ArtisanPEI Presents -- Belfast Mini Mills

Lowell Productions
Published on Mar 21, 2015

A behind the scenes look at what goes on at the Belfast Mini Mills, Belfast, Prince Edward Island.

Tuesdays With Peter Llewellyn

ShorelinePEI
Published on Nov 21, 2011

Learn what Tuesdays With Peter Llewellyn means to Scott MacIsaac.

Artisan PEI "Moonsnail Soapworks"

Henry Dunsmore
Published on Mar 21, 2012

Moonsnail Soapworks in Charlottetown PEI produce naturally therapeutic body and bath products and a full line of handcrafted natural soap. This video demonstrates the making of soap.

Artisan PEI "The Potter's Song"

Henry Dunsmore
Published on Mar 21, 2012

"Potter Malcolm Stanley sings and plays his 'Ode to Pottery'. Malcolm is a veteran of pottery and opened a studio in Breadalbane, PEI many years ago. With his partner Christine who is a great weaver, they are two of PEI's best artisans."

Artisan PEI "Loom Knitting"

Henry Dunsmore, published on Mar 21, 2012

Margaret McEachern from Knit Pickers of PEI demonstrates loom knitting.
 

ArtisanPEI "Rags To Riches: The art of Fabric Sculpture"

Henry Dunsmore, published on Mar 26, 2012

PEI artist Dina Blot presents a workshop in turning old rags to sculpture using Paverpol fabric hardener. Workshops are available to PEI visitors and give them the opportunity to use this unique art material and take away a work of art at the end of the workshop.

Artisan PEI "Gaudreau's Fine Woodworking"

Henry Dunsmore, published on Apr 3, 2012 Jacque (Jake) and Diane Gaudreau have owned and operated "Gaudreau's Fine Wooworking" for many years and have built a reputation for producing some of the finest wood products on PEI. In this video Jake gives a tour of their woodworking shop.

ArtisanPEI "What 'Wood' You Make"

A Visit to Village Pottery in New London, Prince Edward Island

Village Pottery
Published on Jul 2, 2014

Take a visit to Village Pottery in New London, Prince Edward Island. Learn how each piece of pottery is made from start to finish. Presented by Artisan PEI. Filmed, edited & produced by Lowell Productions www.lowellproductions.com

Artisan PEI "Basket Weaving" Workshop

Artisan PEI "Bead Making" Workshop

Artisan PEI "Create An Ocean Gem" Workshop

Gaudreau Fine Woodworking -finalistes Lauriers provinceaux 2009

Le jeudi 09 avril 2009 18 h 35, heure de l'Atlantique	Utilisateur Mot de passe

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RDÉE Î.-P.-É. reconnaît ses finalistes Lauriers provinciaux 2009

SUMMERSIDE – le 14 mars 2009 - RDÉE Île-du-Prince-Édouard a rendu hommage aux quatre finalistes provinciaux du concours national Lauriers de la PME 2009 lors du Banquet des entrepreneurs 2009, les remerciant et les félicitant pour leurs énormes contributions au développement économique des communautés acadiennes et francophones de l’Île.

Lors de l’événement annuel, tenu à Summerside le samedi 14 mars dernier, chaque entreprise gagnante a reçu, comme prix, une belle peinture de Lucie Bernadette Bellemare de la firme Créactif. Chaque œuvre d’art avait été conçue spécifiquement pour son récipiendaire et reflétait fidèlement les travaux ou les intérêts du lauréat en question. Tous furent impressionnés.

Les gagnants sont, de la gauche, Italo Marzari de Sirenella Ristorante (catégorie « Entreprise de services commerciaux »), Jacques et Diane Gaudreau de Tourbillon Design Inc./Gaudreau Fine Woodworking (catégorie « Entreprise de transformation »), Denis Robert de îmages @ p.e.inc. (catégorie « Micro-entreprise »), et les frères Alphonse et John Arsenault de J.C. Drilling (catégorie « Entreprise de services spécialisés »).

Ceux-ci s’en iront maintenant à Ottawa au mois de novembre pour faire compétition au niveau national.

