From Plant to Pigment: How to Make Your Own Vibrant Inks, Pastels, and Paints by Natalie Stopka I am fortunate to have taken a few classes with Natalie Stopka over Zoom. These were on making one’s own watercolors, iron gall liquid ink, and madder red and sap green watercolor and lake pigments. When her book …

Surface Design Association is excited to announce Memory and Myth, SDA International Exhibition in Print, our Fall 2026 edition of Surface Design Journal. “Memory and Myth is about the ways we carry stories. Sometimes we carry them through objects. Sometimes we carry them through our bodies or through the spaces we return to. Sometimes we …

Flows Like Water: Under a Coal Charged Sky by Pam McKinlay Earlier this year I traveled to Dunedin–the second largest city on the South Island of Aotearoa New Zealand—on a personal holiday. It has a robust arts scene, a cutting-edge science and research community, and strong ties to the indigenous Māori community. It’s the perfect …

Jennifer Peterson, founder of the Estelle Center for Creative Arts, has watched a curious situation play out across dozens of fiber art retreats. A group of strangers arrives, and within hours—sometimes minutes—something shifts. The roster of guest teachers at her center in La Veta, Colorado spans the textile and fiber arts world, but the same …

Connecting Threads: Tactile Social History by Lynn Setterington Lynn Setterington compiled a guide to her fascinating intersectional work that combines the often solitary practices of embroidery with art that focuses on socially engaged practices. Early on she proposes that the book reviews her own work processes through twelve pieces. Actually, there are more “pieces”/works than …

One A Day, Every Day: The Daily Practice of JPR Stitch by JPR Stitch aka Dr. Jack Roberts As I opened the beautifully wrapped package, I found an unexpected book. Half its pages were blank which, for a book, seemed odd. The pages were small in scale, 10 x 15 centimeters (3.9 x 5.6 inches) …

The winners of SDA’s Outstanding Student Awards were recently announced for the students who have demonstrated excellence in fiber arts. The work of these artists embodied inventive and innovative use of technique, materials and concepts not only in fibers and textiles, but in printmaking, sculpture, and more. It is an honor for the Education Committee to be …

The winners of SDA’s Outstanding Student Awards were recently announced for the students who have demonstrated excellence in fiber arts. The work of these artists embodied inventive and innovative use of technique, materials and concepts not only in fibers and textiles, but in printmaking, sculpture, and more. It is an honor for the Education Committee to be …

Surface Design Association is excited to announce Textiles for the End of the World, our Summer 2026 edition of Surface Design Journal.  We are living in a period rife with conflict, inequality, and various forms of insecurity, both locally and globally. This Journal examines how contemporary makers are using their craft to adapt the role …

The winners of SDA’s Outstanding Student Awards were recently announced for the students who have demonstrated excellence in fiber arts. The work of these artists embodied inventive and innovative use of technique, materials and concepts not only in fibers and textiles, but in printmaking, sculpture, and more. It is an honor for the Education Committee to be …