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Earlier in the week I interviewed founder and non-stop advocator of TAFA (the Textile And Fiber Art list), Rachel Biel. Rachel has an exciting new direction for TAFA, one that she explains fully in the following interview: New visions, new directions are always exciting. You have a new vision for TAFA. What is that new vision?  I launched TAFA in 2010 when social media was just starting to become a powerful tool in how we communicate on the web. The goal was to create an organization that focused on the business side of running a textile/fiber art business along with creating a destination that truly reflected the best of what is happening in our field around the world. The membership has grown into a true testament of the innovation and broad reach of our industry, from the historical handmade traditions to experimental approaches involving new technologies. As our focus in on the business side of what we do, most of our members seek to make a living at what they do. This led to c...

Black Eye Gallery is pleased to announce the August 2017 exhibition Liminal by Armando Chant Liminal builds an interest with the potential for engagement that exists with the relationship  between imagery and objects that sit within an in-between state of emergence and  realisation. This series proposes an encounter with the liminal image in construction, where there is  an exploration and interaction with the blurred boundaries between the real and  imaginatively unreal, and images that are in a process of slow and gradual emergence. Chant depicts an abstract landscape composed of marks and gestures that are  indeterminate and indefinable, embodying both bodily contours and vast panoramic  gestural landscapes. “My practice aims to explore and open up potentials for the dressed body to be reframed or  represented within an ephemeral and transient context across site and surface, and contribute  to another way of experiencing image and body withi...

Mary Mazziotti: Eagle , 2016 (hand embroidery and applique on vintage textile) I make  memento mori  (remember you must die) primary in textiles. Notwithstanding the seriousness of the subject I try to lean more towards wit than morbidity.  SCREWED is a response to the “election” of an unhinged con man with the connivance of a hostile foreign power.  And I’m appalled and disgusted that so many Americans fell for his misogynistic, xenophobic, racist blather. The path he’s leading us down will not make American Great Again. It’s a death sentence for the best principles of democracy. Nations can have life spans, just as people do. SCREWED is a  memento mori  for America. SCREWED, can be found along with a range of other work by Mary, at her comprehensive website:  http://www.mazziottiart.com/ Mary Mazziotti: George Washington , 2016  (hand embroidery and applique on vintage textile)                ...

A new exhibition at Rheged, Cumbria’s foremost arts centre, supported by Arts Council England, will challenge perceptions of quilt making this spring, revealing a strong and vibrant contemporary craft form. New Quilting , an exclusive exhibition at Rheged, will reveal the new face of contemporary quilting, an art form now just as likely to be found hanging on a gallery wall or urban loft apartment as it is in a rural farmhouse. Quilts by  over 30 national and Cumbrian makers  have been selected for their craftsmanship and design, colour and innovation. The unique story behind each piece will also be told in the exhibition, either through accompanying sketches and material revealing how each quilt came to be, or through the storytelling ability of the quilt itself. Alicia Merrett: The Island John Stokes, Arts Manager at Rheged, said “Quilting has been part of the needlework tradition in Europe since the fifth century and our exhibition celebrates those continuing the tradition ...

Deborah Taylor: I Like The Way You Dance The Surface Design Association of Washington State announces the Opening of Fiber Fusion, a year-long juried exhibition and celebration of textiles and surface design techniques, at the VALA Art Center in Redmond. The exhibition opened at Redmond Town Center’s VALA Art Center on November 10 and runs through January 15, 2017. Axford: Counterpoint 1 A public Opening Reception at VALA was held on Saturday, November 19. Rock Hushka, lead curator at Tacoma Art Museum and one of the Fiber Fusion jurors, were giving a talk at the Opening. Arisa Brown: Trepa Additional locations include: Northwind Arts Center in Port Townsend (February 2-26) and Schack Arts Center in Everett. (March 10 - April 3). The debut location was the Gallery at the Park in Richland, WA. Claire Jones: Whole Surface Vitality 2 Fifty-four artists were selected for the four-city exhibition. Fiber Fusion jurors were Layne Goldsmith, University of Washington Professor of Art and past c...

No Serial Number - A new magazine to me, and probably a new magazine to others. No Serial Number is on its seventh issue with a theme that is probably going to appeal to a lot of those who visit this site. Dyes, fabrics, fibres are a central focus of this magazine, their central core in fact. It is interesting to have an arts magazine that embraces tradition and innovation within textiles, a number have tried before and never quite got the balance right, but No Serial Number seem to have got it right, even to the point of printing on recycled paper, something that is sure to appeal to many of you out there. This new winter issue of No Serial Number focuses on eco printing, something that is gaining in popularity, gaining momentum within textile art and textile craft, and gaining space within the textile industry. The subtleties of the visual effects of natural dyeing and printing are also beginning to be appreciated. High, dense colour has its place, but so too does textured low-keyed ...