Foraging and Extracting Natural Dyes in California
Join Linda Illumanardi in Los Angeles as she shares her most recent explorations in the foothills of the San Gabriel foothills in Los Angeles. Linda bases her selections on pigment and tannin content, seeking a stable dye on both protein and cellulose fibers. Linda will share her processes of extraction and testing while also presenting the results of these experiments.
Linda Illumanardi was born and raised in the mountains of Vermont, toddling behind her grandmother reciting the names of local weeds, flowers, and trees. Now in California, she does the same thing with her 3 grandsons, basket in hand, gathering gently leaves from trees that become the content and design of her books, fabric, and ceramics. Linda began eco-printing on paper, to accompany her handmade book designs (artist book limited edition Otis College, Los Angeles, CA 2001, published in Lark 500 Handmade Books, second edition, 8 collagraph plates).
With a Master’s degree in painting, and multitudes of printing classes and residencies, Linda loves to make impressions in each environment that she visits. She states, “Whether in the mountains, forest, at the ocean, or in the high desert, there are always multitudes of textures, colors, and natural objects waiting to be immortalized.”
Wanting to expand her explorations, Linda naturally shifted to making botanical prints on silk and wool, cotton fibers, leather and ceramics, working as a mad scientist in her quiet studio in the foothills of the Angeles National Forest on the outskirts of a horse stable. Linda is clearly an artist in each world she inhabits. She loves testing local botanicals for natural dyes and tannins.
Linda has been teaching since 1987 for public, private, and charter schools, as well as writing curriculum and teaching out of her home studio for artists ages 3-83. Please see her lifestyle and work on her public Instagram account at linda.illumanardi .
This will be a ZOOM meeting at 10 am on Saturday, April 2nd. The ZOOM link will be posted closer to the date or CONTACT us for the link.
March 5, 2022 10:00 am Zoom Guild presentation by Taiana Geifer , on her experiences felting art pieces, wall hangings, scarves, and pieces for the home. Her title: “Twelve Years Later, I’m Still a Felter! ” Taiana writes: “As a felter, my mission is to create timeless, versatile pieces of art by bringing ancient felting techniques to the modern textiles world. Each piece is unique and 100% handmade by me. I began experimenting with handmade fabrics in 2007 while visiting family in Germany. What started as simple artistic curiosity quickly grew into a passionate and inspired desire to create with and share the ancient felting process. Collaborating with Calvin Klein’s head designer Francisco Costa, I created a number of custom felted fabrics for CK’s 2009 fall RTW runway show. Since then I have worked on my own collections of scarves and blankets, selling to stores world wide. I have also collaborated with a number of other designers, including Helmut Lang, Maiyet and Rick Owen, creating fabrics to be used in their collections. After almost a decade of making textiles for the fashion industry, I longed to bring my craft into the eyes of the art world and home interiors realm. “ For more information, visit taiana.com
If you would like the ZOOM link (Members will get it automatically) please CONTACT us!
January’s Zoom Meeting is with art historian Mae Colburn to introduce and discuss the Swedish tapestries of Helena Hernmarck. Mae Colburn is a New York-based scholar and weaver with an art historical background in textiles and photography. She has worked alongside Helena Hernmarck since 2015, both as studio assistant and as archivist documenting the artist’s nearly sixty-year career. Mae’s essay, “In Helena Hernmarck’s Studio,” appeared in the exhibition catalogue for Hernmarck’s 2018 exhibition at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, and her presentation, “Moving into the Museum: Helena Hernmarck’s Blue Wash Tapestries,” was included in the Yale Center for British Art’s Graduate Symposium in 2016. Mae has taught at Parsons School of Design, and is co-founder of the weaving and design collective ‘friends of light.’ More information available at www.maecolburn.info.
This meeting is via ZOOM:
SBFiberArtsGuild is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: January 2022 Guild Meeting
Time: Jan 8, 2022 10:00 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84022756370
Meeting ID: 840 2275 6370
The February Meeting will be a Fiber Frenzy, see upcoming events page for more info.
This meeting substitutes for the previously planned November Exhibit at the Goleta Library. The library decided not to host our exhibit due to continue Covid concerns. If you were working on a piece please come to our Zoom meeting to share your work, inspire others and meet new members!
