You may be wondering, \”What have the nuns been up to since the beginning of the year?\” Well, it\’s been kind busy, what with preparing for a clothing and a solemn profession! In the midst of all these fun activities, we also just concluded a wood carving and icon workshop with Sr. Mary Magdalen, OP, artist extraordinaire from Queen of Peace Monastery in Squamish, British Columbia, Canada (about two hours from Vancouver). Sister has come before several years ago (back in 2001!!) and given wood carving lessons, and she also came to design and carve the front of our tabernacle a few years ago ( maybe 2008 or 2009?). But we realize now that our first carvings were mere beginnings compared to what she helped us to accomplish this time!
The room we transformed into a temporary workshop…
Sr. Mary Christine soon proved to be an expert at wood carving!
Hard at work! You can see Sr. Mary Magdalen sitting down at the far left. Sr. Mary Jeremiah is working beside her, and then Sr. Mary Rose, Cloe, and Sr. Mary Christine.
Sr. Mary Jeremiah works on her Holy Spirit carving
Sanding the edges is an essential part of finishing, as Sr. Mary Giuse knows
Sr. Mary Rose with her lovely carving.
Sr. Irma with her Dominican Jubilee carving! Hers is the only carving that got a touch of color. The rest were simply treated with clear varnish.
We also learned how to make icons by mounting pictures or posters to pieces of wood. Very interesting work and the results are great! Cloe and Sr. Mary Jeremiah are trimming a large picture which they will mount.
Cloe touches up a picture of St. Catherine of Siena
Sr. Irma with an icon of the Holy Family
We had such a wonderful time learning with Sr. Mary Magdalen, and we are so grateful to her community for allowing Sister to spend so much time with us! Hopefully she can return some time and teach us more! Meanwhile, some of the sisters here hope to set up a wood carving and icon mounting workshop in one of our old barns. Who knows where this will lead? More details to follow!
Dominican Life on Lotus Lane 
Beautiful work, Sisters! Perhaps at some point in the future your creations will be available to buy? 🙂
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