Fab Fiber Fun

Hello Fiber Friends!

So how’s your February going? The lovely spring weather, even if it’s just an interlude, makes me ready to spread out some dyed and painted fabric on my front lawn (it makes the neighbors curious) and maybe do a little discharging out on the front porch. I bought some new, “non-toxic” discharge paste to use on natural fibers. It’s called “deColourant” (http://www.Harbor-Sales.com/) and it even has a version that will take out the old dye color and put a new one in its place. Pretty fancy fiber footwork!

So where did I get this cool stuff? At a local fiber show, the Georgia Quilt Show (SEFAA had a booth) held at the Gwinnett Center last fall. Another such opportunity for cool fiber purchases of all kinds is coming up at the Original Sewing and Quilt Expo at the Gwinnett Center on March 10th, 11th, and 12^th, so go to http://www.sewingexpo.com/AtlantaGA.aspx to find out more. They have loads of fabric, tools, funky fibers, patterns, and thread, plus lots more I can’t even remember. I always find it worth the trip, and I live waaay south of ATL.

And while you’re at it, have another great fiber fix that weekend and see fabulous fine crafts at the American Craft Council show at the Cobb Galleria Centre March 10^th  – 13^th  (http://public.craftcouncil.org/atlanta). This is always an incredibly inspiring show.

I usually take a tiny notebook and make notes of popular colors, techniques, etc., to jumpstart my own designs. I would never copy someone else’s work, but seeing what amazing things other people do with their crafts gets the mental juices flowing and I’m thinking up new ideas as I walk around. If you notice that I’m talking to myself, too, please ignore it. Isn’t that a sign of creativity? (I hope!)

Tonight is the SEFAA annual meeting, which is important business, and next Friday, Feb. 25^th is the SEFAA party at Callanwolde, which is important fun.  This is the first big party I’ve attended for our organization, and I know it’s going to be fabulous!

Come on out to support SEFAA, meet new fiber friends, and bring along some of your ideas for the blog.  See you there!

Claudia

Your Fiber Eyes

So it’s mid-January – a fresh start, a blank slate, and here I was with an unfortunately blank list of blog topics.  In perusing the news feed on our SEFAA website (Thanks, Suzi!), I noticed an article about fiber artist Anna Von Mertens winning a $50,000 prize from “United States Artists.”  Naturally, I went to look at her work, and I was surprised.  I was also moved to state my opinion.

Anna bases her work on her imagined “reading” of the auras of other people’s biographical paintings (Gilbert Stuart’s George Washington, etc.)  Now, there is no plagiarism going on here – her small hand dyed and quilted creations bear absolutely no resemblance to the originals, as far as I can see.  They are pretty much simple, amorphous blobs of color on cotton, hand quilted in a rectangular frame. 

The work is interesting, but, in my own opinion, is definitely in the “eye of the beholder” category.  There are so many outstanding quilt and other fiber artists whom I admire tremendously.  Some are members of SEFAA.  However – and this is a big however – I am always delighted when any fiber artist gets recognition on a grand scale.  Even though I would have nominated someone else for this honor, I didn’t.  When one fiber artist wins, we all win - because it’s fiber and it’s actually being taken seriously as ART!  Hooray for that, and hooray for Anna.

You can go to the website for United States Artists at http://www.unitedstatesartists.org/news/usa/pr_fellows_2010  to see the names of the 52 artists honored for 2010.  I actually googled all of them to look at their work, and some of it is really impressive.  Anna won in the “Visual Arts” category, rather than in the “Crafts and Traditional Arts.”  U.S.A. as an organization is a big hitter with huge funding.  Maybe we need to ask them for a grant for SEFAA.

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The first big storm of 2011 is snowy history now.  I didn’t get a chance to do any snow dyeing (Did you?), but we kept our power on, thank goodness, and I did get to look at some cool websites.  Here are a few you might like:

The Textile and Fiber Art List has been mentioned on our website before, but it bears repeating.  Huge guide to lots of fabulous artists/craftsmen and their websites.

Find it at www.tafalist.com.  The currently featured art is outstanding crochet by Nothing But String.

