Cuyahoga Weavers Guild

Weaving and other fiber-based fun for 45 years and counting

Nancy

Patty shares this.

By Leave a Comment

January 2021

My first online class is live…and FREE!
Collection of inspiring images from online class.
Finally! I have succeeded in creating an online classroom and publishing my first class. And it is FREE!

For all the turmoil we experienced in 2020, it was certainly a year of learning new things for me. Shooting and editing video, creating an online classroom website and actually publishing a class were the biggest. I could not have imagined how much time and energy it would consume.

Do I wish all that learning time had been directed toward actual weaving? A little. However, I love teaching and was determined to find a way to continue during the pandemic quarantine.

The class is titled: Color, Pattern, Shape Part 1: Harnessing Fiber Art Design Ideas. You can access it through my online classroom HERE. It is a handy exercise I developed for those times when I can’t figure out what to weave next–a little warm-up for the creative side of your brain.

When you first visit the classroom, you’ll notice I headlined it Speaking of Weaving. Sound familiar? On that landing page, scroll down, and you will see the new class card. Click on that to enroll. If you have never taken a class on the Thinkific learning platform before, you’ll need to register. Follow the links to the course dashboard. The lessons will be arranged in chapters down the left side. As you finish a lesson, you’ll be prompted to move to the next.

The course is available on demand, so you can start anytime and work through it at your own pace. There are opportunities to interact with me and with others in the class: through an assignment you can upload for my review, the discussion feature on each lesson and a community group where you may post pictures and comments.

PLUS, there’s a bonus offer for completing all the lessons, assignments and follow-up survey: A $10 DISCOUNT off the next class in the series: Color, Pattern, Shape Part 2: Translating Ideas into Original Textile Designs. I am still working on that one, but hope to have it ready by March.
Enroll Now

Curating Handmade: Textiles from South Asia presentation is Feb 20

By Leave a Comment

Lynne sends this. Find registration details below.

This will be at 1pm Cleveland time and 11am Colorado time

Embroidered phulkari textiles on view in Handmade Creating Textiles in South Asia, Photo by Lori Kartchner.

Textile Arts Council of the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco

Curating Handmade: Textiles from South Asia, Past and Present with Cristin McKnight Sethi

February 20, 2021. 10 a.m. PST

This is an online presentation via Zoom; registration required

https://museum.gwu.edu/handmade-creating-textiles-south-asia

Artists, cooperatives, and workshops across Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan are creating new textile designs inspired by centuries-old traditions. Join George Washington University art history professor Cristin McKnight Sethi and curator of the forthcoming exhibition, “Handmade: Creating Textiles in South Asia,” at the GW Textile Museum as she shares artist stories alongside vibrant examples of handmade saris, scarves, and other garments. To learn more about the exhibition and related programming please visit https://museum.gwu.edu/handmade-creating-textiles-south-asia.

Online Lecture from Textile Museum of S. California–Jan 9 at 2:00pm EST

By Leave a Comment

Abaca cloth is woven from the outer sheath of the trunk of a banana species indigenous to the Philippines.

ONLINE LECTURES

Textile Museum Associates of Southern California

Woven Dreams from Sacred Mountains: Textile Traditions of the Tboli & Blaan of Mindanao

January 9, 2021. 11 a.m. PST.
This is an online presentation via Zoom
Webinar Registration here

http://www.tmasc.org/default.htm The Tboli and Blaan people of the southernmost island of Mindanao in the Philippines offers some of the most beautiful, skillful and sacred examples of material culture to be found throughout Southeast Asia. The weaving of the abaca ikat fabric (tnalak) has become synonymous with the Tboli, as has their intricate beadwork, embroidery and brasswork which richly decorates their garments. The Blaan, sister tribe to the Tboli, weave their own treasured and rare abaca ikat cloth (tabih). Their spectacular heirloom garments are adorned with impressive patterns of hand-hewn, mother-of-pearl beads.  Independent researcher and collector Craig Diamond presents the ikat weaving traditions of both tribes as well as identifying and discussing the impressive garments worn by both the men and women.

A Weaver of Note—Jack Lenor Larsen

By Leave a Comment

This comes from Patty,

“It is interesting to read about and see the interview with a really big name in American Textile Design in the 20th & 21st Centuries.”
Cranbrook Mourns the Passing of Jack Lenor Larsen

Jack Lenor Larsen at loom, 1954. Courtesy of Cranbrook Archives, Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research.

Last week, we were saddened to learn of the passing of Jack Lenor Larsen (Fiber ’51). Considered one of the most influential and prolific textile designers of the 20th century, Larsen explored both modern style and historical methods in his practice.

In a 1998 interview with The New York Times, he said, “I like ancient techniques and the cutting edge. The extremes are always more interesting than the middle.”

At the University of Washington, Larsen was a teaching assistant to Cranbrook Academy of Art alumnus Ed Rossbach, who suggested Larsen continue his studies at the Academy. He received a scholarship at Rossbach’s recommendation and completed his graduate course work in only nine months, graduating from Cranbrook with his MFA in 1951.

In 1952, he opened a studio in New York City and went on to shape the textile design of postwar American homes and workplaces, including Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, Eero Saarinen’s Miller House, and Pan American Airlines. Read the obituary in The New York Times here for a full record of his illustrious career.

“First and foremost, Jack Lenor Larsen was a maker. His use of traditional hand techniques and materials that he adapted into innovative technologies and applications was transformative,” said Susan R. Ewing, the Maxine and Stuart Frankel Director of Cranbrook Academy of Art. “His profound leadership and critical vision for contemporary crafts especially impacted the educational and outreach missions of the American Craft Council and the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. His legacy will continue to resonate and inspire a contemporary generation of 21st-century makers, educators, and companies. We at Cranbrook celebrate his global influence, inspiration, and contributions to our shared ideals.”

His textiles are in the permanent collections of Cranbrook Art Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs at the Louvre, which gave him a one-man retrospective in 1981.

He is profiled in the upcoming publication, With Eyes Opened: Cranbrook Academy of Art Since 1932 and will have work featured in the exhibition of the same name opening at Cranbrook Art Museum in June 2021.

Watch an interview with Larsen here, filmed just last year by furniture manufacturer OFS.

Announcing CWG workshop with Susan Conover in March 2021

By 2 Comments

New Year’s wishes for a better 2021, for a weaving year to beat all!

And mark you calendars for this workshop March 17 and 18.

It is to be Shadow Weave on 4 or 8 shafts.  It is  presented with a good plan of internet instruction, Zoom and at home weaving. Take a look at Susan’s examples.  Materials required and warping instructions will come before the workshop.

More details are forthcoming.  Please contact Patty for more details and registration.  The workshop registration is currently open to CWG members. Other guilds will be invited later.

If you like Molas, mark your calendar for Wednesday December 8 at noon.

By Leave a Comment

Follow the Cleveland Museum of Art and its Desktop Dialogue.
Fashion Identity: Mola Textiles of Panama.   
https://www.clevelandart.org/close-looking-at-a-distance

Stitching Complexity

Wednesday, December 9, 12:00 p.m. EST

Join program host Key Jo Lee and CMA research fellow Andrea Vazquez de Arthur for a deep and guided exploration of a single mola, made using appliqué and reverse appliqué techniques. Learn about these processes and their complex associations with the Guna understanding of the universe.

Watch the most recent Desktop Dialogue to learn more about the meaning of molas, the subject of the current exhibition Fashioning Identity: Mola Textiles of Panamá, in Guna culture.