FREE Virtual Lecture ~ 7:00pm EST

Like the threads on a loom, we are all interwoven into a fabric of stories and experiences that unite us and honor our shared humanity. In this virtual presentation, Hillary Steel shares some of her contemporary woven/dyed art work and introduces the subject of her book, Ikat Traditions: The Jaspe Mexican Rebozo. Since her introduction to weaving and ikat in the early 1980s, and after almost eighteen years of studying the jaspe (ikat) rebozo-making process with her teachers Don Evaristo Borboa Casas and Ruben Nunez Serrano, Hillary Steel reflects on lessons learned and experience gained. The slow labor of preparing and dyeing threads, dressing looms, and weaving affords time to think, as one physically transforms simple linear elements—threads—into whole cloth and further manipulates the cloth once it is woven in a process best described as a conversation, or a call and response, between material and artist. The book Ikat Traditions: The Mexican Jaspe Rebozo, by Hillary Steel with Virginia Davis, is based on their experience learning alongside Don Evaristo and other local weavers in Tenancingo, State of Mexico. It shares the steps of creating a traditional resist-dyed (ikat) rebozo on a backstrap loom through text, photographs, and illustrations, including earlier work by anthropologists and artisans, to preserve and pass on knowledge of this traditional and intricate craft.