All posts by Stefanie Selck

April 20th Black Sheep Meeting – “Weaving Wizards”

April 20th Black Sheep Meeting –

“Weaving Wizards – Structure – what works for what purpose and why?”

The April 20th Black Sheep meeting will be a Zoom “Weaving Wizards”.      Barbie and Ange will be our wizards, facilitating the meeting. The topic will be “Structure – What Works for What Purpose and Why? ” 

Please send any questions, thoughts, examples to Barbie –  weaverbarbie at  gmail  dot com – by Thursday April 13th.  

But as always, questions and comments are welcome any time at the meeting.  

This time is meant for all to be involved and share issues, problems and successes. 

 

Mary Zicafoose: My work in Ikat

Please join us on March 16 for a presentation by Mary Zicafoose: My Work in Ikat.

               

Ikat tapestry, 2018

Mary Zicafoose’s tapestries and rugs span the globe from large-scale public installations to the private collections of the United States Embassies on three continents. Her woven pieces blend cultural icons and symbols with a contemporary hand, creating powerful visual statements in fiber. The work and processes are a reflection of the artists’ superb craftsmanship and her ability to speak articulately through the use of color.

Artist Statement
Weaving is my medium, but creating decorative textile art is not my goal. Rather, it is my use of “Ikat,” the complex technique of resist dyeing and over-dyeing fibers, that best defines my intent. The term “Ikat” means to “bind” or “tie” in the Malaysian language. I create contemporary tapestry, pushing the boundary of this ancient art form, to investigate the intricacies of how we, as individuals, are tied to one another. The complexity and uncharted potential of warp and weft – combined with the alchemy of color compositions and archetypal symbols – reference the elaborate and intricate patterns of our lives and my work. Each densely woven and intricately layered textile reflects the infinite and repetitive ways that cultures, rituals and collective memories bind us all together. By evolving and transforming timeless motifs and visual language into a contemporary (con)text, I seek to engage my viewers – as well as myself – in dialogues and discussions that reawaken and tie us all to one another.

2023 Guild Programs

The Programs Committee is happy to announce our 2021-2022 programs. At this time, all guild meetings will be conducted via Zoom until it is safe to meet in person again. Meetings are on 3rd Thursdays of each month, beginning at 7PM. Zoom links are available in the Member’s Calendar.

  • January 19 – Daryl Lancaster: Doup Leno
  • February 16 – Denise Kovnat: Tactile Art: Collapse Fabrics from 4 to 32 shafts
  • March 16 – Mary Zicafoose: My work in Ikat
  • April – 20 – Weaving Wizards
  • May 18 – 
  • June 15 – 
  • July 20 – Informal Summer Program
  • August 17 – Informal Summer Program

Blacksheep 2023 Towel Exchange!

Blacksheep 2023 Towel Exchange!

We are excited to announce the guidelines for our 2023 towel exchange and look forward to seeing all your beautiful contributions at our June Guild Meeting or alternatively at CNCH in August!

Guidelines for the Blacksheep towel exchange 2023:

Participation: Any member of the Black Sheep Guild can participate in the towel exchange

Due dates: we will collect all participating towels before our June 2023 meeting on June 15

Submission: You can bring your towels to the June 2023 meeting (if we are holding the meeting in person) , drop it off in South San Jose or or send it via mail

Distribution: We are planning to showcase and distribute your towels at the 2023 CNCH in San Luis Obispo. If you cannot participate, we would be happy to send your towels home with a friend or colleague. 

Specifications: Towels must be woven from cotton, linen, hemp, or any combination of these fibers. Finished size is to be between 18” and 22″ inches wide, and 25” to 28″ long. 

Please plan ahead to address shrinkage and pull-in. Please finish with a hem, either hand-sewn or machine-sewn.

Closer to the due date, we’ll provide you a form to fill out for each towel asking for information on you and your towels, including loom, draft, yarn info, inspiration, etc.

