The production and use of textiles is changing dramatically in the 21st century.  Google and other corporations and industries are hiring weavers to explore new concepts in fiber incorporating and embedding technology.  It is a very exciting time to be involved in the future of fibers, fabric and textiles. Continue reading Fibers in the 21st Century – Foundation and Future →

Best of Show:  Margaret Humphries for Trinity River Shawl

Fashion Awards

Wearable Clothing 1st Place:  Donna Arispe for Green Jacket
Wearable Clothing 2nd Place:  Sally Gelbaugh for T Vest: Twill, Tweed and Tuxedo
Wearable Clothing 3rd Place:  Charlene Kolb for Rhapsody in Red

Wearable Accessories 1st Place:  Eileen Thompson for Silk Squared
Wearable Accessories  2nd Place:  Deedee Woodbury for Interstellar Illusion
Wearable Accessories 3rd Place:  Nancy Chronister for Raku

Member’s Exhibit Awards

Functional  1st Place:  Deedee Woodbury for Bauhaus Sunrise
Functional 2nd Place:  Nancy Chronister for Woven Lace Table Runner
Functional 3rd Place:  Yohannah Klingensmith for Double Orange Peel

Art Concept 1st Place:  Meg Wilson for Bridges to Nowhere
Art Concept 2nd Place:  Mary Macaulay for Spring Unfolding

Conference Themed 1st Place:  Rebecca Shanks for Little Cutie and Inside the Earth
Conference Themed 2nd Place:  Jeanette Wilson for Resolution

Spinning Award: 1st Place:  Donna Arispe for Green Jacket

Special Awards

HGA:  Deedee Woodbury for Dark Matter
WEBS Functional Award:  Anna Sherman for Stained Glass Place Mats and Runner
Complex Weavers:  Rachel Moberg for Blue Mist Damask Drawloom Shawl
Judge’s Award:  Deedee Woodbury for Bauhaus Sunrise
Member’s Choice: Eileen Thompson for Blue Cotton Clouds

From Meg Wilson,  CHT2015 Conference Chair

I hope all of you had a safe landing after being in Warp Space! We want to thank you for coming and making this such a fun event!

Thanks again to the awesome team who put CHT2015 together:

Julia Alison – Newsletter Editor and Center Piece Creator
Margaret Arafat – Award Ribbon Weaver
Trish Ashton – Presenter Wrangler
Jenny Barker – Treasurer
Su Butler – Teacher, Member’s Exhibit and Senior Judge
Inga Marie Carmel – Communications and PR (CHT website creator)
Susan Fricks – Vendor Coordinator and Spinning Judge
Pam James – Exhibit Coordinator, Joke Writer and Wrangler
Aimee Kandl – Fashion Show Coordinator and Fashion Co-Judge
Sylvia Keizer – Scarf Exchange Coordinator
Mary Macaulay – Public Weave-In Coordinator
Mickey Stam and her Creativity Study Group  – Exhibit Awards Performance
Ella Strawman – Teacher and Fashion Co-Judge
Eileen Thompson – Registration and Keychain Maven
Deedee Woodbury – CHT Board Chairman, Vendor Wrangler, Bridge Cheerleader

Then there were all the other volunteers, behind the scenes, doing great things to make it all happen.   Continue reading Thanks and Wrap-up →

Ready for Lift-off!

Warp Speed Ahead! is the biennial conference of the Contemporary Handweavers of Texas, hosted this year in Austin by  Weavers and Spinners Society of Austin.  Join us as we explore weaving in all its dimensions.

We are on the launch pad! Bags packed and ready to go. Continue reading Time for Lift-off — Warp Speed Ahead! →

Weaving Textiles that Think: electronic textiles and biometric garments

We’re thrilled to welcome innovator  Joanna Berzowska  as our Keynote speaker on Friday night.

She is Associate Professor of Design and Computation Arts at Concordia University and a member of the Hexagram Research Institute in Montreal. She is the founder and research director of XS Labs, where her team develops innovative methods and applications in electronic textiles and responsive garments.  She lectures internationally about the field of electronic textiles and related social, cultural, aesthetic, and political issues.

