Over the Rainbow babywrap

This sample is for a special order on its way to get squeezed! Tiny hearts on a field of rainbows for a toddler wrap!

Weavember!!!!!

Weavember is here!!

So many reasons to celebrate November! and So many things for which to be thankful. There is a day set aside  just to be thankful, but as with any list, there are bits and pieces that come together to make that list solid. And a firm and colorful list it is this year!!!

I'll try to keep this short but... it's me. 

I like stories!

A new project for this year- and it is a day I look forward to every single week! is the Tapestry Club at Leaksville-Spray Elementary School in Eden. The art teacher, Mr. Hart, an artist also, is very dedicated and volunteers his afternoon every Wednesday til he has to leave the school in January. We have the added experience of a former art teacher and current community art organizer/broadcaster/a lot of other stuff volunteer Ms. Debbie Moore. And we have this group of kids that are enthusiastic, fun, polite and have a great sense of cooperation for the project.

I want to point out the cooperation part for a few significant issues. 

This is not a school funded project.
 It is not a state funded project. It is a volunteer funded project. (If you'd like to help with the expenses of community projects please email me! we should talk and work together!). Sometimes it is important to just do what needs to be done. I wanted to share with my community... on a more hands-on level than I had been volunteering with in the past few years.
And, I am constantly inspired by success.  I had a wonderful experience once again, in Roanoke, VA at the Cityworks (X)Po, with so many stories of community, collaboration and embracing the positive spirit of neighborhoods.

Weaving is math.
It is soft, colorful, structural and concrete math. We talk about the "x" and "y" of the weft (woof- they like the word woof!) and warp. Weaving is a great way to see what 150 truly is when you see 150 threads in your warp, three weavers at the top and three weavers at the bottom weaving across and exchanging shuttles and talking about what they are doing, four people working independently on the sun, 24 cones of yarn and a finite number of times we will meet to create the tapestry. It is real art in real time with real people. It is not a small piece, either!

Art is the creative economy.
Art and craft create images, theme songs for our life, stories and theatre, and with those creations there is income, jobs and creative solutions using a variety of materials, technology and a wide range of talent. Art is important to engage in the global economy and that is where our local prosperity will gain it's momentum.

Working outside the classroom sets a standard for youth to understand community commitment and support.
Community art creates a strong stage where we can share the importance of working together as a supportive neighborhood, giving back as the generations that have come before us have contributed to who we are now. Children remember these experiences.. I remember them from my youth- the people that just did something- contributed their skills because it needed to be done.

Reading the news sometimes doesn't reflect that we have good in our society. Perhaps we are reading the wrong news. Perhaps we need to create better news to share.


So, looking at the word count, there will be more in the next post.
Homeschool Drawing and Painting class continues to be a wonderful group of kids, weaving special orders and items for sales in my studio and at the DyeCrazy shop online, working on grants for future projects are filling up the days. And all of this color! And the temperatures!!

So many things to be thankful for.

Meanwhile, Weavember moves ahead!
And please, support the arts, support the community and please shop local as the Holiday season approaches!

And so it begins

What a great group of kids!

Friendly, interested, ask great questions..

We started our individual loom weaving part of the project last Tuesday. That will accomplish two things.. get the "over-under" structure part down, and everyone will have something to work on. One hour goes by quickly.  

Today we set up the larger loom. 

Mr Hart helped with a diagram of weaving and enlarged his sketch for the tapestry. We will be working quickly with 10 meetings to complete this project.. with such a great group at Leaksville-Spray we should move along very well.

(climbing on soapbox)

When funds are restricted, complicated and minimal, the need for projects and programs is not minimized. Grants are available sometimes, but they run on cycles. Opportunities don't always. The best way -- I truly believe !!! to invigorate and engage a community is from grassroots efforts with neighbors, caring businesses investing BACK into their community and volunteer efforts. This doesn't mean that those working in the project with design, execution and supervision should all be uncompensated volunteers. Consider investing in projects with funding, with time because we all know nothing is free. But it can be freely given. (climbing down from soapbox)

Hope you enjoy the photos.. more to come!!!

Tapestry in the Schools- Weaving an Epic Journey

Tapestry as story

History has been full of storytelling... one of my favorite parts!

Unicorn Tapestry (detail)

Bayeux Tapestry (detail)

Stories ground us in why we are doing what we are doing ... all of the big "w" questions. The Battle of Hastings in the Bayeux Tapestries, (not really tapestry but textiles and I'll take that!!!) and the story of England, Vikings and 1066, the Unicorn Tapestries and more contemporary tapestry artists all tell stories but with so much tactility and texture!!!

Mix yarn, elementary education, community projects and engagement and we score big!!!

Yarn and other supplies!