Hang onto your finished towels until the June 2023 meeting; we’ll collect them at the meeting, or if we’re unable to meet, we’ll tell you where to mail your towels. 

When you turn in your towels, we’ll be asking you to tell us your color preference: warm colors, cool colors, neutrals or potluck.  We’ll do our best to honor your preferences.

You’ll get three towels from three different Black Sheep weavers at the 2023 CNCH meeting in early August. If you are unable to attend CNCH this year,, we’ll arrange another way to get your towels to you.

Want to get back more than 3 towels? Go ahead and turn in more! Please make them in multiples of 3.

You turn in 3 towels, you get 3 towels back. We are only accepting multiples of 3 towels

Questions? Contact 2023 Towel Exchange coordinators: 

Stefanie Selck (sselck [at] gmail [dot] com)

Barbie Paulsen (weaverbarbie [at] gmail [dot] com)

 

Events & Exhibitions

Treadles to Threads Spinning Guild invites you to our new Fiber Frolic

(formerly known as Spinning at the Winery)

Saturday, May 27, 2023

10 am – 4 pm

at Soul Food Farm

6046 Pleasants Valley Rd., Vacaville, CA 95688.

Spend the day spinning, shopping, and visiting with your fiber friends.

Featuring  California vendors with goodies from raw fiber to finished yarn, fiber related items, and a dynamite raffle that will be utterly enticing.

Want someone else to process your newly purchased fleece or have unprocessed fleece at home?  Morro Fleece Works will be at the event.

Bring your wheel, drop spindle or fiber related project, along with a chair, lunch, and beverage for a truly enjoyable day.

We will have awesome raffle items!  

Here is the list of Vendors for the event. Updated list will be posted on Instagram.

Peggy Agnew    Red Creek Farm           
Jackie Post                             Sheep to Shop
Colleen Simons Fiber Confections
Mike & Donna Dachuk Black Diamond alpacas 
Benda Collins Pan’s Garden Yarn and Fibers                 
Erin Macean  Bungalow Farm Angoras                 
Shari McKelvy Morro Fleece Works   
Bev Fleming Ewe and Me 2 Ranch 
Elissavet Livitsanos Wonderland Dyeworks 
Anna Harvey Harvey Farms
Lisa Carver Sew Long Marianne
Anna Yurutucu Great Buttons
Marcail McWilliams *tentative Valley Oak Wool Mill
Roger and Mary *tentative Dream Goat Design Studio 
Brooke Sinnes *tentative Sincere sheep

Admission: $10 per person.  

Contact: T2TFiberFrolic at gmail.com  

Follow us  @ fiberfrolicfestival for all event updates.

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Conference of Northern California Handweavers (CNCH)
2023 Conference Information: August 3 – 6 in San Luis Obispo

This year’s meeting of the CNCH Liaisons was recently held via ZOOM rather than the usual luncheon at the site of the 2023 conference.
Please visit http://www.CNCH.org website, CNCH 2023 IN SAN LUIS OBISPO – CNCH to find a complete list of instructors as well as information about the campus housing and meal plans. There is also a brief slide presentation which will be available for guild viewing soon. Hopefully it will arrive in time for our March meeting.
NOTE: Because the Southern California Weaving Conference no longer exists, and this conference is being held at CNCH’s most southern city, there is a great interest in attending within guilds such as Santa Barbara. So, if you find a class you REALLY want to be in, do not hesitate to register. Registration opens APRIL 29.

Registration:
The early registration fee, for those registering between April 29 and June 10, will be $475 for those who belong to CNCH member guilds and $505 for those who do not belong to CNCH member guilds. Registration fees will increase by $30 for both categories after 5 p.m. on June 10. Every registrant will receive a ticket to a Friday night barbecue and a Saturday night reception, included in the cost of registration.

