Woven Images

Back in November Susan Buss (an ABK weaving instructor) was able to participate in a group showing at the UWM's Inova/Zelazo gallery.  Professor Kyoung ae Cho organized and hung the show which consisted of about 20 pieces.  "Woven Images" was the first of two exhibitions of work by the Department of Visual Art's fibers students and alumni. 

 

 

Susan Buss and her piece entitled "1,100 Prayers". 

 

I'm Late, I'm Late for a Very Important Date

Way back in October, Susan and I attended the 35th annual Wisconsin Spin In.  This year was entitled: Warped Women and Material Men.  Clever.  It was held on the Wahsington County Fairgrounds in West Bend.  While I myself am not interested in learning how to spin (yet!) I can see that it would be a great resource for anyone who is interested.  Lot's of wool, wheels and (best of all) experienced spinners.  Of course, there was a lot of wool already spun, dyed and twisted into wonderfully shaded skeins that I wanted to pop into my mouth.  NO.  Not really.  Well........sort of.  Am I the only person who looks at yarn and thinks of ice cream and delicious carnival treats?  I can't be alone here. 

See?  Doesn't this make your mouth water?

If you did get to the show it was hard to miss the backstrap weavers from Guatemala.  Emy Xicay and Mariquita Lopex were very impressive to watch.  I couldn't get over how quickly they wove, pulling the patterns from their memories. 

I was so impressed that I did end up buying a piece from them.  I know that it is something I would never make myself (having an aversion to really skinny threads)  and I can appreciate all the time and energy that goes into creating a runner this long.  It's around 70 inches.

 

Susan bought some wool and a drop spindle but I haven't heard how that's going.  Maybe she can give us an update soon.  Is that a big enough hint? 

Call for Creations

The holidays are over and it's time to break my silence.  Hello weaving world!  What did YOU make over the holidays (woven or other)?   I have not done too much weaving over the past month.  I finished a rug (that i forgot to take a picture of) and currently have a runner on the loom as a wedding gift for a dear friend.  Other then that I did a LOT of sewing, some quilting and some knitting.  Send me some pictures of what you are currently working on or something that you recently completed.  I would love to post them.

Here are just a couple of the projects I made over the holidays.

I made this skirt and another in a different color for my niece and daughter.  The pattern is from Seams to Me , 24 New Reasons to Love Sewing by Anna Maria Horner.  It's a darling little book with wonderful, colorful projects.  I found it at Half Priced Books and it's so lovely!

This runner started out as a gift for someone else but I liked it so much that I gave it to my sister instead.  The material is a bunch of repurposed stuff from my stash and then I appliqued the circles on the ends and turned them into flowerish decorations.

I got really good at making french knots.

So that's a little bit of what I did, what did YOU do? 

DEMONS, YARNS & TALES: Tapestries by Contemporary Artists

BEATRIZ MILHAZES Carioca, 2008 Wool background, silk floral motif, tapestry 2 x 2m (6′ 7″ x 6′ 7″)Edition of 5 Copyright Beatriz Milhazes.







Opening January 8, 2010 through February 13, 2010

James Cohan Gallery is pleased to present the exhibition Demons, Yarns & Tales featuring hand-
woven tapestries created by thirteen internationally renowned artists, including avaf, Peter Blake,
Gary Hume, Jaime Gili, Francesca Lowe, Beatriz Milhazes, Paul Noble, Grayson Perry,
Shahzia Sikander, Fred Tomaselli, Gavin Turk, Julie Verhoeven, and Kara Walker. The
exhibition was created by the London-based art organization, Banners of Persuasion, who
commissioned each artist to design a tapestry, a medium foreign to his or her usual practice.
Three years in the making, the collection was briefly shown at the end of 2008 at The Dairy,
London and at Miami Basel and is now traveling to James Cohan Gallery for its premiere viewing
in New York. In addition, the gallery will be present a small-scale exhibition of drawings and other
relevant works by selected participating artists. 

Although Tapestry is more often associated with decorative or applied arts and has faded as a
primary art medium in the age of mechanization and mass-production, it has been continually explored by prominent visual artists such as Picasso, Kandinsky, Warhol and more recently Chuck
Close, Craigie Horsefield and William Kentridge. This exhibition actively invites viewers to re-think
and re-address this rich and complex historical medium in the realm of contemporary art practice.

October WHI Meeting

To those of you who missed the October meeting I have this to say, "you poor dears!"  What a great presentation given by Robyn Spady.  I have only been weaving for 7 years so almost everything she had to say was news to me but I think that even more experienced weavers were able to glean some new tricks from out her presentation.  From the Russian Joint to the treadling abacus (ingenious!) to the simple short cuts for determining sett, I found it all fascinating.  I took as many notes as I could but was really happy to hear that Robyn had a booklet of all her tricks that I could purchase for 2 dollars.  They were all gone by the time I got up there but I placed an order and am looking forward to receiving it.  ABK Weaving Center also ordered one so it will be  available for students to reference in the near future.

 I will admit that this was only the 4th WHI meeting that I've ever attended.  The others were slightly, well, soporific.  But I am ecstatic that I decided to go to this one and I will definitely be attending the next one.  Better get my dues paid.

a hair twister for fringe?  how long have you known about this?  and why didn't anyone tell me?

State Fair Weaving Winner

Emily Nie of the Madison Weavers Guild did WHI and her Guild proud at the Wisconsin State Fair.  Emily managed to take home two 1st place, one 2nd place, one 3rd place, one 4th place and the coveted Best In Show ribbon.  Emily came to WHI after winning a membership at last years State Fair.  She has been weaving for 20 years and used to teach at Beloit college.

Here's Emily with her woven dog coat. A couple nights previous to taking this I was woken up by my dog, whimpering and shivering on the bed.  She has a short coat and does not handle the colder temperatures very well.  I covered her with a blanket, decided to knit her a sweater and went back to sleep.  If I can WEAVE her a sweater all the better.  Maybe we can get Emily to share her pattern with us.  I'll have the best dressed Pit Bull in town. 

Annual Fall Yard Sale

The annual sale at Bazaar is going on Oct. 12th thru the 17th.  Bazaar is located in Waukesha for those of you interested.  You can find a map on their home page.  Save 15% -60% off all in stock fabric and trim. This is a good opportunity for all you quilters and sewers to stock up.