Washington DC and The Studio

A lot has happened in the last few months, most notably (and most exciting) is that my studio is finished! I also have updates and pictures from my trip to Washington DC, and a couple recently completed pieces.

Washington DC

To begin with- I took a trip to Washington DC last Fall and took in some museums. I saw many beautiful and inspirational things while catching the Metro from one destination to the next. Because photography is not allowed in most museums, the majority of my pictures are from the outside. In order to experience the collections and wealth of history our Nation's Capitol offers, I would strongly encourage visiting if you have never been. I don't think I could pick a favorite exhibition of the trip, but one of my favorites was the Pre-Raphealite exhibition in the national gallery- there were some samples of William Morris' wallpaper/fabric patterns, which as a lover of registered repeat prints, I found quite lovely. Also paintings by the other artists of the Pre-Raphealite Brotherhood which until this trip I had only witnessed in Art History textbooks. I also visited the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

I made a visit to the Renwick Gallery, an American craft Gallery just next to the White House. Here there was more wonderful artwork, an exhibition of art and craft done by Japanese Americans while in internment camps during World War II. The Renwick Gallery had a wonderful collection of textiles, wood pieces, glass, and ceramics.

The Textile Museum was a big highlight of the trip. Another astonishing collection. The main exhibition occurring at the time of my visit was of Central Asian Ikats. Ikat is a type of textile made by dying the warp or weft of a woven fabric prior to weaving. The yarns are measured out and bound up in certain areas to resist dye- then the unbound sections of the yarn (exposed to dye) are colored. This process is repeated until the warp or weft of the fabric has achieved the desired colors/patterns the maker intended. Once the dying is done the yarn is dressed onto the loom and the woven patterns that result are clearly the product of a very well planned design. Most of the examples of Ikat in this show were of garments produced in the mid to late 19th century and 20th century in Central Asia.

The final highlight of my adventure in Washington DC that I will share here was at the National Museum of Natural History. I must admit I came to this museum for one reason- I am interested in natural history, and I did spend some time exploring the rest of the museum- but what I really wanted to see was this...

At this exhibition I was allowed to photograph, however, I don't think that my photos can really do this piece justice. This is the hyperbolic crochet coral reef created and curated by Christine and Margaret Wertheim. It was really something to behold.

Wow.

The Studio

That was my trip to DC, now for the next part of this post- the studio!!!

It has taken a few months to gather everything and assemble it all into a workspace, but here it is all done!

I am so incredibly happy with this space to work- I would be content to never leave it. It is a one room studio with an outdoor area attached. Outdoors there is a drying line and an outdoor table to be used for dying and other aspects of fiber art that should really be done in open air (for safety reasons and also because dying can get messy).

Here is kind of a poor shot of my loom- it is currently being covered by a weaving I just cut off of it. The loom is a four harness Leclerc.

Here is a detail of the weaving. It is 100% bamboo yarn both warp and weft in an overshot pattern.

This is an exposure unit for silk screens. It has its very own table in one corner of the studio.

A 6'x4' print table with adjustable legs. The adjustable leg part means I can raise the legs higher when I want to use the table while standing and printing, but when I want to sit at the table and embroider I can lower it so it is the right height. Right now the table has a drop cloth on it to cover up the white top.

Another work table- this table is really neat because it has a light table built into the top of it to use for tracing patterns. Also on the table is my sewing machine, beneath the table there is a set of drawers for sewing materials and accessories.

The studio tour ends here with the closet- this is just part of it- stocked full of fabric, dye, sample books, powdered print paste, thread etc. All the materials to go with the equipment. So that is the studio! To finish up I'll show a couple pictures of new work.

New Work

This is a commissioned piece I did- it is the little sister of the piece Capsule which was one of the first fiber pieces I ever made. This piece is made up of many many fragments of pictures taken around New York City and stapled into this quilt.

Here is an in progress shot of the piece as it was being assembled (above).

This is a Joomchi piece, handmade paper drawn onto with ink and embroidered over.

Here is a detail.

And... one more detail.

That is all I have for now. I will continue to update periodically with new work/shows etc. I am looking forward to getting a lot of work done in the new studio now that it is all put together. It has been a very busy and exciting year. I am so grateful to the folks at the Center for Craft Creativity and Design for their support and the Windgate Fellowship for allowing me the opportunity to explore and pursue art as a career. Thank You so much!

Arrowmont Workshops

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts Summer 2010

The second half and last of my Summer workshop adventure was spent at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, located in Gatlinburg Tennessee. Here I participated in two one-week workshops. Here on the left is the iconic Red Barn, the dormitory where I stayed during my time in Tennessee. Arrowmont has a beautiful campus, wonderful galleries, and so many many great people. The best part of Arrowmont was, of course, the workshops.