Housing:
Optional apartment-style housing will be available at the Poly Canyon Village on the Cal
Poly campus. The apartments include living room/common rooms and kitchen facilities in
addition to multiple bathrooms and bedrooms. The cost will be $395 per person for the three nights of Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. More information about the housing will be provided in the conference registration materials. To view the apartment-style housing, please visit Cal Poly’s website, but please note that the beds will be lowered for conference registrants: Poly Canyon Village Apartments – University Housing – Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.

***

Black Sheep Handweavers Guild Exhibit at the Redwood City Main Library, March 1 – 31, 2023 – Jodi and Kitty created a great exhibit of loaned guild materials

                 
Main Library in Redwood City – 1044 Middlefield Road, RWC. The display will be up from March 1 through 31; Hours are M-Th 10am-9pm; F/Sa 10am-5pm; Sun 12pm-5pm

***

 

Conversations with Cloth, Series 4: Stories of Wool, Felt
First Thursdays, Feb. – May, 2023
On the first Thursdays of February through May 2023, at 15:00 PST, and from Japan on
Friday at 8:00 JST.
This series will feature Jorie Johnson–wool and felt specialist, artist, and researcher–from
Kyoto, Japan. Jorie has been on the research team for the ancient Japanese Imperial felt rugs that are colorful and intricately patterned and are housed in the Shosoin Repository in Nara, Japan.

World Shibori Network Foundation brings you the research, stories, knowledge, and tools
from artisans and artists around the globe and, specifically, the makers themselves to inform and inspire your creative practices. So that the art, material knowledge, tools, and methods of people who came before us are not lost. So we may reimagine and build a sustainable future in a continuum for today.
For more information and to register, please visit: https://shibori.org/event/conversationswith-cloth-series-4-stories-of-wool-felt-journey-1-of-4/

Jorie Johnson work: Stories of Wool, Felt

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San José Museum of Quilts & Textiles
Quilt National 21, October 8, 2022 — April 16, 2023
Continuing in the Min and Porcella Galleries is the Quilt National 21 is a juried biennial
exhibition featuring the Best of Contemporary Quilts. Organized by The Dairy Barn Arts Center in Athens, Ohio, Quilt National showcases new works, all made within the previous two years from the show’s opening, selected by the jury of Nancy Bavor, Brigette Kopp, and Karen Schulz.
Quilt National offers the works of artists who take technology and techniques for fiber art above and beyond the ordinary.

***

Inside Out: Seeing Through Clothing: An Online Exhibition
At once utilitarian and deeply expressive, clothing offers protection from external
conditions while extending our inner selves—our identities, desires and beliefs—to the surface of our bodies and beyond. This dynamic relationship between what is public and private, visible and invisible, is considered in Inside Out: Seeing Through Clothing, an exhibition that features the work of 11 artists who explore, expand, and challenge the boundary that clothing creates between our bodies and the world. Working in the fields of sculpture, photography, installation and textile art, these artists consider themes of transparency, openness, interiority and visibility to create objects that invite us in while reaching out. View the Exhibit at: https://www.sjquiltmuseum.org/digital-exhibitions

Exhibiting artists include Claudia Casarino, Reiko Fujii, Charlotte Kruk, Robin Lasser &
Adrienne Pao, Victoria May, Kate Mitchell, Laura Raboff, Beverly Rayner, Rose Sellery and Jean Shin.

***

Weaving Voices Podcast
Weaving Voices is a Whetstone Radio Collective x Fibershed podcast that stitches textile
systems and traditions, economic philosophy, and climate science into a quilt of understanding.
Designed to transform our thinking and actions both as citizens and material culture makers and users.
Hosted by Fibershed Executive Director Rebecca Burgess, Weaving Voices tells the stories
of our textile culture. We learn from communities that have enduring textile recipes that have lasted for multiple millennia, a complete contrast to the current and contemporary system dependent on fossil carbon and volume-based production models.
If you wear clothes, you’ll want to tune into these stories about how the dominant narrative, imagery and trends try to tell us what is “appropriate” and good to wear. And how most of the time, this leaves out the voices, lives and daily realities of the people, animals and landscapes that make our clothing possible.
Descriptions of episodes to date, along with links for listening from the website, or
subscribing on Apple Podcasts or Spotify apps, along with transcripts, are found here:
https://fibershed.org/programs/education-advocacy/weaving-voices-podcast/

