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Start your Sooke adventure with a visit to "Exhibit Room III" Gallery Shoppe, a fibre works gallery featuring the unique work of artist Sheila Beech.
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 Hand-made felt is one of the earliest forms of material making. Adapting the ancestral techniques of the Desert Nomads this plush, brilliantly coloured felt is made on site and crafted into wearable art, sweaters and vests, fibre scuplture, whimsical cats, wall pieces and Sheila's well known GnomeKnocker slippers (they're not allowed to match!).
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 Sheila has made felt for New York Designer, Donna Karan, and for the opera "die Frau ohn Schatten" at the Metropolitan Opera, New York City, December 2001. Sheila's work can be found in collections world wide.
Exhibit Room III is one of six galleries included in the Sooke Studio Tour (brochures available). The group is currently marketing learning tours through Tourism Victoria and the world famous Sooke Harbour House.
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Introduction to Sheila, the Artist
Sheila Beech never was one to 'colour within the lines". In school she was not really considered artistic. She grew up with music, dancing and singing lessons and actually had a love of opera as a young child, but her main loves were sports and play. In her childhood she was often found putting on plays with the neighbourhood children and selling tickets to raise funds for the Red Cross. Her creativity was just beginning to blossom.
With the influence of her English grandmothers, who were avid knitters, Sheila first learned to knit at the age of 16. For years she knit her own clothing. In 1973 she took a spinning and weaving course and started designing patterns. Very soon thereafter she was introduced to felt making and never looked back. She had found her medium but traces of knitting and weaving can still be found in her felt work.
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 Sheila is influenced by three dimensional design using forms from nature in her works. She enjoys experiencing the collaberation between the art and the client when the right piece finds a home. Sheila says "I always feel that the client becomes part of the art, they complete it, as they wear or use it."
In 1999 Sheila was thrilled and surprised to receive a call from the office of New York Fashion Designer, Donna Karan. Her GnomeKnocker Slippers had been seen in a shop at Whistler, B.C. and the designer wanted felt to make accessories for her newest line. The custom dyed order was completed and the work was sold in her Madison Avenue store in Ner York, New York.
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One year later she was contacted by the Metropolitan Opera to make felt for coats for the opera "die Frau ohne Schatten" being held December 2001 to January 2002. Sheila was thrilled with this challenge, and she was even more excited when the opportunity arose to go to New York to experience the opera, see her work in 'action', and visit her daughter.
 Sheila continues to experiment with exciting new designs, as well as using new wools and exotic fibres. Browsers are always welcome in her shop, "Exhibit Room III". There is always something new to behold!
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