Handweavers Guild of BoulderA TEXTILE AND FIBER COMMUNITY |
Guest Request - If you are not a member and would like to visit one of our meetings, please email president@handweaversofboulder.org for the day meeting and eveningchair@handweaversofboulder.org for the evening meeting.
Video recordings from past HGB Presentations are available on the HGB YouTube Channel
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In-Person Meetings
Stickler Scholarship Presentations
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• Margaret received her scholarship to attend Ply Away in Kansas City. She studied last year with Judith MacKensie, Joan Ruane and Jacey Boggs ply founder herself. Her hosts filled in related fiber sites, the Museum of the Arabia, a sunken trade goods filled riverboat, and the Nelson, the Silk Road (felt!) and indigenous textiles. This year she studied with Stephanie Gaustad and corespinning basics with Charan Sachar. She’ll be the first to sign up for his “thick & thin” and much more in March. Margaret enjoys fiber travel, always advancing her own skills as well as sharing as a student and with her students. • Audrey received her scholarship to visit the research center “behind the scenes” at Mesa Verde. She arranged a full day with Sam who laid out her chosen collection of fiber items, weaving, braiding, basketry, matting, rabbit fur over yucca and more. She will share her learnings about this ancient collection. Margaret travelled with her and can attest to her guide skills with an excursion to Long House and 3 historic trading posts. |
Estelle Torpy and Carolyn Steinkoenig, mother and daughter quilters, will share their experiences with longarm quilting on computerized and non-computerized longarm machines. Both quilt on Innova longarms and have taken training classes to develop their skills in longarm quilting.
Come see lots of beautiful show and tell, and hear about the ins and outs of longarm quilting.
Visit the HGB website for more information
• Strickler Scholarship - http://www.handweaversofboulder.org/grants.html
• Study Groups - http://www.handweaversofboulder.org/studygroups.html
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In-Person Meetings
This is a presentation based on Shell’s book Shoddy: From Devil’s Dust to the Renaissance of Rags. The history of modern-day old clothes recycling begins with a thing called shoddy. Starting in the early 1800s, shoddy was the name given to a new material made from reclaimed wool, and to one of the earliest forms of industrial recycling. Old rags and leftover fabric clippings were ground to bits by a machine known as “the devil” and then re-used. Usually undisclosed, shoddy-also known as reworked wool-became suit jackets, army blankets, mattress stuffing, and much more. Shoddy is the afterlife of rags. And Shoddy, the book, reveals hidden worlds of textile intrigue. Evening Meeting Presentation Tales of Textile
Intrigue II: A Community Workshop Participants will bring an article of clothing (either acquired secondhand, handmade, or that has had a “long life” in relation to the participant) to the event. Stories will be told, new relationships and ways of talking about textiles created. Possibility for creative community darning a possibility. |
Hanna Rose ShellAuthor, Artist, Associate Professor-University of Colorado Boulder Hanna Rose Shell studies aesthetics, textiles, and the interface of art and science; her scholarship takes the form of text and film. Shell’s 2020 book, SHODDY: From Devil's Dust to the Renaissance of Rags (University of Chicago Press), examines recycled textiles as transformative media forms through the lenses of aesthetics, material culture, history, and critical theory. It dovetails with a series of experimental documentary shorts and a textile installation in the Czech Republic on the subject of waste, recycling and old clothes. Shell’s book on camouflage, Hide and Seek: Camouflage, Photography, and the Media of Reconnaissance, published by Zone Books in 2012, has since been translated into French (Zones Sensibles) and inspired her own and others’ multimedia works. Shell has published widely in scholarly and popular journals on subjects including taxidermy, waste processing, and the history of chronophotography. She served as co-editor for a volume on science studies published Princeton University Press and previously released an edited reprint of The Extermination of the American BisonTechnology and Culture, her scholarship has appeared in the publications Journal of Visual Culture, Configurations, History and Technology, Bidoun, Technology and Culture, Natural History and Cabinet among others. Her films and media works have appeared worldwide, at art and film venues including The Museum of Modern Art, Anthology Film Archives, the ZKM Center for Art and Media, Machine Project, Slamdance, Black Maria Film and Video Festival, Machine Project, the Zimmerli Art Museum. Prior to her arrival in Colorado in 2018, she was Associate Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, before which she was a junior fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows. Shell also taught previously at the Rhode Island School of Design. Jointly appointed in the Department of Cinema Studies and Moving Image Arts and the Department of Art & Art History, she teaches a range of undergraduate and graduate courses. |
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Workshop | October 12, 2023 |
Transformation through Cordage |
Zoom Workshop Turning worn, beloved, or ragged garments and fabrics into beautiful and strong lengths of cord that can be worn and used anew. Cordage goes by many names- string, thread, twine, rope, yarn- humans have been making cordage for at least 60,000 years. It is the process of taking two or more lengths of fibers and twisting them individually in one direction and twisting them back on themselves in the opposite direction. In doing so, shorter and weaker fibres can be turned into lengths that are long and strong. The process is fun, simple, and repetitive in a way that leaves room for conversation, laughter, contemplation. Cordage making is accessible to folks who would not consider themselves crafty as well as to artists wanting to explore another way of engaging with materials. Perhaps there is fabric in your life that is dear to you that no longer serves in its current form. This workshop is an invitation to explore this ancient process and transform something meaningful to you; adding your own energy as your hands find the rhythm of the making. Come away with an understanding of how to turn materials in your life into beautiful and useful lengths of cord, whether to wrap a gift, hang as a garland or wear as a necklace or hatband.
