Wood lover has a bat cave – Don’t mess with a soprano – Castanet.net

Sue Skinner - Feb 9, 2021 / 11:00 am | Story: 324488

Photo: Contributed

John Rousseau, an inventive composer of wood furniture and buildings, calls Summerland his bat cave.

He must like it because he has spent 30 of his 38 years there.

The Batcave was Batmans secret headquarters and command centre. John feels Summerland is a sanctum where he can wait.

It is where he centres his creativeness while waiting for a tsunami of projects he knows are on the way from urbanites around the world seeking the highest calibre of home furnishings.

People want quality. I create pieces families will fight over when bequeathment comes, pieces that live for generations, he said.

As I sat across from him, I felt the tsunami had already arrived. His passion is palpable, and our conversation is made more vibrant from his energy and love of all things wood.

He learned two valuable skills from his dad, John how to work with wood and how to sell. His dad taught him at a young age to make designer birdhouses to earn money.

He felt like a millionaire when he sold all of them at the princely price of $20 each.

As much as he enjoyed his birdhouse venture, John discovered sports and music while at school. He needed to be the fastest runner and to be the best on stage, a drive that has never left him.

He enjoyed singing and writing songs and started a three-piece band, Lucy Psychosis, that produced three albums by Grade 12. In those days, music was his life.

He was going to attend Selkirk College in Castlegar, but reality set in. A musicians life could easily lead to poverty, not something he wanted.

He still plays and composes and did a live concert in Summerland in 2016, but he plays for fun these days.

The idea of building quality items out of wood was still a thought, but he moved to the service world and enjoyed working at restaurants and wineries for a few years.

A pivotal point came after a gruellingly busy day when his fellow worker, a 50-year-old, sweating and exhausted, turned and said, Im too old for this.

John realized at that moment, he was as well if he wanted to do something with his life.

Just like Batmans daytime persona, Bruce Wayne, a businessman and entrepreneur, John began developing his life and business plan.

He needed his Robin.

He met Karen, an interior designer, seamstress, silversmith and jewelry maker while tile setting. The work relationship turned to romance and today they are married with two young girls.

He enjoyed tile setting, but his heart was always in wood. Custom building in wood gives him the freedom to create.

Today, he surrounds himself with a team of like-minded craftsmen he picked for specific contracts. They are men who value family and work balance, gentlemen in overalls, who share his passion for quality work.

Currently, he is building a one-of-a-kind studio/shop for his future contracts. It will be a huge building using over 60,000 square feet of lumber. A real neat bat cave.

He showed me a picture of a self-designed joint using the cruciform style a specific type of joint that has four spaces formed by welding of three plates of metal at right angles. His is surrounded by perfectly fitted slots of wood.

He just recently finished a 14-month adventure with Cedar Creek Wineries. Look here to see some of his recent work. Guitar players will love his Guitar Garage on this video. This is a multi-drawered cabinet designed to hold your guitars. Very cool.

What makes his work special? Every square inch is designed and thought about.

The iPad is always with him, so he can troubleshoot challenges immediately.

There is no time wasted on site, thus a clarity of ideas is created between the client and him.

His favourite client is someone who wants to work with him step by step. He loves to create and curate together with them.

We had been talking for over an hour and his passion still oozed out of him. He talked about the living qualities of wood and how it changes continually.

What does he plan for the future? His dreams arent small and he thanks his mom for this particular idea.

The future will be a challenge between science and tech, he said.

By 2032, he wants to build a self-sustaining smart hut in the wilderness. Just like the huts hikers travel to in the backcountry.

Engineering, architectural, science students, and lovers of wood will hike to this hut and monitor year round the changes Mother Nature makes on such a structure. A building where students can truly experiment, share and learn from.

In the meantime, he will continue to build beautiful and unique creations.

What is his kryptonite? Batman always kept some in his safe in the bat cave.

Living in the shadow of your potential.

I have no fear that he will ever do that.

If you pass Summerland at night and see a glow surrounding it, dont worry, it is just that burning passion of John Rousseau lighting up the night.

Contributed - Feb 2, 2021 / 6:00 am | Story: 323765

Note Photography, Mariel Nelms

It was the fastest sell out in 27 years at Metchosin International Summer School of the Arts (MISSA) for any of their courses.

MISSA provides high calibre specialized workshops with world renowned teachers in the field of choice.

Who was this teacher and how did he get such an international reputation?

Visionary potter Peter Flanagans journey was not a solo one nor one that started last year. Peter with Daphne, his artistic partner, and wife, have created beauty and pushed the artistic boundaries of porcelain ceramics to new heights and size.

Daphne, daughter of Peg and Des Loan, grew up in her parents gallery, Okanagan Pottery, which they started in 1968. Most Okanagan people knew this blue-grey building on the right going out of Peachland on the way to Penticton. The iconic building was only recently torn down.

She loved her family and the world of clay and wanted to go to school to learn more, so she enrolled at the Kootenay School of Art in Nelson.

Peter grew up in Victoria and always drew and painted as a kid. His mom studied design and his dad was a lover of architecture and a draftsman who also taught Peter carpentry and manual skills.

Peter loved going to art galleries as a kid, decided to pursue art and enrolled at the Courtenay School of Arts.

He knew nothing about pottery, but he had to take an introductory pottery class, and met Daphne.

Her nose was into a pot when we first met, he said.

