The Art Cloth Network Wants You*

 

*If  you have a passion for making art cloth, like small group networking, and see a trip to New Jersey in your future!

With roots deeply imbedded in the fertile soil of fine craftsmanship, art cloth encourages the entwining of branches that include traditional women's work, high fashion and historical textile processes like batik, shibori and African mudcloth.

Art Cloth pays homage to all of these but synthesizes them in a specifically contemporary way. The cloth becomes an object with a rightful existence as itself. These one of a kind lengths tell stories, challenge perceptions and invite contemplation. Like all good works of art, they refresh, renew or challenge, every time they are encountered.                                                                     from an essay by Jane Dunnewold

The deadline is coming up for Art Cloth Network membership applications -- February 15 -- and I just realized that although I had sent the notice out on line and onto various lists, I had not actually put a dedicated post on the blog.  There's still time if you are interested in making and learning more about making art cloth to send in an application. You need not be an expert, but you do need a desire to make art cloth as a genre unto itself, and you will need a few shots of fabric to use in your applications. New members are being sought to fill few vacant spots in this group limited to 25 members, nation wide. We propose and produce exhibitions dedicated to art cloth, maintain a website and meet about every 9 months for wrangling, sharing, teaching, learning and having a stimulating and interesting meeting. Because of the size of the group, and our intention to serve as supportive peers to one another, the face-to-face gatherings have proved essential to really getting benefit from the organization. Applicants for this round of membership must commit to attending the next meeting, Sept. 4-7 in New Brunswick, N.J.

Second commercial message: If you are in the San Antonio area -- or need a midwinter vacation -- and want to add a technique to your surface design tool box, I will be teaching a soy wax workshop at the Southwest School of Art and Craft on February . The piece at the beginning of this post, and the one at the end  both use soy wax screenprinting and soy wax batik to create their fluid and richly layered imagery. Register by going to the school's link

Spend two days using the latest hot wax techniques to make beautiful multicolored fabrics. The use of soy wax eliminates many of the environmental concerns of using the traditional solvent-soluble wax, because it can be washed out with hot soapy water. Special techniques allow the application of several colors of dye at once. Bring 3 yards of natural fiber fabric (cotton, silk, rayon or linen), an assortment of brushes and stamping tools, and discover your own vocabulary of marks and patterns.