Category Archives: Programs

Holiday Party December 19, 2019

Past Programs, Programs

Holiday Potluck & Gift Exchange

We will meet at our usual location (Gold Star Room, Redwood City’s Veterans Senior Center). We’ll begin setting up at 5:30 PM, with dinner at 6:30 PM.
After dinner, we’ll have a gift exchange. Gifts should be items that another “fiber person” would enjoy, priced at no more than $15. If you have the time, a handmade gift or a small gift purchased from another fiber artist is especially appreciated. We will use a lighthearted poem to guide the gift exchange. Betsy Blosser has agreed to be our leader again.

October 17, 2019 : Marlie de Swart

Past Programs, Programs, , , , ,

Our October speaker will be Marlie de Swart, a longtime spinner, knitter, and weaver. She lives in Bolinas and has a fiber arts store in Point Reyes where many west Marin artists display and sell their textile wares. She is a member of Fibershed and teaches classes in spinning and plying. She is committed to working with local farmers and uses fleeces from the west Marin area.

Marlie has designed many sweaters and vests, some which are showcased in her book, Knitting Woolscapes: Designs Inspired by Coastal Marin Wool. Here’s her website if you’d like to take a look: http://www.borageyarns.com/knitting-woolscapes

Come to the October meeting and see samples of her beautiful work. I’ve attached a couple of photos.

  • Joan Ferguson, for the Programming Committee
Marlie de Swart
Marlie de Swart (photo by Paige Green)
Marlie de Swart knitted designs
Samples of Marlie de Swart designs

September, 2019 : Big Show and Tell !

Past Programs

When we were younger, going back to school in the fall often included a time for sharing “what you did on your summer vacation” as a way of getting to know one another better, and what better way to start off our Guild Season?  Please join us for our first meeting of the year! Bring your recent work, or in-progress study, that thing you started at CNCH or made at another conference and have now finished; and let us share with one another what we have been up to, whether in study groups, or away at workshops and fiber arts gatherings, or on our own in our homes and studios.  What’s new? What favorite old thing have you been studying on?  What would you like to be working on?  Bring it all, and let’s set up a big long table in the middle of the room, and gather around it to see and hear what our fellow guild members are up to. If you’d like, wear something handmade.

November 21, 2019 – The Art of Papermaking with Marilyn Hornor

Past Programs, Programs, ,

Marilyn fell in love with paper when living in Japan many years ago.  When she retired from teaching, she began experimenting with making paper in the studio she sets up in her back yard each summer. Several years ago she discovered botanical printing and has added that to interests she pursues in her outside studio. She has taught paper making to her calligraphy guild, Pacific Scribes, The Nature Printing Society, and the Sonoma Mycological Association where the paper fiber is mainly fungi. She also enjoys sharing paper making with friends and small groups while working in her back yard.

Several years ago she was fortunate to be able to tour Japanese paper making villages with Hakoni Paper, a paper importer based in Southern California. She was delighted to find the traditional Japanese life still existing in the small rural villages.

Marilyn Horner in her studio
Marilyn Horner in her Studio
Sample of Marilyn Horner handmade paper with inclusions
Sample of Marilyn’s hand made paper
Sample of Marilyn Horner handmade paper
Leaf-shaped hand made paper by Marilyn Horner

Supriya Pradhan of Sofold May 16th, 2019

Past Programs, Programs

Local entrepeneur Supriya Pradhan recently started Sofold, a clothing company with friends and family in India. Their first products are organic cotton dresses, hand spun and woven, naturally dyed and sewn in India. They are made of khadi cotton, made famous by Gandhi and currently promoted by the Indian government. https://www.sofold.com/

Surpriya will talk about starting this business and bring samples of the dresses, as well as shawls Sofold has added to its emerging product line.

Barbara Shapiro Two rich and diversified experiences of Japan April 18th, 2019

Past Programs, Programs


Black Sheep member Barbara Shapiro will share images and objects from two recent trips to Japan highlighting textiles and baskets she encountered. On a Longhouse Reserve tour to the Beppu area in Oita Prefecture in the south of Japan, known for thermal baths and hot springs, she visited museum collections, saw artisans working in bamboo and stayed in a tiny mountain village where young people live simple lives working in sustainable textile practices far from the bustle of Tokyo.

On the 11th International Shibori Symposium tour to Yamagata Prefecture in Northern Japan she had amazing experiences exploring bast fibers, sashiko stitching and natural safflower harvesting, processing and the dyeing of four colors from a single plant, which the area is known for.

Workshop and museums completed the experience in this mountainous area with long snowy winters. One highlight was a prehistoric weaving device for a twined bast fiber fabric that predates loom woven cloth. 

 

These two very different tours, led by Yoshiko Wada, explored Japan’s rich cultural textile heritage.

The Pageantry of Japanese Textiles with John Marshall March 21st, 2019

Past Programs, Programs

We are delighted to welcome John Marshall to Black Sheep. He will be talking about Japanese textiles and will be bringing some of his own samples to share with us.

http://www.johnmarshall.to/

John is an internationally known textile artist working with techniques of paste resist dyeing. He produces a wide range of sophisticated and colorful designs, many of which show the influence of his years of study in the Orient.