Saturday, March 16, 2024

Making the Most of Naïveté

by Russ Little

I'm a new weaver. I've got a total of 5 warps and about 10 yards of cloth to my name, but I'm hooked. I've resisted weaving in the same way that I resisted knitting for so many years. I really did NOT need another needle thing in my bag of tricks to distract me. I have a friend in heaven--a very accomplished weaver--who prophesied this years ago and I know he's laughing now. I'm not entirely sure that my resistance was the wisest course. But to everything there is a season, and perhaps this season (my 61st if you count by years) is the one. I'm now a passionate knitter and this weaving thing... I can't get over how quickly color and pattern develop as the shuttle flies back and forth and how much there is to learn.

All that being so, I am, as I said, a new weaver. With that comes a whole host of challenges--tension problems, unintended floats, and wonky selvedges, which are the left and right sides of the cloth that should be straight and neat but only become so with practice and mastery. The photo above is an example of a wonky selvage indeed. 

I'm working on a project that incorporates lengths of handwoven cloth, and as I prepared to join those pieces to make a larger whole I realized that those wonky edges posed a problem. I could cut them straight, but even to the untrained eye that waviness of the warp threads close to the edges would be obvious. Or, I could cut farther into the width of the cloth, sacrificing something like 25% of the total width to get to a straight edge that lined up with straight warp threads. Or, I  could look at my bouncing baby cloth and love it for who and what it is--early work by a student--and honor the naivete of the line formed by that wonky edge.

That's what I'm doing. I'm following the natural edge of the cloth, finishing it, and even accentuating it with additional stitch. 













It's an entirely innocent line and an unintended mark that has a power of its own. Though the maker is hardly young, perhaps the mark has some youthfulness in the sense of one in the early stages of a journey. 

Wherever you are in your own artistic journey, don't lose sight of the horizon, but honor the work that you are making now, if only because it is a milestone along the way.


Wednesday, March 13, 2024

ACN Instagram followers are on the rise

One of our goals for our March 6 Textile Talk was to get people to look at our website and social media, I can confidently report that we had an uptick in engagement and reach on Instagram. Bravo to our team for representing ACN so well! 

We did a good job promoting the Textile Talk on Instagram, but, it wasn't just the posts about the Textile Talk that got people to our account at the end of February and beginning of March. Maria Billings created five posts about the upcoming Unfolding exhibition at the Sierra Arts Foundation in Reno, NV, April 3-29, 2024 so people who came to our IG could see current activity. Each of her posts features a photo and short blurb about one of the artists in the show. We got a lot of response to this. Maria is continuing to feature work in Unfolding.

I invite anyone on Instagram to re-post the posts about Unfolding at the Sierra Arts Foundation from the ACN profile between now and the end of the show on April 29. You can do it from your account--you don't need to be logged into the ACN account. Take advantage of the content being ready-made and share each of the posts at least once to your followers inviting them to attend the show or at least follow our account. 

Let's see how many people we can get to follow us on IG. We currently have 917 followers. Can you help us reach 1000???

Thanks. 



 

 

 


Wednesday, February 28, 2024

SACRED MUSE by Mary-Ellen Latino

As part of the Westies group, which is a subgroup of Art cloth Network and comprised of artists mostly from California and Canada, I have created a piece from a call entitled, “One Long Earth Song”. Each artist was prompted to read “Benedicto” by Edward Abbey for inspiration and create a piece 36” (W) and 18” (H) by 2/29/24.

I decided to create a piece to highlight such wonders of Mother Earth in the Petrified National Forest in Arizona. While visiting there, I was captivated by fossilized logs and stumps that had metamorphosed from trees over a period spanning 200 million years. Bursting with magical color, texture and glimmer, they exemplify powerful strength and perseverance in the face of adversity. These petrified beauties are gifts we will treasure forever.

I digitally developed a photo I had taken in the forest, commercially printed, machine stitched and fused (gilded) the log with multiple layers of metallic foil.

Here is the piece in progress as I apply foil with heat to develop surface design.



After several days of applying the foil in many layers using Misty fuse and heat, the piece is done!                 

                                                                     SACRED MUSE

Here are  3 detail views of SACRED MUSE:

SACRED MUSE, detail 1

SACRED MUSE, detail 2

SACRED MUSE, detail 3

One of my favorite poet and authors is John O'Donohue (1/1/1956-1/4/2008) who was an Irish poet, author, priest and philosopher. His writing also speaks to me about this piece.

“THE BEAUTY OF THE EARTH IS THE FIRST BEAUTY. MILLIONS OF years before us the earth lived in wild elegance. Landscape is the first-born of creation. Sculpted with huge patience over millennia, landscape has enormous diversity of shape, presence and memory."

SACRED MUSE is the second piece in the Petrified Log series. I plan on creating more pieces in this series.

PETRIFIED LOGS (diptych) was juried into the ACN exhibition LAYERS in 2022 by juror Lasse Antonsen.

