General Meetings
CHH meets the third Saturday of the month,
August through May.
On occasion, meetings are moved due to holidays or other events,
so please check the calendar.
Tracy Kaestner
My Weaving Journey
In Print
Saturday, March 16
10:00 a.m.
@ Guild House
and on Zoom
Check the newsletter for zoom link or click here.
**Please note, the program will be first followed by the business meeting.**
Tracy Kaestner published an article in Weavers magazine in the late 1980’s. One article led to another and another. Now almost 40 years and 80 plus articles later she realized she has documented her weaving life in print. Come and hear the tale and see some of the items and articles and learn a bit about the weaving publishing world.
Upcoming Programs:
March 16 – Tracy Kaestner, “My Weaving Journey in Print”
April 20 – Priya Ramkissoon from Imiloa Collective
May 25 – Theo Rooden
June – No Meeting
July – No Meeting
August 17 – Virginia Postrel, author of The Fabric of Civilization
September 19 – John Mullarkey, tablet weaving
October 19 – Dawn Edwards, felting
Past Programs
Connie Lippert
Wedge Weaving
Thursday, February 15
Our February speaker was Connie Lippert. Connie weaves tapestries using the wedge weave technique with yarns hand-dyed using natural materials. Her work has been exhibited in 30 states and has been accepted into over 150 juried exhibitions. She has received several artist grants from the South Carolina Arts Commission.
Christine Miller
Wire as Fiber
Saturday, January 20
HCCC Residents Terumi Saito and Qiqing Lin
speak about their artistic practices
Saturday, November 18, 2023
Qiqing (pronounced Chi-Ching)
Terumi Saito is a textile artist and designer based in New York. Using traditional and ancient methods of backstrap weaving, which she learned from masters in Peru and Guatemala, Saito creates sculpture that represents a form of protection.
Saito received a BFA in graphic design from Tama Art University in Tokyo, Japan, and an MFA in textiles from Parsons School of Design in New York.
Thursday, October 19,
2023
Michael Cook
Silk Reeling
Our October meeting presentation was given by silk pundit, Michael Cook. .
The unwinding of a silk cocoon is a marvel of both nature and human ingenuity. We leared about how this miraculous Queen of Fibers is cultivated, processed, and utilized in a variety of forms, and see a demonstration of how the cocoons themselves are unwound – each cocoon a single, unbroken fiber up to nine-tenths of a mile long.
Michael Cook has been raising and working with silk since 2001. He learned to sew, crochet, and embroider at the feet of his grandmother when he was probably too short for the sharp scissors with which he was entrusted and went on to learn to weave, spin, and knit.
This talk covered a little bit of sericulture, a significant amount of silk processing, and some discussion of applications and techniques for using silk in handwork. And he brought silk worms!
Saturday, September 16, 2023
Karen Selk
Our September meeting presentation was given by Karen Selk about the wonders of working with silk.
In Karen’s own words, “Wild silk is much more than the miraculous journey of metamorphosis from caterpillar to silken luxury. It is tightly woven to an ancient living culture raising tasar, muga, and eri silkworms in remote forests of central and eastern India.
Raising wild silkworms, reeling cocoons, spinning fiber and weaving silk cloth provides sustainable work, while protecting the environment, and supporting communities. Photos and stories captured from weavers, spinners, and silkworm farmers over thirty years of research will transport you into their homes and villages to witness the love and dedication involved in each part of the process from soil to cloth.”
Saturday, August 19, 2023
Mahmoud and Alyssa
Arabic Weaving
Mahmoud and Alyssa like to incorporate modern designs with traditional Arabic weaving methods. In this presentation, they will tell their story of their journeys in Syria, UAE, Turkey, and the US, as well as discuss Arabic weaving traditions and history.
Mahmoud and Alyssa are a Syrian-American handweaving family. They met during a chance encounter in Dubai in 2019 and instantly bonded over their shared love of weaving. Mahmoud’s family in Syria has been weaving for hundreds of years, and he learned the art at a young age.
In Dubai, they owned a store where they sold handmade kilims, fine antique carpets, and other Arabic and Persian items. They also had a weaving studio where they taught families the art of weft-faced weaving.
Saturday, May 20, 2023
Margot Becker
HCCC Artist-In-Residence
Margot first learned to weave in 2010 as part of a study to understand the process of creating textiles from start to finish. Following the belief that to know your production line, you must be your production line, this project became an all-encompassing life practice- incorporating animal husbandry, yarn spinning technologies and fine hand weaving. Her work has been exhibited in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston. She received her BA in studio art from Bard College in 2009 and her MFA from California College of the Arts in 2020 where she was awarded the Edwin Anthony & Adelaine Boudreaux Cadogan Scholarship and the Toni A. Lowenthal Memorial Scholarship for Excellence in Textiles. She is currently a Resident Artist at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft and the latest recipient of CHH’s Tilly Marchwinski scholarship.
Saturday, April 15, 2023
Tapestry
Blaine Davis was the main presenter for the program. He has been weaving for over 40 years, both on multi-shaft and tapestry looms. His tapestry work has been shown at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft and in a small show in Blonduos, Iceland, where he did a one month residency at the Icelandic Textile Institute. He is also a printmaker and is currently a member of Archway Gallery in Houston.
February 18, 2023
Basket Weaving
with Mary Brown
January 21, 2023
Bead Weaving:
Up Close and Personal
Of Memory and Matter
Shradha Kochhar
November 19, 2022
Passementerie:
An Endangered Yet Thoroughly
Contemporary Craft
by Elizabeth Ashdown
October 15, 2022
Crête, Tassel, Gimp, Galon and Bullion – just some of the fascinating and mystical terms associated with a rare and fascinating textile art. Often overlooked as a frivolous decoration, passementerie was once used as the ultimate status symbol and signifier of good taste and wealth within both interior and fashion design. Join our meeting to hear about the fascinating, and often dramatic, history of passementerie, as well as how contemporary artists and designers are reinventing this heritage craft.
October’s speaker wass Elizabeth Ashdown. Elizabeth received her MA in Textiles from the Royal College of Art and is one of a very few individuals specializing in this type of weaving. She has produced exclusive handmade designs for clients such as Liberty, the Clothworkers’ Company, Cassamance and Camira Fabrics; she has also completed multiple commissions for private clients. For more about Elizabeth and her work, please visit her website.
The Boro Phenomenon
by Yoshiko Wada
September 17, 2022