Catharine Ellis- Woven Shibori

My first week of class was with Catharine Ellis. We learned how to make woven shibori, which was one of those things that after I learned how to do it I thought to myself- why did I never think of doing this?! It is a really wonderful technique for surface design. For those who are reading and do not know about weaving or shibori, I will explain. On the right is a four harness floor loom. When weaving fabric from yarn the loom keeps the warp threads (vertical threads attached to the loom) under tension. The loom also separates and opens up the warp threads so that a weft shot (horizontal threads that are woven through the warp to create fabric) can travel through and create the weave structure. Shibori is a Japanese surface design technique where threads are stitched into a fabric and then pulled together, the fabric puckers and bunches (picture tie-dye). The places where threads have been pulled and bunched together resist dye in a dye bath. When the fabric is taken out of the bath and the threads are cut, patterns emerge in places the dye could not reach. This class was exciting because I knew how to weave, I knew how to stitch shibori, but doing both simultaneously? Genius.

Here is woven shibori in action, the supplemental threads to be used for binding the shibori are woven into the fabric as it is created on the loom. The Shibori threads create floats seen here.

Another component of this class was the use of natural dyes. Before this class the only natural dye I had experience with was indigo- so this was a big learning experience for me. Here is one of the yellow dye sources we used, Fustic, a tropical hardwood from Central America which makes a beautiful yellow. We learned about dye sources, how to achieve a variety of colors, and about different dye applications, all using natural ingredients.

Other dyes we used in class: madder root for orange, cochineal insects for fuchsia/red, marigold flowers for bright yellow, logwood for purple/grey, indigo for blue and chestnut for brown. Dyes were layered and additional ingredients were used to alter colors.

The end result- here are a few of my samples hanging outside to dry after being dyed rinsed and having the shibori threads removed. There really was a great variety of colors that we achieved by using only a handful of dyes and layering on colors.

A close up of one of my samples. This sample was dyed with marigolds and indigo.

Our class decorated one of the walls in the weaving room with finished samples. Unbinding shibori fabric is like opening a gift, each time you undo the threads and pull open the fabric there is almost always something unexpected. Because this class lasted just a week there was only time for samples, but I have great notes and gained knowledge to carry into future projects.

Chad Alice Hagen- Felting and Beyond

Week two at Arrowmont was spent in class with Chad Alice Hagen. In her class we worked with needle-punched batts of felt. After felting the batts we worked with acid dyes to dye and over-dye the sample pieces, layering up the surface of the felt with different dye techniques. Here on the left are the pieces of felt we made after their first dye bath, just the first of many process to come.

Chad brought with her a table full of various pieces of metal, wood blocks, clips and ties with which we clamped and bound our pieces of felt and over-dyed. We repeated this process over and over again to build interesting surface designs on our samples.

Here are a collection of samples all bound, clipped and clamped, ready to go into another dye bath. Wherever the fabric has been covered the dye will be resisted. This was one of the dye techniques we learned to change the surface of the felt.

When all the layers of dye and various resists have been applied to the fabric we got something like this (right). This is one of my samples from the class. Because the pieces we were working with had so many layers they all took on interesting colorations and each came out completely different, out of the whole class there were no two samples that ended up completely alike.

Here is my work table full of completed samples. Each student in the class ended up with a table full like this half-way through the class.

After we had finished dying all our felt we started embellishing. We embroidered, beaded and further transformed the surfaces of our samples. This is a shot of a corner of my workspace in one of its less cluttered moments.

At this point in the class we began assembling the fabrics we made into pins, pendants, wrap books and (my favorite) coptic books. Here is a picture of my miniature coptic book being assembled, I had just begun putting the button hole edging stitch onto the covers.

By the end of the class I had not only a collection of colorful sample fabrics, I also had a small collection of books, pins and brooches.

Here is a close-up of the spine of my little coptic book. I learned so much about surface design while at Arrowmont. Learning how to bind books was a plus- I was not expecting to learn this when I came, but I am really glad I did. I can definitely see myself making more books- I am still brainstorming what else could be incorporated into this, no decisions yet, but-more to come.

That is all for my summer workshops. I will leave this post with a few pictures of a hike I took with some friends at the Ijams Nature Conservatory in Knoxville the weekend between class sessions. (Because It was such a beautiful hike!) I'm a little sad my workshop summer is over, but it has left me inspired and given me plenty of ideas to work from for time to come. I am sure that this has been the most amazing summer of my life. Thanks so much to my instructors at Arrowmont for sharing their knowledge. It was such a great time!

Much thanks as always to the Windgate Charitable Foundation and the Center for Craft Creativity and Design for making this learning experience possible for me. I will continue to update here with new projects, so keep checking back. I will be moving at the end of this month into a space large enough to accommodate my very own fiber studio- YAY! I will post about this- pictures of the studio space as it is pieced together and of course new work. Thanks for reading!

I have posted these links previously in my last post, but because I am a textiles gal and I really really like repetition- I'm reposting to make sure you all click and maybe go see one of these shows if you can make it!

Currently at the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport check out the Exhibition Fiber Art Unraveled: Material and Process up Now until February 21, 2010 in Terminal 4 Level 3, 8 cases of work. There is some really great work there including some excellent work by some friends of mine, and one of my pieces as well.