Terry Grant is a quilt artist who lives in Portland, Oregon.  Her work is gorgeous and her blog delightful.  You can find her at www.andsewitgoes.blogspot.com.

Sue Benner is another fabulous quilt artist.  Eye candy at www.suebenner.com.

For a fun Georgia perspective, visit Deb Lacativa of Gwinnett County, who dyes fabric and makes art quilts with attitude at www.lacativa.com.

Down in South Georgia, Vicki at http://vickisvintagestitches.blogspot.com/ is a fun blogger to visit with and be inspired by.

And, of course, I can’t resist something that combines the words “subversive” and “stitch” in the same title.  Susan Lenz has a wonderful buffet of fiber information and connections at www.subversivestitch.blogspot.com.  Read down toward the bottom of her blog for some great advice about pricing your work.

So many wonderful fiber connections are out there among fiber artists/craftsmen – enlightening and, as our website says, intertwining us all. 

Please send me your ideas for this blog.  A guest blog would be welcome, too.  And I’d love to show photos of your fiber work. 

E-mail me at mailto:ceebwood@bellsouth.net?subject=SEFAA Blog.

Happy 2011,

Claudia

Fiber For the Holidays

Hello, Fiber Friends.

Please excuse my long absence from the SEFAA blog.  I won’t bore you with the details of what I’ve been doing, but a large portion of my time has been taken up with three art shows, one of which lasted two days and was held at my studio (necessitating a Herculean cleaning effort).  I do realize that everyone is probably just as busy as I am.

So now Holiday season is in full swing.  Are you in gift production mode?  Maybe you’re wiser than I am.  I always tell myself that I won’t make gifts this year, and then I always do.  I don’t know if the recipient is ever as excited about the gift as I am, but that’s OK.  It’s really one of those “journey, not destination” things. 

I’ve finally figured out that my making of quilts, clothing, ornaments, or whatever is not only about a gift for a loved one.  It’s also my own little excuse to fit fiber projects into a harried schedule.  Every hour I spend making a fabric project for someone I love is an hour I spend finding my bliss. 

If you want to share that kind of bliss, teach another person to knit, crochet, sew, quilt, weave, embroider, or whatever fiber activity you love.  A bundle of beautiful yarn, floss or fabric and a written promise to teach someone to use it could be a fun and memorable gift.

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It looks like a location for SEFAA is about to happen. Congratulations to Suzi and the Board for their vision and hard work to make this happen!  This is a remarkable achievement in such a short time, and one that will benefit all of us as well as the Atlanta Community.  The more people understand about fiber art, the more they will appreciate and support it.  It is part of our mission to educate the wider community about the beauty and value of fiber art, and a home for SEFAA will help us do that.

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I’d like to leave you with a revised version of a little something that was circulating among quilters on the internet a while back.  My apologies to the original author for the edits …

Reasons Why I Love Fiber...

* Fiber insulates the closet, dresser, basket or room where it is kept.

* Purchasing fiber helps keep the economy going. It is our patriotic duty to support cotton farmers, sheep farmers, textile mills, and fabric and knit shops.

* It is less expensive and more fun than psychiatric care.

* Fiber keeps without refrigeration.

* You don't have to cook it to enjoy it.

* You never have to feed it, change it, wipe it's nose, or walk it.

* It's not immoral, illegal, or fattening.

* Fiber calms the nerves, gratifies the soul, and makes me happy.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Claudia

Here and There

October 1st through 10th this year is “American Craft Week.”  If you are going to be in Washington, D.C. this coming weekend, you can participate in the “Crafting A Nation” Conference at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Here is a quote from the American Craft Week website: (http://www.americancraftweek.com)

“CRAFTING A NATION” will explore how craft practitioners, both professional and self-taught, are a valuable national resource and an integral part of the American economy, running businesses and producing products unique to our nation and important to our economic growth in the twenty-first century. Handcrafted works are core to a healthy society and contribute to a sustainable environment that can be both joyful and profitable. Two words “conversation” and “economy” define this event. Craft has, historically and in contemporary life, been defined by these words. CRAFTING A NATION starts with the individual maker and progresses to the national craft community.”

