"Switchbacking up the warp"* at Intermountain Weaving Conference

Last weekend I spent three days immersed in wedge weave, in a class led by Deborah Corsini at the Intermountain Weavers Conference at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado.  It will be hard to capture all that we saw and did in that time in a brief post but I'll try.

Wedge weave is a particular type of eccentric weaving that was done for just a couple decades by Navajo weavers in the late 19th century.  In wedge weave, you weave diagonal lines at an oblique angle to the warp, first in a band of diagonals slanting in one direction that goes across the width of the warp, then in a band of diagonals slanting in the other direction.   This approach pushes the warps out of their vertical alignment and creates the distinctive scalloped edges that characterize wedge weave.

Deborah Corsini with her piece Rip Tide

Deborah holding her piece "Trail of Tears" that was included in the exhibit of work by leaders and IWC board members.
Notice the use of slits as design elements. 

One of the biggest treats of the workshop was the chance to see up close two Navajo wedge weave rugs held at the collection of the Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College.  Museum staff invited us behind the scenes to examine and photograph two historic rugs.  It was thrilling to see how differently each weaver used the wedge weave technique.

While at first glance the design might seem simple, the more we looked, the more we found to see.
The second rug featured bands of plain (regular, perpendicular weave) between the bands of wedge weave.  We also noticed that the dyes had faded and/or bled, but felt this did not hinder the appeal of the rug at all.  In fact, in this second rug especially, the churro wool was incredibly lustrous (and hard to capture in the photograph.)

On the workshop's second day, Deborah shared an extensive PowerPoint lecture featuring the work of contemporary artists using wedge weave.  It was exciting to see that what might appear at first to be a fairly straightforward technique has almost endless possibilities. Many artists, including Deborah herself, have truly found their own unique voices in this approach.

Before the workshop, I had done a few pieces in wedge weave, but there were some stubborn technical questions I couldn't resolve, and I sensed that there was more I could learn.  Deborah immediately solved the technical issues and in one-on-one conversations pointed me toward several possible directions to explore.  For me wedge weave is a capacious and friendly format that can be abstract or representational (or both at once).  It can be regular and geometric or delightfully irregular and organic, even nearly three-dimensional.  I have found that when I have a wedge weave on the loom, that is often the piece I turn to first when I have time to weave.  Hmmm. . .

Deborah shared that her teacher, Martha Stanley, said that "I now know that a technique in a sense chooses me, not the reverse."  I have felt this too; I never expected to be a wedge weaver, but I find that I keep returning to it, for the handy structure it imposes and the improvisation that it encourages within the constraints of that structure.  Right now I am seeing the world through a zig-zaggy lens!

Here are some of the samplers we wove in the workshop (apologies to those I was unable to get good photos of):

Nancy's piece

Kristi's work

Cindy's piece

Carol's work

Evelyn's work

Toni's work

Lyn's work

Lyn Hart also had a piece in the art exhibit that incorporated wedge and eccentric weaving.  Here is her piece Polen Verde, a rendition of a desert tree that blooms in yellow and scatters pollen abundantly in her part of Arizona.  The three green trees are done in wedge weave.

Lyn Hart, Polen Verde

detail, Lyn Hart, Polen Verde

My work, still in progress.  I will end it with a couple bands of zigzags similar to those at the bottom of the piece.

This piece, Color Field, by Deborah Corsini inspired me to experiment with feathers.

Thank you, everyone at IWC that made this conference happen, and thank you, Deborah Corsini, for inspiring us to begin to explore the possibilities of wedge weave.

* This was Deborah's phrase as she summed up our workshop and I just loved the way it described the course of our journey up the warp.

"Beyond Punch Cards" at Santa Fe's Form & Concept gallery

We've all heard, probably more than once, that the punch cards that programmed the first computers were based on the punch cards used to create intricate weaving structures on the original Jacquard looms.  Both technologies, weaving and computing, rely on binary systems.  Recently I visited an exhibit at Form & Concept Gallery in Santa Fe that explores this connection more deeply, showing "innovative ways old and new technologies interlace each other."  Curators Renata Gaui and Francesca Rodriguez Sawaya selected works from around the world that investigate how both technologies might "converge and evolve to resist obsolescence."  Though the show has closed, you can read about it and see the work here.  Click on each work for artists' statements and more.

For me, the piece below stole the show.  At the top, a beautifully woven image that showcases what Jacquard weaving can do slowly disintegrates toward the bottom of the piece, reflecting the disintegration of the neglected loom on which it was woven.   I'm including a photo of the full label text as it is so pertinent to the state of textiles and weaving instruction in higher art education today.

Gabrielle Dugan, Weaving2018

detail, Gabrielle Dugan, Weaving2018.  The woven text reads "I am past and future." 

I acquired my own floor loom when a university art department sold all the looms in the fiber area, on the assumption that weaving had been superseded by a focus on surface design and mixed media.

Another piece was striking in its merging of technology and weaving.   For this work, viewers are invited to use a tablet to activate the piece.  Code embedded in the weaving creates prismatic shapes on the screen of the tablet when the tablet is held in front of the panel.