Also- upcoming please check out this site for details about the Hands of Korea exhibitions. The site has some photos of some really amazing work, if you are able to visit any of these exhibitions please do. I will have a piece in the Joomchi exhibition as part of the international artist addition when the show travels to Korea, so- friends and family in Korea, please visit!

Penland Workshop

This first post is going to consist of some retroactive blogging. The summer has gone by so quickly! So I'm going to time warp back to June and go forward. (Cue Wayne's World *diddle-dee* sound with fancy finger fluttering.)

Penland School of

Crafts, 2nd Summer Session 2010 June 13th-26th.

I attended the workshop, Pojagi and Beyond with instructor Chunghie Lee. The class and instruction was amazing. We covered a great deal over the course of the two week workshop. I was able to attend this workshop because of the Windgate Fellowship, I wrote about this in my previous (first) post. Thank you again for this opportunity!

I'll start off by giving a little description of pojagi. Pojagi is a traditional Korean wrapping cloth that is pieced together using multiple pieces of fabric. The wrapping cloth can be used for wedding gifts, covering precious objects, or a cover for food. Chunghie Lee taught our class how to construct a traditional pojagi (or chogakpo- pieced pojagi.) From there we went on to experiment, building off of traditional and modern techniques presented in class.

Here is a picture of my studio space in Chunghie Lee's class. there was not time in the two weeks for me to complete an entire pojagi piece, but I did go home with a sketchbook full of ideas and many samples that will certainly be influential in future work.

Some of my sketchbook- many of the pages I filled in the class were of these seam variations- different ways to connect pieces of fabric, each with step by step directions so that I can duplicate the results. Some seams here are traditional, and some were experiments based off of the traditional techniques.

Here is a small pojagi I made using a combination of paper and fabric. Some of the paper included in the sample have drawings of trees on them. I experimented a lot in this class with layering sheer fabrics over paper with ink drawings. I also used several different methods for making the seams similar to the ones in my sketchbook. Some seams are reversed (inside-out).

On the right is a picture of some pieces that I started putting together while at Penland using paper, fabric, string, ink drawings, etc. They are all layered patches that I plan to attach together into a piece once I have them all completed. So this is in progress- more photos later, the collection is still growing.

This is another sample. It is Joonchi, embroidered and drawn onto. Joonchi is a type of Korean paper that has very fabric-like qualities to it. Chunghie's daughter, Jiyoung Chung led the lecture introducing our class to this type of paper making. I loved the texture of this material and the way that it took both ink and thread. This sample inspired me to make a larger Joonchi piece, Garden.

This is Garden, 3 panels of Joonchi paper, each drawn onto at various stages during production, resulting in some images that are more distressed than others. In the end all three panels were completely covered in drawings and select parts of each panel were embroidered into.

Detail of Garden.

Second detail.

Penland was an experience unlike any other I have ever had. To be able to have two weeks dedicated entirely to art, experimenting, learning and the exposure to artwork and a community of artists was just phenomenal. I have to be honest, in years past while working through the undergraduate program at ASU there were many many times I experienced a kind of creative block (I guess this is something like writer's block.) where I struggled to come up with ideas and new things to experiment with. At Penland, maybe it was the air, probably it was the environment, but I left feeling like I had enough ideas to last me months. I would recommend taking a workshop here to any artist- it was such a great experience. Also- the food there is really really good- since getting home I feel like I'm starving and deprived.

Yum.

That is all for this post, I'll leave it at the delicious plate of Penland food. I'll update here with new projects inspired by Penland as I complete them. The next post will be coming soon and covering workshops taken recently at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. In the meantime I'll leave some links if you would like to read more.

Penland School of Crafts

The piece, Garden, from this post is going to be up soon at an exhibition curated by Jiyoung Chung for Joonchi, and Chunghie Lee for Pogaji, take a look at their website for the Hands of Korea Exhibition (this is really exciting)

Also- if you are flying soon and coming through the Phoenix Sky Harbor airport, I have a piece there in Terminal 4 level 3 as part of a fiber art show Fiber Art Unraveled: Material and Process It will be up July 3 2010 - February 21 2011. There is a lot of wonderful work there including some by my awesome professors at ASU and also some friends of mine who are really talented artists who you should really go and check out.

Introduction

Welcome! I have set up this blog as a way to share my artwork, current projects, and art experiences. A few months ago I was fortunate enough to be awarded a 2010 Windgate Fellowship. This blog will serve as a journal of my progress through the Fellowship for the next year. I would like to extend my gratitude to the Windgate Charitable Trust and the Center for Craft Creativity and Design for the great opportunity to explore my craft and to grow as an artist through this Fellowship. I am so deeply grateful. Thanks also to my professors, Clare Verstegen and Margaret Leininger, at Arizona State University where I recently graduated from the BFA Fibers Program. You have both been such wonderful mentors and an inspiration to me.

To read more about the Windgate Fellowship and follow other Windgate Fellowship recipients please go to: http://www.craftcreativitydesign.org/research/windgate2010.php

To learn about the Center for Craft Creativity and Design please visit: http://www.craftcreativitydesign.org/

To read about the Fibers Program at the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, Arizona State University, please go to: http://art.asu.edu/fibers/index.php