A trained horticulturalist with a degree in agriculture, Shari was first exposed to basketry in 1999 when she took her first course at the Cape Breton Centre for Craft and Design. “The endless possibilities for form and function attracted me instantly to basketry when I was introduced to it. The added pleasure is finding elements from nature that blend in beautifully with a new basket to provide the finishing touch!”

Shari continues to attend upgrading course, as well as pursuing numerous self-training sessions.

Having worked with fiber for the last twenty years, Shari finds she really enjoys working with rattan because of its flexibility for design and its ability to absorb color readily. Shari’s method of employing a variety of basketry techniques within the same piece allows for both quality of construction and creative input. Shari resides in Sydney, where she divides her time between basketry and gardening.

Linda Doyon, Resident Potter at Arts North, and one of its founding artists, has spent more than 25 years exploring the highlands of northern Cape Breton. During this time Linda has hiked, cycled, skied, snow shoed and kayaked along the coast and through the wilderness, taking the time to observe its flora and fauna in its native, year-round habitat.

Linda works with her staff at Smelt Brook Studio to interpret her experiences with Cape Breton’s wilderness through pottery pieces that showcase the wonderfully varied landscapes through which she travels. The studio’s use of floral and animal motifs, coupled with its wide range of glaze colors and functional and decorative shapes has established Smelt Brook Studio as one of the island’s most popular potteries.

See Smelt Brook Studio’s online offerings here, or at Arts North, Cape North, Cape Breton.

Maggie began rug hooking in 1991 while involved in the restoration of an historic building in Sydney, when she decided that the stairs to the structure required a traditional covering. Locating a source of instruction, she undertook to learn the art of rug hooking, little suspecting that it would lead to a long-term relationship with this process.

Maggie is a member of the Rug Hooking Society of Nova Scotia, through which she attends annual technique seminars. Her work has been juried and exhibited at the Cape Breton Centre for Craft and Design in Sydney and at the Mary Black Gallery in Halifax, and she teaches at the Cape Breton Center for Craft and Design.

Joanne began her artistic career when she was sixteen, working as a pottery assistant at Smelt Brook Studio. In the late eighties Joanne was introduced to the stenciling techniques employed in the creation of traditional canvas floorcloths. While collaborating with designer Linda Doyon, Joanne evolved her stenciling style on canvas.

Joanne executes all of the stenciled images on the Smelt Brook Studio floorcloths, and continues to work with Linda in the design and execution of new stencil subjects and patterns.

Joyce Brown has lived her entire life in northern Cape Breton. The wife of an oyster farmer, much of her time is spent “on the water”, working the family oyster lease. It is here that she has seen first hand the beauty of the wild creatures that inhabit the air, land and water. It is on the water that Joyce finds the peace and tranquility that comes with early mornings and late evenings spent on calm waters.

Joyce chose silk as her medium of expression because it is a natural fiber whose look and feel allows her to express the subjects she’s chosen. She feels that the sense of fluidity imparted by the fabric contributes to her interpretation of the waters of the oceans and harbors that nourish the wildlife so inspiring to her work.

Janet learned to weave at the Cape Breton Centre for Craft and Design when she moved to Cape Breton in 1994, and has been teaching weaving there since 2000.

A member of the Sydney Handweavers' Guild, she has been the Atlantic Provinces’ representative to the Handweavers' Guild of America since 2000. For the past 10 years Janet has demonstrated her craft at numerous venues across Cape Breton.

Janet indulges her fiber habit by buying many small amounts of fiber in different colors and textures, and has thus developed a style that combines a wide variety of colors and fibers in a single piece. In this way she interprets the traditional craft of weaving in a contemporary way.

Alison was introduced to spinning and weaving as a teenager while baby-sitting in Edmonton. About a year later, she bought a spinning wheel and has been acquiring equipment and skills ever since. She is mostly self taught, but also has taken weaving and textile design courses at Capilano College in North Vancouver, as well as textile related workshops in Vancouver, Toronto and, for the last thirteen years, in Nova Scotia.

In 2002 Alison was awarded the “Best Body of Work” at the Nova Scotia Designer Craft Council’s Christmas show, and she has also exhibited at the “Show of Hands” gallery in Toronto.

Since her initial introduction to the craft the endless combinations of structure, pattern, texture and colour in textiles all working together, along with their cultural and historic significance, has continually fascinated her.

