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I've dyed some thread for my next war belt. I used chestnut, quebracho, myrobalan and marigold and saddened the colours with an iron afterbath. Now I'm waiting for this to "cure" before a final wash. One more week and then I can start work on Rachel Carson's War Belt.

Pender Island's sort of wearable art show - but so much more.

ZooIslander 2023 Highlights

I created a Moon costume for the Tarot runway. So much fun!

Five of my pieces of armour made from found objects are part of the Archipelago exhibit at the San Juan Islands Museum of Art.

In the main gallery are Dulce Et Decorum Est featuring salal leaves, Fight or Flight covered with found feathers and Expired made from plastic expiry tags.

In the back gallery, Sam Montalbetti's stunning photographs are flanked on the right by Empty Promises. The Politician's Armour. Before the Election and on the left by Broken Promises. The Politician's Armour. After the Election.

My installation What Once Was: The Apocalypse Is Now is part of this year's World of Threads Festival in Oakville, Ontario.

I am showing my eight morse code weavings, The Chorus, as part of the Archipelago exhibit at the San Juan Islands Museum of Art.

Each weaving contains its own message, phrases our endangered species could be silently screaming as they go extinct.

The Chorus provides a way of processing possible futures. By translating morse code from sound to visual representation it allows us to see what we cannot hear.

Photo courtesy of the Salt Spring Arts Council

Photo courtesy of Salt Spring Arts Council.

This shows my weavings :Save Our Souls" and "Each Slow Dusk" flanking John MacDonald's dramatic painting in the main gallery.

On September 21 the second half of Archipelago opened at the San Juan Islands Museum of Art. This is a cultural exchange between the southern gulf islands and the San Juan islands. This rendition of Archipelago features work by 6 artists from the southern gulf islands: Temoseng Chazz Elliott, Anna Gustafson, Jane Kidd, John MacDonald, Sam Montalbetti and me.

Carving, painting, photography, sculpture, tapestry and weaving.

The art museum is a beautiful gallery and our work looks stunning there. What a wonderful collaboration.

Many thanks to the San Juan Islands Art Museum and the Salt Spring Arts Council for co-ordinating this event.

To hear me talking to Margaret Gallagher of North by Northwest about The Chorus, my morse code weavings, follow this link:

https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-43-north-by-northwest/clip/15968700-weaver-joanna-rodgers-exhibit-the-chorus.

My solo show of morse code weavings, The Chorus, is installed in the gallery at the Craft Council of BC on Granville Island in Vancouver. The show is running until April 20, 2023.

Many thanks to CCBC for this amazing opportunity to show my work in their beautiful gallery.

I'm dying the warps and pattern weft for my next morse code weaving with plants from my garden. So much to discover and I'm loving the results.

Before: mordanted mercerized cotton ready to be dyed.

After: these have been dyed with two kinds of Saint John's Wort (hypericum perforatum and hypericum frondosum), carrot tops, bracken, blackberry leaves and stems and Japanese maple leaves.

I didn't document the scouring, mordanting and dying of the warps and wefts for this weaving, nor the measuring out. However, I did photograph each step involved in setting up my loom for weaving. It takes longer to prepare a piece for weaving than it does to weave it. I love this. The slowness and the importance of each step. Lots of time to engage with the piece at every step of the way.

Threading the warps through the reed. Here I have to be careful to get the colour combinations correct.

Threading each warp through the appropriate heddle. This creates the pattern.

Winding the warp onto the back beam. This must be done carefully to maintain the correct tension.

The weaving begins.