No More Pennies From Heaven

Inspiration: This piece celebrates the Canadian penny’s rich history from 1858 to 2013.

Materials: Wire, Linen, copper

Techniques: Doubleweave

Exhibitions: A Collaboration by Jean Down, Pattie Dolan and Roberta Murrant, April 1 to June 28, 2014 at the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum, Almonte, Ontario.

Northumberland Shawl

Inspiration: Two factors encouraged Jean to create this shawl. One was the overall theme of an exhibition that celebrated Canada’s 150th birthday. The other was her vivid memories of the fall colours of her youth in Northumberland County Ontario.

Materials: Silk, acid dyes The use of silk is a significant departure from traditional wool and cotton overshot weaving.

Techniques: This piece extends traditional 4 shaft overshot weaving to 16 shafts.

Exhibitions: Weaving Past Into Present (as part of Weavers Unlimited) at the W.B. Lewis Public Library, Deep River, 2017, the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum, Almonte, 2017, The John M. Parrot Art Gallery, Belleville, 2017 and The American Handweaving Museum, Clayton, New York 2018/19.

Red Kimono

Inspiration: A three-day workshop with dyer Carter Smith of Boston U.S.A. inspired Jean to delve into the Japanese approach of Shibori Dyeing on Handwoven fabric.

Materials: Wool, silk, acid dyes

Techniques: Traditional Overshot lace weave coupled with shibori dyeing

Exhibition: A Collaboration by Jean Down, Pattie Dolan and Roberta Murrant, 2014 at the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum, Almonte Ontario.

Snowballs and Bowknots

Inspiration: This coverlet was woven for an exhibition that challenged weavers to use a colour scheme of black, white and grey colours to enhance the detail and natural beauty of traditional overshot designs.

Materials: Wool and cotton

Exhibitions: Fold Unfold, A Project by Susan Falls and Jessica Smith, The Lyndon House Arts Centre, Athens Georgia, 2017 and the Wellington B. Grey Gallery, East Carolina University, Grenville North Carolina, 2017.

Exhibition Catalogue: Fold Unfold A Project by Susan Falls and Jessica Smith,2017.

Roys Garden

Inspiration: This rug was inspired by the old penny rug.

Materials: Hand-dyed hand woven wool,was felted and over dyed.

Exhibitions: A project with the West Carleton Fibre Guild

Mad Weave Vessels

Inspiration: These baskets were created for an exhibition that challenged 3 weavers to push and expand the boundaries of weaving. These pieces illustrate the challenge of moving from flat tri-axial weaving to 3-dimensional weaving.

Materials: Ribbon

Exhibition: A Collaboration by Jean Down, Pattie Dolan and Roberta Murrant, 2014 at the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum, Almonte Ontario.

Bird in a Cage

A wire corset to represent a woman
A cage for a captive bird.
Neither looking up to see freedom is possible

Birds in Flight

Wire and silk devoried design.

Shawls

These hand dyed hand woven silk shawls were made to represent, from left to right,
Past Present and Future

These two pieces are examples of a dying workshop taken with Carter Smith.