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.

January, 19, 2023 19:00 – 21:00 PST BSHG Guild Meeting

Let the loom do all the work!  Beautiful lace effects can be achieved by creating half heddles or doups and with the press of a treadle, or lift of a lever, threads magically cross themselves in the warp.  This technique is possible on four shafts and with eight shafts the possibilities are even better!  Learn how to create doups, thread for doup leno, and how to treadle some wonderful lace fabrics.  Based on the lengthy article featured in the January/February 2019 issue of Heddlecraft Magazine.

Daryl Lancaster, a hand-weaver and fiber artist known for her award-winning hand-woven fabric and garments, has been constructing garments for more than half a century. She has given lectures and workshops to guilds, conferences, and craft centers all over the United States. The former Features Editor for Handwoven Magazine, she has written more than 100 articles and published digital content, still frequently contributing to various weaving and sewing publications. She now has a YouTube channel, The Weaver Sews where she shares her extensive experience sewing handwoven garments. Daryl offers a complete line of digital sewing patterns for handweavers. https://www.weaversew.com/shop/sewing-patterns.html She maintains a blog at www.weaversew.com/wordblog Find her at www.Daryllancaster.com

Our next meeting will be a social meeting, perfect for bringing a portable project and catching up with your fellow Guild Members!

We’ll meet on the third Thursday on the lawn outside the Senior Center in Redwood City where we usually meet.  If there are issues with air quality we’ll move inside. Bring a portable project and an outdoor chair, and your own food and drink, no refreshments will be served.

At the time of this posting, masks are not required indoors, but if we move indoors, we recommend that you wear one.

Uzbek Ikat: The Personal Saga of an Exceptional Cloth

Marilyn’s textile journey started with pack animals, llamas to be precise, and rapidly moved from there to spinning, then knitting, then weaving, and then to exploring textiles around the world. In the process, she became passionate about learning a wide variety of textile folk arts. She shares her knowledge through demonstrations at museums, projects with children, and through her book “Creative Crafts of the World.”

Our program this month will be a blend of travelogue and technique. We will explore the traditional Ikat techniques of the Uzbek people in Central Asia. In Marilyn’s own words:

Experience the exotic in your own home town; travel to Central Asia in this multi-media presentation. We have all seen Uzbek Ikat on the runway in New York and London, now travel back to Uzbekistan with Marilyn to watch the process of its production. Each thread manipulated, dyed, and woven into exquisite cloth – truly hand-crafted. Plus, a show-and-tell after the presentation.

Marilyn’s presentation will be followed by a question and answer session, and then by our own guild Show and Tell.

Our March speaker will be Miriam Omura. Miriam is a textile and visual artist who works with many types of media, including weaving, fabric and photography. She will be speaking to us about her unique warp painting technique. Miriam will first describe the technique she uses and then take us on a journey through some of her pieces and their stories.

Memories result is a translation that acts as an interpretation of an event. As an immigrant, I have found my place through trying to understanding culture and place. This began with my past work, which dealt with personal identity through memory and family history connected to England and Sri Lanka. In recent years, that focus has shifted to exploring broader overlapping concerns that intersect with identity and social issues. Building on ideas of perspective and perception developed in my past work, my current imagery attempts to understand and ask questions about who and what makes up society around us. In looking for a way to comment on issues that will invite conversation and further investigation on the part of tthe viewer.

The memories we recall can be intentionally or accidentally distorted, changing without our realization. When memories are retrieved, they fuse with other memories to produce an unclear view that sits between truth and fiction. As a memory is recalled, it becomes layered and reshaped by the chemical process of retrieval in the brain. It is my hope to visually capture these ideas within my work, showing the intangible aspects of memory.

Also of interest is her story about moving from being working in museums to becoming an entrepreneur. 

Artist Website

Textile Traditions of the Peruvian Highlands

During this hour long hosted video presentation, weavers, dyers, knitters, and spinners of the Peruvian highlands who are cooperative members of the Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco (CTTC) are featured. The focus is on the preservation and revitalization of their traditional textile arts—including some techniques dating back to the Incas. These include the Andean way of spinning, dyeing, and knitting, as well as the tools to create belts, bands, textiles, woven edges, and skirt borders. Through the video clips and images, the weaving of doubleweave, ikat, tapestry, and discontinuous and supplementary warps are also highlighted.

This video program is narrated by ATA board member and well-known doubleweave author and teacher, Jennifer Moore. In addition to the video presentation, one or two ATA board members will be present on the scheduled Zoom call to field questions in real time at the end of the video. The total program, with the Q&A, is about one hour.

“Textile Traditions of the Peruvian Highlands” is an inspiring virtual visit to the weavers, spinners, knitters, and dyers of the Peruvian Highlands. It is an opportunity to “travel” to this part of the world and be exposed to the area’s unique traditional textiles and cultures.