Blogging About Communities, Art and Making Connections
This summer I’ve been working on pieces for the Asheville Reef, a spin-off (no pun intended) of the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef created by the Wertheim sisters of the Institute for Figuring. 
It’s wonderfully organic and free-form…not your grandma’s crochet!
Posted on August 4th, 2011 by
Filed under: Fiber, Gallery, General, Just Interesting | No Comments »
A small group has been meeting at HandMade in America and talking about how we could create better connections, identify and fill gaps in the market, and grow the fiber economy in our region. Last Tuesday morning, I read an email from Chris at Joybilee Farm in southern British Columbia that rocked my world! It talked about the concept of a Fibershed – like a watershed, only relating to locally designed, sewn, grown and milled clothing.
Chris’s blogpost is inspirational, and references another one created by a like-minded group in California last fall. Both paint a compelling case for the environmental value of drawing a 150 mile radius around Asheville and working to develop more connections here. Starr Cash created this map so we all could see who would be included in a 50, 100 and 150-mile radius.
Fiber artist Rebecca Burgess has challenged herself to wear locally sourced clothes – from her fibershed – for a year. Her goal is “to both show and model that beauty and fashion can function hand-in-hand with sustainability, local economies, and regional agriculture.”
We have such rich fiber resources and traditions in the Western North Carolina region – could be create our own fibershed project to discover how to make the most of what we have here?
Posted on May 1st, 2011 by
Filed under: Engagement, Fiber, General, Spinning, Weaving | No Comments »
Just returned from a 2-day ArtYarn workshop for the Pinellas Weavers Guild, and it was great! Here’s the awesome class members, plus our hostess (in profile) Betty Scrimshaw. Here’s what the new Spindolls had to say:
Judi, Thank u it was the very best workshop I have ever taken soooo much fun and everyone was so nice. Hope u can come to Sarasota some time. Jean Woodward (co-founder of the MD Sheep & Wool Festival)
Posted on November 26th, 2010 by
Filed under: Fiber, General, Spinning | No Comments »
Camp Pluckyfluff creations
When I started spinning 3 years ago, I was enchanted by the creative spirit of Lexi Boeger, also known as Pluckyfluff. While I needed to develop my basic skills before attempting her wild and crazy style, she was my spinning hero. In the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep, I’d read her blog and practice…I went to the Salvation Army and bought silk ties for 50 cents on half-price day, then cut them up to spin with my fiber.
Lexi demonstrating tail-spinning on her Aura wheel
This month I finally got to attend a Camp Pluckyfluff with Lexi in Asheville at the Folk Art Center. I became excited about spinning art yarn all over again, and enjoyed the Etsy energy from the people I met at camp – some had been spinning all their life, many only a few months, and all jumped right in to the “yarn as art” vibe and made amazing sample. I’ve even come up with my own new spinner name – Spindoll.
Mohairy
Here are some samples from our workshop, which I’m practicing and refining nearly every day. Mohairy is a corespun yarn made from a fluffy mohair batt, and Curly is a multi-colored spun single from Corriedale I bought at SAFF last year, plied with a fine, shiny gold rayon.
Curly
Posted on August 1st, 2010 by
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August 2-8 was my debut as a teacher at the John Campbell Folk School, and it couldn’t have been more fun! We had a class of 5 students making brightly colored silk paper…each an artist in her own right, enthused to learn a new medium, make unique work, and have some laughs in the process. Kathy Hays and I were the instructors, and we brought lots of brightly colored silk, throwsters waster, cocoon strippings, silk hankies (no, you don’t wipe your brow with them), and lots of things to paint, stamp and embellish with.
Silk Papermakers
As quickly as the first evening, we began making paper and several people were still pulling a final sheet off the crinoline on Friday afternoon…the color and sheen were simply irresistible. We were a group of diverse backgrounds – from serious art student to enthusiastic dabbler – and that’s where the magic of the Folk School really kicks in…this is a school with no grades, where everyone learns and teaches and enjoys the journey.
Since I’m a weaver, you know I had to try weaving things with my paper…here’s a vessel in process.
Posted on August 13th, 2009 by
Filed under: Fiber, Gallery, General, Just Interesting, Silk Paper, surface design | No Comments »
I’ve been wanting to go to a fleece and fiber festival since last December when I realized I’ve become a fiber addict. I made a list of all of the ones I could find on the internet, then read about them on blogs and in magazines. The Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival sounded like the best maiden voyage, made even more appealing when some friends offered to go with us and let us stay at their condo.
MSWF (as it’s known to true devotees) advertised 250 vendors and 1,000 sheep – and it seemed like lots more to me! I bought 3 fleeces from among the mountains of fluff in the sales area…it was soo exciting! and then we took them right out the side door to the processor row and sent them off to be turned into roving.
There were thousands of spinners and knitters there, even though it was a rainy day, and everyone was in good spirits. The most fascinating thing to me was getting the chance to try some unusual spinning wheels – the Merlin Hitchhiker and the Butterfly electric wheel.
