SASHA DUERR is an artist and designer who works with plant-based palettes, natural dyes and place-based recipes. She is a professor at the California College of the Arts with a joint appointment in textiles and fine arts where she designs curriculum and teaches courses in the intersection of natural color, slow food, slow fashion and social practice.  Her work has been shown in galleries and museums across the United States and abroad.

In 2007, Sasha founded Permacouture Institute to encourage the exploration of regenerative design practices for fashion and textiles. Her extensive work with plant-based palettes and ecological principles through local land-based sources and community has been featured in the New York Times, American Craft Magazine, Selvedge, and the Huffington Post. She is the author of The Handbook of Natural Plant Dyes (Timber Press/Workman 2011) and NATURAL COLOR (Watson-Guptill/Ten Speed Press August 23rd, 2016). She lives with her husband and children on their urban farm in Oakland, CA.

Karen Meadows – My Life as a Textile Artist 

From Karen Meadows:
My fascination with textiles started when, as a child, I spent hours at Stinson Beach weaving reeds together.

This led to my first loom, a frame with string heddles and a cardboard reed.  My room was covered with macramé and woven hangings.  At College of Marin,  I was lucky to study under Carole Beadle, learning the technical aspects of working a loom.  This is where I made my first painted warp wall hanging, that hung in a student show.  I loved all types of pattern weaving, clothing, and even furniture.  Following my passion for connecting threads, I traveled to Guatemala to study back-strap weaving in the backyard of a family in San Antonio Agues Calientes, where I wove about one inch a day, and felt happier than I could remember.

I collected weavings and met with weavers in Greece, Morocco,  and Turkey. In Bali, I studied with a family in the ancient village of Tengenan, where they have kept the art of double ikat alive for many centuries.  I spent 6 weeks learning about their natural dye techniques, weaving and writing my M.F.A. Thesis for Calif. College of Arts and Crafts, (now CCA)

My hand woven clothing company supported my time in Grad School, I started out weaving dyed scarves and it turned into a 10 year business, with weavers and seamstresses working with the thousands of yards of yarn that I dyed in an ikat style.

The culminating experience of my life as a weaver happened when my piece was chosen for the Lausanne Biennale and traveled to museums across Europe.  I continued to paint warps for wall hangings, commissions for public and private buildings.

MEETING LOCATION:  Marin Society of Artists, 1515 3rd Street, San Rafael
(corner of 3rd and E Streets).  Click here for directions:  https://tamalpaistextileartsguild.org/meetings/

Meetings are from 7 to 9pm.

PROGRAM – October 16, 2017

Felting, and Show and Tell

The program for October 16 will be a followup to Edgar Furlong’s program from the September meeting.

We will have a brief demonstration of how to do “rolling felting” and a hand’s on demonstration of how to do “rubbing felting”. You will go home with some felted acorns!

There will also be a show and tell of how to make needlecases and also indigo as it has been done at the retreat the past 3 years.

Please bring your ideas for programs you would like for this coming year. If you know of someone who does something you like, let us know and we will be happy to contact them for you.

Also, we will have a return of our popular 45 seconds of what you are doing these days! If you have an example to show us all, even better.

See you there!

MEETING LOCATION:  Marin Society of Artists, 1515 3rd Street, San Rafael
(corner of 3rd and E Streets).  Click here for directions:  https://tamalpaistextileartsguild.org/meetings/

Meetings are from 7 to 9pm.

PROGRAM – September 18, 2017

Edgar Furlong – Wet felting and needle felting

Edgar Furlong will be our speaker on Sept. 18. A former member of the Guild, he is now Program Instructor for the Cedars of Marin. He usually works with 8 – 10 clients at a time, from cooking to gardening to crafts. He is going to show us the wet felting and needle felting they are currently doing and talk about the programs. We all know about the lovely store they have in downtown San Anselmo and maybe we will soon see some felting there!

NOTE OUR NEW MEETING LOCATION:  Marin Society of Artists, 1515 3rd Street, San Rafael (corner of 3rd and E Streets).  Click here for directions:  https://tamalpaistextileartsguild.org/meetings/

Meetings are from 7 to 9pm.

Show and Tell and Social Time

After a brief business meeting to discuss the 2017-2018 officers and programs, all are invited to show and share about your favorite new (or vintage) project. Share what inspired you to make it, how the finished project matched your vision (or not!), and any tips you learned.

