it seemed like a holiday

it seemed like a holiday. yesterday barb and i closed up our studios and spent the day visiting the studios of some of our friends - a luxury we rarely allow ourselves. a lot of creative energy is coming out of the north shore of the bay of islands.

we picked up niki (and baby mallach) in summerside and toured her newly renovated knix knits studio that will soon be up and running. the shelves aren't yet complete, so there's bags and bins of brightly coloured wool and yarn everywhere you look.

we all drove further along the shore to the house museum . robyn (who, along with her family, winters in n.y. and summers in gillams) has designed her home as an interactive art installation which explores newfoundland culture. we stood in her kitchen drinking tea from rose decorated china cups (and snacking on marlene's homemade goodies (humberview bake shop)) surrounded by carefully chosen objects from other years - the row of aprons hanging under the window, the white china dog figurines lined up along the sill... robyn is now spinning and dyeing local wool and selling it under the name of wee ball yarns (wee ball or wiebald is the distinctively shaped island that can be seen from robyn's house and from my cabin on the other side of the bay).

our last stop (also in gillams) was at urve's a stone's throw glass works. urve who is well known for her stained glass panels is now spending time working on the process of fused glass and is making bowls, plates and free standing objects. again - a studio full of colour.

we ran out of time so didn't get to craig's meadows pottery or colette's artist studio.

when we got home mid- afternoon, it felt like we'd been away for a long time.