Pour la sirène sereine

Italo Marzari, au centre, propriétaire du Sirenella Ristorante (dont le nom veut dire « sirène »), accepte le prix de la catégorie « Entreprise de services généraux » du concours provincial Lauriers de la PME 2009. Geoff Allen, à la gauche, agent de développement de l’Agence de promotion économique du Canada atlantique, commanditaire du prix, et Mathieu Arsenault, agent de développement de RDÉE Île-du-Prince-Édouard, ont participé à la remise du prix.

Travailleurs de bois

Diane et Jacques Gaudreau, au centre, propriétaires de Tourbillon Design Inc. (Gaudreau Fine Woodworking) à Rustico, acceptent le prix de la catégorie « Entreprise de transformation » du concours provincial Lauriers de la PME 2009. Tania Maddix, à la gauche, agente de la CBDC Central PEI, a participé à la remise du prix puisque l’organisme était commanditaire du prix. Nicole Drouin, agente de développement du RDÉE, a lu le discours du prix.

Un réalisateur récompensé

Denis Robert, au centre, propriétaire de la firme de production de films îmages @ p.e.inc. de Mont-Carmel, est gagnant du prix provincial « Micro-entreprise » du concours Lauriers de la PME 2009. Christine Arsenault, agente de développement de RDÉE Île-du-Prince-Édouard, a lu le discours du prix au cours du Banquet des entrepreneurs 2009 le 14 mars dernier à Summerside. Le Collège Acadie Î.-P.-É. a commandité ce prix donc le directeur-général de l’institution, Claude Blaquière, a participé à la remise de la peinture du prix.

Récompense bien méritée

La firme de creusage horizontal, J.C. Drilling, de St-Raphaël, a remporté le prix provincial de la catégorie « Entreprise de services spécialisés » au sein du concours Lauriers de la PME 2009. On voit Sonny Gallant, à la gauche, Membre de l’Assemblée législative pour Évangéline-Miscouche, qui remet le prix aux gagnants au nom de la Province de l’Île-du-Prince-Édouard, commanditaire du prix. Les propriétaires John et Alphonse Arsenault, ont accepté le prix. C’est Louise Comeau, directrice générale de la Société de développement de la Baie acadienne, qui a lu le discours du prix.

Window on the art

The medieval art of stained glass painting is seeing some new light in some Prince Edward Island churches lately, thanks to one local artisan who practises this skill of old

BY MARY MACKAY as published in The Guardian, March 14, 2009

Susana Rutherford is in for the long haul.

This Charlottetown artist’s work is the most recent addition to the stained glass spectrum at a new United Church in Murray Harbour. And like the windows created by artisans before her, she hopes her work will provide decades more of spiritual inspiration.

Her uplifting piece joins two 1960s works by New Brunswick glass artist Paul Blaney and a 1990s panel by Island artist John Burden that were carefully saved from two of three now decommissioned churches in Murray Harbour, Murray River and Little Sands and that have now become part of this United Church congregation’s future.

“It’s nice to be a part of something that is going to be around for a hundred years. People don’t make anything that is going to last that amount of time these days,” says Rutherford, who through her Firehorse Studios in Charlottetown has also restored and repaired a multitude of historic windows in Island churches.

“When you work on the restoration of these old windows, you’re part of a legacy. Most people who have done restoration and do painted glass say that more than anything they’ve learned from the repairs and restorations that they did . . . .

“You take it all apart and you see things. You see a thumbprint of a painter from where they picked the piece up to put it in the kiln or you’ll see a spot where they splashed (paint) on the back and so you feel this connection with someone who was doing that work a hundred years ago. And that’s a pretty special feeling.”

Craftspersons specializing in architectural stained glass and glass painting are a pretty special sector of artisans. Rutherford is one of only a few in the Maritimes active in this rarified field. She is now teaching beginner traditional stained glass painting.

And when it comes to painted stained glass pieces for a spiritual setting, the number of individual artists who do this refined art is even smaller due to the fact that about 75 per cent of stained glass windows in Canadian churches have been done by the historic McCausland Studios in Toronto, Ont.

