Hide and Hemp Experimental Necklace

Formally trained or self-taught? As I said above, I have a background in fashion design but I mostly consider myself as a self-taught artist as I am going in directions and doing experimentations that are closer to fibre art than strictly creating fashionable items. I must thank my tailoring and machine knitting teachers for giving me strong technical backgrounds onto which I can build confidently my own creative language.

Why would someone benefit from purchasing your designs. When someone buys one of my creations, I want that person to make it totally his or hers. I want people to experiment as much with it as possible even find it a different purpose. It would very much please me to find out that my creations are used as catalysts by others in their own creative efforts. It would create a kind of intangible communication, a propagation of creativity and a tool to achieve self-actualization.

Anything else you’d like to share? I’ll take this opportunity to tell everyone who would like to embark on a creative adventure that anyone can. Simply start a project and do it. Even if the result may discourage you. Continue, go on, do another one until you build confidence in your ability and develop your own style. It is almost always possible to reuse a disappointing result and make it into something totally unexpected. Most of my successful realizations come from unsuccessful experiments. Don’t compare yourself with others and create according to what you feel is right.

Wristlet-Leather Pouch
 Soft Grey With Distressed Blue Jeans and Tiger Print Effect

Special thanks to Michel for participating.  Keep up the great work!

Peek Inside The Creative Process: Hand-dyed Fiber

I've always loved getting a peek into an artist's or crafter's creative process.  I find it's not only interesting and insightful, but inspirational as well.  There's a level of intimacy involved when an artist allows a glimpse into their creative world, and I'm excited to offer you a little glimpse into mine.

Today I embarked on a creative journey:  to take raw, organic fiber (Rambouillet sheep's roving) and hand-dye it using the trusty Kool-Aid method.  Yep, Kool-Aid.  I acquired a rather large volume of the roving for free from the kind lady that sold me my beloved Lendrum Spinning Wheel.  At the time of purchase, I was an inexperienced spinning wheel spinner (I wasn't bad on a drop spindle, though), and she gave me the roving for practice.  So since I had the day off of work and the house pretty much to myself, I decided that today was as good a day as ever to give hand-dyeing a go.  Here's how it went:

First, I measured out 1 1/2 oz. of roving.

Undyed roving, after shearing, cleaning, and carding.

Next, I filled a large pot with water and added a splash of vinegar.  I heard that adding vinegar would result in deeper color saturation.  Once the water came to a low boil, I removed it from the heat source and mixed in 1 package each of Cherry and Orange Kool-Aid.  Then I gently submerged the fiber into the Kool-Aid bath.  After about a 45 minute soak, the water left in the pot was clear so I knew my fiber had drank up all of the cherry/orange color mix.

Doesn't look very appetizing, I know.

I then emptied the pot into a colander I had placed in the sink and gently squeezed as much excess water as I could from the wet, fibery glob.  The last step was to lay out the newly dyed fiber on a towel to air dry.  You can see from the picture below that some of the fiber soaked up more color than the rest.  I surmised this was because I left the fiber alone as it soaked without rotating it in the pot so that the color would coat more evenly.  I attempted to fix this issue with the next batch.

Newly dyed fiber with an (unintentional) ombre effect.

Moving along to the next batch.  This time I used 1 package each of Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade and Lemon-Lime Kool-Aid.  Here's a look at it during the soak.

Fiber soup

This time I rotated the fiber a few times during it's 45 minute bath and voila!..an evenly coated batch.  Yay!  I was careful not to agitate it too much otherwise it would felt, and we don't want that.

MUCH better!

I had time to do one more batch, so I decided to see what would happen without adding the vinegar.  For the final batch I used about 1/2 cup of store brand grape drink mix.  I was going for a real vibrant purple, which I unfortunately did not achieve.  As you can see below, the color hardly saturated the fiber at all.  So I've concluded that I will be using vinegar in my Kool-Aid dyeing projects from now on.

This was supposed to be a rich purple.  :(

And there you have it!  My first foray into hand-dyeing fiber.  Part II of this project will take you inside my studio for a little spinning action.  Once these freshly dyed fibers have been dried and drafted, I will feed them to Eloise, that Lendrum wheel I mentioned above and whose pic is below, and let her work her magic.  With a little help from me, Eloise will transform the fiber into a beautiful skein of usable yarn.  Can't wait!

My beloved Lendrum Single Treadle Spinning Wheel.  love!

