From times of rationing during the Depression, when women saved each usable patch of cloth for new purposes, to the recent times of ravenous consumption and disposability, fashion has run the gamut over the past century. Over the last decade or two, we’ve seen a new fashion trend: even those who can afford a closetful of ever-changing, trendy, new, disposable garments are choosing something different—to re-vamp, re-cycle, re-use and re-envision. Thankfully, Shaunie Yates and The Sow’s Ear and the Silk Purse are here to make life a little easier for the textile-disinclined.

Shaunie’s grandmother used to say, “You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.” In other words, you can’t make something beautiful out of a tattered scrap of fabric; when it’s done, it’s done. From that adage, or in spite of it, came the ideals and the name of The Sow’s Ear and the Silk Purse. Handspun fibers, vintage pieces and tattered scarps are re-envisioned into exciting new creations full of charm and memories.

Starting in the Seventies, weaving on a traditional backstrap loom in Guatemala, Shaunie has studied and sold her medium in many locations, including Canadian venues such as the Banff School of Fine Arts and the University of Manaioba, Circle Craft of Vancouver and Powell River’s Artique, to name only a few.

Shaunie talks intently about fibers, weaving, colours and textures. She allows the fibers to teach her as she works them. “Each piece is like a painting, almost impossible to reproduce. The materials are the guide: they say, ‘I will ruffle this much; I keep a sharp edge; I will stick to this but not to that.’”

Shaunie talks about the art of getting dressed in the morning and the power of fashion. When we get dressed, we think about what colours we want around us, what textures we want next to our skin, and what we want to say to the world today. Perhaps not everyone feels this kind of connection to the fibers and textiles worn everyday but it is an important, tangible means of daily self-expression.

As we know, with many artistic disciplines we learn the basics of a craft by building layers of knowledge and complexity, before there comes a point where we take ourselves to the next level of understanding. Mastery is in the deconstruction and simplification of the craft. Creations of The Sow’s Ear and the Silk Purse can be witnessed and purchased at Artique Artists’ Co-Operative on Marine Ave, Powell River.