Bellingham, WA

Congratulations Elsi, our Best of Show Award Winner
for Notions & Fabrications | Remnants! Learn more here.

Notions & Fabrications | Remnants

Conversations with my husband’s paternal grandmother Pansy Ellis and his family formed the core of a fictional story about a struggling farmer’s wife’s life as expressed through the domestic arts of sewing, quilting and crocheting. The materials combined in this two-volume suite were selected from Pansy’s collection of fabrics, cut quilt pieces, templates and hand-sewn quilt sections, and an unbelievable sewing garage sale discovery at King’s farm outside Carthage, Indiana. As I began working with the materials, sorting out colors, pieces, and types of materials, I discovered Pansy had a fondness for pink. There was also a darker collection of fabrics that seemed so contrary to the pinks. It became clear that this story had to be told in two separate volumes rather than one, that they should sit side by side, and it reflected the challenges of women of her generation.

Indiana garage sale finds, Pansy Ellis quilt fabric remnants, doily, ribbons, buttons, handkerchiefs, antique children’s clothing, hand sewing and quilting, ink jet water transfers onto fabric, machine side sewn binding. Set of two books,12 pages in each. 4.5 x 4 x .75 inches. 2010. Unique.

SOLD!

It’s a Man’s World Scorpion Blues

Exploring Portland in September 2010, I walked into Josephine’s Dry Goods and found bags of men’s shirt fabric samples calling to me. When I began my teaching career in the industrial arts, there were very few women in the profession. My base salary as an assistant professor was less than my male counterparts and although my salary has improved, the value of my retirement account reflects the “man’s world” traditions. This reality is told in this edition through the recollection of a childhood memory about my brother, a scorpion, and a conscious realization that our lives would be different because of gender.

Men’s shirt fabric samples, white cotton, blue cotton/polyester, assorted buttons, 19th century images combined in Photoshop, ink jet printing on fabric, side binding. 14 pages. 6.25 x 4 x .25 inches. 2011. Edition of 4.

SOLD OUT!

Artist Biography

Elsi Vassdal Ellis creates books in a well-equipped studio in the Pacific Northwest. Since 1983 she has produced over 93 editions and 125 unique books employing a variety of reproduction techniques and materials. Since 1999 she has explored issues of identity, memory and conflict as they intersect with religion and politics. To take a break from the darker topics of war/genocide/urbicide, she explores her memories of her youth as they relate to broader life themes and common cultural experiences.

She regularly exhibits work nationally and internationally and her work is permanently housed in many public collections including the National Museum of Women in the Arts, New York City Public Library, Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry, Grabhorn Collection in the San Francisco Public Library, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and Arts of the Book Collection in the Yale University Library. Western Washington University has been her professional home since 1977 where she holds the rank of full professor in design production and book arts.