The conference offers a keynote or featured speaker each day along with concurrent sessions where you can choose between three options. You do not have to sign up for concurrent sessions.

 

KEYNOTE ADDRESS

Talking to Myself: Face-Lifts, Fetishes and Patina
Douglas Dawson
I have recently had a 50-year conversation with myself. Aging has finally forced me to accept the patina with which I have encrusted myself as something no longer negotiable. It is there—a sedimentation of experience, fears, hopes, use and abuse. This is my surface. My remarks will address this evolution of surface and the resultant “unintended aesthetic,” which draws us to an object and to which we bring the baggage of expectation and desire.


CLOSING REMARKS

Presence in Art: How Mind, Body and Materials Change Reality
Sue Hammond West
Stillness, slowness and repetition are disciplines for awakening. Art made in this way is a powerful expression of the sublime. Energetic awareness is an essential quality in art practice. Art that is rich on the surface will be considered for its power beyond the surface. The notion of self-presence, in mind and body, will be discussed as an essential material in the making of art that is alive.


FEATURED SPEAKERS

Artwear: Fashion and Anti-fashion
Melissa Leventon
Wearable art is at the juncture between art, craft and fashion. It fuses all three but is wholly owned by none of them. In this talk, Leventon will set the genre in context as the latest in a long line of art- and dress-reform efforts that began with the Arts and Crafts Movement. She will then trace the evolution of wearable art in the United States from the hippie styles of the 1960s and 1970s to the end of the 20th century.


SDA—30 Years! An Introspective Retrospective
Jason Pollen
By looking through 30 years of SDA-member work, we will see how we have danced onto our visual paths. We have experienced gradual and sometimes radical shifts in how we make our marks and in determining what motivates and inspires us to make them. This presentation will be a journey along the rivers of cloth that cover our bodies, animate our living spaces and challenge our gallery walls. We pursue our quest for purposeful surface design with dedication, determination and delight. Such a glorious dance!


CONCURRENT SESSIONS


PANEL PRESENTATION

Organizing an Art Community
Margaret Miller
Astrid Bennett
Mike Miller
Laura Berman—Moderator
This is the story of three very different art organizers, and how they led the way to develop new venues for the arts. Margaret Miller, founder and executive director of the Textile Center in Minnesota, Mike Miller, founder and executive director of the Review in Kansas City, and Astrid Bennet, founder and owner of Iowa Artisan’s Gallery, will reveal how they managed, against great odds, to create avenues that promote the arts and provide vital services to artists. Join in the discussion on how we can all work together to advance the field of fiber art.


DISCUSSION

SDA Publications: Meet the Editor
Patricia Malarcher
Are you curious about what goes on behind the scenes in the production of the Surface Design Journal and the SDA Newsletter? During this session the editor will discuss thematic development, selection of articles and reviews, and criteria for images, along with guidelines for submission of articles and artwork to be considered for publication.


LECTURES

Cultural Identity Through Fabric and Thread
Susan Avila and Danh C. Nguyen
This presentation traces the collaborative exploration of surface from a multidisciplinary perspective between two academic colleagues in textiles/fashion and visual communications. Our project integrates craft, design, fashion, and typography. We will examine visual cues defining cultural identity for Vietnamese immigrants and focus specifically on the traditional ao dai style. Integrating combined approaches in embellished, stitched surfaces, pattern and typography, our project discusses a compelling and unique approach to surface as the site of meaning.


New Matrials Interacting with Temperature and Light
Joy Boutrup
New materials interacting and reacting with light or temperature are now being applied to or incorporated into textiles. The reactions are of many different types ranging from filtration or exclusion of certain wavelengths to the creation of color changes, photo luminescence and electro luminescence. The lecture will provide an overview of the functions of these materials and pigments and offer examples of their potential for application in textile art and design.


Extra/ordinary: Craft Culture and Contemporary Art
Maria Elena Buszek
Since the Industrial Revolution began blurring the lines between industry and handicraft, artists have used such developments to dissolve the centuries-old barriers that once separated the avant-garde and mass culture, masterpiece and kitsch, art and craft. Today, many emerging fiber artists who draw upon craft culture do so in ways that revel in its boundary-crossing history, yet often in ironic and ambivalent forms that differ from their predecessors. Maria will discuss how “craft culture” helps to promote new ways of thinking about the role of craft in the contemporary art world.


Designing for Commercial Markets
Teliha Draheim
Have you ever wondered who designed the fabric for your favorite shirt or that jazzy shower curtain? Join industry consultant, Teliha Draheim, for an overview of commercial design opportunities available in the field, surface pattern design, including fabrics for apparel and home furnishings, home decor, gifts and paper products. Learn what creative, technical and industry skills are required to enter this exciting field. Teliha’s presentation highlights collections produced for these markets and discusses current industry trends.


Unconventional Materials: Another Form of Expression
Chunghie Lee
In a painting course at RISD, Chunghie Lee introdued the use of Unconventional Material. Chungie considers sewing as an alternative drawing/painting method, along with fraying, interfacing collage, burn drawing, felting, primitive printing from found objects, and more. Utilizing their diverse backgrounds, the students explored the use of fiber materials in unconventional and completely unexpected ways. Chunghie will discuss how these nonfiber students approached the “new materials” from discovering the seed of an idea to the final pieces.


Studio Design and Ventilation
Susan Louise Moyer
Whether you are a full-time studio artist or are setting up a dye studio in your garage, you need to consider safety in your studio design. This presentation will address safety and ventilation issues when creating a studio space for working with dyes, waxes and other potentially harmful materials. Learn about ventilation, lighting and worktable storage for studio supplies, such as dyes, silk, brushes and flammable materials. Basic safety precautions also will be discussed.