Show and Tell February 2023

Barbara Shapiro – Troubled Waters

My work Troubled Waters 2019, 14 x 14 x 14″, has been chosen for The Color of Water at
the Sebastopol Center for the Arts, February 11 to March 26, 2023.

The Reception is on February 11, 2 to 4 PM. The hexagonally plaited sedori cane globe supports a swirl of soiled papers and cloth with a pool of debris inside the globe as well.

Featured Textiles – Sheep-to-Shawl Benefit

In response to the mass shooting in Half Moon Bay, involving some of the area’s farmworkers, one of our members – Kitty Thorsen – offered to donate a shawl produced by one of the Guild’s sheep-to-shawl teams, to the farmworkers. After consulting the board, we decided that auctioning off the shawl and donating the proceeds to ALAS, a non-profit working with the local farmworkers, would be a better idea.

So . . . we held an auction on January 28th by email. Member Barbara O’Connor had the high bid and won the shawl. We are still waiting for funds to come in to know what the auction netted. Regardless, Black Sheep members are pleased that we could contribute in a small way toward bettering conditions for the local farmworkers.

 

   

Denise Kovnat: Tactile Art: Collapse Fabrics from 4 to 32 Shafts

Note: Meeting starts at 6:30 PM on Feb 16, 2023

This lecture explores the many techniques and possibilities for creating dimensional fabrics. The three basic elements for these fabrics are structure, active and inactive yarns, and finishing techniques. The results make the most of an often-overlooked aspect of weaving: that of texture and depth. Add color and form, and weavers can maximize the potential of our craft to create imaginative fabrics with great visual and tactile appeal.

Denise is a hand weaver and teacher who lives in Rochester, NY.  Her weaving interesting include extended parallel threadings, fine yarns, hand-painted warps, Deflected Double Weave and collapse techniques.  She says she loves yarn and chocolate, not necessarily in that order.

Note: Meeting starts at 6:30 PM on Feb 16, 2023

Barbara Shapiro Introduces the New World Shibori Network Foundation

Barbara Shapiro Introduces the New World Shibori Network Foundation

Artist, author, scholar, and friend Yoshiko Wada has presented several times at Black Sheep
meetings. In1975, she taught the first Shibori class in the US. In the 1990s Wada and Japanese colleagues held the First International Shibori Symposium (ISS) in Nagoya, Japan, seeking to promote shibori textiles in Japan and beyond by preserving this century-old technique from disappearing. The World Shibori Network (WSN) aims to share information and inspiration and to preserve Japanese shibori and similar heritage techniques across the globe by creating a bridge between the ancient and the contemporary in textile technologies with an emphasis on sustainability. In 2022, WSN became a non-profit foundation.
Slow Fiber Studios (SFS) https://shibori.org/slow-fiber-studios/ is now the official
educational arm of WSN and will continue to offer in-person and online lectures and workshops on a variety of textile subjects. The Shop https://shop.slowfiberstudios.com/ offers excellent sustainable indigo and other dyes, Shibori tools and products, and a range of pertinent books and videos, etc. Newly developed Slow Fiber TV https://shibori.org/slow-fiber-tv/ offers subscription-based access to uncut versions of the various SFS workshops and other content.
Trips and tours https://shibori.org/international-tours/ are in the planning stages. Join our
mailing list for updates on our programs and consider become a member of WSN
https://shibori.org/membership/. Full disclosure, I am a founding board member of the new WSN Foundation.

— Barbara Shapiro