Inspired by all the textile activity going on at the Maiwa Symposium, Julia Manitius of URBANITY has arranged two exhibitions to add to the action.

The first opens just next week. Running from September 14th until the 28th is an exhibition of contemporary head-dresses from Jools Elphick. The opening reception will be held on September 15 from 7 - 9pm at URBANITY.

Jools was born in Amsterdam and now lives in Whitney, Oxfordshire, England.

Billed as "designs for the theatre of life" Jools writes that she is "inspired by tribal art as much as contemporary culture, I fuse elements of both in my work."

"I like to work with a range of textures and colours and am always interested in researching new materials to work with. Balancing hand-knitting with machine-knitting to produce a textile with substance, I 'build' on a knitting machine (varying needle gauges) and with the time saved in the production, am able to use a variety of hand-finishing techniques to produce a detailed and original piece."

"Sold as one-off pieces or made to commission, each one has been a journey into colour, texture and form, which I have been really pleased to pass on to clients, so that they can share in that journey!"

Jools studied knitted and Woven Textiles at Winchester School of ARt , and Pattern cutting at the London College of Fashion. She started making women's clothing and head-wear in 1986. She has sold at the Chelsea Crafts Fair, Origin, Fortnum & Masons, to name a few. She has also sold to 'famous people', names of whom she prefers to keep private!

The exhibit will be in the URBANITY store:
2412 Granville Street,
Vancouver, BC, Canada.


The second exhibit, FELT AMAZING runs October 7th to the 21st.

Timed to coincide with the Jorie Johnson exhibition and lecture, Felt Amazing is an exhibit of 12 textile artists from around the world who work in felt.

Here's the preliminary lineup:

Breanna Rockstad-Kincaid – Tennesee
Charlotte Buch – Denmark
Claudia Rosillo – Uruguay
Dagmar Binder – Germany
Hamideh – Vancouver
Karin Wagner – Switzerland
Lauri Chambers – Washington
Lisa Klakulak – North Carolina
Margolein Dallinga – Quebec
Sandra Loeffelman – Washington
Sarah Fox – Oregon
Torill Haugsvaer Wilberg – Norway

We encourage you to check out both these exhibitions. And thanks to Julia for passing on the info. For full details and updates keep an eye on the  URBANITY blog.