General Description of Some of the Artwork I get up to:
While my intent with the latest website re-design is to set up an ongoing blog detailing my current doings, here's a quick recap of some of the arts that keep me busy and up to all the right kinds of trouble.
Hand-Painted Silk
Arashi Shibori
These beautiful scarves are handpainted in a centuries-old Japanese
technique, being explored anew in Northern California: the art of
Arashi Shibori. Silk is folded and wrapped around a core, then
scrunched to make a pattern of mountain-and-valley folds. The
manipulated silk is then hand painted with dyes, the palette of colors
mixing further in the brushstrokes and in the drying process. Heat-set
to be colorfast, the scarves are then given a final rinse and ironed,
and tagged with a unique number and information on their care.
Coptic Stitch Hand-bound Journals
I am extremely fond of the Coptic stitch binding process, one of the
oldest forms on the planet for putting paper and covers together this
shape of a book. It's an exposed-spine binding, which means you see the
sections of paper from the back, and can play Eye-Spy between them
while working in the journal! The stitching creates a decorative
chain-effect across the back of the book.
Post-it Note Pads
3.1 inches square
Decorative papers or handpainted silk on book board with book tape
binding, with a 3" square pad of stickie-notes. A great way to have
durable, functional art you can carry around in your pocket or bag! Let
us choose the color, or pick color ranges in your purchase comment.
Handweaving
I grew up in a fiber-arts household and am a second-generation weaver,
basket-maker, and fiber artist, and countless-generations-rich
crocheter and knitter. My mother taught through the Weavers Guild of
Minnesota, and across her ten-year stroll through an MFA in the Design
Department, focusing on Textiles, at the University of Minnesota. The
workshops she took and folks she studied with were in and out of our
home, and she brought home her studies and allowed us to play along.
Just as I learned ledger lines and page design and layout at her elbow
as a child first learning my letters at all, so I was exposed to and
began to soak up a love of fiber arts.
The first scarf I ever wove is Peruvian Alpaca in three natural colors,
purchased at Depth
of Field at 425 Cedar Street in Minneapolis in about 1971; it was
woven on a Kircher 16" rigid heddle frame loom.
The Weavers
Guild of Minnesota has moved a few times over the past 40 eyars,
from their first physical digs at Como & Carter, to Dania Hall just
down from Cedar-Riverside, then to the Chittenden & Eastman
Building on University just into St. Paul, and they are now gladly
housed in the Textile
Center of Minnesota at 3000 University Avenue just into
Minneapolis! I myself removed to California in 1993, and didn't come
back to weaving again, except for my trusty inkle loom, until 1998.
In 2006, however, a family-owned loom followed me home, and I am now
possessed of a 40-inch cherrywood Norwood four-harness floor loom,
which is a joy to work with. Color has Arrived!
My ongoing love-affair with the inkle loom continues, as I churn out
items from straps for camping gear in cotton twine to fancy edge-trim
in Manos del Uruguay heavy kettle-dyed wools for jacket facings.
I wrote an article published in the Fall 2008 issue of the online
weaving magazine, WeaveZine, which remains archived as a good how-to
piece with pix, here.
I'm a member of the Black Sheep Handweavers Guild that meets Third
Thursdays on the Peninsula, and the fiber spinner's guild, Spindles
& Flyers that meets last Sundays in El Cerrito. I gather with
spinners on Monday nights at a friend's home, and host an ongoing
drop-in open studio weaving session for frame loom weavers in my home
studio on Tuesday mornings since the summer of 2010. There's a Complex
Braiding study group connected with the Santa Cruz
Weavers Guild, a curious and creative bunch of good folk.
I weave in my home studio, and (rarely) sell through art shows and
occasionally at online galleries. I am available for cooperative study
sessions and am plotting workshops here in my studio and beyond. Some
resources I love: I'm an active fan of the fibery goodness social media
website Ravelry who
have incorporated weavers and our projects since December, 2009 and am
a member of the community over at Weavolution.
Check out WeaveZine,
the online weaving magazine, and home of the WeaveCast
internet radio program, which last can also be found through
iTunes.
Teaching
I host an ongoing Open Studio rigid heddle frame loom weaving session
in my home studio, Tuesday mornings 9:30 - Noon, Redwood City. Whether
you want one-time assistance in warping your loom, or the company of a
stalwart community of folks exploring in concert just what can be done
on a rigid heddle frame loom, you're more than welcome.
Workshop in Handweaving, Pantheacon 2011. Let's do it
again! Ready to put card-weaving into the hands of weavers, for
take-away projects, this year with informational pamphlets and tools
for sale.
Workshop in Handweaving, Pantheacon 2010. I put a small hands-on
project into the hands of around 58 weavers at Pantheacon in February
2010, many tablet-weaving samplers and patch- or pocket- pieces on
small cardboard looms went home with folks; we had three inkle looms,
two table looms, and one woman brought her tapestry loom to warp up and
troubleshoot. A nice taster, with contacts and info for folks to take
away. Very satisfying.
I gave a workshop on Beginning Frame Loom Weaving for Green Planet
Yarn in Campbell, CA, 11 April, 2009, using (and selling!) the
shop's four Glimåkra Emilia frame looms, and enjoy a mutual referral
relationship with the store.
I am available to teach beginning frame loom weaving as a one-day
workshop, inkle loom basics as a four-hour workshop, and am open to
individual or group tutoring, as well as collaborative projects and
study sessions.