Wisconsin author and needle pusher

Friday, March 19th,  at 7pm, Loop Yarn Shop and Boswell present Kyoko Mori , author of  Yarn:Remembering the Way Home, a Wisconsin set memoir that blends the craft of writing and knitting seamlessly.  Go read the book and send me your review.  Then go meet the author.

February WHI meeting

Saturday found me at Gaenslen school and another Wisconsin Handweavers meeting.  The speaker this month was Rita Hagenbruch with the topic "Overshot Odyssey".  If you are conversant in overshot you would have found the session a little flat BUT if you have not yet attempted an overshot pattern, out of trepidation, the session might have lit a fire under you.  Over all it was a good 101 course and Rita's work is highly impressive.  It's been a couple years since I did my last overshot piece and after seeing her coverlets and runners I'm itching to rewarp my loom.  Here are a couple samples of overshot patterns.

General notes from the meeting:
. Membership renewal is coming up.  It's $25 and here's your link.
. Within the next year the WHI newletter will start being sent via email.  Paper copies will still be made available for those that do not have email accounts.
. The 10th anniversary of the collaboration between WHI and ABK Weaving Center will be coming up in April.  The Weaving Center will be hosting a reception to celebrate.  Keep checking back for more details.
. WHI is in need of someone to take over the newletter editor position and they also have two board positions that they are looking to fill.
. The challenge for Loominosity 2010 has been decided on.  Click on the link for more details.
. Fiberwood Studio has their  2nd annual design challenge going on right now.  You can download a Pdf of the rules from their website or find them on Facebook for more information.  The entry fee is $25 and the due date is May 15th.
. ABK Weaving Center is hosting it's spring sale "Art Worx II" in May.  If you are interested in either selling or buying, I will have more information up within the coming weeks.
. The Sheep in the City - Get Away is on Feb. 26,27, and 28 in Oak Creek.  There is still time to register for single classes or for the whole shebang.  Check it out!  It looks fun!
. WHI is hosting two Jennifer Moore workshops in May.  The first one is entitled "Doubleweave Diversity" and is for beginning to intermediate weavers.  The dates are May 4th and 5th from 10 to 5.  The cost is $100 plus a supply fee of $10 to be paid at the class.  Students will need to bring a 4 shaft table or floor loom, prewarped.  The second class entitled " Doubleweave -Beyond the Basics"  is for intermediate and advanced weavers.  The dates are May 6th and 7th from 10 to 5.  The cost is $100 plus a supply fee of $10  to be paid at the class.  Students will need to bring an 8 shaft table or floor loom, prewarped.  Go to the WHI website for registration information.

88Nine Radio Milwaukee Interviews Weaver Susan Ready Buss

88Nine Radio Milwaukee, as part of their Operation: Make Milwaukee project, just finished up an interview with local artist Susan Ready Buss. Listen in as Susan talks about becoming a weaver, the ABK Weaving Center in Riverwest, and what makes weaving cool (hint: Math!). Also check out photos of the sweet triple-draught birdseye design she's working on in her home studio.

The Make Milwaukee project is an ongoing blog/podcast whose goal is to "Prove Milwaukee is a creative city". Thanks also to Faythe Levine for including weaving in this trek through Milwaukee's arts community. You can also track #makeMKE on twitter.

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.