Equipment/Materials Provided by Participants
Workshop fee: $20 payable on registration.
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Day Meeting | November 13, 2023 | Zoom - My Journey as an Artist
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Evening Meeting | November 14, 2023 |
Zoom - Studio Tour and Planning a Large-Scale Fiber Installation
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Zoom MeetingsDay Meeting Presentation |
Erica Green Artist Erica Green is an artist known for her site specific textile installations that transform spaces with large accumulations of knotted fibers. Born in Nebraska, she now lives and works in Colorado. Green’s work has been exhibited in several solo exhibitions including the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (BMoCA) ,The Art Base and The Boulder Creative Collective. Her work has been included in many group exhibitions such as RULE Gallery, Redline Contemporary, The Dairy Center for the Arts. In addition, her work was included in the 2020 survey of emerging Colorado artists - Great Expectations at the Gallery of Contemporary Art in Colorado Springs. In 2019, she was awarded the Director’s Award in “The Art of the State” show at Arvada Center for the Arts in Arvada, CO and received Honorable Mention in the “Contemporary Art Survey” at the Lincoln Center Gallery in Fort Collins, CO. She holds a BFA from The University of Nebraska- Lincoln and completed a two-year post-baccalaureate program at the University of Colorado. She has completed several residencies including Breck Create, The Boulder Creative Collective, LUX Center for the Arts and Skidmore College. Her work has been reviewed in publications such as Hyperallergic, The Denver Post, The Jealous Curator and Arte Morbida. Her work lives permanently in several collections such as The Boulder Museum, Hotel Indigo and Parasoleil to name a few. Currently, Erica is a resident at the Temple Studios in Denver. http://www.EricaGreenStudio.com, http://www.instagram.com/ericagreenstudio/ |
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Day Meeting |
December 11, 2023 | Holiday Celebration Buffet and Ornament Exchange - 9:00am Set-Up |
Evening Meeting | December 12, 2023 | Holiday Celebration Buffet and Ornament Exchange - 6:00pm Set-Up |
In-Person MeetingThe celebration starts with food -- of course!
Ornament Exchange - An HGB TraditionThe HGB Holiday Celebration includes a handmade fiber art related ornament exchange, each participant brings one wrapped handmade fiber related ornament.The ornament exchange is a long-standing tradition leading to many laughs and a few quick steals! Come join in the fun - or watch the commotion! The choice is yours! |
Ornament Exchange
The ornament exchange is a long-standing tradition leading to many laughs and a few quick steals! Come join in the fun -- or watch the commotion! The choice is yours!