Rutherford comes by her artistic nature naturally. Her parents, Ambika Gail Rutherford and the late Erica Rutherford, have made art in its various forms their life’s work.

Born in Spain, Rutherford came to P.E.I. from the midwest with her parents when she was five.

“There’s a family story that my mother likes to tell: we went back to Europe to pick up some belongings (that year) . . . and they went to visit Chartres (Cathedral in France to see) all its stained glass windows,”

Rutherford remembers.

“My mother said I was absolutely entranced. They couldn’t get me out of there. I kept going and dancing around the light from the glass on the floor and staring at the glass . . . . I think some of the windows there are 1,000 years old. Big huge, huge pieces — that was my first exposure to seeing glass on that scale.”

Years later when she was in her second year in the theatre tech program at Ryerson University in Toronto, she got an apprentice position at a stained glass studio.?She had been secretly vying for it for more than a year

.“Actually, much to the consternation of my parents I dropped out of college. It was something that I really wanted to do so I took the job. I don’t know whether that was the best financial decision of my life, but I did it,”

she laughs.

That was the true start of her love affair with glass art in all its forms.

“I had taken a six-week night course type of thing at somebody’s studio and learned a little bit (before that) but I really got thrown in there. It was an architectural stained glass firm so we did all high-end homes. We also did big architectural projects. That first year I was there we did the windows for the lobby for the Eaton’s Centre building that was going in then.”

Rutherford worked there for 10 years doing large-scale home, church, school and business projects but did eventually enrol in and graduate from the Ontario College of Art and Design in 1995.

With a small inheritance from her grandmother, she headed north.

“I thought if I do something really quiet and don’t do anything, I can afford to paint for a few years and work on my glass craft,” s

he smiles.

There she met Gary Torlone who became her husband and they started a family which now includes Isabella, nine, and Willow, six. They moved to the Rutherford homestead in Pinette when their first daughter was just eight months old. She set up a studio there.

She formed Firehorse Studios in 2004 where she works in all types of glass, including the restoration of antique stained glass windows.

“We try with those old windows to do as little as possible, not in the sense that you don’t want to do any work but you don’t want to change the artistic integrity of them,”

she says.

Some of these windows are focal points in heritage churches, such as those designed by the renowned P.E.I. architect William Critchlow Harris.

St. Malachy’s in Kinkora and St. John’s Anglican Church in Milton are two examples.

“Classically designed churches are designed with all those gothic arches and everything that intentionally lead the eye upward. Everything about the interior of the church is designed to make us look up and think about what’s above us. In a traditional church design, you’re not looking out at your day-to-day life at your ordinary level; you’re looking at these representations from the Bible stories around you (in the stained glass windows),”

Rutherford says.

“And there’s a huge psychological impact behind the colour, to have all that colour around you. So most people feel uplifted when they are surrounded by colour and light. And then the windows themselves are designed to draw the eye upward and remind us that we’re in a sacred place. So there are lots of things at work there. It’s not just an accident.”

Historically, traditional glass painting in Europe was a closely guarded secret within specially formed stained glass guilds who would do the work.

“(That stained glass painter) would pick an apprentice and pass the information on to him. But what’s happened through the 1970s and 1980s since stained glass has become a hobby and has been picked up by the masses, the (art of) traditional stained glass painting has not been passed along,”

Rutherford says.

Fortunately there are a number of avenues open to those who want to learn. So in her 25 years of working with glass, Rutherford had studied this fine art and put her techniques into practise. In recent years, she has taken advanced glass painting courses and has recently received an invitation to study at The Antrim School in New Hampshire.

The consolidation of the Little Sands, Murray Harbour and Murray River churches into one as-yet-to-be-named spiritual space marked the end of one era and the beginning of the next.

“There is nothing that has probably affected our congregation more than the closure of the other churches,”

says Linda MacNeill, who is a member of the church building committee.

However, the reinstallation of the three windows — the two Blaneys from the Murray Harbour church and the Burden from the Murray River church, Little Sands had no stained glass — and other significant objects from the former churches has made the transition a bit easier.