Still here! We had members only meeting in August, our annual natural dye day in the park. We didn’t mention it here because, well, it was not public. But is was fun! We took September off for the Labor Day Holiday. October was going to be in-person, but with the Delta variant upping the COVID risk we are reverting to ZOOM.
Our theme for our October Meeting is a Members’ self introduction of their work as a fiber artist. All member who wish to speak and show their work and talk about their inspirations are invited to do so! Email Georganne Alex to get on the speakers’ list or just show up and raise your hand! This may inform the development of your piece for our November Members’ Exhibit. Please see the upcoming events page for future meetings.
Here is the ZOOM link for our October 2nd meeting! 10 am
SBFiberArtsGuild is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Monthly Guild Meeting Time: Oct 2, 2021 10:00 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
July 3 Zoom presentation 10 AM. The Guild welcomes guest speaker Sarah Pedlow with a presentation entitled “Threadwritten: Folk Embroidery Traditions in Eastern andSouthern Europe and Contemporary Practice.” In her talk, Sarah will given an overview of her ThreadWritten work, research and travel. Also, she will talk a bit about her art practice which involves stitching on photo images. Sarah will also share information about Netting. (She will be giving a workshop on Netting to interested Guild members on July 10th. We will learn to make a fun reusable bag with the fisherman’s knot and several other utilitarian knots). Sarah Pedlow makes textile works and photo-based drawings that honor traditional embroidery, handmade clothing, and home decor, exploring memory, folklore, and the intersections of culture, heritage, and identity in a globalized world. In 2009 while in Budapest for an artist’s residency, she visited the Ethnographic Museum and fell in love with the traditional clothing and embroidery. The visit inspired her to seek out women who stitch a particular style called written embroidery in Transylvania, Romania, and start the education and preservation project ThreadWritten in 2012. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, she moved to Amsterdam, NL in 2019 where she now lives and works. She writes: I am drawn to handmade objects with a history, and textiles in particular, for the intimate roles they play in our lives, as markers of identity and the passage of time. We wear fabric on the body and pull it open and closed each day in the window. We give it shape and living with it shapes us. In the age of globalization, fast fashion, over-production, and information-saturation I want to honor, preserve, and elaborate upon the disappearing tradition of embroidery, the slow, meditative practice of handwork, and folk traditions. In a dialectical exploration, I use traditional and synthetic sewing materials to create a conversation between the public and private, hidden and revealed, remembered and forgotten, rural and urban, historical and contemporary. For more information, visit: sarahpedlow.com or threadwritten.com
The Zoom meeting: When: Jul 3, 2021 10:00 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Sarah Pedlow Netmaking Workshop
July 10th Zoom Workshop: 10am-2pm, $35.00
During an artist’s residency in Iceland in 2016, Sarah learned the netting knot from an Icelandic net-maker and fisherman. She subsequently furthered her studies in Holland. Her other interests can be found on www.Threadwritten.com or www.SarahPedlow.com
In the workshop, participants will learn to make a reusable net bag (from start to finish) that can hold a bottle, groceries, just to name a few possibilities. Sarah will cover a short history of net-making practices and nets throughout history.
It will be fun and informative. Sign up by emailing Georganne Alex, alexclothing.com@gmail.com and soon, as space is limited to 15 and time is needed to mail you your materials. Georganne will provide payment details and the Zoom link.
The following materials are listed for general info. The basic materials, read carefully, will be included and mailed to you if sign up no later than July 4th.
The Net Needle and Paracord will be supplied as part of the class. The other tools should be gathered by the participant.
Netting needle/shuttle:
Net Needle, Delrin 10-1/4 in. long, 1-1/8 in. wide (STOCK NUMBER: NE6) from Memphis Needle and Twine, https://www.memphisnet.net/product/7250/needles#minicart_a, for example, if using Paracord. If you’re using a narrower fiber you can use a smaller needle, keeping in mind that the width of the needle has to be smaller than your gauge. See below.
Fiber: 50 feet/ 15.5 meters of Paracord, yarn, or string. Paracord is easiest to work with, as knots can slide, be easily loosened and adjusted. Cut one length that is 20 feet long (so you have one piece that is 30′ and one that is 20′). You are welcome to work with natural fibers instead, just keeping knots loose until you’ve got them in the right spot. I used 550/ 7 stranded Paracord in my orange example online. Paracord Planet is one source as well as Amazon with orange and so many fun colors and patterns!