C. Alex Clark, Aliased Quarry/Diffraction Query

detail, C. Alex Clark, Aliased Quarry/Diffraction Query

detail, C. Alex Clark, Aliased Quarry/Diffraction Query

"Gee whiz" is my response here.  The piece does go far "beyond punch cards" to illustrate the interlacement of weaving concepts with the mechanics of light and computing, reminding us perhaps that art and science are not as distinct as we may think.  For a full explanation of how this works, go here.

For me the following piece packed a more emotional punch.  What appears at first glance to be a traditional overshot coverlet is revealed, upon reading the label, to contain Kevlar, the bulletproof fiber.  The piece is part of a projected collection of "bulletproof home goods," inspired by the 2016 mass murder at Pulse nightclub in Orlando and the resulting, unsurprising fact that many gay people report feeling safer at home than in public.  The artist says she wove the piece specifically to raise awareness about safety issues for LGBTQ people.

Erika Diamond, Overshot Safety Blanket (lapghan) from the Imminent Peril-Queer Collection

Finally, this piece made a trenchant point despite its small size (11" x 8.5").

Askanksha Aggarwal, Fragment-From the Women who Did Not Make History series.  

detail, Askanksha Aggarwal, Fragment-From the Women who Did Not Make History series.  Phrases alluding to the "hidden narratives" of the artist's female relatives are partially discernible in the laser-etched woven paper strips.

This is a show whose appeal is conceptual as well as optical. Every piece requires the viewer to read the label to fully appreciate what is going on.  Artists do not rely on vibrant color or traditional technical prowess to wow the viewer; the punch, as in much contemporary art, is in the concept.  It is the mission of Form & Concept gallery to blur and break down the false distinctions and outdated hierarchies that still separate art, craft, and design, and I can only applaud this. From the gallery's mission statement:  "We dispute the historic use of these terms to divide artists and rank material culture."  I look forward to more exhibits that show what is possible in media formerly known as "craft." 

How Molly got her groove back* at MAFA

I'm a little tardy with this post reporting on the Mid-Atlantic Fiber Association conference (MAFA).  Here's the thing: the conference re-energized me so much that when I got back home I plunged back into studio work, eager to take advantage of the boost.  I'd been in a bit of a creative and motivational slump in my studio, unsure of what to weave next and full of self-doubt.  But then I went to MAFA  and I returned ready to tackle several half-finished projects on my looms.  Teaching at the conference, hanging with my fiber tribe, and talking tapestry with fellow weavers and instructors was just great.  The students in my Collage to Tapestry Cartoon workshop were smart, motivated, eager to share and learn from each other, and exceptionally hard-working.  I can only hope they came away with the same boost in energy and ideas as I did.

In the course of two-and-a-half very full days, students created several collages apiece and worked through the process of figuring out how to translate them into the language of tapestry. Nearly every student made a cartoon and also made good progress on the myriad decisions that precede even beginning to weave.  You can read an account of the class by student Michiele Elliott here.

Here are some highlights:

Jan working on one collage.

Fannie's collage in monochrome

Michiele shares her collage 

Nan's series of collages. A quick, colorful abstract piece helped her clarify the design for her bird. 

Fannie, Joanne and Michiele share feedback on their collages before working on cartoons.

Carol shared these pieces of her work with the class. 

Joanne shared these pieces, woven on a crochet cotton warp and using DMC embroidery floss as weft. 

Carol's collages.  She chose to develop one of her small index card pieces into a cartoon.  

Vicki's collage and her detailed cartoon 

Jan's completed collage and cartoon

Of course, the classroom workshop is just one facet of the fiber conference experience.  There were wonderful vendors (I splurged on some lustrous linen to play with).  A keynote address by Tom Knisely made us laugh and reminded us how we can, at our best, be truly "united in fiber" (the theme of the conference). There was for the first time at MAFA a small art exhibit, in which several extraordinary pieces showed what can be done in weaving. (Check out my Instagram for some images from that show.)  And for me, it was fun to meet, or see again, a number of weaving world rock stars.  MAFA organizers did a great job with the care and feeding of instructors, providing us with assistants, several opportunities to gather over food and drink to talk shop, and clear information at every step of the way.   A huge thank-you to the small army of smiling MAFA volunteers!

I am looking forward to teaching adding some new classes to the mix over the next year.  Here's the short list of what and where I'll be teaching:

Sept 21-22, 2019:  North Country Fiber Fair (several short classes in design elements and principles)

Jan. 11-12, 2020:  Southern California Guild of Handweavers:  Weave a Minime, Plan Your Tapestry Diary, and Your Tapestry Superpower:  Sampling

July 24-25, 2020:  HGA's Convergence, Knoxville:  The Contemporary Tapestry Scene (slide lecture), Weave a Minime, and Your Tapestry Superpower:  Sampling

More teaching engagements are in the works, so check here and on my website Workshops Schedule page to stay up to date.  You can sign up for my email newsletter at the bottom of my webpage here.

*Apologies to author Terry McMillan for cribbing the title of her best seller, How Stella Got Her Groove Back.