After this meeting, we will take a break for the summer, so please come and be a part of this fun evening!

Leslee Fiorella – Weaver, Knitter, Felter

Leslee Fiorella is a weaver and textile designer. She developed her modern design sensibility working for iconic companies Knoll and Maharam at the start of her career. After working in New York City for many years in the textile industry, she began to miss her connection with the loom.

She made a coastal shift to California and returned to what she considers the core of her creative soul…handweaving. Leslee is also co-owner of Folk Modern Craft and the modern craft store, Cast Away & Folk, in Santa Rosa, CA where she heads the weaving department. She lives in Sonoma County, with her husband and two children. You can follow Leslee and her work at slowandwoven.com.

Toni Seymour Bowes: My Weaving, My Life

Toni will share the progression of her weaving, from her beginning weaving class with Lou Grantham through Jason Collingwood, Debra Corsini, and many others. She will bring many samples of her work.

The IJ published a story on her in 2014, the year she published her book on her experience with a brain tumor. Click here for that story:

http://www.marinij.com/lifestyle/20140808/fine-living-brain-tumor-changes-novato-weavers-life-art

Youngmin Lee – Bojagi:  Korean Wrapping Cloths

Youngmin Lee is a textile artist living in the San Francisco Bay Area. With a BA in Clothing and Textile and an MFA in Fashion Design, Youngmin has presented workshops on Korean Textile Arts including Bojagi workshops at the Asian Art Museum, Oakland Museum, Richmond Art Center, Mendocino Art Center, LACMA, Society for Contemporary Craft in Pittsburgh PA and numerous textile guilds. In addition to teaching in person, Youngmin created the DVD Bojagi: The Art of Wrapping Cloths to reach people from afar. She is organizing the Korean Textile Tour in October 2017 with Mirka Knaster and Lissa Miner. She also is involved in bringing contemporary Korean fiber artworks to introduce in U.S.

Youngmin’s bojagi works were shown in the U.S. including Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, Muckenthaler Center in Fullerton, Mendocino Art Center and internationally such as Korea Bojagi Forum exhibits in Jeju and Seoul in Korea and Romania.

Youngmin’s Thoughts about Bojagi

Jogakbo, the art of Korean patchwork wrapping cloths (bojagi), embodies the philosophy of recycling, as the cloths are made from remnants of leftover fabric. It also carries wishes for the well-being and happiness of its recipients. This labor of love and prayers imbued bojagi with a memory of affection. I chose bojagi as my creative medium, and I appreciate the beauty that results from the long and slow process of hand stitching. Bojagi work comforts me as it connects my native culture and my adopted culture.

www.youngminlee.com
www.koreatextiletour.weebly.com

Diane Cutler – Weaver, Spinner, Knitter and Dyer

Diane Cutler is a former member of the Redwood Guild who now lives in Cottage Grove, Oregon.

She writes: As a child of 10 years, I was taught to knit.  As I grew older I knitted as a hobby.  After graduating in Cosmetology, raising three boys, and working full time in my salon, knitting took a back seat.  After the boys were grown and left the house, I learned to weave.  I fell in love with the whole process.  Some of my Guild members spun and thought I should also.  It has been a wonderful trip and weaving, knitting, spinning and then dyeing has been an adventure still happening.  What I will show you is a small part of many wonderful hours.

Sue Weil – Tapestry Artist

As an artist, I am interested in creating works that add beauty and a sense of quiet to the places they inhabit. Early in my career, I wove one-of-a-kind fabric to use in my line of women’s fashion. This early exploration of color and drape in wearable art, informs my current work in tapestry where I continue to blend yarns of different tone, texture and weight to achieve richness and depth.

My tapestries often reflect my inner call for peace and order; though occasionally depict humorous images as a shout-out for comic relief in an all-too-serious world. Some recent work speaks to dramatic events playing out around us. I’ve been told that my work is architectural in feel; the weight, line and balance reflecting an architect’s sensibility. Feeling that often less is more, my designs are intentionally spare, exploring rhythm and asymmetry in bold compositions.

Weaving attracts me for its simplicity: two opposing sets of threads twining together to create a whole. Working at the loom provides me the opportunity to sit in the stillness of my thoughts, allowing my hands to think.