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NEW YORK THREADS
The Newsletter of
The New York Guild of Handweavers
Box 1623,Madison Square Station, New York 10159-1623
Web: www.nyhandweavers.org e-mail: [email protected]
NEW YORK THREADS
Meeting at The School of Visual Art
214 East 21st Street, Room 206A
Between 2nd & 3rd Avenues
November 2008
Silk Fusion
Karen Selk, instructor
1 ½ Day Workshop
Saturday March 28, 2009 9:00 AM – 12:00PM
Sunday March 29, 2009 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Innovative, rich in lustre, smooth or textured surface describes fused silk felt. A
spectrum of unspun silk fibers will be arranged and fused with adhesive medium to
produce a "felt" of varying thicknesses. Silk fused fibers can be crinkled while wet
and hold their shape. Other fibers, feathers and ribbons can be incorporated into the
silk "felt." It becomes a perfect canvas for machine or hand stitching, quilting
jewelery, 3D sculptures and wearable art. Participants will make numerous samples
and be provided with patterns for hats, bags and boxes. Embellishing techniques
and ideas will be applied to completed accessories. Participants will have enough
fiber and textile medium to continue on their own after the workshop.
http://www.treenwaysilks.com/inout_fusion.html
$120.00 members/$140.00 nonmembers;
$75.00 Materials Fee per person (paid at workshop.)
Register by sending your check made out to: New York Guild of
Handweavers
OCTOBER PROGRAM:
Deborah Holcomb
shared her
knowledge about
color and using the
computer as a
creative tool for
developing color
stories. First we
received a “One
Minute Color Class” defining value,
hue, saturation and temperature.
Deborah recommends the Munsell
color kit, the color wheel and artist
Josef Albers's book “Interaction of
Color” to expand our study of color.
She also uses paint, colored paper,
colored pencils, yarn wraps, digital
images and Fiberworks PCW software
for weavers to create color schemes.
Next, she discussed how to use
Microsoft Paint to extract colors from a
digital image, using eyedropper and
paintbucket tools. Here's one that I
was able to do on my own,
photo by Gayle Kelly
Deborah reminded us that a black
background will intensify color, and
white background will mute colors.
She uses the filters in the program to
make her palettes warmer or cooler.
Deborah also likes “The Ultra Color
Picker” (http://www.tigercolor.com/
color-picker.htm) software, $24.95,
which allows you to import your color
selections into your weaving software.
She also likes to scan yarn color cards
or actual yarns from her stock touse in
designing. She suggests converting the
scanned colors to gray scale to study
their value. Deb advised us that when
entering competitions, it is a good idea
to view the images of your submission
on monitor or projector to make certain
that they present well on those formats,
as that is how most judges view entries.
-Gail Gondek
RE-REMEMBER-ER (an opera)
Once, in Denmark, I saw some old
bedding. I still remember the fabric – it
was a rough, hardy material married to
an elegant striped pattern. I discovered
this kind of
textile is called
olmerdugwhich
translates
literally to
“peasant
fabric”. It was
a fabric used
in Danish
households for hundreds of years and
also enjoyed a brief moment in
women's fashion when it was recycled
for chic jackets during the war.
premiere will be at the Judson
Memorial Church in Washington
Square, Saturday January 17, 2009, at 8
PM. -Suzanne Bocanegra
My work as an artist is translation. I
take visual imagery and change its
state. In RE-REMEMBER-ER I have
translated this particular bedding
fabric into a complete experience,
transforming what I remember and
what I saw of the pattern into a
another kind of experience, giving it a
new physicality in sound, light, live
performance and movement.
BHUTANESE WEAVER IN
RESIDENCE
As a way to begin, I started with the
thread count and loom tie-up patterns
of the original fabric. One way to look
at these patterns is in how they control
actions that happen in time; because
of this, I have been able to take this
time-based information and apply it to
other time-based activities, generating
among other things a musical score,
performed on an accordion, an
amplified loom, violins and an
electronic sound environment.
RE-REMEMBER-ER includes the work
of several artists from other
disciplines. Danish accordion virtuoso
Frode Andersen and DJ Einar
Kanning, sound installationist Jody
Elff, weaver Gail Gondek, musical
environment by Pulitzer Prize winner
David Lang, and 100 amateur
violinists, led by Todd Reynolds. The
25-year old Sangay Choden from the
village of Khoma, eastern Bhutan will
complete a kira, an intricately woven
traditional dress, over a period of three
months starting September 19 at the
Rubin Museum, 150 West 17th Street.