How I Became A Hooker

I interrupt the weekly Wednesday Wishlist series to bring you a special post explaining how I became a hooker.  No, no, not THAT kind of hooker, but the kind that takes a ball of yarn and transforms it into something unique, useful, and beautiful by way of a nifty little tool called a crochet hook.  The idea for this story comes from the wonderfully talented Create Crochet Team on Etsy, of which I am proud to be a member.  Team members were issued the challenge of writing about how they came to learn their craft as a way of keeping up on their blogs (if they have one, that is).   So without further delay, I give you my story...

*-*-*-*-*

“No thanks, Ma, I really don’t want to learn how to do that.” This was the answer I gave my mother when I was just a young girl of about twelve, leaning against her on the living room couch as she sat there crocheting yet another afghan. “Why do you always crochet stuff?” I asked her, to which she replied “It relaxes me. You want me to show you how to do it?” I winced and left the room, leaving her to work on what I considered to be just another useless but colorful object to throw across the neglected chair in the corner of the room that no one ever used.

Image courtesy of knitpicks.com

More than twenty-five years later I decided it was time to take up a hobby, and I chose crochet. While visiting my local craft store, I discovered one of those “Learn-To-Crochet” kits that provide you with everything necessary to get you started. I immediately tore open the kit when I got home, eager to get started on my new hobby. The second I placed that crochet hook in my hand and wrapped that yarn around my fingers I was transported back to that night on the living room couch…..I could almost feel my mother’s presence next to me, gently easing me along. “Not too tight,” I imagined her saying as I desperately tried to finagle the tip of my hook through an extremely tight stitch. “There, that’s better,” she’d say as I finally got the hang of it and my starting chain grew to about three feet in length. As the process became easier, I too realized just how relaxing this newfound hobby of mine can be.

Image courtesy of tkacm.wordpress.com

It wasn’t long before I was comfortable enough to venture beyond the starting chain. I was working row upon row of single crochet and even though my little beginner project was nothing more than a rectangle, I was MAKING something. Completely on my own, completely from scratch…..this little creation was all mine. Three years later I was creating my own designs…..wristlets, hats, scarves, tank tops….and had taken my hobby to the next level. The satisfaction that comes with each completed project is immeasurable. I never considered myself to be the creative type, and such was my reason for rejecting my mother’s generous offer to teach me crochet all those years ago. But I’ve since realized that all it takes is a little determination and patience, and the firm belief that you can do anything you put your mind to, and you’re on your way to creating your own little works of art.

Lady Luxe Twisted Brim Cocoa Brown Cap with Feather Accent

made by me!  This item sold in my Etsy shop, but I can always

crochet up some more. ;-)

It's been about 6 years since I bought that kit at the craft store, and I've been hooked on crocheting ever since (pun totally intended!).  I've even been broadening my yarny horizons, and have taken up Tunisian crochet, knitting, and even a bit of spinning.  Crochet is actually a form of therapy for me.  After a hectic day I love to sit on the couch and lose myself in whatever project I'm working on at the moment...whether it's a new hat design, or scarf, or shawl, or colorful bowl worked up in wool to be felted later.

I love all the fiber arts, but crocheting is my most favorite. In retrospect, I wish I would've let my mom teach me all those years ago.  But I'm crocheting now, and that's all that matters to me.

Wednesday Wishlist will resume June 9, 2010.

Wednesday Wishlist: Sit & Spin

I recently learned how to spin my own yarn on a drop spindle.  What a treat it is to take a fluffy pile of roving and transform it into beautiful yarn which I can then use to either crochet or knit whatever my heart desires.  For this week's Wednesday Wishlist, I once again turn to my fellow Etsyans.  I mean, how could I not?  I sought out some of the most scrumptious spinning fibers Etsy sellers have to offer, and it's no surprise how many excellent picks I had to choose from.  The talent pool on that site has me forever in awe!   Please show their shops some love by right clicking on the links to open in a new window.

Elvis Has Left The Building -- Mini Luxury Fiber Blend Batts

from SpunRightRound

Merino and Tussah Silk Top - Muscadine Grape

from WCMercantile

Hand Dyed Silk Roving Top -- Mustard Gold

from TheFiberDenn

Sunspot Baby Merino Corriedale Roving

from windingwoolcreek

Blue Planet Hand Dyed Falklands Wool Roving

from smokymountainfibers

River Sparkle Batt

from woolybubs

Berry Weiss Falkland Roving

from muzzlepuffs

Prickly Pear Clotho Australian Merino Top

from ThreeFatesKnitting

Firestar - Tropical/Rainbow Sparkle

from SheepishCreations

Marshmallow Merino Wool Fiber Batt

from fibermonster