The Art Quilt Paradox: Studio Art Quilts and Contemporary Quilting Today
Julia E. Pfaff
We are all familiar with the paradox: Why is the term “Art Quilt” used when “Art Painting,” “Art Sculpture” or even “Art Ceramic” are not part of common vocabulary? The paradox goes beyond simple terminology. The value systems inherent in the production of traditional textile arts can be seen to be at odds with those of the contemporary fine art world. But how do we address the essential question: Is it good art?


Antarctica on My Mind
Clare Plug
Clare Plug recently was awarded an Antarctica New Zealand’s “Artists Fellowship,” which allowed her to spend two weeks in Antarctica during the 2006 southern spring. From this experience, Clare completed a series of artworks based on the theme, “Layers of Protection.” Claire will present how she prepared for this: the most exciting, ambitious and challenging art project she had ever attempted. The presentation includes pretrip
experimentation with her surface design, plus images from her eventful trip.

From Bubblewrap to Bottlecaps: Embellishing Handmade Paper with Everyday Media
Erica Spitzer Rasmussen

This slide presentation and demonstration features low-tech methods for surfacing paper with inexpensive and commonplace materials. In seeking economic and accessible media, Erica has found that kitchens, backyards, pharmacies, beauty shops, hardware stores, liquor stores and groceries are fertile grounds for inspiration. Among other things, she uses dental floss, Band Aids, red wine, beet juice, rusty washers, tomato paste, fire and instant cocoa to provide surprisingly beautiful results. Sample sheets and wearable objects made of nontraditionally surfaced handmade paper will be circulated.


What Are You Dyeing to Know?
Carter Smith
Everything you wanted to know about dyeing, but were afraid to ask! This lecture will discuss a range of topics from how to keep colors clear; what dyes to use in different situations; the shelf life of dyes; dry dyeing vs. wet dyeing; discharging; overdyeing techniques; setting agents; and how to get the string really tight with shibori. Carter also will discuss fabrics and their relationship to dye and how to use different fabrics to achieve unique effects and applications.


Poetry of the Visual
Jo Stealey
Artists focus on visual means to communicate ideas. Through a visual language, artists discuss history, everyday activities and emotions, social or political issues and philosophical ideals. When a viewer has an
aesthetic response to a visual work, communication makes the leap from the “everyday” to “art,” in the same way a verbal language can serve the purpose to merely inform or to become poetry. This lecture will discuss visual language and ways to consider poetry of the visual.


DEMONSTRATIONS

Breakdown Printing
Claire Benn
Breakdown printing involves applying thick dye paints or print paste directly to the back of a screen and creating texture by embedding items such as bubblewrap, string or washers into the paint. Later the items are removed and the dried-on dye is then printed off with more dye paint, print paste or a combination thereof. The print media gradually dissolves from the screen, breaking down and printing an ever-changing array of colors, marks,
textures and distressed, organic or disintegrating effects.


Color Joomchi Paper Making
Jiyoung Chung
The term joomchi is derived from the Korean expression “making a journey.” Joomchi is a paper-making technique using thin rice paper and water to produce wonderfully durable textured and collaged or layered sheets. By being folded and agitated many times, the paper shrinks and wrinkles, producing beautiful textures. Using simple materials and tools artists can craft this beautiful paper into two or three-dimensional functional or fine art, drawings, paintings or self-standing structures.


Simple Stencil/Magical Color
Jane Dunnewold
Print two colors simultaneously using either textile paints or fiber reactive dyes. Jane will demonstrate the creation of a stencil from nonfusible interfacing. The porous interfacing is printed with permanent paint first, creating patterns that act as resists during the later printing stages. The process is seductive, because it permits layering of multiple dye images and develops complex visual relationships, while maintaining the hand of the cloth.


Exploring Color and Three-Dimensional Shaping with Disperse Dyes
Lisa Grey
Delve into experimental processes for transferring disperse dyes and explore the unique heat-shaping properties of today’s versatile synthetics. This demonstration will present a variety of ways of heat-shaping to permanently shape synthetic fabrics through pleating, gathering and knotting over forms. These permanent shapes can be used as structural elements in garments, accessories, wall hangings or sculptural objects.


Fusion: Lamination—Digital Print—Encaustic Collage
Pat Hodson
This demonstration will cover several processes. First will be the fusion of silk with tissue to make a collage onto which a digital image can be printed. Next will be the layering of the tissue and digital image onto another hard surface. The demonstration will then explore wax resist shapes and patterns embedded within the layers and how to apply wax and stitch marks to the surface before printing. The discussion will also address image sequence and computer simulation of textures, patterns and marks, showing how the real interacts with the illusory.


A Feltmaker’s Bag of Tricks
Jorie Johnson
Feltmaking has made an enormous leap from nomadic survival coverings to the 21st century realm of textile art, clothing and accessories. Have you ever wondered about the process or the capabilities of the medium within the transfer of fiber into fabric or what a felting needle is? By focusing on pet attractions to the medium and explaining key points about the felted matrix, Johnson will showcase what’s in the current Joi Rae Textiles Studio trunk of tricks.


Marbling on Fabric
Elin Noble
Aquatic, cellular, cosmic, geological: all describe the imagery qualities using traditional marbling products in nontraditional ways. This monoprint process with a contemporary twist is truly accessible and successful for everyone. We’ll cover different products, paints and preparation details. This approach to marbling is as magical as marbling always has been and even more satisfying on a beautiful piece of fabric.


Making an Arashi Shibori Machine
Carter Smith
Carter will provide blueprints and a list of materials to show how you can build your own arashi shibori thread-wrapping machine. Using easily found objects, such as a bicycle rim, skateboard neoprene wheels, sewing machine pedal and electric drill, you can wrap your fabrics quickly and evenly.