Step away from the news and make something. Make something with your mind and your hands and your heart and let that be enough to keep a small spark of hope going.
quietly creating
Barbara Wanhill
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Return to lino printing – trouble shooting prints and ink colour. January 19, 2025. Photo: B. Wanhill -
To be honest, 2024 has been a year of mostly suppressed disappointment and envy. However; with enough holiday downtime, sugar consumption and serendipitously spontaneous creative opportunities; the last few days have helped me realize that my personal state of art can be thriving if I look at it with an open mind and open heart.
Why do people create? On point with the energy intensive but culturally fascinating phenomenon of AI generated answers, people create to develop: “self-expression, problem-solving, cultural reflection, connection, exploration and discovery, personal fulfillment and legacy.”1
Nowhere in that list does one create to develop disappointment or envy!
So on that note, a few of the things I have completed in December that would fit under the categories of self-expression, problem-solving, cultural reflection, connection and exploration and discovery.
Abstract Advent 2024
The need for something more objective was the driver between unintentionally ignoring this years’ daily shapes and committing to daily scene drawings on 1.5×1.5 inch squares of packing paper. I missed 3 days but it was a manageable challenge and made me realize: 1. it’s been a long time since I’ve considered background, middle ground and foreground and 2. scene drawing can help imprint memory and personal attachment to drawing that object drawing has not. (Perhaps more effort = more admiration for the outcome?)
Using Pixelmator Pro to make images Web friendly is efficient and less expensive than a popular competitor.
Abstract Advent 2024. Ink and pencil crayon on packing paper. Photo: iPhone 13. B. Wanhill. December 2024.
Drawing days 16 of 24. (including 3 missed days). Abstract Advent 2024. ink and pencil crayon collaged on craft paper.
Most of these drawings took about 10 minutes each. Photo: iPhone 13. B. Wanhill. December 2024.Welcome Lojan Buddy
A spinning wheel is again back in my life! The Lojan Buddy wide treadle has been with me since the middle of October, but it was not until the last week of December that I have been able to spin on it fully. Already it has taught me to trust the good intentions of people more, find ways to make things work when it doesn’t feel like that is possible, and allow time for learning and creative play. Almost sounds like three solid New Year’s resolutions!
The Lojan Buddy wide treadle. I chose this model because at the time, it was the least expensive model offered and allowed me to spin with two feet or one – which has been perfect. All Photos: iPhone 13. B. Wanhill. November and December 2024. 
My first full bobbin from part of a braid I started at the beginning of 2024. The Lojan wheel uses Dutch tension which has been a very smooth and intuitive transition for me from the Ashford Scotch tension. 
I had plans to draw botanicals on the wheel, but with testing, wasn’t confident with media on top of the Tried and True wood finish. Even adding oil paint to the rim of the wheel was a lesson. 
Perhaps one day, I will add to this secret pinecone. 
Skeins of learning. This is the full braid of merino, bamboo and silk from left to right: Last spring’s 3 ply spindle spin, this summer’s chain plied spindle spin and my first Lojan Buddy skein using the Andean ply technique. Welcome Hook Worm
One of the main reasons I settled on Lojan was their value for low waste production and environmental considerations. My wheel came with a very simple orifice hook and it worked, but in the continued spirit of customizing this wheel and inspiration from a colleague who has recently taken up needle felting, I used some of the leftover bits of green fibre to needle felt a little caterpillar-like creature on the end of my hook. Needle felting is a process! About 10 hours later, my customized hook was complete and it will be a fun addition to this wheel that is quickly becoming a dear, other than human friend.
Using the shape of the Lojan orifice hook, I first added a wet felted base and began adding more details to that. Hours and hours of poking and I’m now happy with the results. This activity also gives me a greater appreciation for the work that goes into a needle felted sculpture. Photo: iPhone 13. B. Wanhill. December 2024. 
Strange adorableness now added to my life. I’ve been thinking about this year end post for a while. I originally meant to talk about the state of art education in Alberta (still using a 1985 curriculum), the state of my work as an art educator, with increasing complexity and decreasing salary, the state of promoting art in the age of social media (becoming mind boggling with the amount of platform options) or the state of my own non-existent art practice.
Instead, it took reflecting on some creative making to realize that it is an art to stay positive and hopeful in these increasingly troubled times. And making art(ful things) may help with that.
- Response to “Why do people create?” Poe.com, Originality.ai, December 31, 2024. Edited. ↩︎
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22 years ago, I left my home province to begin teaching in a large city in a neighbouring province. My ulterior motive at the time was to join a Mahayana Buddhist temple in this city and eventually “leave home” and become a buddhist nun.
About a year and a half into living this dual identity, I realized that the latter career idea was not going to pan out. One of the monks mentioned to me that no matter how hard I tried to go through with my spiritual plans, it seemed that I did not have the karmic conditions for it to become a reality in this life.
Fast forward to present day and surprising to me: I still live in this city and am now entering my 22nd year of teaching with the same school organization I started with.
I was thinking about this a couple of days ago as I drove home with an impulse purchase from Kijiji. As is sometimes the case with impulse buys, the Lazy Kate I purchased was not quite what I expected. Yet, the seller was so effervescent, and I, in such a hurry and committed to following through with my plan, brought something home that will take me a bit of work to get to a serviceable status. However; I welcome this new to me, slightly neglected non-human item into my creative space. I look forward to seeing how we will work together.
The used Lazy Kate I purchased. It was advertised as an Ashford, though compared to one of my newer Ashford bobbins, this set appears quite a bit older. B. Wanhill. September 2024. iPhone 13. Conditions. The condition of items we hold in our life and decide to let go of because of loss of value or meaning. The condition of our relationships to others and the condition of past experiences that lead us to choose one direction over another. Also, to be honest, I haven’t fully let go of the idea of something bigger than me having a hand in also setting conditions for my life. Yet, I prefer now not to name it and I am learning to no longer use it as an excuse for determining how and why I am in this world. That piece: a work in progress.
The conditions for spindle spinning continue to be great for me! The portability, the varying ergonomic possibilities and the artful variety of support spindles has me completely enamoured. Also, it is such a beautiful way of working: slow, rhythmic, meditative.
Here: two spindles I am currently working with. The cherry wand style is from Mawdsley Fibre Arts and the maple and purple heart cauldron style is from Woodland Handcrafts.
I feel the fibres I have chosen to spin on each match the personalities of the spindles. beautiful, rustic, natural Babydoll Southdown pin drafted roving from The Small Bird Workshop fits the cherry wand well and creates an airy, springy yarn. The luxuriously peaceful Polwarth and Eri silk rolag from Crafty Jak’s sings on the Woodland spindle. As the spindles fill; I will now be able to transfer them to the Lazy Kate bobbins for future plying.
Support spindles and the beginning of yarn. B. Wanhill. September 2024. iPhone 13. 
The practice of spinning has become a daily activity. Even for a few minutes, it brings me happiness and a sense of calm.
B. Wanhill. September, 2024. iPhone 13.
quietly creating 