What an apt description of craft in the U.S.! It’s an important part of our culture and our economy. Just for a moment, take your own work out of the picture and try to imagine a culture devoid of art and craft ... Where would we find the beauty that stirs us, other than in nature? How would we teach our children to appreciate the work of human hands? How gray and dismal would our world look? That’s a vision appropriate only for Halloween. Beautiful objects that speak to the soul are a necessity. Some of them are made of fiber.

The article above also reminds us that like politics, all art and craft is local. It can branch out from right here. SEFAA is a vital tool to make a local fiber community a regional one. And for SEFAA to be advised by the successful entity that is the “Textile Center” in Minneapolis (http://www.textilecentermn.org) is a credible link to a wider world of fiber art.

Next weekend, a national quilt and fiber show comes right here to our local community when the Georgia Quilt Show opens its doors at the Gwinnett Center October 14 – 16 (www.georgiaquiltshow.com). SEFAA will have a booth there to sell fabric and fiber and offer membership. (Be sure to send in your donations to sell!) Even if you’re not a big fan of quilts, you will appreciate the fiber art and surface design. And the booths will sell the latest “cool tools” to make you heart flutter. It’s worth a trip there.

Claudia

Down From the Mountain

What’s a great place to live if you’re an artist or fine crafter?  Any guesses?  My answer is Asheville, North Carolina. 

A couple of weeks ago, I was staying in the mountains at Lake Lure, NC, and had a chance to go to Asheville for the day.  Wow!  You can practically smell the art and fine craft when you step out of the car.  I think if you swing a cat in any direction, you’ll hit a gallery.  (Metaphorically only - no animal cruelty intended.)

And judging from the high-production-value free magazines about art there, plus the presence of all those galleries, art is actually a viable part of the economy.  The Biltmore brings in lots of tourists, to be sure, but they must be buying the art as well.  Otherwise, how could all those galleries exist?

As I fiber person, I felt (no pun intended) it was my duty to check out Bellagio, a boutique of fine handmade clothing, much of it handwoven or hand-knitted, as well as hand-dyed.  Beautiful stuff, and priced to actually reflect the time and skill required to produce it.  Their website is http://www.bellagioarttowear.com/.

Next to Bellagio is the New Morning Gallery, a fabulous repository of fine crafts beautifully displayed.  Fiber was represented there by some large traditional quilts, pillows, and some fantastic appliquéd and stitched folk-art works in embellished frames and under glass.  Sorry I didn’t get the folk artist’s name, but her work is unforgettable and charming. 

The interesting thing about this well-known shop (newmorninggallerync.com) is that I had seen the work of many of the artists there – the last time I attended the American Craft Council show in Atlanta.  This leads me to conjecture that the ACC show is an effective showcase for crafts.  It will be held March 11- 13, 2011 in Atlanta.  Check out the website at http://www.craftcouncil.org/. 

While in Asheville, I naturally had to visit at least one art supply store, and that one was Earth Guild (http://www.earthguild.com/).  I was wowed!  In a fabulous old building sat spinning and weaving supplies, yarn, roving, dyes, paints, tools, books, and more general fiber goodies than I could possibly list.  I even stocked up on something I had never heard of, wheels of bias-cut cotton strips (in yummy colors, of course) called Poppana.  You weavers probably know it – apparently it’s used for the weft in Eastern European rag rugs.  There’s not even much info about it on the web.  But if you need any, I have extra!

Well, it was a great trip, and I was duly rested and duly impressed by the great North Carolina “Art City.”  I just wondered, as I was driving down from the mountain, if Atlanta can’t be a “Fiber Art City.”

Claudia

Use It or Lose It

Are you one of those people who can’t look at a woven plastic vegetable bag or a sturdy cardboard garment tag without considering the artistic potential it might contain? I confess that I am one of those. I spend an inordinate amount of time collecting castoff relics that other people just throw in the garbage. But there’s good reason for such behavior.

Since 2003 I have been making a serious effort to add recycled items to most of the quilts I make. These recycled elements might take the form of plastic milk jug stoppers, wine corks, and discarded orange “weedeater” cord. I have even used melted plastic bags to construct quilts. But my favorite junk takes the form of natural fiber.