For 10 weeks, I'll be a resident artist with Mr. Bret H. Hart, school art instructor at Leaksville-Spray Elementary School in Eden, NC for this afterschool project. For those unfamiliar with this area of NC, Eden has been a "textile town" with several mills that produced towels, socks and other hosiery, rugs and so many other woven items that are no longer produced in NC or in the US. My grandfather, father and cousin worked at the Fieldcrest Mill when we all lived in "Draper", one of the three towns that blended into "Eden". Mills were located along the Dan River all the way into Virginia. The area is beautiful. Clear water now, ... except for the Coal Ash spill up river courtesy of Duke Energy... another story. 

School Mascot "The Dolphin"

The Textile heritage is strong here, 

and so many families are rooted in the area because of their employment by these mills.. the area is struggling financially. Not a lot of funding for school projects is available and what can be used is VERY competitive. This is an opportunity to work in the schools, to bring the importance of art, craft and community with all of the side benefits of story, awareness, education, history... it goes on! Want to contribute? Personal Message me and I will be glad to share this project!!!!

DADA Collective at Northwest Middle School

I love this project! Friends, kids, teachers and art!

 

A collection of six artists working with the art teachers at Northwest Middle School and sixth grade art students are creating some new artwork. Mark your calendars for DADA’s June 5 “first Friday Gallery Hop” for an exhibit of the finished pieces!

 

The DADA Collective project is a short residency, with a variety of media and art styles working with small groups of students to explore how art is created by the artist with students creating their own hands-on part.

 

First Visit

Students share an initial meeting with the artists in their classroom, viewing power point presentations from each DADA Collective Artist, asking questions and finding out more about the next two visits.

 

We are just getting started!

The second visit is with the artist and the small group- ten or less students- with a demonstration and discussion of the next visit, a field trip to the Downtown Art District.
(This may be our favorite of all the visits! Taking art they’ve learned from their teachers and bringing it outside of the classroom, introducing the idea of art as a profession, the creative economy and how it contributes in so many ways! And- that you use a lot of math and science when you create art!!!) Students arrive for a day of work in the studios on their project, a guided tour of the many murals and historic buildings in the Art District, the galleries and studios, then lunch.

 

Exhibit at the June 5 DADA First Friday Gallery Hop

The students work will be on display in the Galleries during the June Hop. DADA Collective artists are Carl Galie- environmental photographer, Mary Bailey Thomas- multi media artist, Nicole Uzzell- sculpture , Marianne DiNapoli-Mylet- muralist, Jennifer Wynn O’Kelly- painter, Kathryn Gauldin- textile artist.

 

Thanks for project support from the WS Arts Council’s Wells Fargo Arts in Education Grant!

 

info@dadaws.org

dadaws.org

(336) 734-1864

 

Inkle and Bowls

This is the first month of the Traveling Empty Bowls Fundraiser! Second Year I have worked with Second Harvest  Food Bank on this project, taking bisque ware bowls and underglazes out to groups in the counties served by the Food Bank through their local food pantries.
So far we have worked in Forsyth (most of those are not mine this year.. but met some folks at the Y I hope to schedule with!), Rockingham County at Beulah Baptist Church (really nice, fun and enthusiastic community supporters!), North Stokes High School with art students with wonderful designs and on to Rockingham Middle School today, out to Yadkin County and more. This is a great social project and we hope to represent all the counties that the NW NC Food Bank serves.


As I get to meet folks I share everything I know.. (almost!) as I get to work with so many different organizations that have opportunities.  At Beulah Baptist Church I get to share the Penland Scholarship for Rockingham County residents, at North Stokes High I get to share my
 LOVE of inkle looms!


One of my favorite weaving looms, an Inkle loom is a very old type of loom that weaves warp-faced bands. There are a gazillion publications on how to build one and how to weave but with lapses in threading I need a refresher. So here is one for all of us! As I was searching for a good image I found two of the looms showing how the heddles (circular knotted threads of a very firm non-fibrulating yarn) that wrap around alternating warp threads. These heddles are held stationary by wrapping around one of the specific pegs on the inkle loom.




By alternating warp threads, many colors and patterns are created. and there is always the opportunity for "pick-up" threads to float and make more designs, add beads if you are the beady type--  lots of options for variations. Smoother yarns work best as this weave is warp-predominate- i.e. the warp threads are the ones to show the most. The weft is visible on the sides and can be a fun accent as it travels up the band. As always, the archives of Mary M. Atwater give us great direction.




Hope you get a chance to weave on an inkle! If you are inspired, message me! I love this as a workshop! it is simple, fun and a great project for bands, sashes, trim and --- just throwing it out there, you can replace those heddles with cards to create card woven bands using the inkle as the tensioner.. helping to keep the tangles of a long strand under control.

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