For many of us, the dreams we have as children are soon forgotten. But that's not always the case, as a pair of Sunshine Coast sisters will attest. When Barby Paulus and Marjorie Ann Malcolm were young, they lived in Ontario. Every summer on their way to their cottage in Perth, their mother would stop to visit a local crafter. Mrs. Silverside was a spinner and weaver whose craft held the little girls spellbound.
"We're going to do that when we grow up," was their refrain summer after summer.
Fast forward to the 1970s and that's just what they did.
At that time Paulus had a farm in Langley that supplied raw wool to the budding artist. And Malcolm was still living outside Ottawa.
Just as their homes were far apart, their approach to their chosen craft ended up being different as well.
Paulus took a week-long course with a master weaver in Richmond at the Craft Cottage, at the time an extension of Kwantlen College.
"The first day I went home I was so overwhelmed," Paulus said. "I don't think I can do this," she told a friend. "Of course you can," was the reply.
The next day when she went back, everything suddenly came together.
"I felt like I'd done it in another life. I've done this before," was her reaction.
And she's been honing her talent ever since. "I was a workshop junkie," she laughs.
Malcolm's introduction to the craft came over a two-year period. The first time she tried, the art form filled her with excitement. She had also found her niche in life.
Over the years both sisters say weaving has become one of their favourite things in the world.
For Paulus, scarves, wraps and afghans became her projects of choice. Asked what colour she likes to create in, her answer is quick and emphatic. "Reds, I love them."
Paulus sells her products through the Gibsons Co-op Art Gallery (across from the Bank of Montreal in Lower Gibsons) and through the Sunshine Coast Spinners and Weavers Guild's various sales. The next big sale is Nov. 19 at the Seaside Centre in Sechelt.
Her beautiful, one-of-a-kind pieces bear the slogan art to wear and they are.
Paulus has three looms at her home studio. "She never lets one of them be empty," Malcolm said.
Many of Paulus' scarves have another unique feature: the fibres woven into them are hand-painted. This results in variegated shading that must be seen to be appreciated. The colours are glorious.
Paulus said the sale of her products "feeds her fibre habit."
Malcolm specializes in blankets and wraps. Her hobby results in gifts for lucky recipients, although she does the odd commission as well.
Although the sisters say anyone can learn the ancient craft (traces of early woven linens, thousands of years old, have been found at Lake Geneva in Switzerland), be forewarned weaving requires lots of patience. The threading of the loom takes a great deal of time. Over the past weekend the sisters worked on the huge loom that requires two people to operate. A group from Nanaimo donated the loom to their Guild. Paulus and Malcolm each completed a blanket on the loom within a few hours, not counting the time it took to thread the giant beast.
If you'd like to learn more about this creative art, there are informal gatherings called spin-ins at Chaster House in Gibsons every 3rd Tuesday of the month at 10 a.m. Or if you would like to join the Guild, the next meeting is Sept. 12 at 11:30 a.m. at St. John's United Church in Davis Bay.
The rest of us can take heart from a weaver who once told Paulus, "If you're not a work of art yourself, wear one."