If you use fabric for anything, you can usually glean some recycled fibers when you handle it. When I buy new fabric to make quilts or garments, the first thing I do is wash it. (You need to remove that possible formaldehyde, you know.) If the fabric was cut from the bolt, especially if the cut was uneven, you will be rewarded with a wonderful little bundle of tangled threads. Cut this off while it’s wet and form it into a small nest until it dries. Instant embellishment!

Wash your new fabric in loads of similar colors. When you take the fabric out of the dryer, check the lint filter for a cool glob of colorful lint. (I even find myself searching out fuzzy fabric to wash.) Lint can be captured under tulle on a fabric surface. Or if you’re into fiber sculpture, the pigment for your sculpture medium is free!

My other favorite recycled fibers come from ripping fabric. I use a lot of evenly woven cotton fabric in my work, and the best way to get a straight line is to rip it. In a quilt with a lot of strips, you will find an amazing amount of threads result from ripping the fabric. I save them all, unless the color is muddy. And if the fabric is some that I have hand dyed, you can bet that I’m not going to let one speck of that gloriously colored thread go to waste. These threads are also wonderful for embellishment and for making fiber vessels.

Other crazy recycled artist types are out there. The Atlanta art show “Not Biodegradable” is on display at whitespace gallery through September 4^th. One of the artists is Mireille Vautier, who creates her artwork by embroidering on plastic bags. It sounds wonderful! Stop by and see the show if you can.

Whitespace is located at 814 Edgewood Ave., Atlanta, GA 30307. The phone number is 404.688.1892. Gallery hours are Wed. – Sat.11 a.m. to 5 p.m.  You can see some of the work on these websites: whitespace814.com and whitespace814.blogspot.com.

If you want to see ingenious ways to recycle garments, check out the fun at newdressaday.wordpress.com.

Happy recycling!

Claudia

Energy in Motion

I recently wrenched my knee and have been going to my chiropractor. He’s working on my spine a little each day to restore the proper flow of energy in my body. Now, you may or may not believe that particular theory, but it’s undeniable that energy is of huge significance in the world and in ourselves. This made me think about different types of energy and how they affect us as artists.

I remember as a teenager helping to build a float for a school parade. We had a short time to accomplish this, and it seemed an insurmountable task, stuffing crepe paper into thousands of tiny holes in a wire armature to create the huge, looming figure of a bear. But my classmates and I kept the flow of energy going by laughing and joking until the task was miraculously completed.

As the chairman of an arts group putting on our first art show in our town, I worked with my small committee until we were so exhausted that we didn't know if we could keep going and get everything done in time. But we relied on each other’s energy and support to keep going, and we did. The energy that we got back from the 300 or so guests who attended the opening kept us going long after the event.

In a wonderful youtube video, Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of Eat, Pray, Love gives a speech about the perception of artistic inspiration as a sort of disembodied divine energy that comes to a person endeavoring to do creative work. Here’s the link - It’s definitely worth viewing.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86x-u-tz0MA This energy comes to different people in different forms; you may find yourself identifying with some of them. It’s something fun to think about.

If you’ve been watching “Work of Art: The Next Great Artist” on Bravo TV the last few weeks, you will have seen all manner of creative energy at work – from the most positive to the ugliest and most negative. There was a true showing of “artistic temperament.” It was gratifying to see that the person who seemed to radiate the most caring and loving energy toward every other person was also the artist who won.

As artists, most of us work in a solitary manner. But the energy we need to keep creating often comes from others who are making art, too. Getting together with friends who share our art is imperative. Doing a sort of cross-training exercise by viewing types of art that are outside our own discipline is also a great way to be inspired. That’s why it is such a good thing for SEFAA to have a booth at the Georgia Quilt Show in October. Not only will the quiltmakers gain from it, but so will the knitters, weavers and silk painters. It should be a wonderful sharing of artistic energy!

If you would like to share in a more concrete way, please donate some spare “fat quarters” of fabric (cut 18” x 22”) to sell at the SEFAA booth. Our Fiber Arts Alliance is itself a wonderful sharing of creative energy. Remember to share SEFAA with everyone you know!