A detailed, printable schedule for the 2024-2025 year is on the Events Page.
Monthly meeting on Monday April 21 – Hybrid (presenter at Oakwood) – Lars Shimabukuro, “Weaving through Place & Identity”
From their website: Hand weaving is a slow, intimate process. A weaver’s hand will touch every thread several times in the making of a piece; over the warping board threads, into a dye pot, and through each heddle. To the observer this process may appear calm and calculated. But I do not see my materials as passive. As Tim Ingold writes in his essay The Texility of Making, “material can only be followed.” This philosophy guides me in
every project, and lets me frame each piece as an experiment in terms of color, pattern, and material.
Color is always my main collaborator. I am drawn to putting colors together that you don’t always see, or colors you always see together but using them in striking proportions. Color stories come to me from memories of growing up in Hawaii; free diving with parrot fish, dense foliage, layers of volcanic soil in Haleakala crater. But this skill has followed me, and I see it here as well; in winter hikes, construction remnants, the rainbow colors from oil drips in parking lots. I see labor as equalizing and honest, so challenges become a precursor to quality work. This makes my pieces a form of visual labor: I put in
the time that I want my audience to spend with it. it is not comfortable. But my garments are protective as they address anxieties about constraint and exposure by loosely fitting a wide variety of bodies. In contrast, bold design makes an opposing statement to create a tension that is intimate, dissonant, playful, and unyielding. These themes and
relationships to the body can be found in all my work.
When and Where
If you are interested, but not yet a member, come and meet us! Our meetings are on the third Monday of the month from September to May. Doors open at 6:30, meeting generally starts at 7 p.m. at Oakwood Village University Woods, 6205 Mineral Point Road, Madison, WI 53507.
Volunteers Needed
Historian. The Historian shall maintain official and unofficial documents, papers, samples, historical records of the organization and shall provide and disseminate said documents as appropriate.
Workshop Committee members needed! If a few people step up, you can share the work.
Tech person needed, not a board position but we do need a couple of people who can set up the Zoom meetings. If there are more than one person, they can trade off the months.
Announcements
- The Virtual Wright Design Series: Free registration at: mononaterrace.com/webinars
- Midwest Weavers Conference, St. Louis, Missouri, June 8 -15, 2025. This biennial conference gathers our Midwest Weavers Association’s regional community of guilds for a week of workshops, classes, speakers, exhibitions, tours, and vendors. Registration will open mid-February. Check the website or Facebook: search for the Midwest Weavers Conference 2025 page and become a follower for regular updates!
- The Madison Weavers Guild Lending Library is gently growing. We currently have 20 titles and some periodicals for lending. You can find the inventory on the Members Only page of our website. Since this is a new venture for the guild, the best way to borrow a book is to contact Marty Detering directly at 610-470-3631 or marty3day@aol.com. If one or more of the titles is of interest to you, Marty can bring the books to a meeting. You are welcome to look through them and choose what you wish to borrow. Simple and easy. We ask that you return that book at the next meeting. Books can be renewed as long as another person is not interested in borrowing it. Marty will bring new library additions to meetings for perusal by members. In March, she will bring the 5 books that Vävstuga has gifted to the guild. All items in our library are donations and we wish to thank all those who have thought of us with their generosity. So get your looms in weaving order and think about planing a next project. Surely, there is a draft our there calling your name. Happy weaving, Marty Detering.
- Back and Forth Exhibition (02/27 – 03/28, 2025) is a 2-person exhibition featuring the work of Marianne Fairbanks (USA) and Sofia Hagström Møller (DK), who live an ocean apart and have developed a creative exchange of ideas that push both to unfold and invent new approaches to their practice and textile-based works. They will show works, created over several years, made remotely and together, that show a visual dialogue between their culturally informed approaches to weaving and making, highlighting a playfulness in material use, color and sculptural experiments. In the summer of 2024, during a 2 week residency at @thejellyreading they started using cardboard and other discarded materials in their studies and experiments to push weaving into more dimensional forms. Reception: Thursday, February 27, 4:00pm-6:00pm, Joyce Paddock Bliss Gallery, Carroll University, Main Hall, Waukesha WI 53186
- At the top of the page, click on Education and then on Workshops to see workshops that are currently planned.
- Unstable Design Lab at CU Boulder has a series of talks where a series of artists talk about experimental weaving in their fiber art practice. You can stream them live or watch them later on youtube. https://unstable.design/experimental-weaving-talks/
- If you would like to sell your weaving at the Art Fair on the Square (7/13-14/24), you need to give a check for $50.00 to Kate Lieber to be put on the list of artists. You will get a link to submit your tax number to the Art Fair committee and information on what you need to do. We will have a meeting at some time in the future to discuss procedures.
- Equipment Policy The procedure for borrowing Guild equipment can be seen on the Members Only page.
- Here is a podcast that many members will appreciate.
- WEAVE A REAL PEACE (WARP) was founded in 1992 at Weaver’s Convergence as a community of textile people who worked with artisans all over the world in fair trade or development work. They present monthly online panel discussions that are free and open to all.
Please let us know if you have any questions or comments regarding the information presented. madisonweaversguild@gmail.com.
Submit items for the website to mwgwebupdates@gmail.com.
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