“XS Labs is a design research studio with a focus on innovation in the fields of electronic textiles and reactive garments: “second skins” that can enable computationally-mediated interactions with the environment and the individual. We are equally inspired by the technical and cultural history of how textiles have been made for generations (weaving, stitching, embroidery, knitting, beading, quilting) and by new and emerging materials with different electro-mechanical properties. This enables us to construct complex textile-based surfaces, substrates, and structures with “transitive” properties.”

 

Get your (color) Wheel out of a Rut! — Aimee Kandl

Fearless Leader Aimee Kandl will guide participants out of their comfort zones into new territory in self-expression through color. Combining presentation, group exercises and playful watercolors, students will move through and beyond mental blocks and staid patterns.

Details on the Sunday morning seminars page.

We will be hosting a Public Weave-In on Saturday, June 27th, as part of Warp Speed Ahead.

You can’t miss us, we’ll be in the big common area outside the Vendors Hall and in the Austin Room.

9:30 – Noon:  we will be teaching art teachers about spinning and weaving in the morning.

Noon – 4: The public is invited…children, parents and anyone curious to come and try out our looms and spinning wheels.

Weavers and spinners are invited to come and work to their hearts content on their portable looms and spinning wheels,  We will have examples of many types of weaving and spinning projects from complicated weave structures to the humble pot holder.  If you are bringing your own portable loom or spinning wheel we will have tables and chairs set up for you to work at. Be prepared for your own show and tell time with the public!

There is no charge for this family fun event.

A vendor hall is next to our space if you are tempted to buy related items.

Feel free to park in the garage. There is no charge.

A $25 late fee kicks in June 1st, so get your registrations in this week! 

There’s still room in most workshops and seminars,  including the recently added and not to be missed  Hand Painted Warps  Pre-conference workshop with Ella Strawman.     You can check which are full on our updates page, and download registration materials here.

It’s going to be  great conference, we can’t wait to see you in Austin.

Weavers, you still have time to make that scarf to exchange at our conference. You might even want to make two and receive two in return.

Your challenge is to use some of the new fibers: Raffia, Film, Ciniglione, Horsehair, Paper loops, Tropico, Hemp, Bamboo, etc.

Weave a scarf using the following parameters: Finished width: 6-7 inches
Finished Length: 70-72 inches
Finishing technique: your choice

Bring your scarf and hand it in when you pick up your registration packet at the
conference. Or you may mail it after June 18, the week before the conference. There will be a display table to show off our creative works.

Contact: Sylvia Keizer spkeizer@sbcglobal.net   214-350-7802

Steel and silk collapse weave scarf by Giovanna Imperia

Handpainted Warps — Ella Strawman

Wednesday June 24  — 1:30-5:30
Thursday June 25 —  9-6
Friday June 26 —  8:30-12:30

In Hand Painted Warps we will discover the beauty of hand dyeing warps for weaving!

While there are plenty of commercially dyed variegated yarns available to use in a warp, there are very few options that allow for color changes consistent across the width of your warp. By dyeing your own, you take total control of how you want your warp to be colored.

In this workshop, students will dye their organically grown Texas cotton yarn warp with Fiber Reactive dyes. 

Details on our Pre-conference Workshop page.

As of April 3rd,  Pre-conference Workshops are open to non-conference goers.  Download registration form.

Ella Strawman has been sewing, knitting, and dyeing since the age of 4. It became a passion for her while in college and she majored in Fibers at the Appalachian Center for Craft. There Ella learned to weave and spin.

After moving to Texas in 2011, she was employed at a now defunct fiber arts center in Wimberley where she taught weaving, dyeing, knitting, and children’s crafts, as well as learned how to run a shop and gallery. When the shop closed, Ella decided to open Me & Ewe, a yarn and fabric store in Austin. There she teaches weaving, dyeing, sewing, knitting, and children’s crafts. Ella likes to think of fiber related hobbies as heritage hobbies, meaning they will most likely be passed from one generation to the next.

“To be able to teach others is the highest honor as my knowledge and skills will continue for years to come and bring many generations of people great joy.”