Research and Stories
This is a place where I can share some of my research pertaining to early settlement and family histories intertwined with the story of Lanark County, Ontario, Canada. I’ve been researching and writing for many years and want to make some of my work more widely available.
This blog was originally designed to share my artwork and creative activities during the years when I was exhibiting widely. My art has now taken second place to refining and publishing some of my research, but I have left the art posts available for perusal.
Whatever your interest might be, enjoy, and provide feedback if you can.
Diane
Posted by Diane Miller Duncan on January 1, 2013 in Books & Art Journals, Featured Flag, This And that! | 0 comments
Happy New Year everyone! I was going to wait until tomorrow to do a post but thought better of it. I need to put down a marker – a marker for a new beginning, a new direction, a new focus. It’s been a pleasant start to the New Year. A leisurely breakfast, some work on a major fiber art piece neglected for a couple of years because it is too large for my work area in the RV, preparation for some journal work this year, topped off with a swim with my granddaughter and dinner when her parents arrived this evening. Throughout the...
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Posted by Diane Miller Duncan on December 3, 2012 in Featured Flag, Fibre Art & Quilts, Wearables | 0 comments
I’m still limited in my mobility while trying to avoid the coughing that results with physical exertion so, with sweatshirt #1 completed, I moved on to sweatshirt #2. This time I was inspired by a posting on Pinterest. The first posting I found was by Rachel Hatch and appears to have been woven with cotton broadcloth strips. However, when I followed her links to my inspiration it led, via Danielle Schulz, to the original posting at The Forge where ‘jersey’ strips had been used – and instructions provided! I liked...
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Posted by Diane Miller Duncan on December 2, 2012 in Featured Flag, Fibre Art & Quilts, Wearables | 20 comments
Thanks to a particularly nasty encounter with a flu bug I’ve been under the weather and very limited in creative energy. In fact, for a number of days, I existed on fluids and slept. Now hubby is dealing with it. However, a bit of hand work did manage to get completed and here is the first of my up-cycled sweatshirts finished. Complete with pockets, it is sure to become a favorite! As the instructions I worked from didn’t have images, I assumed that the folded fabric lacing would be ‘whipped’ around the folded edge...
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Posted by Diane Miller Duncan on November 24, 2012 in Featured Flag, Fibre Art & Quilts, Wearables | 0 comments
As I’m feeling a little under the weather with a flu bug, I’m not feeling particularly creative today so I thought I would chat a bit about a project I’m just starting. I’m always on the lookout for quick and easy projects that I can share with friends who are not as comfortable with a needle and thread as I am. While RVing, the wardrobe basics are jeans t-shirts and sweatshirts. I’ve resisted wearing plain un-embellished sweatshirts and have altered each season’s new shirts with varying success and...
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Posted by Diane Miller Duncan on November 23, 2012 in Featured Flag, Mixed Media | 0 comments
I’m always on the lookout to find new materials or techniques that I might use in mixed-media art. While at the Calgary Creative Stitches & Crafting Alive Show I came across a booth with a representative offering courses in the use of Paverpol to create garden-safe sculptures. My sister has created a couple of sculptures and they combine fibre empregnated with a material that hardens it to a waterproof structure. I have never encountered an opportunity for a course previously so I immediately signed up. Brenda Topley of Black...
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Posted by Diane Miller Duncan on November 22, 2012 in Featured Flag, Mixed Media | 0 comments
Years ago I took a workshop that introduced me to encaustic. While intrigued I wasn’t particularly pleased with the pieces that I produced in the workshop and the teacher, who spent a lot of time talking about the creation of her encaustic medium, made it sound as though it was a very time intensive project. I must have had some lingering interest though because a year ago I bought Encaustic Workshop by Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch. Leafing through the book at the time I thought to myself that it didn’t seem as difficult as I...
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