Contemporary Handweavers of Houston

Contemporary Handweavers of Houston (CHH) is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to promoting interest in handweaving, spinning and related textile arts through teaching, hosting workshops, demonstrations and study groups.

Located in Houston, Texas, CHH usually meets at 7:00 p.m. on the third Thursday of each month August through November and January through May at Bayou Manor.

NEWS

WordPress Web Weavers (WWW) Study Group

The CHH WordPress Web Weavers Study group has some folks who have gone public with their web sites

– DIane already had a robust website and has been a mentor for us all. (http://yarngoddess.wordpress.com/)

-Julia already had a public site combining weaving and family history. (http://weavingahistory.wordpress.com/)

-Pat had to quickly migrate her business website to another platform but has gone public now with her blog and has already featured some of her new fiber offerings. (http://patpowelldesigns.wordpress.com/)

-Marian was bold, using WordPress to create a business website for her husband’s business. All complete. Now she can have fun in creating her own site..You can see her good work at http://h2oworkstx.com/

-Gina went public from day 1 of the study group I think. (http://ginabead.wordpress.com)

If you are a member with a website that you would like for us to feature on our guild’s blog, send the webweaver the information with a little background on your website or blog. If you want to see if WordPress would work for you, feel free to come to our study group. We are meeting June 3 on Sunday afternoon. Email the webweaver if you want to be involved.

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South East Asia with Tracy Kaestner

Four CHH members toured Singapore, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand and shared their experiences at the May 17 meeting. Tracy Kaestner, Laura Viada, Connie Elliott and DeeDee Woodbury spent 2 weeks touring silk textile studios, as well as eating local food and touring the cultural heritage sites, such as Ankgor Wat. They shared the following links as a handout.

South East Asia with Tracy Kaestner

Singapore

Asian Civilisations Museum www.acm.org.sg

Singapore Botanical Gardens

Juraong Bird Park

Peranakan Museum www.peranakanmuseum.sg

Cambodia,

Siem Reap

Artisans Angkor www.artisansdangkor.com

Senteurs d’Angkor www.wenteursdangkor.com

Apsara Dance Theater www.angkorvillage.com

IKTT Institue for Khmer Traditional Textiles. www.iktt.esprit-libre.org/en

Laos

Vientiane

Phang Mae Gallery www.phaengmaigallery.com

Carol Cassidy www.laotextiles.com

Luang Prabang

Ock Pop tok meaning East meets West www.ockpoptok.com

Thailand, Chiang Mia

Patricia Cheeseman www.studio–naenna.com

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Small Expressions Winners

First Place

Jenine Shereos

Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts

Leaves

Human hair.

Wrapping, stitching, knotting.

5 x 7 x 1 inches

Photo: Robert Diamante

Second Place: Lois Russell, Boston, Massachusetts, Blue Hills

Third Place: Meg Wilson, Austin, Texas, Texas Burning

Juror’s Choice Award: Marcia Weiss, Collegeville, Pennsylvania,Dialogue II

HGA Award: Jóh Ricci, New Oxford, Pennsylvania, Midnight Bloom

Complex Weavers Award: Jeanne Schenk Steiner, Colorado Springs, Colorado, Parallel

Carol Shaw-Sutton, Chair of the Fiber Program, California State University, Long Beach, juried the exhibition.

More information and images of the award-winning work.

Small Expressions 2012 continues until August 12, 2012, at the Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, California, and is a featured exhibition in conjunction with HGA’s Convergence® 2012 Long Beach conference, July 15-21, 2012.

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Small Expressions 2012 Exhibition Opens

Small Expressions 2012 Exhibition Opens
The Long Beach Museum of Art, on view May 10 through August 12, 2012.

May 9, 2012
Small Expressions 2012 annual juried exhibition features 37 contemporary small-scale art worksby 33 artists from 15 states and 5 countries. Works selected from a field of 253 entries from 10 coun-tries by Juror Carol Shaw-Sutton, Professor of Art, Head of the Fiber Department, California StateUniversity, Long Beach, include artists:

Nicki Bair, Pacific Palisades, California • Charlotte Bird, San Diego, California • Danielle Bodine,Clinton, Washington • Linda Brassington , Alton, Hampshire, United Kingdom • Barbara Burns,Chestnut Ridge, New York • Marian Carlson, Katy, Texas • Lisa Hart, Fayetteville, Georgia….. [read more]

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Weaving Home

The Houston Arts Alliance Folklife and Traditional Arts Program Presents

WEAVING HOME:

Textile Traditions From Houston’s Karenni Community
May 16 – July 6, 2012
@ Alliance Gallery
3201 Allen Parkway, 77019

Houston is home to refugee communities from around the world. They all bring with them distinctive traditions. The exhibition Weaving Home focuses on the weaving traditions practiced by women from one such community – a collection of Karenni families who now live in the city. Formerly from Myanmar (until recently known as Burma), the Karenni are a distinct ethnic community with origins in the country’s mountainous region bordering Thailand.

Working with a Houston-based micro-enterprise endeavor called The Community Cloth, a program of the Houston non-profit, Our Global Village, Karenni craftswomen have continued to produce traditional weavings but also to create items that appeal to a Western market. Weaving Home shows examples of both Karenni traditional and market-influenced pieces in an effort to tell the story of an art form at the center of refugee life.

In addition to the exhibition the HAA Folklife + Traditional Arts Program has organized a number of special public programs to explore the weaving tradition in this community, the refugee experience in Houston and the growing role of role of micro-enterprise efforts in promoting community-based cultural and economic sustainability.

