.

........................................................................................................................................................Now in Mahone Bay Nova Scotia.

ABOUT HEIDI





















For as long as I can remember I have been intrigued by plants and animals. That I should work as an artist, each and every day, using natural fibres, is as unexpected as inevitable. As a student of Agricultural sciences I have had the opportunity to examine the natural world from an academic perspective. Today I explore the world as a fibre artist. Hand dyed, hand spun textiles, felted works hooked rugs and stitching all serve a compulsion to create. Each new piece invites the possibility of challenge, connection, grounding and intimacy for myself and, perhaps, for others.


Something about me….


Coming to work in fibre arts has been a happy marriage of my academic studies in Animal sciences and my early exposure to visual arts.
I grew up roaming the great expanse that was my father’s photography studio.
His business occupied the basement level of a huge brick building on Monkland Avenue in Montreal. While my father staged backdrops, lighting and composition my mother helped with administrative details in the office. Quite literally, I spent all of my preschool days absorbing the open space, the creative air and the entrepreneurial work ethic that played out in front of me.

Home was on the West Island of Montreal, seemingly far from the fast paced inner core.
The, then rural, edge of suburbia provided the great outdoors, gardens and animals, animals, animals. Cats always, dogs often, a never ending parade of orphaned birds, as well as rabbits, frogs, salamanders and so on.
Textiles were prevalent as well. With a European heritage my brothers, my sister and I were all trained in needle tapestry. All the while my live-in grandmother was occupied in the creation of extraordinary embroidery work, that with which she had once made a living, providing for herself and her children upon arrival in Canada.
This was the formative mix that eventually led to London-Wul Fibre Arts. Fibre production allowed to me to raise animals in a no-kill no-sell environment, fed my appetite for textiles and provided me the opportunity to once again, spend my days in a studio. My studio!

I have worked in hand dyeing, spinning, felting and knitting for many years.
I have doodled and sketched and painted always.
More recently, I have been drawn to quilting in quest of a more graphic textile medium.
Without background, I leapt into quilting via the City and Guilds of London under the tutelage of Laura Kemshall. This was a singular experience for me, a new path.
At present much of my quilted work is experimental.
All incorporates very personal elements, some evident and others more elusive.


My life and work is guided by nature.



ART

2013 - featured artist in A Rug Hookers Guide to the Yarniverse, author Judy Taylor
2012 -  With Distinction: City and Guilds, Creative Design / Textiles 
2010-2012 textile studies under Laura Kemshall: City and Guilds, Staffordshire England
2011 - featured artist in Hooked rug Portraits, author Anne-Marie Littenberg

2009 - Viewers choice award , Shelburne museum “Hooked in the Mountains" "Angus"
2009 - Viewers choice award, Shelburne museum “Hooked in the Mountains" "Captain Fantastic"

2009- solo exhibit Cumberland County
2009- work presented to the right Honourable Michaelle Jean, Governer General
2009 - work presented to Artist Robert Bateman

2007 – work featured in “One of a Kind Show” Fashion feature, Toronto, Ont

2007 – guest speaker “The Artful Rug Hooker” symposium, Amherst, Nova Scotia

2006 – guest speaker, Nova Scotia Rug Hooking Association AGM

2006 – attended by invitation, Le Salon des métiers d’Art, Capitol Theatre, Moncton, NB

2006 – attended by invitation, Le festival des Artisans a l’oeuvre

2006 – exhibited at the Shelburne museum “Hooked in the Mountains 2006”, Shelburne Vermont

2006 – commissioned work presented to Karen Kain

2006 – commissioned work presented to the Belgium Consulate

2006 – commissioned work presented to the French consulate

2005 – attended by invitation, Le Salon des métiers d’Art, Capitol Theatre, Moncton, NB

2005– Exhibited with Les hookeuses de bor d’, lo …En Prenant Ma Marche…., City Hall,Moncton, NB

2005 – attended by invitation, Le festival des Artisans a l’oeuvre

2005 – hand dyed work featured at the Keilor House Museum

2000- juried into Fine Arts and Crafts salon, Sackville NB
1996 – began Hand Spinning as an apprentice to Betty Adams at the Dorchester Textile museum


MEDIA AND PUBLICATIONS


A Rug Hookers Guide to the Yarniverse, author Judy Taylor
Hooked rug Portraits, author Anne-Marie Littenberg
Canada East This week "London-Wul is Winning Awards"

Boston Sunday Globe "A Fiber Artist's patterned Life in New Brunswick"
National Post "Insiders Guide"
Moncton Times and Transcript "Nature Inspires at London-Wul Fibre Arts"
Fiber Arts Magazine "Angora paradise in Canada"
Progress Magazine “Creativity Issue”
The Moncton Times and Transcript, “National Award Winners”
The New Brunswick Telegraph Journal, “NB Firms Among National Award Winners”
Downhome Magazine “
The New Brunswick Telegraph Journal, “Back to the Future”
The Moncton Times and Transcript, “Museum puts New Spin on Time-Honoured Art”
The Globe and Mail National “Recognizing Canada’s Leaders in Tourism”
The Atlantic Co-Operator, “Faith and Angora”
West Coast Knitters News, shop feature
The Canadian Guild of Knitters, shop feature

The Moncton Times and Transcript, “Artisans Keep Tradition Alive”
The Dieppe Journal, Horticulture club visits London-Wul
L’Acadie Nouvelle, Economusee Opens

Rug Hooking Magazine, “ Heidi Wulfraat and Her London-Wul Farm”

The New Brunswick Telegraph Journal, “Fibre Farm Finds new Spinoff in Tourism”

The Moncton Times and Transcript, “Wool Business Spins Success”

CBC Radio, Custom Spun

The Atlantic Television Network , shop feature

The National Weather Network , farm feature
































01 09 10