The kira will then go on sale during the
annual Holidays in the Himalayas
weekend on December 12 .
Demonstrations are free! Mondays
and Thurs-days, Fridays 11 AM - 5 PM
Wednesdays 11 AM - 7 PM Saturdays
and Sundays 11 AM - 6 PM
ELIZABETH STARCEVIC,
MADE IN MEXICO
In 1992 I went to Mexico on a
sabbatical from my work as a Professor
of Spanish at City College of New York,
where I have taught for almost 40
years. While in San Miguel de Allende,
I studied weaving at the fine arts
school, Bellas Artes, El Centro Cultural
“El Nigromante” with the master
weaver, Felix Perez Juarez. From then
on, I have return to weave at every
intersession and every summer
vacation. The rugs in this show, along
with those I have sold, given as gifts,
or done as commissions, are the
product of these trips to Mexico.
experiences my students have as
learners of a new subject.
My work has been inspired by many
things: my travels, works of art, my
desire for peace in the world in a time
of war, my family and friends, as well
as by the many beautiful colors and
textiles that surround me
It was very hard for me to learn to
weave and I find it hard to think of
myself as a “weaver,” but the rugs and
hangings speak to my joy and my
determination to continue to do it.
My most recent piece came from a trip
to the Bronx Botanic Gardens in May 08
and also from the fact that I had lots of
green wool in lots of different shades.
As a teacher, who learned this new
thing late in life, I often think of the
If I add up the months I have been
weaving they come to about 4 years,
which puts me in the “novice high” or
“inter-mediate” category, as we say in
language teaching. So this means that
there is a lot more for me to learn and
a lot more for me to try to weave.
What an exciting thing to think about!
-Elizabeth Starcevic
MAFA WORKSHOP
WEEKEND 2009
MAFA Workshop Weekend 2009 will
be July 31 and August 1 and 2, 2009.
at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg,
Pa. The format for the weekend will
be 16-hour (3-day) “hands-on” classes
beginning on Friday morning and
ending at lunch on Sunday. The
brochure will be on the web site
December 1, registration begins
on January 2.
Preview of 2009 classes and
instructors:
• Weaving:
• Sharon Alderman – More for Your
Money: Loom-controlled Double
Weave and Color and Weave Effects
• Su Butler – Color Interaction for
Hand weavers
• Jason Collingwood – 3 End Block
Weave
• Inge Dam – Brocades and Other
Inlay Techniques
• Barbara Diefenderfer – Learn to
Weave, Then Take the Next Step
• Sarah Fortin – Shadow weave: More
than Two Colors
• Eileen Hallman – Weaving with
Singles: Harnessing Twist Energy
• Tom Knisely – Straight Eight, A
Versatile Threading
Nadine Sanders – Painting with
Fabric Strips
• Sarah Saulson – Understanding
Summer and Winter
• Mimi Smith – Basking in Bedford
Cord
• Betty Vera – Painted Warps and
Woven Patterns: A Love Affair
between Color and Structures
• Virginia West – Advancing Twill,
Sampler to Scarf
• Susan Wilson – Classic Crackle and
More
• Heather Winslow – Shimmering Silk,
An Inspiring Fibre
Dyeing and Felting:
• Carol Wood & Debbie McCrea – A
Spectrum of Color from Natural Dyes
• Margaret Hluch – Textured Cloth to
Dye For
Spinning
• Sally Jenkins – Novice Spinning
• Amy Tyler – Spinning for Knitting
•Sewing
-Stephanie GoddardMakeover Magic
(http://www.mafafiber.org/conference.
html)
PETER COLLINGWOOD
MEMORIAL FROM NYGH
Carol Kover will be collecting
contributions from NYGH members to
Doctors Without Borders, in memory
of Peter Collingwood, who died
October 9. Please make send your
check, made out to “Doctors Without
Borders” to:
The New York Guild of Handweavers
Box 1623, Madison Square Station,
New York , New York 10159-1623,
Attention: Carol Kover.
A notification of our gift will be sent to
Jason, Peter's son. If you wish to add a
personal note for Jason, need a reciept
for your taxes, or wish to be added to
the DWB mailing list, please include
your note and your name and address
with your check. The final day for
contributions is December 10.
-Carol Kover
MUSEUMS & GALLERIES
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street
212 535 7771
The Essential Art of African Textiles:
Design Without End
September 30, 2008–March 22, 2009
Dazzling textile traditions have
constituted an important form of
aesthetic expression throughout
Africa’s history and cultural landscape.
