Blog - Textile Curator

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May 1, 2017 In Art, Textile Art

Alicia Scardetta

[Photos by Will Ellis]

The process of textiles comes from techniques that have been practised for hundreds of years so it’s hardly surprising that the majority of textile art tends to be more traditional in it’s subject matter. This is why it is so refreshing to see artists who use time honoured techniques in a way that is fresh and contemporary. One artist currently doing this is Alicia Scardetta who weaves in a converted bedroom in her New York apartment. She says “the wrapping techniques throughout my work are reminiscent of friendship bracelets and the colors I use wouldn’t be out of place in a Nickelodeon cartoon.” It’s hard to find more current references!

Find out more on her profile page or visit www.aliciascardetta.com

April 24, 2017 In Art, Textile Art

DIS/rupt Exhibition

From left: Sarah Burgess, Sian Martin and Ruth Issett from the DIS/rupt Exhibition touring the UK. Photographs by Kevin Mead

If you are anywhere near Stroud this May immerse yourself in textiles with The Textile Study Group’s exhibition project DIS/rupt. Part of the Select Festival 2107 it is presented by SIT select and curated by Dr. Melanie Miller. Through workshops and gallery events it will explore several themes linked to the uncertain world we live in today, including global conflict and climate change. The exhibition runs from 5th – 21st of May at the Museum in the Park and Landsown Hall Gallery. It will then be touring to Oldham and Landiloes with other venues tbc.

For further details check out http://www.textilestudygroup.co.uk/exhibitions/ or to book a place on one of the workshops visit www.sitselect.org/futureevents

April 10, 2017 In Art, Textile Art

Sashiko Sewalong Project

Sashiko samplers clockwise from left: Hishi seigaiha (Waves) ; Juji Kikko (Crossed tortoiseshell) ; Kakinohanazashi (Persimmon Flower stitch)

Sashiko is the name of the gorgeous historical Japanese Quilting tradition worked with white thread on an indigo dyed fabric. Sara Cook from Brighton Fashion and Textile School has kindly shared with us her Sashiko Sewalong project that she ran on Instagram #sashikosampler. It was very popular with lots of people trying out this technique for the first time.

“Here are three examples of different patterns that I stitched for the sewalong. At the end you will see the sampler that I made. I love the way the patterns build up often not revealing their wonderful designs until the last few rows are worked.

Kakinohanazashi (Persimmon Flower stitch) The Persimmon Flower stitch is a very popular design and represents a stylised version of the flower. The fruit is sometimes called a Sharon fruit. This was the first pattern I learnt to stitch many years ago.

Juji Kikko (Crossed tortoiseshell) This design is a variation of the traditional tortoiseshell pattern that I have altered with diagonal crosses instead of vertical crosses. I like the hexagon shapes which remind me of grandmother’s flower garden design in English paper piecing.

Hishi seigaiha (Waves) I stitched this pattern while I was travelling around South Korea. It was the one of the last in the Sashiko sewalong project. This was a very formative time for me and somehow the pattern seemed to fit my journey.”

To find out more visit Sara’s website and blog at http://brightonfashionandtextileschool.com

March 20, 2017 In Art, Textile Art

Sandra De Berduccy

Sandra weaving outdoors; Electric Awka – Traditional Andean Weave with Optical Fibre, Alpaca Fibre, LEDs and Sensors;

Jiwasanaka, Ancient double weave tecnique (kurti), Colored threads, leds, copper plates and macrocontroller

Sandra is our first featured artist from Bolivia, a country with a rich heritage in weaving. Sandra’s work respects traditional techniques while adding a fresh approach. ” I explore the relationship between nature, processes of traditional Andean textiles and various languages of the new media art,” she explains. She makes her devices and artifacts with a range of materials and processes including electronics, software code, micro controllers and reverse engineering. While her work is very varied weaving is always at the core. “All [my] practices merge with each other and give continuity to the ancient textile tradition of which I consider myself part.”

To find out more about Sandra visit www.sandradeberduccy.com or check out her Instagram and Facebook pages – details are on her gallery page sandra-deberduccy

March 13, 2017 In Art, Textile Art

Niki McDonald

Niki sewing and Urban Bouqet, wool & tapestry needlepoint tapestry, 2016

There is no denying that sewing, beit embroidery or tapestry, is a slow process. The upside is you can take it anywhere as Sydneysider textile artist

Niki McDonald shows here. Fitting her work around teaching at high school means she makes the most of her free time and often sews outdoors.

Working on a number of pieces simultaneously, each of her collections has around five to six pieces which take four to five months to complete. We can’t wait to see what she does next.

To see more of Niki’s work visit tapestrygirl.com

March 6, 2017 In Textile Art

Luis Acosta

luis acosta

Luis Acosta has been combining textiles with paper to create jewellery for the past 20 years and is now world renowned for his talent.

