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First year Studio Tour participant, jeweller, Sophia Wagland was born in Toronto but was moved permanently, when she was a child of four—with mom, Ketha Newman and dad, Tim Wagland–to the Newman family property and log cabin on a Monteagle hill top in the early 2000s. She attended local public schools in Maynooth and Bancroft and graduated from North Hastings High School in 2019. Wagland effusively credits her painter mom—a longtime participant, and recent coordinator, in the Studio Tour–for having the most dramatic influence on her creative interests, providing lots of art materials to play with and encouraging her nascent art skills. She also credits trying out a variety of art materials from paper mâché to chalk drawing in the lower school grades; and lino block printing and acrylic painting on canvas in high school—with encouragement from a favourite art teacher. For post secondary education, Wagland chose to attend the University of Toronto to earn a BA in architectural studies that included minors in environmental studies and visual arts. She will be graduating later this spring. With wonderful intensity, she explains the transition and growth from the “fast satisfaction” and relatively quickly-solved and produced art products using chalk and paint in early schooling to slower-paced creations in lino block printing and painting with acrylics on canvas. And how that transition has been a major assistance in her recent transition to creating the intricate jewellery chains and pendants and earrings that she will be displaying at the family property during the Tour. Sophia’s university studies and significant interest in environmentally-friendly thinking and actions has inspired her to search at thrift stores and unique/eclectic shops for the beads and semi-precious stones and pendants and chains that she can marry with her skilled use of jump rings (loops of metal that are used in a variety of gauges and dimensions to attach other jewellery objects to chains; or to be woven/attached together in lengths and variants of sizing and patterning to create simple to elaborate necklaces). She offers them for sale on her Instagram account and takes on commissions that come her way. In the meantime, she assists at the Art Gallery of Bancroft, tending the front desk and assisting with the promotion of events on the gallery’s internet platforms. And she is working on a plan to put her university training in architectural studies—coupled with her intention |
to honour net zero principles and environmentally-sound building materials and processes–to use as a full-time living occupation. Wagland will be displaying her lovely, fascinating creations alongside her mother’s paintings at the family home in Monteagle during the Studio Tour in September (two weekends, the 20-21 & 27-28. Contact her at sophia.wagland@mail.utoronto.ca (Profile writing and photo by Allan O’Marra) |