You will need to supply the following:
Gauge: cut out a piece of cardboard that is 2”/ 5 cm square for Paracord. Make your cardboard 1 inch high and 2 inches wide for yarn or thinner cord/string (using a netting needle that is narrower than 1 inch).
Tape measure.
An S-hook like https://amzn.to/2R3IcIH to hang over a chair or a clamp like https://amzn.to/32RYaIu to attach to a table or counter. I used to buy the S-hooks at Ikea but they no longer sell them. You’ll use either the S-hook or the metal bar that adjusts the clamp as a support while you make the bag.
Optional: Button Toggle. If you are working with a finer cord or string other than the thickness of Paracord, it’s easier if you use a button on a piece of string as the support for your net in addition to the S-hook or clamp. Thread an 8″ long string through a large button (3/4 inch or more in diameter) and tie a knot. You’ll then hang that on the S-hook or clamp.
Lighter or other flame for sealing ends of Paracord.
On June 5th at 10:00 a.m. via Zoom, the Santa Barbara Fiber Arts Guild welcomes guest presenter, Lesley Roberts. Lesley will be talking about her art practice and the way she sees her work transforming the community in which she lives. As an art history major who was trained how to look, Lesley is deeply enmeshed in storytelling and visualization.
In her words, Lesley states:
“The structure of this talk borrows from Suzi Gablik’s The Reenchantment of Art. In it, I found a narrative that puts words and shape to a vision I had been developing: a practice of making a new kind of life, a new kind of living.”
Join us to hear about how two projects that both illustrate the nature of Lesley’s practice and offer space for engagement through her involvement with Textile Month Los Angeles and the Slow and Local Clothing Project through the So Cal Fibershed.
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Lesley Roberts is a native Angeleno who works and plays in the spaces between culture, material, and imagination. Lesley holds a BFA in Art History from UCLA and a certificate from UCLA Anderson’s Executive Education program. She is the executive director of Textile Arts | Los Angeles, and the lead for the Southern California chapter of Fibershed. Lesley is also the principal of Oceanparkstudio, a marketing and strategy firm that believes in the power of thoughtful ideas, creative vision, and clarity of purpose to achieve meaningful change and growth.
You are invited to a Zoom meeting. When: Jun 5, 2021 10:00 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
In the heavenly and unique setting of the Church of Saint Francis of the Women in Perugia, the ancient techniques of weaving are faithfully preserved and the timeless textiles that are created carry with them the history of art and of the region of Umbria. The Giuditta Brozzetti Museum Workshop is one of the last surviving hand weaving workshops in Italy where it is possible to marvel at original working looms from the 18th and 19th centuries and to discover their rich history. Marta will show us through the workshop via Zoom.
You are invited to a Zoom meeting. When: May 1, 2021 10:00 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Carol James has always been interested in playing with strings and is of the opinion that anywhere is a good place to weave. Seeing her passion for diverse textile techniques, local military re-enactors asked her for reproduction sashes … sprang sashes, and Carol had to explore that technique as well. She quickly discovered that sprang can be used for much more than sashes. Here she is wearing a sprang shirt that was accepted in the HGA Convergence Fashion Show that never happened last summer! Wanting to learn more about sprang and the ways it has been used in the past, Carol has taken the opportunity to visit collections across North American and Europe. To better understand these items, she maps out the patterns, and has made replicas of some of these items for several important museum collections. She has also made modern wearables, which more than once have been accepted by the Handweavers Guild of America’s Convergence Fashion Show. Happy to share her knowledge, and hoping to provide an easier learning-curve for others, she has taught classes across Canada, the US, New Zealand, and Europe. Her students find her to be both patient and enthusiastic. Her students urged her to enter the world of publishing, making her handouts available as books. She is now the author of three books: Fingerweaving Untangled, Sprang Unsprung, Sprang Lace Patterns, as well as numerous articles and 2 DVDs.
This is ZOOM meeting with pre-registration required. Here is the link:
You are invited to a Zoom meeting. When: Mar 6, 2021 10:00 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