Everyone in the group enjoyed shopping for fiber and yarn, but the real attraction was the animals and the chance to see and pet bunnies, pygora goats, and alpaca. With their big eyes and sweet dispositions, they were real show stoppers.
Thanks to hundreds of volunteers, this show is a real winner and a great experience for new spinners as well as experienced sheep breeders. Put it on your calendar for next year – the first full weekend in May at the Howard County Fairgrounds.
Posted on May 28th, 2009 by
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I took a shibori class with Joan Morris at the Tampa Convergence. 
She designed fabric for costumes in the Lion King and included work with vegetal dyes…something I hadn’t tried before. I entered the workshop with a sense of great anticipation and a healthy curiosity.
A slight, precise, intense woman, Joan reawakened and validated my love of stitching.
Heads bent over our work, we stitched for hours before pulling the thread tight, tying just-so knots, and dipping the cotton, linen and silk fabric into dyes made from plant and animals materials. 
We used techniques that made fabric look like woodgrain – mokume – as well as spider webs and pole-wrapping. For a real treat we started an indigo vat and she taught us proper respect for the process and the virtues of layering color.
Posted on February 3rd, 2009 by
Filed under: Dyeing, Fiber, Gallery | No Comments »
When you have Persian-Himalyan cats living with you, there are several benefits – there’s always something cuddly nearby to talk to and plenty of free fibery material available at your finger tips.
Little Sister, my Persian-Himalayan kitty pictured to the right, is all white with light green-blue eyes, a pink nose and a sweet disposition. My husband Gary grooms her nearly every day with a brush, and also “plucks” her by hand once or twice a week, saving the hair for me to spin. Her fleece is several inches long, and has some guard hairs I like to pluck out before and during spinning. She is an indoor cat and very clean.
Here are the steps I use to make yarn for knitting and weaving:
1) Card the fiber about 50-50 with a medium or fine white wool (like Merino or Romney) and make rolags.
The cat hair is very fine and slippery. You can spin it alone if you twist it tightly, but I think it feels and looks better when it’s blended with wool.
2) Next, Z spin the fiber into singles. You need to keep the triangle fairly small, and the rolags have a tendency to deteriorate into clouds of fluff.
3) Finally, ply your cat hair singles with white rayon, tencel or sewing thread for a knittable yarn that looks a bit like mohair. Enjoy!
Posted on December 30th, 2008 by
Filed under: Fiber, General, Knitting, Spinning | 1 Comment »
Batik is the first surface design technique I ever learned and is still one of my favorites. I love the way colors blend right on the fabric during the dyeing process, the discipline of planning the move from light to dark, and being surprised with unexpected beauty.
My first batik was a giant tree made on a sheet and hung on a bamboo rod in my apartment. I like to work on cotton as a “warm up” to a batik session because inexpensive material helps me feel free to experiment.
The nicest piece I’ve made so far is Silken River, a 3′ by 20′ length of silk featuring fish drawn with hot wax in traditional yoruba designs. It was first shown at the University of Tampa in 2006 as part of an installation accompanying a one-woman show by Susan Taylor Lennon. And most recently at the Dunedin Fine Arts Center in the Surfacing Show in 2008 as part of Convergence.
I used a combination of shibori and batik for this 4′ by 8′ panel called All the Warriors in the 2007 Exquisite Corpse show in Ybor City at Deep Carnivale.
The tools I use aren’t fancy – my “paintbrush” is a piece of foam rubber cushion carved to look like a carrot, and the wax is heated in an electric skillet bought at a thrift store. I also use wooden stamps and metal cookie cutters for stamps. The process is simple, hot wax creates a resist on those parts of the cloth it covers, so I start by painting or stamping anything I want to keep white, then dip in the first color (usually yellow), then paint those spots I want to keep yellow, dip in a deeper color, and so on until I’m finished.
Posted on September 4th, 2008 by
Filed under: Dyeing, Gallery, surface design | No Comments »
When I signed up for Holly Brackmann’s Convergence workshop, Fast and Easy Dyeing Without a Dyepot, I had no idea what I was getting into. She’s written a great book called The Surface Designer’s Handbook, and I figured I’d pick up some tips and tricks.
Well, that’s an understatement! Holly introduced me to something completely foreign – disperse dyes – first you paint onto paper, then transfer onto fabric by using a hot iron – preferably onto polyester. Now I don’t really feature going back to wearing polyester (in fact I never really did) so I was stumped for a while and just played around with color.
This was Day 4 of Convergence and I’d spent the last 3 days in shiboriland (more about that later when my samples are done) – my brain wasn’t taking this in. So at lunch I sat down between the big curtain windows overlooking the Hillsborough River and the lunch line, so I saw lots of friends, met new people, joked around and got some good ju-ju going.
That afternoon, I was waiting for the summer afternoon thunderstorms to roll through and found those disperse dyes were just the thing to capture the moment. Thanks, Holly!
Posted on July 7th, 2008 by
Filed under: Dyeing, General | No Comments »