Sample the latest delicacies from the world-wide-web-roaming Mickie. This trip she links us to San Jose for some really big quilts by A Bee; too close for comfort to Golden Orb spiders that spin gold; to the UK for access to great shows and videos; to Aussie fibre Down Under; then finally to a sweet site for needlearts. Cloth intarsia, anyone?…

Experience a workshop by Ilze Aviks at your own pace by using her workbooks to explore hand-stitching as mark-making. Emphasizing process over outcome, each is a full course of exercises that encourages self-discovery and the development of a personal visual language. …

SDA Member Bhakti Ziek’s greatest accomplishment of 2010 was a re-energized focus that led to a new series of weavings and an exhibition. Hear her speak on “Digital Jacquard Design Using Photoshop®” at the upcoming SDA Confluence conference in June in Minneapolis, MN….

If you want to make a living making art, it takes business savvy as well as creativity. Invest in your future, support your vision and boost your skills by registering for this Confluence pre-conference workshop led by internationally recognized master dyer Mary Edna Fraser. PLEASE NOTE: This workshop has been cancelled due to low enrollment, but you can still read art of business insights by MEF here!…

Vicki Jensen & the Ambassadors sounds like a rock band but these SDA rock stars have radically transformed the formerly lonely struggle of building community around the textile arts. Find out how they have energized SDA on the local level by creating blogs, holding effective quarterly meetings & brainstorming future projects through inspired teamwork. …

Check out the awards, commissions and collaborations SDA Members Patricia Greaves (UK), Dawn Edwards (Michigan) and Kathie Kerler (Oregon) created and won in 2010. Dawn Edward’s “Triton’s Horn” (Felt & Mixed Media) is shown at left….

Meet SDA Member Melanie Siegel of Ontario, Canada, who recently sent in news of this public works commission she completed in 2010. She wrote a winning proposal to teach felting to 8th and 9th graders in the public schools and her students did the rest. “UNITY” now hangs in the Richmond Green Library. …

In my workshop “Embellished Textile Assemblages”, I will be emphasizing both the craft of stitching & bead embroidery as well as ‘happy accidents’ of intuitive compositions and meaning that can arise from serendipitous material combinations. Participants are encouraged to bring a variety of objects/mementos that are visually and/or emotionally compelling. Plan to leave with a completed workshop relic!…

To entice you to register for CONFLUENCE: 2011 International Surface Design Conference in Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN (June 9-12), this issue spotlights featured speakers Pat Hickman and India Flint along with SDA’s President Emeritus Jason Pollen, who will have an exhibition there. Other articles consider ways in which the notion of “confluence” is textile-specific, where “ideas meet and mingle”–whether it be the surface design of municipal recycling trucks or how etsy.com has supercharged the DIY craft movement. Get your hot links here!…

In the forward to this new book, Rudolf Smend writes, “Rita Trefois has managed to create a record that presents contemporary batik art in a timeless fashion, as well as expertly incorporating the history and, in particular, the batik technique….This publication is an important milestone in the long history of batik, as well as a prototype and inspiration for the younger generation.” Read Rita Trefois’s introduction to her long-awaited book here!
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