Welcome to The Twisty Tree!

I’m Dee and, after much persuasion from friends and family, I have finally started a blog/website.

I live on the west coast of Canada – a beautiful and artistically inspiring area. Apparently it’s a beautiful area for outdoorsy athletic folk as well, but I’m not one of them.  I’ll continue to admire it in a relaxed and leisurely (dare I say lazy?) fashion.

As a kid I enjoyed creating – I remember constructing many little rooms out of small bits of paper… painstakingly gluing tiny pieces of furniture together.  I even recreated my mom’s canning room, a room I have always been in awe of!  I then moved on to balsa wood furniture, which I enjoyed, but my inability to cut a straight line or make even length legs made it a little tricky…

High school was when I first worked with metal – we pounded circles of copper and shaped them… Loved it!  Did not love making the little metal box – the one that needed precise measurements.  I still have it, and it’s still not particularly straight.  There’s definitely a reason that I love organic shapes in jewellery!

I was working as a temp after finishing high school, and during a particularly trying assignment, I met up with my dad for lunch.  We got to talking about what I would prefer to be doing.  I said that I just wanted to paint.  Dad’s a good listener… He found information about a visual arts program at a local college, and I registered.  Turns out I didn’t want to paint all day… I preferred to weld.  I look back on my two years there and wish I could go back and do it again, now that I’m older, less self-conscious and I realize just how much in the way of knowledge, tools and supplies were available to use and learn from.  Ah well, I learned a lot and enjoyed my time there.

After the program I continued to paint, but my interest in jewellery, costuming and theatre started to consume my time.  I took some classes at a local bead store, learning more on working with metal, beads and leather.  I volunteered at a local community theatre in various roles, eventually settling primarily on costuming.

From costuming others it seemed like a logical step to start costuming myself. There used to be a fabulous lantern festival in town, and I volunteered as an interactive character for many years.

Frustration at not being able to find either the size or style of jewellery that I wanted spurred me on to take a community class in silversmithing.  Best decision!  I learned (once again) that I’m not terribly good at following patterns, but working intuitively was a hit.  I’ve participated in two art shows at a local theatre – displaying/selling my jewellery, and a show at a coffee shop.

And now for something completely different… Needle felting.  If you’ve stuck with me this long, I promise I’m nearly done!  A friend of mine took a needle felting workshop on Saltspring Island, and I was immediately captivated by what she had created (she, however, was not, and eventually gave me all her supplies – thank you Bo!).  I had tried knitting and crochetting, but that whole trouble-following-a-pattern thing was a bit of a problem, as was my lack of patience.  Finally I found a fibre medium that worked for me.

I took two classes at the Beehive Wool Shop, one to make a fabric covered button, and the other to make a Christmas ornament.  From there I started working on wall hangings, and have made many ornaments.

I participated in two outdoor shows (the Clothesline Show and Enchanted Acres) at the Coast Collective.  These shows were a great deal of fun, and I hope the shows make a comeback in the Coast Collective schedule.

And that brings us to today.  I continue to learn different methods to produce fibre art and jewellery – I’m having fun!

So, that’s me in an incredibly big nutshell.  I hope you enjoy the site!