Tag Archives: #YEGart

October 21, 2025 · 5:42 pm

Oh What a Lovely Evening- The Opening of The Oracle of Stillness-Weaving Coherence in the Chaos

The opening on Oct 17, 2025 at Harcourt House Gallery in Edmonton of my solo mixed media show of Woven Women Tapestries: ‘The Oracle of Stillness- Weaving Coherence in the Chaos’ was wonderful.

I made a wobbly little video after the show was hung but before the lights were set, so some of the pieces don’t show up too well….

Here is the explanation of the show:

This little video by Noreen Crone-Findlay is a glimpse of her solo show of mixed media weaving: The Oracle of Stillness: Weaving Coherence in the Chaos. This series of Woven Women tapestries were created by Noreen Crone-Findlay over many years and include many mediums: fused glass, steel rod, steel and copper wire, beading, Teneriffe lace making, Tatted lace, lace and tapestry and narrow band weaving on looms specially constructed for the show by Crone-Findlay, thread, yarn, painting on wood, painting on watercolor paper, found objects, leather work, crochet, wire work, carved Tagua nut, and carved wood. The Oracle of Stillness speaks to the heart about navigating grief, sorrow around personal loss and chronic illness, as well as the shock of living in social and cultural upheaval. Noreen Crone-Findlay works with her dreams, meditations, prayers, poetry, and deep conversation to create Woven Women who embody presence, mystery, magic, The Great Beauty and the Feminine Divine. The Oracle of Stillness Woven Women are immersive, textural, layered and complex. Each one has taken hundreds of hours to complete and invite the gaze of the viewer to listen with their hearts to find the ‘ring of truth’ and point of Stillness int the quiet of the journey ‘Home’. Noreen hopes that you will find a moment of wonder or Beauty in the Oracle of Stillness Woven Women and to follow the complex threads that lead to the very center of our Being-ness. There is love in every stitch, every molecule of each of these mixed media weavings. May they bring healing…. with love. Please go to http://www.tottietalkscrafts.com for more information

Our dear friend, Andrea Gray took photos at the opening, and oi vey, when I was captioning the pics, I spelled her name wrong! For crying out loud! I had one job to do….. sigh… my apologies… its’ GRAY not Grey….

The gallery was packed to the rafters, so it wasn’t easy for her to get the photos and I am grateful to her! ❤

Anyhow here are the pics:

Just a note… they were taken at the end of the evening and I was exhausted, so I do look mighty droopy!

I will keep working on getting photos of the individual pieces up here and on fb and ig.

Hugs all round!

I wove a coat

I have just finished sewing together this coat:

I wanted to make something special to wear to the opening of my solo show- The Oracle of Stillness: Weaving Coherence in the Chaos.

I’ve been weaving this fabric on many different looms for about 5 years!

I worked my chops off to finish the last length of it, and then agonized over what on earth I would make with it…. a vest? a tunic? a shirt? a smock? a tabard? ack….

Finally, I settled on a coat-ish, duster-ish, big shirt-ish sort of a thing and cut out slopers and spent a whole lot of hours basting it together, trying it on, pinning new seam lines, basting them, snip snip snip

over and over and over until I was happy with the shapes:

I played around with fitting the various pieces of fabric onto the slopers

And, then eeeeeeeeeeeek I cut out the shapes! Hmmm something horrible has happened to the colors in the photo below… sorry about that!

Then -the long slow process of hand and machine stitching all the fabric components together…

I don’t like the raw edges of hand woven fabric, so I cover them with bias tape:

and hand woven narrow bands:

Every seam is sewn at least 3 and often 4 times (and of course, I zig zag stitched all the raw edges before doing anything at all).

It’s a slow and pleasant process- very meditative and contemplative.

And, of course- it has pockets! Pockets are essential!

Here’s the back:

It’s a very simple construction of an easy going and comfortable coat/duster/big shirt that I plan on wearing for years.

But first… to the opening of my show on Friday night at Harcourt House Gallery in Edmonton.

Hmmmm…. what to wear under it? Probably basic black shirt and pants, but jeans are tempting, too….

I am pretty sure that I have enough of the fabric left to cobble together a vest, too…

just not this week!

Here’s the link to my show: Harcourt House announcement

Jim and I just got home from the final ‘tweeking’ of the show, and I am so happy! ❤

Follow the Thread Mixed Media Weaving- Terpsichore

The last couple of years have been really intense as I have been working night and day on two new books as well as new tapestries and woven works.

One of the books is now up online available for pre-order (I’ll post links asap) and one of the series of tapestries is now in the gallery (Harcourt House Gallery in Edmonton), awaiting the opening on October 18.

This piece is from my ‘Follow the Thread’ series of mixed media weavings:” Terpsichore- Carmen’s Birds”.

Terpsichore is the muse of the dance.

This piece is definitely influenced by my husband, Jim Findlay‘s commitment to playing flamenco.

I was having trouble resolving the piece, because I knew that she needed something to lift her to completion.

Then, my friend, Carma, who sings and dances with Jim and Susan and Barb in Corazone del Flamenco gave me a beautiful little black necklace with tiny birds, and Voila! Done! The birds were exactly what Terpsichore was needing (demanding!)