Mireille Gagnon Moes

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Mireille will be offering a workshop in felting at the Festival Cabane à sucre, guiding participants in a felted flower making project(project sample at right) on Saturday, March 25, from 1pm-4pm. Registration is limited to 8 participants. REGISTER NOW!

Mireille Gagnon Moes was born in Joliette, Quebec, the eldest of eight children. She works from her studio located on the ground floor of the home her and her husband designed and built in 1985 on St. Joseph Island. Her journey with textile and fibre exploration was initiated at the sight of sheep in the fields on St. Joseph Island.  She became fascinated with the idea of transforming the raw fibre from a local source (sheep) and processing it from start to finished textile works, thus following the path of a very old and rich textile history and tradition.

Since 1980, Mireille has taken various classes, courses, workshops and seminars in hand spinning, hand weaving, dyeing, surface design, embellishment, dry and wet felting from various venues.  She audited the OHS Master Weaver at Georgian College. She has raised Angora goats for the mohair, which led to marketing her own hand dyed mohair yarn. She no longer raises Angora goats, nor markets hand dyed mohair yarn, however, she has been hand dyeing and marketing mohair socks since 1998.

Mireille has won a few awards: “Best Commercial Display” (1983, Central Algoma Exhibition),  “Most Creative Expression in Fibres”(1986, Algoma Fall Festival),    “Most Successful Functional Work” (1989, Algoma Fall Festival),    “Best of Show, Harriet Black Award” (1991, Algoma Fall Festival),   “Honorable Mention” (1991, Heddle Magazine, Tiny treasure contest),    “Juror’s Choice Award” (2007, Hand & Spirit Juried Exhibition).

From 2000 to 2005, Mireille was a founder and artistic director for Wabi Sabi Fine Craft Exhibition on St. Joseph Island. She has participated in numerous events and organizations promoting, demonstrating, teaching or selling arts such as: Visions Co-Op Art Gallery, Sault Ste Marie Arts Council, Arts at the Dock, Country Road Open House, Algoma School Board’ Artists in Education,   Algoma Fall Festival (Visual Arts), Fibrefest, Sylvan Circle Tour, Sudbury Studio Tour, Four & Friends Art Show.

“Quality over quantity, respect the material, keep it simple, keep learning, keep creating, experiment, re-cycle, re-use, question, avoid trends, keep an open mind….. “ Mireille Moes. Photos of Mireille’s work can be found at www.Flickr.com/fleurdefibre and at Fleurdefibre by Mireille Gagnon Moes on Facebook Public Page.