Textiles have long been a focal point of
the vast continental trading networks
that carried material culture and
technological innovations across
regional centers and linked Africa to
the outside world. Leading
contemporary artists reflecting on
Africa’s distinctive cultural heritage
and its relationship to the world at
large have drawn upon the imagery of
textiles in sculpture, painting,
photography, installation art, video,
and other media.
This exhibition illustrates the
stunningly diverse classical textile
genres created by artists in West Africa
through some of their earliest
documented and finest works.
Highlights of the Metropolitan’s own
holdings will be presented along with
some twenty works that entered
The British Museum’s collection by the
early twentieth century. Selected works
will represent inventive variations on
major themes of the influential classical
genres. The exhibition will relate these
genres to contemporary art forms by
affording an appreciation of the
cultural context and visual language of
these traditions and exploring their
synergy and resonance in works by
eight living artists.
The publication The Essential Art of
African Textiles: Design Without End
produced by The Metropolitan
Museum of Art and Yale University
Press will accompany this exhibition.
An interesting plainness is the most
difficult and precious thing to achieve - Mies
van der Rohe
Seen in the neighborhood...
Vintage Thrift Shop, 286 3rd Ave at 22nd St
WELCOME NEW MEMBERS
The NYGH welcomes the following
new members:
Yukako Satone
227 East 87 Street
New York, NY 10128
tel: 212 722-2686
email [email protected]
m
Bev Nerenberg
151 Indian Drive
Greentown, PA 18426
tel: 570 857-0984 (home)
570 857-4402 (business)
email: [email protected]
CALL FOR ENTRIES
Small Expressions, sponsored by the
HGA, small scale fiber art, not to
exceed 15”x 15”, including mounting or
display devices. Entry deadline,
January 9, 2009. Exhibit at the
Mississippi Craft Center, Ridgeland,
Mississippi. February 24, 2009-May 3,
2009 and June 12- September 6, 2009 at
Faulconer Gallery. Arturo Alonzo
Sandoval will jury the show. Three
pieces per artist may be entered. Pieces
must have been completed since
January 2007. digital Photos or slides
may be submitted. Cash awards given,
HGA members receive discount entrant
fee. Entry forms available online at
http://www.weavespindye.org/pages/?
p=HGASmallExpressions.html&loc=3-1
3-00&loc=1-61-00
Connections: Small Tapestry
International 2009- Juried exhibit.
Digital entry deadline November 30.
American Tapestry Alliance juried
small tapestry exhibit (maximum size
100 sq. in. [625 sq. cm]). Artists are
encouraged to push the idea of
connections with concepts, techniques,
other artists, the viewer, or other areas
of artistic investigation. For
prospectus, send SASE to ATA
Connections, 1050 Gunnison Ave.,
Grand Junction, CO 81501
www.americantapestryalliance.com
2009 NYGH PROGRAMS
January 31, 2009- Twain Revell
Spinning Exotic Fiber
http://www.twains
twines.com/index.shtml Harlem
spinner, knitter and mud cloth maker
Twain Revell will reveal the secrets to
spinning exotic fibers. Weather
permitting, she will demonstrate
harvesting angora from her rabbit.
February 28, 2009 Show and Tell
March 28, 2009 Karen SelkFascinating Silk Saga.
http://www.treenwaysilks.com/index.html
Karen Selk, co-owner of Canada's
Treenway Silks, will relay her
adventures while stalking the
silkworm through Asia as well as her
own kitchen.
April 25, 2009-Dorothy Washburn
Mirrors, Pinwheels, and More: The
Cultural Meaning of Symmetry
Dorothy Washburn, authority on form
and color symmetry in ancient, tribal,
folk and applied arts, including
textiles, will explore the meanings of
the patterns of symmetry used by
various cultures.
The Board of the NYGH wishes you
Health, Peace & Prosperity
in the New Year
weaving by Elizabeth Starcevic
OFFICERS, BOARD MEMBERS
& COMMITTEE MEMBERS
General [email protected]
Web Master webmaster @nyhand
weavers.org
Membership membership@nyhand
weavers.org
Librarian
[email protected]
President Pam Pataky
[email protected]
Vice-President Carie Kramer
Secretary: Martha Glenn
Treasurer: Ronnie Glattauer
Programs: Susan Weltman
[email protected]
Publicity: Doug Marouk-Coe
Membership: Lillian Cozzarelli
MAFA Representative: Kathy
Vermilye
Newsletter Distribution/Hospitality:
Bea Aubrey Newsletter Editor : Gail
Gondek
Closing date for items for the
January newsletter is January 1,
2009. Newsletter will be distributed
mid month.