I had posted this @ my old site. Today a comment came in and i thought i would repost it here. It is of great pleasure that i copy this. I am so blessed to have her as my Aunt.
Faye Muscoby has a passion for fabric. The seeds of this life-long love affair were sown in the prairie soil of Saskatchewan, where as a farm girl she watched the women in her life create works of function and beauty from the materials at hand.
“My mother and grandmother were incredible seamstresses,”
says Muscoby, 66.
“I distinctly remember when I was three years old, helping make quilts out of men’s old suits for the soldiers in the trenches in World War Two. Those quilting bees were the Prairie farm woman’s therapy, and I learned that fabric can be a very powerful medium.”
Muscoby grew up outside Kipling, Sask., and attended university in Regina, where she met her husband, Wally. Later, her employer at the provincial Education Department noticed her artistic talent and put her to work illustrating biology textbooks.
After the couple moved to Calgary, Muscoby continued to quilt, and sewed all her family’s clothes.
“When the children grew up and left home, I felt I was ready to try something new,”
says Muscoby.
“I knew I could make fabric speak, but I felt boxed in by quilting and making garments.”
Muscoby looked into the world of tapestry, and the art form ignited her creativity.
Her first tapestry, created 26 years ago, was an 18- by six-foot work for Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Calgary. Muscoby says it took seven years to perfect the process of creating the tapestries and banners for which she’s now known.
“I build them from the inside out, layering the fabric to give it dimension,”
she says.
“The big ones must be all hand-stitched, and every individual section is outlined with black cord to give it depth. The fabric determines the shape of the mountain or the rock or the waterfall — fabric can be extremely bossy, and I’ve found out that you can’t fight it.”
Meticulous hand painting with fabric paints is the final touch.
Muscoby’s work is displayed in homes and institutions across Canada. She has produced more than 750 tapestries and banners.
One of her biggest ongoing clients is the Calgary Catholic School District.
“It’s become a very important tradition for Faye to design banners for our schools,”
says Judy MacKay, superintendent of instructional services for the district.
“Especially for new schools that open up — you haven’t really become a school until she has designed your banner.”
Muscoby’s relationship with the school district began about 15 years ago when she noticed a banner hanging in her grandson’s school.
“It was rather tired-looking, and I told the principal I thought I could make them a new one — so I did,”
says Muscoby.
A few days later, she got a phone call asking her to come to the school board’s head office.
“I thought, ‘Oh, dear, I must be in trouble.’”
But in fact, school officials wanted her to create more banners.
Another highlight took place last year when St. Barnabas Anglican Church asked her to create a tapestry in memory of Capt. Nichola Goddard, the first Canadian female soldier to die in a combat role. The Goddard family gave Muscoby a photo Nichola had taken of a sunrise over Afghanistan.
“I used the image in the tapestry,”
says Muscoby.
“It was such a privilege.”
Requests for tapestries continue to pour in, all through word of mouth. For Muscoby, creating them is a labor of love.
“Maybe I’ll retire when I’m blind,”
says Muscoby,
“and then I’ll teach, because I can do this now with my eyes closed.”
© The Calgary Herald 2007
This is not only my Aunt. But a beautiful woman. Love you Auntie,xoxo
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