February 2015
Meeting: Friday, February 20, 2015
(third Friday of the month)
10:00 AM at the library
Diablo Weaving Guild meets in Walnut Creek, usually on the third or fourth Friday of the month from September through June.
New members and guests are welcome.
In September, December and June we meet at a member's home. Other meetings are held at the Thurman Casey Library in Walnut Creek.
Library location details and a map:
Shibori Weaving - Video
The guild will watch the video purchased last year by Catherine Ellis "Weaving Cloth for Shibori on 4 shafts or less" and available from Weaving Today on Interweave press for about $20. She also wrote Woven Shibori (2005) which is an excellent source of instructions, drafts and examples of her work.
She recommends these web sites for additional examples:
The video is almost an hour long, and we may want to pause it for discussion and/or clarification. The fun thing about this project is that so many guild members have some experience with loom-controlled shibori, and can enhance our learning experience and project planning time.
The idea is that each of us who are so inspired may warp a loom, and try out these techniques in ways suggested, or in experiments that come to mind in the discussion. The guild will hold a dye workshop at Margie Kaplan's home in Orinda in May, where those who have shibori pieces can apply dye to the prepared project. We can talk at the guild meeting about what dyes she has available, and what dyes or emersion baths we want to have available. We will need some volunteers to help her organize the dye day, so be thinking about what you will want to apply to your project.
Guild members are also encouraged to bring examples of woven shibori from your collection and past workshops, as well as any books or articles to share with the group. We will have a complete show and tell at the June meeting, unless we want to arrange an "untying ceremony" after the dyes are set. It is really exciting to watch the results unfold!
Snack for the meeting in February: Kate and Pam
Scroll down to the bottom of this page to see
CNCH 2015 updates for information about donating a container for the raffle.
New site for photos and for sale items:
We have just set up a second website, hosted by Wix, to display photos. They have very nice options for photo galleries, and if you don't mind advertising the site is free.
At this point the only photos are of some recent weaving items for sale. However, we could add "show and tell" or other project photos and might want to include the results of some of our workshops. This might replace the current side link, to Saori Weaving, under Guild Photos.
Comments and suggestions welcome!
http://diabloweavers.wix.com/gallery
You may even find something of interest to purchase. Contact Reba for details re the items for sale.
Upcoming meetings:
March 20 (third Friday): The Magic of Rigid-heddle looms
Reba will be doing a presentation on the magic of rigid-heddle looms.
Techniques has she learned; types of woven cloth; advantages and limitations of the looms.
More program details on the Programs Page: Programs 2014-2015
Travel opportunity update:
Anyone for a knitting and kumihimo retreat to Guatamala - in two weeks?
If you are interested pleaase e-mail Sharon for more information: scgardner@aol.com
Hola Everyone One of our fellow travelers fell and broke her femur in three places: hence I am hoping to find her a replacement. If you know of a single person who might want to join us at this late date, we can offer a 50% discount on a private room. This would make a $2250.00 package available for $1125.00. Time is of essence. You or a prospective attendee should contact me ASAP for details. See you soon Bill
Local Events
Yoshiko Wada will be giving a workshop at the Richmond Arts Center and also making a presentation at the Textile Arts Council:
At the Richmond Arts Center:
http://shibori.org/2015/01/15/workshop-yoshiko-wada-at-richmond-arts-center-learn-about-boro/
Textile Arts Center presentation by Yoshiko Wada:
TATTERED RAGS: The Art of Boro with Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada
Saturday, March 21, 2015
10 am, Koret Auditorium, de Young Museum
This not-to-be missed lecture speaks of the art of boro, the term roughly meaning “castaway rag.” These tattered rags and the articles pieced together from them would be considered of little to no value in the past. However, to us they define a new aesthetic and meaning to an alternative creative process, e.g. darning = healing, meditative action = marking time, reuse/repair = recording history.
Ms. Wada will discuss folk textiles from Japan’s recent past, such as comforters, fisherman’s coats, lumberjack’s vests, and other everyday-wear made of plant fiber mixed with used cotton textile and dyed in indigo, and extensively patched and darned to utilize the limited resources of the regions. Its imperfect beauty possesses a power that resonates with people and points to an alternative value of “beauty” slowing coming to surface in our social consciousness.
Who better to share the story than acclaimed lecturer, author, and curator, Yoshiko I. Wada. Considered one of the most important teachers of textiles in the world, Ms. Wada single-handedly introduced the art of Japanese shibori to the West and has been producing DVDs on sustainable natural dyeing and organic colors. She is the founder of the Slow Fiber Studios and has served as a trustee for the American Craft Council, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Capp Street Project, and the San Francisco Museum of Craft and Folk Art.
Local Berkeley based weaver, Tricia Goldberg, has two tapestries in the faculty exhibition at the Richmond Arts Center. She is also teaching local workshops.
Two Upcoming workshops:
April 10 to May 15, 2015 (six Fridays): The Art of Tapestry Weaving at the Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA
May 22, 23, and 24, 2015 (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday): Tapestry: From Image To Loom , 24, 2015 at the Mendocino Art Center, Mendocino, CA
Winter Exhibitions
19th Annual The Art of Living Black The Bay Area's only annual exhibition that features regional artists of African American descent. This year, works by more than 75 artists are featured! Through Feb. 27
Yisrael K. Feldsott: Annunciating Obscurities Works from the 1970s to the present that showcase this artist's ability to push the formal potentials of disparate materials to portray the gamut of the human experience -- death, violence, and survival. Through March 7.
Richmond Art Center Faculty Show Come see unique and diverse 2D and 3D works by the Art Center's professional artist-instructors. Through March 7.
Gallery Hours:
Tuesday - Saturday, 10 am - 5 pm
Sunday, noon - 5 pm
Free + Open to the Public
Attachments
a
CNCH 2015, April 9 - 12 at the Asilomar Conference Center:
Each year CNCH offers scholarship grants to cover the registration costs of attending the annual conference. To fund these grants a raffle is held at each conference. This year we are asking all members of CNCH to create a container to be raffled off at the 2015 conference.
The container can be anything you want it to be - a purse, basket, bowl, pouch, bag, box, whatever your creativity can imagine. The greater the diversity, the more fun for all involved. It must be handwoven, handspun, hand braided or felted in some part by the member. The container should be accompanied by a card (3x5 or 5x8) which describes what it is and how it came to be. It may be turned in on the first day of the conference (April 9, 2015) or mailed to Pat Funke at 691 Dunholme Way, Sunnyvale, CA 94087 by April 1, 2015.
You don't have to be attending the conference to make something, and Joan has offered to bring items to the conference.
All classes for CNCH 2015 are full, but you can contact the registrar by email to be placed on a waiting list
or for any other registration related questions:
http://www.cnch.org/conferences/cnch2015/registration/
If you are attending the Conference and have not made a room reservation,
note that the reserved block of rooms is filling up and this will be a busy weekend
with other events happening in the area.
Link to the Asilomar Housing form:
http://www.cnch.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/CNCH2015_AsilomarHousingForm.pdf
Looking for information about past meetings and events?
Search our site using the search box at the top to find past meetings and events
and information about other guild activities.
For questions, suggested items to add or edit on this web site, please contact Carol.
Header photo: Coloured wool: By Sfuarch480 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons