New Connections, New Directions, New Frienships

Susan Middleton lives in Toronto, Ontario Canada and has been a great help with the international tapestry project, Fate, Destiny and Self Determination. Recently she wrote to share with me what she had been working on. The above piece is a pomegranate. I`ve written about the pomegranate before because I had been invited to give a presentation of my work to the Pomegranate Guild and I became curious as to why they choose that name for their guild. I did a little research and discovered the iconography and meaning of the pomegranate over time and with different cultures. More recently, I`ve been seeing a lot of pomegranates in the figured textiles of the 15th to 19th century and which still continue to be produced by establishments such as the Fondazione Arte della Seta Lisio, in Florence Italy, where I recently took a one week course in Jacquard weaving. 

Susan was also inspired by a mini workshop we had in January by guest instructor, Ixchel Suarez, as well as a hand spun sampling of yarn by spinner Elizabeth Evans at the Etobicoke Guild of Spinners and Weavers and this piece is a result of that inspiration. 

This is a larger tapestry that Susan is weaving on her recently acquired Shannock Loom. 

Recently Deann Rubin from St Louis Missouri USA visited Toronto and wanted to meet up with tapestry weavers here. Unfortunately I was out of the country during her visit but she wrote: 
Line-

I just spent a wonderful time in Toronto for my husband's barbershop international competition and related events.

I am a ..... tapestry artist, amember of ATA. While I was there in your great city, I meet Susan Middleton, Ixchel Suarez and Juana Sleizer. It was great to get to meet all of them and talk tapestry. There is hardly anyone in the St. Louis area weaving or interested in handwoven tapestry to talk to.

I would have loved to meet you and see the Toronto Weaving School. I understand you were not in Toronto while I was there (July 2-6).

Alittle about my tapestry background - I took two semesters of weaving in college (no tapestry or wall hangings taught then), apprenticed to Muriel Nezhnie Helfman, (Holocust tapestries) for a year and a half, Editor of ITNET (International Tapestry Network) Journal for two years, was past President of Tapestry Weavers West, was a member of Twine, an East Coast tapestry group.

Belinda Rosee is from Australia. A few months ago she signed up to do the Ontario Handweavers and Spinners Home Study Certificate. She was enquiring about the the Tapestry Unit which I prepared and presently mentor and assist anyone attempting to do it.  She wrote:

Hi Line,

In order to celebrate Canberra's 100th birthday in 2013 the ANU is currently making a woven tapestry to celebrate Canberra.  I popped in last month of have a look at it, and was so very lucky to be asked if I wanted to finish off a mountain top and part of a ridge line. So my DNA is now part of the Centenary Community Tapestry. 

Thérèse  Jarry already sent in a beautiful shape and I have already posted it on the blog and Facebook: She wrote about why she made the choice to be a tapestry weaver: 

Bonjour Line,

 Pour ma part, je pense que le désir de tisser m'est venu du fait que lorsque j'étais enfant lorsque nous allions au salon nous étions assis dans des fauteuils recouverts de tapisserie et nous n'avions pas le droit de bouger ou de nous exprimer . Aussi avec mes doigts je suivais les dessins de la tapisserie  de mon siège et je m'évadais en rève .....:

Amicalement . Thérèse 

(Personally, I think that the desire to weave came when I was a child when we would sit in the living room on couches that were covered in tapestry woven fabrics and we weren't allowed to move or to express ourselves. Also, with my fingers, (as I sat there silently) I would trace the images in the tapestry that were beside where I sat and I would escape into a dream......) 

Debbie Herd's blog and comments about the Archie Brennan and Susan Maffei instructional dvd's on tapestry:
http://debbieherd.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/woven-tapestry-techniques-with-archie.html

The American Tapestry Alliance

is pleased to announce the opening of

Small Tapestry International 3: Outside the Line

 

an international exhibition juried by Hesse McGraw

June 13 – August 3, 2013

The Handforth Gallery

1102 Tacoma Ave S. Tacoma, WA 98402 

Reception: Saturday June 29, 2:00-4:00pm

Lecture: 2:30pm, Shelley Socolofsky

 

September 27 – December 1, 2013

Troy-Hayner Cultural Arts Center

301 West Main Street Troy, Ohio 45373  

(937) 339-0457

http://www.troyhayner.org/

Reception: Friday, September 27, 2013, 6:00-7:30p

https://app.e2ma.net/app/view:CampaignPublic/id:1354801.13076508663/rid:e7723ed39d34c24fc5d3724e48cd0bd1

Until the next time
Line