Special Exhibition Programs@ Alliance Gallery3201 Allen Parkway, #125

Opening Reception, Thursday, May 24, 5:30 – 7 pm
In celebration of the exhibition, craftswomen and community members will be in attendance to demonstrate the backstrap technique they use for both their traditional and contemporary weavings.

Weaving & Micro-Enterprise, Thursday, May 31, 5:30 – 7 pm
Members of the Contemporary Handweavers of Houston and a co-Founder from The Community Cloth will conduct an informal panel discussion exploring the economics of handmade textiles and the mechanics of micro-enterprise endeavors. Participants will explore issues of tradition and modernity as they relate to the craft and strategies for community-based cultural preservation and economic sustainability.

Telling the Refugee Story, Thursday, June 21, 5:30 – 7 pm
Representatives from several Houston-based refugee communities will share events that led up to their displacement, their experience in refugee camps and resettlement in Houston. They will also discuss efforts – both the struggles and successes — to retain their respective community’s cultural identity in contemporary Texas.

Weaving Demonstration, Saturday, June 30, 2:00 – 4 pm
An up-close demonstration of the backstrap weaving tradition that Karenni women practice, including a discussion of traditional woven garments and their uses. Staff from The Community Cloth will talk about the process of working with the Karenni weavers to develop new products for the Western marketplace.

World Refugee Day Reception, Thursday, July 5, 5:30 – 7pm
This reception honors and celebrates the wide community of refugees that have found their way to Houston and the many agencies and volunteers who serve them. Houston’s World Refugee Day Co-Chairs, Lizeth Zavala and Emily Stickle, will review the 2012 event and share plans for 2013.

SPECIAL NOTE: Volunteers from The Community Cloth will have work from all of the refugee artists they serve available for purchase at all the above events. All proceeds return to the artists.

Weaving Home, an exhibition produced by the Houston Arts Alliance Folklife + Traditional Arts Program, is funded in part by the Houston Endowment, Inc., the National Endowment for the Arts, and Wells Fargo Bank.

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CHH Artisans Market

 

 

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Cloth Roads

ClothRoads was founded in 2011 by five women who had worked together as the Executive Team at Interweave Press. The website, www.clothroads.com, is a natural extension of the mission established in 2006, “Creating Opportunities to Support Indigenous Textile Artisans Worldwide”. Without robust markets textile artisans cannot sustain their families. ClothRoads.com is the primary sales venue, although they also hold trunk shows across the country, including exhibiting at textile conferences.

The ClothRoads website is more than just a place to shop. It’s a place to meet remarkable artisans, learn about different techniques, connect with other textile enthusiasts or just do a little armchair traveling along the cloth road. it is well worth a visit. The blog is varied, readable, and informative. Check it out.

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Lia Cook lecture

Lecture: “Navigating the Maze: Neuroscience and Fiber Connections” at Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Brown Auditorium

Saturday, May 12, 2012 at 2:00 pm

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Brown Auditorium1001 Bissonnet Street, Houston, TX (Map)

Internationally known for her contribution to the modern fiber-art movement, artist Lia Cook incorporates concepts of cloth, touch, and memory into her large-scale weavings. She recently completed an artist residency in TREND (Transdisciplinary Research in Emotion, Neuroscience and Development) at the University of Pittsburgh School Of Medicine. During that time, she collaborated with scientists to explore and map how the human brain responds to viewing her woven works, which are based on photographs. Some of her current works use images of the neural connections in the white matter of her own brain, called fiber tracts, combined with snapshots of herself as a child. Cook will speak about her long-term interest in neuroscience and how experiments in perception and emotional inquiry have informed her current body of work.

A resident of Berkeley, California, Cook has been a Professor of Art at the California College of the Arts since 1976. She has exhibited widely across the United States, as well as in Australia, China, France and Ireland, among other countries. Her work can be found in many permanent collections, including that of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Boston Museum of Fine Arts; the Racine Art Museum; and the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Lia Cook’s current exhibit of work, Bridge 11: Lia Cook, is on view at HCCC through May 13, 2012.

Above: Lia Cook, Tracts Past. Cotton, rayon woven, 2010. 68” x 52. Photo by Lia Cook.

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Kudos

Congratulations to three (3!) of our members for being juried into shows at HGA’s Convergence 2012 at Long Beach.

• Marian Carlson‘s overshot piece in Small Expressions
• Charlene Kolb‘s skirt, jacket, bustier, hat and bag ensemble from CHT in he Fashion Show
• Carol Mosley has a piece in the Juried Show

We’re proud of you. Way to represent Houston!

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CHHit CHHat for May, 2012

The May, 2012 CHHit CHHat has just been published and is available on the member website. A big thanks to newsletter editor Louise for all her hard work as editor!

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For more NEWS see the Webweaver's Blog.

Miscellany

Houston Skyline Tapestry:

Have you ever wondered about the photo of the Houston Skyline Tapestry that we have used on the CHH website? Well, now you can see more detail and learn more about Gerry Woodhouse, the talented weaver who so generously allows us to use the photo on the Houston Skyline Tapestry page. You can also reach the page by clicking on the image at the top of the left column.

Members Only:

It's all about you! Weavehouston reminds members of the Members Only corner of our website. If you are a member and do not know the login and password, email us. If you have your handbook, you will find the information on page 4.

Amazon:

We are an Amazon.com affiliate. As you look at our website, if you take one of our links to Amazon.com and buy an item during that visit, a percentage of the purchase price (most items) will go to the guild!

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We're glad you found us!

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