 

                                                                     PETRIFIED LOGS 

“The tree is more than first a seed, then a stem, then a living trunk, and then dead timber. The tree is a slow, enduring force straining to win the sky.” Antoine de Saint-Exupery

by Mary-Ellen Latino

Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Textile Talk: Art Cloth Network on March 6

Art Cloth Network is thrilled to be the subject of an upcoming Textile Talk, presented by the Studio Art Quilt Associates on March 6 at 2:00 p.m. on Zoom.  You can register for this free event here.  You need not be a member of SAQA to attend.  

Title: Art Cloth Network - Sharing a Passion for Cloth as Art Form, presented by SAQA

''Get to know the Art Cloth Network, a diverse group of professional artists from the United States and Canada who have come together with a common goal: to promote the medium of cloth as an art form and share it with others. Each of its members brings a personal vision and sensibility to their cloth while benefiting from the supportive community of the group. These leading-edge textile artists bring exciting new perspectives and showcase a wide range of techniques to manipulate their medium.''

Friday, February 23, 2024

Having a Blast with Tanins and Rust! by Maggie Weiss

Last fall I scoured Chicago scrap yards for rusty or rust-able metal in the weeks preceding the start of my Rust, Tannins and Indigo class at Maiwa School of Textiles. Friends donated rusty objects and I even found a nearby source of scrap non-galvanized steel sheetings sold by the pound that helped me with my homework! Some family health issues sprang up so things have been delayed a bit. I've managed to complete all class work related to Rusts and Tannins. I will tackle the natural Indigo portion in March in which we'll be asked to overdye many of the peices from this portion of the class. The instruction was thorough and well presented and the Facebook sharing with classmates was informative and fun. The  beautifully subtle colors and the steam punk style textures have been mesmerizing. Highly recommended!

Here are some terrific samples from the junkyard that were too big and heavy to take home.

I did manage to buy one of the nicely rusted barrel lids. Later in the back yard of an antique store I found this rusted ceiling tile which I couldn't resist: 



My cousin lent me some found objects to sample: 

Gathered metal components washed and ready to use.

Projects included using non-rusted metals laid upon on treated cloth which yielded some great patterns and coloring. This was the first step on a large cotton shawl, which is very long and was folded over. It will be included in more processing.


Simply lying treated fabric on rusted surfaces produced terrific results as well, such as with the ceiling tiles...

...and perforated metals. Notice here that there are two distinct textures. The darker piece below is the side of the cloth that was facing the metal and holding moisture longer. The clear outlined image is the other side of the fabric that appears to have dried faster leaving less time for the rust to color it. Love that definition and resemblance to beehives!



Bundling objects came next, which involved rolling bits and bobs up in the cloth or wrapping cloth around larger rusty items. This first sample group is Pima cotton layered with scrap metal sprinkled in each layer and then all rolled up together. Really nice rust color and crazy fun texture!




Linen wrapped around a flat metal plate; resembling my very own Shroud of Turin.

Silk organza (1) and charmeuse (2 & 3) bundled with found objects from the junk yard, washers and metal components.





Next came the addition of Tannins in the dye bath. We used Black Tea, Pomegranate and Myrobalan, the last two products having been provided in the class kit from Maiwa. When Black tea combines with ferrous oxide in the rust it produces a very dark grey, almost black color as well as many intermediary tones and hues. The Myrobalan has a more pink cast to the grey and the Pomegranate produces a pale grey. The very dark spots on the pieces below are where rust on the peices turned black from exposure to the tanins in the tea bath.



These two samples were scrunched in a ball and held together with rubber bands, then submerged in the dye bath. Look closely and you can see that this first piece is the other side of the more saturated ceiling tile piece shown above. This is the dryer side of the fabric and the outlines are more delicate and detailed. Great info going forward and something to make a note of in the dye journal that comes with class. Both of these were scrunched before being set in the tea bath.


Metal components that had been a deep rusty color turned black in the Black Tea Bath. You can see the light circles from the rubber bands that were used as resists on this cotton bandana. 


The Ferrous Oxide Tea baths using rusted washers and other scraps gave possibly the best combination of textures and colors:

Silk charmeause covered withrusty metals and then folded and clamped.

                                                        Silk charmeuse folded and wrapped.

Silk Habotai folded and clamped

Rayon Jacquard folded and clamped

Pima Cotton folded and clamped with poker chips and acrylic circles.


Lastly for these modules we dyed clean fabric in several compounds for more striking results. 
Rayon Jacquard folded and clamped

More Rayon Jacquard, folded clamped w/wooden squares

Cotton Linen weave (2 pcs) with resist clamping and set in different tannins.


Silk Habotai folded and clamped for resist

Silk Organza poker chip resist

Rayon acrylic cut out resist

Silk Organza folded resist with poker chips


It's wonderful working with ingredients that only occasionally require face masks and are not toxic to my skin. My hands have still looked gnarly by the end of the day but they eventually came clean. It felt good using Natural Dyes and it's also a healthier option. I'm grateful for learning about these classes from my fellow ACN members and so glad I've been able to dive in! Now it's on to the natural Indigo modules!
    






Sunday, February 18, 2024

New work inspired by a traditional Log Cabin quilt. by Judy Langille

Inspiration for new work.



Bits and pieces of hand-painted organza using natural dyes.



These transparent squares are pinned on the design wall, 
while I contemplate the final design.