He has just been selected from over 201 artists for the 9th International Triennial of Ppaer which will be held at the Musee de Charmey from 28th May – 8th October 2017.

See more of his beautiful work and learn more about the process on his profile page.

February 27, 2017 In Art, Textile Art

Jana Rumberger

Images clockwise from left: Change in Average Income of the Top 1%, Productivity, and Average Overall Wages 1979-2013, Wood, acrylic, thread, 18 x 24 x 12 in. 2016 .

Marginal Tax Rate, Top 1% and Bottom 99% Income Growth 1913-2005; Piketty and Saez, Historical Marginal Tax Rates for Highest and Lowest Wage Earners 1910-2012; Wikipedia, Tax Revenues Do Not Correlate With Tax Rates 1950-2005; Heritage Foundation, Wood, thread 2016.

Detail from Change in Average Income of the Top 1%, Productivity, and Average Overall Wages 1979-2013, Wood, acrylic, thread, paper, 18 x 24 x 12 in. 2016.

Jana Rumberger is based in San Francisco and works from her home studio in Chinatown. Her work is a combination of trends and visual ideas around her. “I travel a lot for work, and end up spending a lot of time walking around on the street or in museums” Jana explains. “Much of my art involves finding ways to combine all of those references in one place.”

What is your background in textiles?

My mom taught me to sew when I was nine. I used to drive her crazy, because I was always wanted to combine sewing patterns or fabrics and she was very by-the-book. I started by making quilts, and then took a sewing class in my freshman year in high school. There was a period of time that I was torn between fashion and painting, and I ended up focusing on painting and drawing until graduate school (at San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI)), when I began working in sculpture and installation. The minute I started working three-dimensionally again, sewing came back into my practice.

How do you describe your work?

The miniature work I make reflects the scale of the space I live in, and the complexity of communities and ideas that are packed so closely together.

The thread pieces are very meditative to make. The process involves sewing into the wall of the miniature, the back of a chair, or around a wall or other part of the architecture I’m responding to. So, there is a lot of repetition, and that allows me to think about the data that I am depicting, and that starts to reveal and flesh out other ideas about the work or anything else that I am thinking about.

In my thread pieces I take informational charts I find online and translate them to drawings in space, made with lines of thread.

When I started this work I was thinking about San Francisco and the high rents, how the global monetary system works, and what wealth is based on. That led to thinking about how numbers tell stories in the same way that photographs do, and how they can be distorted in the same ways. I’m also interested in the idea of work – how what we do with our hands is connected to concept of value.

We are living in heavily divisive times, and it’s easy to forget how easily data can be manipulated to serve a specific goal or perspective when we are using it to prove our own point. These sculptures and installations are tricky, because they can exist as straight abstract objects of colour and light. I am excited by the second read, the way that the abstraction works off of the interpretation of factual information embedded in each one, in that back and forth.

Jana Rumberger’s first solo exhibition Metafictions, is at State gallery, in San Francisco.

www.statespacesf.com/metafictions-jana-rumberger

www.janarumberger.com

February 13, 2017 In Art, Textile Art

Calling all Tapestry Artists

Tapestries featured in ARTAPESTRY4, from left: Sarah Perret, ‘Le Colosse Transi’ ; Lisa Thurner, ‘Warmth of Sorrow’; Petra Kolinova, ‘The Week of a Housewife’

The ETF (European Tapestry Forum) was set up by tapestry artists to ‘encourage the continuing development of the art of tapestry weaving.’ They are currently calling for entries for it’s fifth European Tapestry Triennial exhibition – ARTAPESTRY5 which is open to all professional tapestry artists who live in Europe. The exhibition opens on 13th January 2018 in Denmark and finishes a year later in Latvia – offering fantastic exposure to any featured artist. The deadline is 31st of March 2017 and you can download the application form at www.tapestry.dk

February 6, 2017 In Art, Textile Art

A glimpse behind the scenes at Jilly Edwards’ studio

Jilly’s studio and tapestries Between and Beyond the Walls, Cotton warp, wool, cotton and linen weft, 2015.

When it comes to tapestry weaving there are various types of loom but Jilly Edwards prefers a scaffolding loom due to the flexibility in height and tensioning. While she has worked in shared studios in the past she now has her own studio at home.

“Having your own space, where ever that is, that you can walk out of at the end of a day and leave to return to the next day (just as you left it) is magical”

January 23, 2017 In Art, Textile Art

Carolyn Halliday

American fibre artist Carolyn Halliday is our featured artist this week. When asked why she chose textiles as a medium she replied:

” The inherent sense of texture, the handcrafted nature, and the rich cultural traditions of textiles are deeply appealing to me. The dismissive concept of “women’s work” serves as a reason to emphasise and elevate the domesticity of textiles and knitting.”

Carolyn often uses the same colour palette which gives her collected works cohesion yet her variation of scale and subject matter allows her art to constantly evolve and be relevant.