It was early December, 1979, everyone had left the studio, but they stayed to make sure the heat of the wood-fired kiln was kept constant.

It was so cold that the mortar on the brick door froze when they were bricking it up, a far cry from todaysgas-fired kilns.

The pottery was fired and so was their lifelong teamwork.

It takes dedication, love, and understanding of the long hours and not always great results with constant fortitude to work together.

They both attended the University of Victoria, where Peter received a degree in art history.

Soon they moved to the Okanagan and after just five years, they had a 2 1/2 year waiting list for their dinnerware. It didnt take long for people to realize how good they were.

Peters career got a real boost in 1989 when he was one of five winners from around the world in the Second International Cara Ceramics Competition in Mino, Japan.

Each judge was allowed to pick one favourite competitor. The Japanese judge picked his bowl, lightly coloured deep with subtle flora inside and his -to become-signature triangles on the rim.

Their family grew and for a time, Peter left pottery and entered the corporate world.

This time away from his art created an itch to get back and to stretch to see what limitations he could squash. He knew with Daphne they would be the perfect duo for innovation.

The synergy between Peter and Daphne is palpable; you can feel it when you are in the room with them. Together, one idea grows out of another, their teamwork feeds their creativity. The idea of the huge charger was born.

I met them when they invited me into their home.

I grew up in the Pacific Northwest surrounded by wood, so when I sat at their long wooden table, warmed by a real wood fire, it was like being home with great friends, such is their hospitality.

I drank dandelion tea from a mug they designed and made, which felt like it was made for me. It was pretty, fit well into my hand and kept the tea warm.

It was hard to look directly at them because I was surrounded by their phenomenal works of art. I felt like a kid in the worlds best candy store, so much to see and experience.

The huge porcelain ceramic chargers huge plates on steroids facing me were the result of an idea hatched from his hiatus in the corporate world.

The size was difficult to master some are in excess of 30 inches in diameter. The size, weight, large surface, often not flat, can easily collapse.

Part of the process is fascinating and elusive you have to have a huge leap of faith.

Bases of material share their common character, but get their uniqueness from the trace elements from the environment, Peter said.

Ah, clay from the Okanagan will be different from clay from somewhere else. He uses locally sourced materials.

They also began to experiment with wood ash for their glazes. They love ash from pine, fir, and cherry wood. Peter explained that it becomes fluid when fired and pools to create surface texture and colour.

It takes both of them to move these chargers into the kiln very carefully and they are fired at1,300 Centigrade for 24 hours, and then cooled for 48 hours.

These chargers have intricate centres that are three dimensional, some with a crackle type of glaze. They lamented about how tricky these centres are and how many collapsed in the creation process.

Their size, designed for large wall spaces, take up almost all the space in the kiln. Miscalculations can be costly in time and money.

Their innovation of glazes and construction and locally sourced materials when possible make their chargers unique pieces of art.

It is no wonder potters around the world are anxious to learn from him and he is in demand as a teacher for his understanding of the different processes needed.

Words are inadequate to describe the majesty of these creations. You need to see them up close and personal.

You will be able to do this Oct. 9 to Nov. 14, at the Wood, Clay and Canvas exhibition, Peachland Art Gallery and at the Circle Craft Gallery, Granville Island, Vancouver for September.

Alas, my time with them came to an end much too quickly. I felt a sense of loss that happens when you leave a place of peace, creativity, and greatness.

Sigh.

Sue Skinner - Jan 26, 2021 / 6:00 am | Story: 322952

Photo: Contributed

Rio conjures up visions of vibrant colours, sultry movement, and joy.

I hope you arent thinking Brazil because Im thinking of Kelownas own maker of hats.

Rio Branner is a milliner, a hat maker. Her studio is full of possibilities for someone wanting to be unique, fashionable, unforgettable, and, dare I say, seductive?

She is just the creative personable artist to make your ideas come to life.

A person who makes hats is a milliner. The word comes from the 15th Century where the Duchy of Milan in Italy was famous for the Millayne bonnet.

This word eventually reached England and became known as a maker of caps hats for men and bonnets hats for women.

Hats became so popular that no one left the house without one.

Hats went out of vogue in the 19th Century. Some believe it was the car that brought on the demise and some blame Dwight Eisenhowers building of highways, making car travel more popular, and the height of the inside of the car being non-conducive to wear a hat inside.

Whatever the reason, hat popularity certainly waned.

Rio wants to bring custom-made hats back into popularity in B.C.

She didnt have to go far for inspiration. Her mother, Robbin Roberts, was a potter and her grandmother, June Bell, had a berry and poultry farm on Bell Road in Kelowna.

Grandma June was resourceful and when she found a plethora of feathers, she started making feather hats. Rio showed me a picture of one of her hats. Fantastic.

Besides Grandma June, hat making has been around since cavemen. Perhaps not hat couture probably just a pelt was thrown over the head for warmth, but people have been wearing hats for a very long time.

More than 43 million baseball hats were sold last year according to Google. Individual unique hats, a lot less.

Rio, a true Kelownian born and raised here was always interested in fashion. After high school, she moved to Victoria and started giving new life to used articles. For 20 years, she made purses and jewelry from reclaimed, previously loved, items.

Hats have always been on my bucket list, she said, something she must do.

To make a hat is time-consuming, expensive, and oh, so creative.

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Wood lover has a bat cave - Don't mess with a soprano - Castanet.net