In her current work Alison tries to produce a high quality, unique fabric that, at first, may seem simple but reveals its secrets over time. For example, the wearer of one of her scarves may perhaps notice before putting it away for the summer, how the pattern resolves at the edges or how the colours respond to changing light and movement. Alison trusts that such intricate details will compel the wearer to love and appreciate the scarf more and more over time.

Lorna started quilting as a creative outlet. “Fabrics inspire me... the colors, the prints, the textures. They're just begging to be cut up and put back together in new and innovative designs.

Through books, magazines and workshops, she’s learned new techniques to simplify even the most complicated of patterns. This goes very well with her addiction to gadgets; every new development in the quilting world seems to demand a new piece of special equipment, which Lorna feels she must try.

Lorna enjoys passing on her acquired knowledge to her loyal group of students at the Cape Breton Center for Craft and Design in Sydney. She has been teaching quilting classes there since 1994 and still enjoys the challenge of expressing herself through quilts and the satisfaction of inspiring her students to achieve their goals.

Linda Doyon of Smelt Brook Studio occasionally "dabbles" in stichery, drawing upon her experiences with the wildlife of Cape Breton for inspiration.

Using recycled wool from a variety of souces, Linda creates whimsical wall hangings and blankets featuring creatures of the land, sea and air.

Linda produces a limited number of these woolens per year, and they are only available at the Arts North gallery.

Ashley’s artistic career has been one of individual exploration assisted at times by guidance from experienced mentors. The daughter of silversmith/jeweler Johanna Padelt, who also exhibits at Arts North, Ashley has been creating (and selling) her own pieces since the age of six. Beginning with jewelry, Ashley moved on to beading, and eventually discovered her love of sewing after receiving a sewing machine as a birthday present. She benefited from the advice of her neighbor, a professional quilt artist who took Ashley on as an “unofficial student”, and Ashley’s career was launched. Ashley’s love of Cape Breton is evident in the themes she employs in her work, be it the ocean or a rustic cabin in moonlight.

Claudia, who lives in South Harbour, revels in the skylines and seascapes of northern Cape Breton Island, calling them "...the subjects nearest my heart...". Claudia exoresses her love of such images in her small hooked rugs.

She uses wool yarns to impart a richness, depth and subtlety of colour to her work, finding that the wool "...express(es) these landscapes well..". Claudia is also fond of subjects such as fishing boats and flowering plants.

For Claudia's hooked pieces she uses 80-100% wool, both commercially dyed and hand-dyed, using plant materials such as dandelion roots, onion skins and seaweed. The yarns are hooked roughly 70 loops to the inch on Scottish burlap or linen backing.

It's through the hand dying "as needed" that Claudia is able to choose colors that so accurately and imaginatively capture the color variations of northern Cape Breton's sky, water and forests.

Johanna has been involved in crafting silver jewellery since 1971. She describes the inspirations for her designs as coming “…both from within…personal and archetypal motifs………and from without……forms taken from nature.”

She concerns herself with the shaping and forging of metal, and often combines it with semi-precious stones and found materials such as wood, feathers and shells.

Despite the many changes in design her work has experienced over the years, the emphasis in her jewellery, as in her life, has remained consistently on simplicity.

In 1995, experimenting with reproduction of photographs, Suzanne developed a technique that produces what she named (and trademarked) “Bioprints”. By using high tech color reproduction equipment as a camera and combining her passion for plants she has had extraordinary results.

All subject material in Bioprints is from her garden, or the woods, fields and beaches nearby her home and studio in Western Cape Breton.

Bioprints are produced in limited numbers with archival colors on acid free paper, and are available matted or frame.

"Variations On A Theme Of Solitude"

Dennis Doyon, manager of Arts North and guide for Sea Spray Outdoor Adventures, carries a camera with him constantly. Whether hiking, paddling, cycling, snow shoeing or skiing, the camera is strapped to his chest at the ready.

All of the scenic images on this site were taken by Dennis during his tours, and as a collection they speak to the opportunities for reflective solitude enjoyed by visitors to northern Cape Breton.

Jo-Ann Dziubek-MacDonald has been painting with watercolor since 1993. She has always loved painting and drawing and describes watercolor as the perfect medium with which to express herself. Some of her favorite subjects are florals, quilts and angels. “I love bright, vivid color and I love to show that in my paintings.”

A member of Visual Arts Nova Scotia and the Cape Breton Artists Association, her work has been exhibited in group shows and local galleries, and in private collections throughout Canada and the United States . She currently lives in Sydney, NS with her husband, Bruce and sons Andrew and Ethan.