by Molly Koehn
During the last weekend of March, Contemporary Handweavers of Texas held their bi-annual Art Camp in New Braunfels, TX. This year’s camp, themed Undercurrents, was organized by CHH’s very own Athena Luong. It explored all of the little undercurrents that flow through our weavings, especially how the currents of community.
CHH had quite a showing with eight (!) of our members in attendance – almost a quarter of the total attendance!
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Baltic Pickup
Molly Koehn, Athena, Melissa Rodriguez, and Pennie Taylor learned Baltic Pickup Weaving with Rasa Silenas (San Antonio), which included how to set up an improvised loom on a frame, book, or other rectangular, semi-rigid material. After what seemed like a long day of counting and separating threads on our improvised looms, during day two, everyone was picking up like a pro (on our inkle looms, though).
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Baskets
Diane Ferguson and Jeniffer Perales wove baskets with Mary Brown. Mary taught coiled baskets on day one and twined reed baskets with a gourd base on day two. We all agreed that Jeniffer’s gourd basket should be a light fixture of some kind.
From L to R: Jeniffer and Diane twining away.
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Passementerie
Abby Sherriff learned Passementerie with Cate Buchanan (Dallas). When I went to visit their class, Cate had broken out the power tools! Fringes, trims, tassels – the room was fully decorated and awesome.
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OOO – Shiny!
Diane taught a mini-class Sunday evening titled OOO – Shiny!, which every CHH member at Art Camp took. Way to show up, CHH! Now we all have shiny balls, just like Diane.
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Mark your calendars for CHT’s conference, Weave Texas, May 19-23, 2027, in College Station, and Art Camp again in two years!
For more info about CHT, visit weavetexas.org.