Nora Ready has been exploring botanical printing for the past 10 years and pursuing mindful stitch and other fibre art techniques - fabric
collage, improvised quilts, dimensional fabric work - for the past 4 years.
Her influences include Australian artist/botanical dye researcher India Flint,
British textile artist Alice Fox and slow stitch practitioner Claire Wellesley-Smith.
Initially, Ready learned techniques and methods through books, online resources, workshops and trial and error. In 2023, she took a course through Fibre Arts Takes Two called Creating with Courage. It was facilitated by Washington State textile artist Clarissa Callesen. The completion of the course and submission of work for the student exhibit, prompted intense and focussed exploration of use of materials and dimensional possibilities with fibre art. Most recently, Ready took part in another course by British artist Shelley Rhodes, Finding Fragments - Respond, Rework, Repair. This opportunity also pushed Ready to engage mindfully with materials and experiment with composition, layering and use of uncommon materials.
In August of 2023, Ready had 6 pieces accepted for Sea and Cedar Magazine. They were displayed in their virtual art exhibition. This spring, Ready's slow stitch work, Spiral Stitch, was displayed in the Cedar Hill Recreation and Arts Centre foyer display case along with other instructor work.
Ready currently offer eco printing on fabric and paper, mindful stitch and other fibre art workshops in various public
institutions in Saanich, Victoria and other places on Vancouver Island - Cedar
Hill Recreation and Arts Centre, Goward House Senior’s Activity Centre,
Compost Education Centre, the Vancouver Island University Elder College -
Nanaimo and Ladysmith campuses, Cowichan Community Centre, and the Hornby Island Natural History Centre.
She has a passion for facilitating learning and offering creative space for collaborative play and expression. She has decades of experience teaching adult learners and creating curriculum. Ready has a Master of Education Degree from Simon Fraser University. Her academic work focussed on inquiry based learning, anti-colonial andragogy and valuing culture in learner experience. This academic experience informs her creative process and perspective.
Ready embraces and continues to learn and explore principles of a slow, artistic
practice - place based, environmentally conscious, and culturally connected. She is a member of the Surface Design Association, an international textile art association, and the Fibre Arts Network, a Western Canadian fibre artitst cooperative. Ready currently has 2 fibre art pieces in the Fibre Arts Network boxed exhibit. These exhibits travel to various venues in Western Canada.
I am a textile artist who is inspired by an environment that has been stewarded by the Lekwungen speaking people since time immemorial. Plants hold mystery for me, and I find the exploration of their structure, texture, seasonal changes, hidden colours and properties endlessly fascinating. This informs my eco printing practice. Often I use the eco printed fabric that I create as the substructure of my pieces. I follow the patterns and marks that the leaves impart with hand stitch. I like to use hand stitch in a gestural way - making marks spontaneously and intuitively with different types of threads and yarns. Often the colour palette is suggested by the tones and colours offered by the eco printed plants. I try to gather botanicals close to home and explore plants that have a long time connection to where I live. Learning about the leaves and trees is part of my creative exploration. I like to know what the physical and chemical properties of the botanicals are as well as the traditional uses by First Nations people. I am inspired by the local and global community of fibre artists who explore using materials sustainably and creatively.
