Our dear friend Dame Mailarta has organized another wonderful show for the International Mail Art Exhibition: Mailmania 5. This year’s exhibit took place at the Slide Room Gallery at the Vancouver Island School of Art in September. Art was mailed to Studio J from all around the world. Check out the Mailarta blog here, and send some art along!
The 4th Annual Victoria Tweed Ride was held last sunday, and what a lovely day it was! The ride itself was quite long this year, beginning at the St Ann’s Academy grounds downtown and finishing at a perfect picnic spot at Esquimalt Gorge Park. More than 200 riders enjoyed an ideal day out.

Waiting to take off! GJ built an amazing wind-powered flying machine for the front of his Raleigh. It worked so well, spinning propellers and flapping wings! Video coming soon.

My picnic: tea sandwiches, cream scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream, lemon cake and plums.

GJ on the left, looking so divine, handing out one of the prizes from Fairfield Bike Shop, where he works, to the always dapper, always a gentleman, Simon. Simon was one of the organizers of the first three Tweed Rides and gave much support this year to the new team.

The lovely Marion always creating. I wish I had gotten a better shot of her dress which she sewed herself from vintage fabric.
We’re having a little jewellery sale. Find the shop, Avant Crossing Guard, here. The shop facebook page is here. The shop tumblr blog is here.
The late summer morning light was so lovely the other day, I was inspired to take these shots of some of our heritage architecture.

The Janion Hotel, 1891, has been derelict for decades and is now being converted into micro loft condos; Victoria BC Canada.

The Parliament Buildings, home to the BC legislative assembly, was designed by Francis Rattenbury in 1893 and built between 1893–1898; Victoria BC Canada.

Detail of the CPR Steamship Terminal building, built 1924, was also designed by Francis Rattenbury; Victoria BC Canada.
We had a peaceful, lovely day working in the studio yesterday. Here are a few shots I took of the studio while taking some pics of GJ working for his Patreon site.
The City of Victoria is presenting a series of lunchtime concerts at Centennial Square, right beside City Hall. They are every tuesday, wednesday and thursday from noon until 1 pm until September 11. Yesterday we were lucky to catch the Damian Graham Trio, who are awesome. There are also two concerts remaining for the Eventide Music Series. If you are going to be in Victoria, you can find out more info here.
Our friend Annie is extraordinary and lovely. She’s a painter, fabric artist and wonderful chef. Many of my posts have already included her home and amazing cooking. When last we were there, the light was so gorgeous that I had to take many photos inside her home. We have some of Annie’s art in our on-line store, and if you are in Victoria BC, visit Eclectic Gallery who carry her art cards and fabric creations.
It’s been a busy few months. In June, we worked with our friends artist Gareth Gaudin and Alison at Dales Gallery to create a show of Gareth’s original drawings from the graphic novel Silence Is A Song I Know All The Words To, which is a collaboration with spoken-word poet Shane Koyczan. The original drawings are now available for purchase here. I’ve been making a lot of new jewellery; some goes up on the online store, some to Eclectic Gallery in Oak Bay, and some we keep around for our open studios which we’ve been having about once a month. GJ’s been very prolific making sculpture. He’s working on a figurative piece today and has two new kinetic pieces, one of which you can see in action here. GJ also submitted recently to Dug North: The Automata Blog and had one of his kinetic pieces featured; very exciting!

































































