A custom piece, born of a fractured window and deep trust
Every custom project begins with a meeting. This one happened at the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair, where I met James O’Sullivan. A sensitive and curious collector, he stopped in front of my work and told me he had been searching for a textile wall piece for quite some time.
He entrusted me with a precious commission: to create a “masterpiece” — something we’d both be proud to share — with just one request: natural colours, and yellow. Everything else was up to me. ✨
That level of trust moved me deeply. It allowed me to dive fully into a creative process that was both free and intuitive.
A fractured window as a starting point
A few days later, I was invited to visit Simon Desmarais’ Melba House, a space that’s both elegant and full of stories. During the tour, Simon pointed out a remarkable detail: a large window had shattered due to the expansion of an impurity in the glass, heated by the sun.
The thermal shock had created a butterfly-shaped fracture, dense and mesmerizing. A kind of controlled chaos — almost poetic. I stood there for a long time, observing and photographing it from every angle. That’s when the spark happened. The piece would be born from that fracture.
An image from Métis River
Not long after, my dear friend and photographer Éliane Cadieux returned from a trip to Métis-sur-Mer with a luminous series of images. One of them stopped me in my tracks: it had exactly the colour palette I had been searching for — ochre yellows, sandy beiges, moss greens, and soft greys, inspired by the Métis River, the light, and the textures of the natural world.
That image became the foundation of my composition. I began reworking it digitally — cutting, layering, simplifying — until a visual textile language began to emerge.
A technique that opened a world
But translating the image’s fragmentation and fluidity required more than just a drawing: it called for a new quilting approach.
Because of the complexity of the curves and visual elements, we chose to work with a raw-edge appliqué technique — placing fabric shapes directly, without folding under the edges, allowing contours and textures to remain alive and expressive.
This technique turned out to be not only perfectly suited for this piece, but also incredibly inspiring for our studio practice. It opened the door to a world of more expressive, organic compositions — and marked a turning point in how we approach textile wall art.
A slow, meticulous, organic process
The piece was then entirely quilted manually, using a free-motion machine quilting technique. Each section required hours of close work: following the rhythm of the design, emphasizing certain lines, building density in some areas and softness in others.
This slow, physical process is central to what we love about textile creation. It gives the work its texture, depth, and quiet strength.
Fragment de la Mitis was born of a chance meeting, a fractured window, an image brought back from the sea, and a rare creative freedom offered by a trusting client.
It is a piece we’re particularly proud of — not only for its visual impact, but for all it sparked within us.
Technical Details
Title : Fragment de la Mitis
Client : James O’Sullivan
Year : 2025
Dimensions : 72 x 96 inches
Techniques :
– Raw-edge appliqué
– Free-motion quilting, manually executed
– Textile composition using natural and upcycled fabrics
Palette: Ochre yellow, sandy beige, moss green, stone grey
Inspiration:
– Fractured glass caused by a thermal impurity
– Photograph from Métis-sur-Mer, by Éliane Cadieux
– Exploration of light, movement, and texture
Type of Commission : Custom textile wall piece
Location: Toronto, Ontario
Photographs ©️ElianeCadieux