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Zoom MeetingsDay Meeting Presentation: My Felting Journey - the Red Thread of Fate‘The red thread of fate’ is an expression in Japan to explain the special connection with someone important to you. "I can see my felt red thread has been leading me to who I am today as an artist," she said. Leiko will tell us about how she has learned her craft and developed new techniques for felting. Evening Meeting Presentation: Lacy Line Felt to Heavy Duty - Diversity of FeltFelt making is so adaptable, it can be made into something very fine and soft or something strong and heavy. More than 1000 breeds of sheep in the world make this possible! Leiko will show us the materials and techniques she uses to make her many gorgeous items and will show us her technique called “pine needles” which creates lacy felt. |
Leiko Uchiyama Leiko is a felt making artist nestled in the picturesque Blackstairs Mountains of County Carlow, Ireland. Her journey has taken her from her Japanese home as an agricultural and textile design graduate, to New Zealand, where she worked on a sheep farm, to Indonesia where her felt-making techniques developed and France, where she relished aesthetically and culturally rich surroundings. The experience she has gathered through making, all the sheep breeds and the many types of wool she has worked with, have helped her to refine her skills. She creates wearable pieces with wool and silks which she dyes using her own color recipes. She also enjoys making functional pieces for the home such as tableware, stool tops, wall pieces or rugs. Leiko has developed many felting techniques including one called Pine Needles. It was inspired by the look of pine needles on snow. It creates a fine, lacy felt - no actual pine needles are involved. Leiko teaches felting workshops throughout Europe, America, Australia and Japan and she has exhibited in many different countries. |
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Zoom MeetingsDay Meeting Presentation: Get a Little Closer to Woolpunk Say what? Say woolpunk. Trademarked as the artist, Woolpunk will share her work, art shenanigans, and discuss all things fiber related. She will show us her work and describe her inspirations and techniques. Evening Meeting Presentation: I'd Like to Teach the World to Stitch/Community Outreach and ActivismWoolpunk has long focused on community to highlight the invisible work needed to better our planet. Getting a little closer will deep dive into inspiration and communal outcomes with fiber focused initiatives. Woolpunk has the hands of a gifted artisan, the soul of a social activist, and the passion of an environmentalist. --Hildreth York, Curator, Writer, Emeritus https://www.woolpunk.com, https://www.instagram.com/woolpunk/ |
WOOLPUNK Artist, Activist, Organizer
Woolpunk® is an American artist, born in Summit, NJ in 1971. She has both a BA and an MFA from Rutgers University. Woolpunk® employs materials and techniques sourcing women’s work creation, historically; she machine-knits fiber installations, quilts sculptures, and embroiders photographs. Her work consequently champions social change, addressing homelessness and foreclosures, water contamination, and deforestation. Referencing her unique stitching and use of fibers, she trademarked the name Woolpunk®, which she has been using creatively since 2004. The Dairy Arts Center introduced us to WoolPunk! |
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In-Person MeetingsDay Meeting Presentation: From Engineering to Clay to Fiber to...Charan will share his journey starting as a software engineer, then textile artist and potter, and into all of his creative fields. Evening Meeting Presentation: Color and Texture in Art Yarns
Charan will share how he creates art yarns as well as samples of his color and texture. |
Charan Sachar Charan Sachar recently taught at PlyAway where several HGB members met him and took his courses. He is an artist whose work reflects his passion for the fiber arts such as knitting, spinning, weaving, quilting. He uses that love as an inspiration for his clay work. In all the fields he works in, Charan loves to accept challenges and approach the making with a “what if...” attitude. Charan specializes in creating art yarns with textures, using traditional spinning techniques and pushing them an extra step to create unique yarns. Charan Sachar lived in India for a significant part of his life where his mother ran a boutique designing clothes for brides and bridesmaids. The designs, colors, fabrics and embroidery he came across then have a strong impact on his work now. In 2014, Charan took up knitting as a hobby and very soon the knit patterns started making an appearance in his pottery work. Since then, he has been spinning, weaving and knitting a lot, one step further down into the rabbit hole of fiber and every step inspires him. |
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In-Person MeetingsDay Meeting Presentation: Wild Silks from India—Cocoons, Mawata Cakes, Combed Tops/Slivers and Yarns
Most of us are familiar with silk from the Bombyx mori silk worm...aka "bombyx silk" or "mulberry silk." Did you know there are also different kinds of wild silkworms that produce cocoons and beautiful silk? These wild silks from India can be naturally white, creamy, different shades of gold and even a brownish color. Come learn about these and see/touch these silks in person. There will be a pop up shop available.- Evening Meeting Presentation: Weaving with Silk—a show and tell of 2Skeins=2Scarves & weaving kits for Rigid Heddle and 4 or more shaftsSometimes weaving your first silk project can be a bit daunting. A great place to start is with Treenway Silks' 2 skeins = 2 scarves free drafts. Come see our 12-year collections of hand-woven silk scarves and be inspired to dress your loom with silk. I'll cover a few tips and tricks for handling a silk skein, too. There will be a pop up shop available. |
