Home of fEfErMuMMs
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I was born Ellaine Caplan and raised in St. Catharines, a quiet city in southern Ontario. Even as a child, I loved crafts and was always making things with my hands. My mother, who taught me to knit, still tells how my nursery-school teacher, Miss Currie, saw my artwork and praised me for what she considered my natural talent. I did it all: embroidery, needlepoint, knitting, sewing, crocheting, macramé, rug hooking, sculpting, painting—even designing my own creations for my beloved Barbie doll. Naturally, there were disappointments, too. After applying to be a counselor at a summer camp in Orillia, Ontario, I was devastated to wind up in the tuck shop instead of the “fine arts” department. To this day, I’ve lived up to my promise never to send my children to that camp. When the time came for university, I had my sights set on the Ontario College of Art. But in those days, the OCA granted a diploma, not a university degree—and my parents wouldn’t hear of it. So I went to York University for a “real" education in psychology, only to discover the newly created Fine Arts Department. Each year, I took more and more fine arts classes, and by my fourth year, I was immersed in nothing but. Next came the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Education and a Bachelor’s degree in Art Education, entitling me to become a high school art teacher. I landed a job with the Board of Education in Scarborough (a Metropolitan Toronto municipality), where my love of fibre really took off. I was on staff with another fibre person and together we developed a Grade 12 textiles course that covered spinning, dyeing, weaving, needlepoint, knitting—everything I loved. On my own time, I wove large freeform wall hangings of handspun and dyed wool, and had my first one-woman show at the gallery in the Scarborough Civic Centre. A Club Med holiday in Playa Blanca, Mexico, introduced me to painting on silk with French dyes, and I started painting garments, scarves and challah covers for the Jewish Sabbath. When boutiques in downtown Toronto began selling my creations, I was featured in articles in the Toronto Globe and Mail (Canada’s national newspaper). At this point, I left teaching to devote myself to my own art. But first came more training at the Ontario College of Art (finally!), where I met some wonderful teachers who exposed me to machine knitting. When pregnancy with my first son, Benji, forced me to stop using toxic French dyes, I enrolled in a course on the complicated knitting machine at Toronto’s George Brown College—a tough slog for someone who is not mechanically inclined. But when my cousin gave birth to a son, I knitted a blanket with his name—and so began my long and rewarding career as the Babyblanketlady! My first blanket (made of Sayelle) looked nothing like the blankets to come, but I was developing my style through experimentation. After I found a source for cotton in a wide array of fabulous colours, people began placing orders—not just for blankets, but baby sweaters, dresses and even personalized adult sweaters and pillows. People with boats asked me to add the boat’s name to their knitted items. Suddenly business was booming. In fact, I was so busy that while waiting to give birth to my twins, Cory and Robyn, I continued crocheting the edges around blankets in the labour room! By then, we had moved into a large and very beige house, which prompted me to study faux finishing and stenciling at Toronto’s Seneca College. But this was just a springboard for proper training at the Finishing School in Great Neck, N.Y., plus membership in the Stencil Artisans League. Soon, I was being hired to paint in other people’s homes—while still making baby blankets, of course. There were roadblocks, too. The firm that manufactured knitting machines stopped doing so, and the company where I bought cotton for more than 18 years went bust. Nevertheless, through it all, the blankets still came, as did new inspiration and new classes in multi-media painting at the Arrowmont School of Arts of Crafts in the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee. I also had the great privilege of studying with acclaimed fibre artist and dollmaker Akira Blount. More recently, I and my sister Judi attended Artfest, a wonderful retreat organized by the talented Teesha Moore in Port Townsend, Washington. I’ve loved studying and creating with Claudine Hellmuth, Janet Cooper, Lesley Riley, Juliana Coles, Lynne Perrella and Michael de Meng, to name a few. Why have I flourished as an artist? Because I’ve been blessed with incredible children, family, friends, teachers and patrons. I’m also happy to have finally found my love, Leo. So thanks for stopping by. Now you know a bit more about the person behind the baby blankets that you’ve come to love. I feel privileged that so many children call my creations their "blankie", where they cuddle for comfort and warmth. To you all, my deepest thanks for making me "The Babyblanketlady".
Special Thanks A special thank you to those friends and family that have helped me get this website off the ground after so many years of thinking about it ! Thank you Michael, Beth, Dorothy, Henry and Leo. |
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