All posts by Stefanie Selck

Show and Tell April 2023

Show and Tell

Ply Split Rug by Ulla de L.  

 I made another split ply rug while I was in Sweden last month. It is made of the 260
cords I had made the year before, walking back and forth on our veranda. As with my previous ones it is made out of the Maypole Nehalem wool yarns I got from Gisela Evitt many years ago, using 10400 ends of 2 ply wool. It is 24″ X 7’4″ in size.

Creative Endeavors by Betsy C

The Creative Endeavors Group learned sashiko stitching with Jodi P. This beautiful boro was made by Betsy C.

Stand Clear of the Closing Doors by Sarah A

Here is my recent piece Stand Clear of the Closing Doors. It is inspired by the New York City subway. The design was generated by artificial intelligence (image included below) and then I reproduced it with modified Theo Moorman technique using handspun mixed and upcycled fiber inlay weft, cotton warp, and bast ground weft. 

       

The woven piece                                                   The AI Starting Point 

Gail B – More Creative Endeavors

 

Completed Scarf: Four Shaft Deflected Doubleweave variation, 5/2 cotton and Bambu 7

Sashiko/Bpro Mug Rug, cotton, 6″x6″ (April Creative Endeavors Event)

Mushroom-Dyed Wool yarn (March Creative Endeavors Event)                                    

April 20th Black Sheep Meeting – “Weaving Wizards”

Past Programs, Programs

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

Past Programs, Programs

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

Uncategorized

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 – A Revue in Review of Guild Study Groups
  • June 15 – Let’s Get Together and Share the Weaving Love (In Person)
  • July 20 – Informal Summer Program – In Person Craft Night
  • August 17 – Informal Summer Program (tbd)

Black Sheep 2023 Towel Exchange!

Towel Exchange

Black Sheep 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 Black Sheep 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

Upcoming events

Handweavers Guild of America (HGA) Textiles & Tea

Textiles & Tea takes place online every Tuesday, 4:00 p.m. ET / 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time. Full
information and registration are at https://weavespindye.org/textiles-and-tea/. All episodes of Textiles & Tea are recorded and are available to be watched on HGA’s Facebook page and YouTube channel. Speakers for April, 2024:

April 2nd, 2024: Christine K. Miller is a lifelong fiber artist with experience in weaving, sewing, basketry, embroidery, felting, dyeing, knitting, crochet, and fiber sculpture. She has been weaving for 50 years, and for the last 30 years she has been weaving with wire to create sculptural expressions. She teaches how to weave with wire as warp and weft in face-to-face workshops, through her online fiber studio, and in her newly published book Weaving with Wire: Creating Woven Metal Fabric. Christine continues bringing fiber arts into the educational world with Visiting Artist programs and workshops. She is a retired visual arts educator with local, state, and national arts education recognition. She continues teaching in K-12 programs through her Visiting Artist program and leads professional development workshops for art educators in school districts across the state of Texas.

April 9th, 2024: Patsy Zawistoski is an innovative, international handspinning teacher and lecturer throughout the U.S., New Zealand, Canada, and Sydney, Australia. For more than 40 years, Patsy has created multiple spinning workshops and presented them at large and small conferences. Loving all fibers, she maintains a wide focus while spinning multi-ply yarns for variety and exciting results. She began sewing at age ten with a button shirt for her dad, then went on to making all her clothes and doing alterations in high school. In 1973, after college and marrying, Patsy learned that she could make cloth by weaving on a rigid heddle loom. A spinning wheel followed eight years later. By 1987, she had spun and secured HGA’s Certificate of Excellence in Handspinning, Parts I and II.

April 16th, 2024: Liz Gipson is a writer, weaver, teacher, and rigid-heddle weaving enthusiast who hosts Yarnworker, a popular site for rigid-heddle weavers, and the associated Yarnworker School, an online, community-funded classroom. Liz has published four books on rigid-heddle weaving and previously worked for Interweave, Schacht Spindle Company, and Craftsy in various editorial, marketing, and video production capacities. Liz embraces the idea that through weaving, we see all things—history, culture, science, technology, personal expression, economics, medicine, and so much more. It is the perfect medium for exploring mind, body, and spirit.

April 23rd, 2024: Demetrio Bautista Lazo is considered by Mexican and international textile experts to be one of the best rug weavers and natural dyers of his generation. He began weaving at age seven at his grandfather’s side. Now aged 50, he has held solo exhibits and workshops in both Mexico and the US and has been featured in Zapotec Weavers (Museum of New Mexico Press)
and Spin-Knit: Colorways (Interweave Press). Demetrio dyes his wool/mohair blend with locally grown plants plus cochineal, a small insect. Through experimentation, he has learned to combine dyes and use a variety of acid and base modifiers to achieve a rich and varied natural palette of over 300 colors for his innovative designs based on Mexican culture.

April 30th, 2024: Kathy Monaghan is a dedicated fiber artist and popular instructor. The author of You Can Weave! Projects for Young Weavers, she has taught weaving at every level for over 35 years.
She loves sharing techniques and inspiration with all students, but particularly with beginners. Kathy excels at breaking complex tasks into easy-to-understand steps to ensure beginners’ success and never tires of seeing the joy in students when they master new skills. Her day job: she’s Director of Marketing for Pendleton Woolen Mills, designing experiences for the public to learn about the complete fabric production process, including fiber sourcing, dyeing, carding, spinning, warping, weaving, and the finishing of goods.

Show and Tell February 2023

Show and Tell

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

Featured textiles

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

Past Programs

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