Susan DuBois Treenway Silks was founded in 1997 by Karen Selk and Terry Nelson. After 34 years, they decided to sell the business so they could spend more time traveling, writing a book, etc. On August 1, 2011, they sold the business to Susan Du Bois and Richard Yabunaka. And they’ve been living inside a rainbow ever since! Karen Selk and Terry Nelson started Treenway Silks out of their home in British Columbia. Over the years they worked as a team learning about importing silk fibers, dying silk, and using silk creatively. All the while raising a family and being part of a vibrant northwest island community. Susan is experienced both in business and in the fiber arts. Her business experience includes 25 years in direct response marketing and financial analysis/accounting, plus she is a licensed CPA and holds three advanced degrees (MBA, MS-Accounting and MS-Marketing). Susan weaves, dyes, embroiders (she has taught silk ribbon embroidery), spins a little, and has dabbled in paper-making and felting. Richard is well prepared to take on the shipping, having six years experience in product fulfillment. His interests include a wide variety of martial art styles and he has the greenest thumb that you can imagine—keeping our yard filled with flowers and vegetables. The extensive silk product line will remain the same, and beautiful dye colors will be created by three experienced Colorado dyers: Betsy, Pamela, and Peggy. Plus, Salt Spring Island dyers Cheryl and Mary will continue dyeing the lovely Montano series. |
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In-Person MeetingsDay Meeting Presentation: My Creative JourneyDeborah will discuss her creative journey: how she came to be a weaver, created textiles for interiors, and incorporated split-shed weaving into her work. She will present the creative process and philosophy that she employs in her weavings. She will also explain the split-shed weaving techniqueEvening Meeting Presentation: The Split Shed Rabbit HoleDeborah will discuss her research into weave structures and how she modified dozens of 4- and 8-shaft patterns so that one can weave curves on only 4-shafts using a split-shed. She will explain the split-shed weaving process and how she has integrated various split-shed structures into her art and craftwork. |
Deborah Silver
Artist/Teacher/Weaver Deborah Silver is a native of Cleveland, Ohio. She discovered her love of weaving while attending the Cleveland Institute of Art, attaining a BFA as a Fiber major and Drawing minor. After a weaving internship, Deborah learned the craft of antique furniture upholstery. She then combined her skills to open her own fiber art business, working closely with interior designers, creating site-specific fiber commissions for private residences, businesses, and religious institutions. Currently, Deborah designs and weaves pieces using the split-shed technique, transforming traditional patterns into a signature method of hand-weaving. All weft yarns travel from selvedge to selvedge, differentiating this cloth from tapestry. Her works have been inspired by the increased cross-culturalism in the world which has been facilitated by technology, the ancient realm of road and trade, now advanced to hyper-speed. Her most recent art is drawn from the memorial structures found in old cemeteries. Deborah teaches split-shed weaving workshops internationally. In 2019, she published The Technique of Split-shed Weaving, a book that illustrates pictorial weaving using the split-shed process on four-shaft looms. Her articles have been published in Complex Weavers magazine. Deborah’s weavings have been shown in numerous local and national juried exhibitions. In 2015, she received a Cleveland Jewish Arts and Culture Fellowship award. In 2017, she received third prize in the ARTneo national juried competition. She received the Complex Weavers Award and First Place at Complexity 2018. Deborah is also the recipient of a 2019 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award. |
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Split Shed Weaving - Multiple structures using a straight threadingBreak out of blocks with split-shed weaving. Weave curves and blend colors using continuous wefts on a 4-shaft loom with no special equipment. In this workshop, students will create multiple combinations of weave structures using only four shafts and a straight threading. Only tie-ups and treadling are changed between samples. Most of these combinations would normally require a minimum of eight shafts. Students will experiment with combinations of twills, summer and winter, double weave, Han damask, taqueté and more! Woven samples include continuous, complementary, and supplementary wefts, as well as wefts which combine to produce shading for pictorial weaving. (This is the same color-blending process Deborah Silver uses to create her art.) Students will also learn to make a cartoon on cloth that will advance with the warp and will not wrinkle when beating. Although students will not be able to complete all of the samples in class, they will leave with the ability to complete them at home with all of the drafts and instructions. Floor looms are preferable, with jack looms allowing the easiest treadling. Direct tie-up and table looms may also be used. Looms will need to be pre-warped. Students will provide their own weft yarns (instructor will email samples of acceptable yarn types). Students will also need three 10”-14” flat shuttles and one other shuttle of their choosing that will be comfortable to use with an 8 to 9-inch wide warp.
Prerequisites/Experience: Ability to warp and weave a 4 shaft fabric Equipment/Materials Provided by Participants: Equipment: Although this workshop can be done on a table loom, a floor loom (jack or direct tie-up) is preferable as it speeds up the weaving process. Workshop fee: $240 payable on registrationMaterial fee: bring $15 (cash or card) to the workshop. Registration opens December 15, 2023 |
Past programs can be found on the Programs Archive page. |