~ By Gloria Lorenzen
In 1970, the inkle-loom woven
belt I made for my boyfriend nearly
killed him when it got wrapped
around the back wheel of his
Triumph Bonneville motorcycle.
An abundance of handworks made
during the craft-making craze of
the 1960s and 70s were abandoned
less dramatically. However, Jan Donaldson's tenaciousness in
developing her craft has resulted in a celebration of thirty years as
a successful fibre artist and clothing designer. Of all the crafts she
tried, only quilting was the one that resonated and lasted. "It just captured me," she says.
From the beginning, Jan was determined to make a living by quilting. At her first show in 1978, she made $800
in three days at Montreal's, Salon des Metiers d'Art. Early days’ delivery of her wall hangings was done by thumb
- hitchhiking with her hangings in a backpack. Quilting and appliqué work expanded to include clothing design
and her own shop in Toronto. Impressive progress for one who flunked high school Home Ec.
Snippets and strips of fabric take on a new life in Jan's work. "With hand-stitching you gain in the depth…you
don't get that with machine sewing," she says. "Hand-stitching is where my heart is." Dark green velvet becomes
swaying cedar branches, strips of blue and white cotton become rows of distant snow-capped mountains, a couple
of inches of brown fabric becomes a guitar leaning on a cactus. It was a two inch campfire I wanted to take home
in my pocket: red and orange fabric flames licking at tiny brown logs that seemed to warm my palm.
Wanderer, also celebrating thirty years, has been Jan's companion since that first year. A little, often long-haired
character, Wanderer is found in most of her hangings. "Doing maybe what I wanted to do ..we travel together,"
says Jan.
Upstairs, her clothing production room has a factory ambiance: bags of fabrics, a huge cutting table in the
centre of the room, practical spartan lamps, three walls of shelves piled high with precut pieces of fabric, and, sitting silent for the
moment, her fifty year old Mitsubishi industrial sewing machine and serger that she bought twenty-five years ago in the Schmattah
(garment) district of Toronto.
Jan"s clothing designs seem to have their own life too. Hats and
jackets assume new personalities when turned inside out, discreet
pockets on stage wear hide extra guitar picks for musicians, but
most astonishingly, the lives of people wearing them can change.
Jan says that women wearing hats get more invitations to dance at
parties. "You should see the look on a guy's face,” she says about
musicians trying on their new stage wear jackets, pants or shirts.
"They just glow."
Traditionally, a thirty year anniversary was celebrated with gifts
of pearls. Crossing the hall to her office crowded with more bags of
fabric, we stop to look out the bathroom window at her neighbour's
turkeys – maybe thirty big, white birds strutting around quietly in
the fenced yard. Jan enjoys listening to their occasional tiny peeps.
With a stretch of imagination, they could be a pearl anniversary
gift. Congratulations, Jan.
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