Daniel Fountain "Nest" (detail)

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The Art of Ruth E. Carter: Costuming Black History and the Afrofuture, from Do the right Thing to Black Panther by Ruth E. Carter It seems to me that the debate of form versus function might be an eternal struggle for a costume designer. One might love the look of a costume, but will it …

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I have a naturally tight craft hand, but this neatness is betrayed with one glance at the back of one of my pieces. I begin my embroideries with as little planning as possible—inviting colors to build and shapes to form as I stitch—leaving long floats in my wake. These floats look like brushstrokes, deliberate marks …

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My current project, 3 Dykes Walk into a Bar…, involves tapestries, embroidered work, and textile sculpture that reveal three characters who are young dykes—coming of age between the 1990s and now. This work unfolds in a non-linear way, reflecting on the chaos and instability of the characters’ experiences.  The tapestries resemble film stills—acting as excerpts …

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Wild Textiles: Grown, Foraged, Found by Alice Fox You would be forgiven in assuming Wild Textiles to be a “how to/field guide,” were you simply perusing. It is both more and less than that. Minimal instruction or directions are given, with the exception of a lengthy discussion on nettles. Wild Textiles is, however, a powerful …

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SDA 2023: A Year in Review

December 29, 2023

Thank you to everyone who made this year at SDA possible! We are fortunate to have such passionate staff, board, volunteers, committees, and members who continually help us grow, learn, and expand. From the launch of our Online Workshop Series, to 4 unique Surface Design Journals and more, we accomplished quite a bit this year. …

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Surface Design Association is excited to announce Seeing / Being Seen: LGBTQIA+ Writers on LGBTQIA+ Fiber Artists, our Winter 2023 edition of Surface Design Journal. Led by Guest Editor, Rebekah Frank, this special edition of the SDJ focuses on LGBTQIA+ writers exploring LGBTQIA+ artists, highlighting the complexity of intersectional identity and how it informs creative …

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We had another lovely year of reviews to add to our ever-growing collection for the SDA Book Club. 2023’s reviews included recurring authors Faith Hagenhofer and Vivien Zepf, with the addition of Zia Gipson, who joined us in the summer and will be reviewing more books to come in 2024. Here’s a combined list of …

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Spirituality of Rust: A Sacred Language of Iron Through Art by Rio Wrenn Depending on who you talk to, you can get some pretty heated or positive thoughts on rust. To some, it shows unsightly wear and tear and needs to be removed. To others, like author Rio Wrenn, it is a conduit for creative …

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“The impetus driving the work in this exhibition does not arise from the need to abolish cohesive traditions. Instead, each work possesses an energetic momentum to protract all-too-familiar art forms by translating, rearticulating, unwinding and rewinding the components of material practices. Yet subtle disloyalties to traditional assumptions regarding craft, tradition, language, meaning, and interpretation murmur. …

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Surface Design Association is excited to announce Lasting Impression: SDA International Exhibition in Print, our Fall 2023 edition of Surface Design Journal.  “Readers may recognize a familiarity, a closeness or shared intimacy in the works chosen for SDA’s eighth annual International Exhibition in Print. This year we had the privilege of welcoming Lorna Hamilton Brown, …

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