“We’re very pleased that we stumbled upon Susana,” says Elmer MacNeill, who is head of the building committee.

“Because there’s just nobody left on the Island much that does anything like this. So we were very fortunate,”

his wife, Linda, adds.

The concept for Rutherford’s new piece for the church came from the MacNeills’ daughter, Kimberly Dudley, which the stained glass artist then adapted to the church committee’s requirements.

The octagonal window features the three decommissioned churches with a dove above to represent the Holy Spirit.

“We wanted to bring the three together in some way,”

Linda says.

Rutherford used some of the colours and other elements in the Burden and Blaney windows to tie all the windows together.

“It’s a feeling of being part of a heritage and a legacy that you can go back and work on restoring windows that were made about the time that I was born. I learned a lot from doing those restorations and having a chance to look at those artisans as well and then to be part of that,"

says Rutherford, who did some restoration work on the other windows before they were put in the new church.

“Also, part of it is that it’s in a sacred place, a special place. It’s more important than (just) the everyday. It’s nice to know that the work is not only being appreciated for its esthetic but there is also a spiritual element to it, too.”

Fast facts

• 
  
• At Firehorse Studios in Charlottetown on April 18 there will be a one-day workshop with Laura Cole of Random Pieces, www.randompieces.ca, with her glass-on-glass mosaic class.
• On April 25, there will be a one-day workshop introduction to glass fusing with Susana Rutherford.
• This stained glass artist will also have a booth at the P.E.I. Home Show, April 3-5.
• Rutherford’s next session of classes for traditional stained glass painting starts in November 2009.
• For more information, visit www.firehorsestudios.ca.
• 
  

2008 Northern Lights Awards

Commissioning
Fine Craft or Visual Art
presentations items
$250 - $400 - $750 in value
To be presented as
2008 Northern Lights Awards
by the
Canadian Tourism Commission

Drop-off sample items for jurying
Confederation Centre Studio Theatre
Monday - Feb 18, 2-4pm
pick-up samples on
Tuesday - Feb 19, 2-4pm

contact: ArtisanPEI@gmail.com
PEI2008.blogspot.com
(902) 892-5796

Opportunity for PEI Artisans & Artists

2008 Northern Lights Awards program for excellence in travel journalism

Artists and artisans are being asked to provide samples of their work in fine craft or visual art as samples of presentation items. From the sample items juried, twelve items will be purchased or commissioned and presented to the winners of the 2007 Northern Lights Awards. The awards are presented as gifts by the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) to outstanding travel writers and photographers.

Normally the successful artisan/artist whose item is selected for the 1st place awards, is commissioned to produce three items similar to the sample which are then presented to three first place winners in the various categories (newspaper, magazine and photography categories). A similar process is followed for 2nd and 3rd place selections.

The 2008 presentation will be held during Canada Media Marketplace ’08, in Beverly Hills, CA in April.

All PEI artisans and artists, are invited to submit items for consideration on Monday February, 18th between 2-4 PM. As there are a range of items to be purchased or commissioned, entrants should be aware that items in specific price ranges are being sought (1st, 2nd & 3rd). Those ranges are $250 items, $4oo items, and $750 items.

PEI was selected in both 2007 and in 2008 for this opportunity, thus the competition is open to artisans and artists who PEI residents only. This project is one of several activities coordinated by the Artisan Project Committee of the PEI Crafts Council.

For information on submitting work, individuals should contact the Artisan Project Committee through the following means:

ArtisanPEI@gmail.com

tel (902) 892-5796

As the awards recipients could be male or female and a range of ages, items that are suitable for a range of recipients are advisable.

Confederation Centre Studio Theatre, Charlottetown is the jurying location.

• Deliver items on Monday Feb 18th, 2008 2-4pm
• Pick up items on Tuesday Feb 19th, 2008 2-4 pm

While artists and artisans are the makers of the awards -- journalist, editors and photographers are the recipients. For additional information of the journalists side of the competition see the website.