WGRI Meeting and Program Calendar 2010-2011


9/10/11 (Saturday) - Natural Dyeing with Plants (hands-on, fee $5) at David Wescott's home
We will have a chance to walk in the woods to collect natural materials, prepare the dye pots and dye yarns or fabric swatches in the outdoor setting. Workshop fee is $5.00

10/7/11 (Friday) - Equipment Modifications: Ideas and Possibilites
Suzi was the winner of the "Judges Choice" Awards at NEWS 2011, plus other awards for her innovative techniques that created the shawl entered in the gallery show. She will talk about her Open Reed and Supplemental Beating techniques that distinguish her work. In the afternoon the bath towels group will meet. Other study groups may form as well, so bring your ideas and wishlist!

11/5/11 (Saturday) - Weaving as a Practice (on the Spiritual in Weaving)
The heart has a yearning and I have narrated my response to a search for meaning in woven images. The weavings are primarily silk, with painted werps. My drawing tool is a pick-up stick, and I've used it in double weave pick-up and pick-up brocade. Along my search I have traveled to India, and was there during the 1994 tsunami. During the clean-up I worked with the ashram tailor shop, cleaning up sacred silks. This began a project called "Tsunami Silk", where students in the US helped to re-hab the silk. I will bring both silks to be looked at: some of my own weavings as well as some Tsunami "Silk",

1/6/12 (Friday) - Weaving Software
Pam Rathmell will present an overview of available weaving software for PC and Mac and will demo several programs. A more in-depth presentation of how to use particular programs and Q&A will follow. If you can, bring your laptop. For the most up-to-date information, please check the Weaving Software Forum, click "Notify" at the top left, then read the posts.

2/4/12 (Saturday) - morning visit to RISD museum and afternoon tour of a new exhibit

The morning presentation may include Powerpoint of student work, tour of equipment, industrial electronic jacquard loom, computer-interfaced dobby looms, industrial electronic knitting machine, Digital fabric printing equipment, as well as more traditional looms, dyelab, machine knitting and silkscreen printing facilities. We may also see a presentation by students who have received a WGRI Scholarship, or students who are planning to apply for the WGRI Scholarship.

Lunch approx 12:30 - 1:30 You may bring a brown bag lunch, or purchase food at the RISD Museum shop. There are some tables and chairs available for comfort.

In the afternoon we will have a tour of the new exhibit "Land of the Immortals: Taoist Robes and Textiles" with Kate Irvin, Curator of the Costume Department. CONTACT: lf anyone can't find the meeting place or is late, they can call Susan Sklarek's cell phone 40l-487-1459. Or Laurie Steger 508-272-9004

3/2/12 (Friday) - Shibori: Sculpted Fabrics & Afternoon mini-workshop ($8 fee)
Mo was recently featured in the Surface Design Association Magazine and shows in galleries around the region. In this workshop, Mo Kelman will introduce methods for using shibori to set three dimensional sculptural forms into silk fabric. Participants will produce a series of small samples using variations on traditional shibori techniques and a heat-setting process. Kelman will precede the workshop with a presentation on the evolution of her artwork over the years, which currently integrates "shibori skins" and skeletal structures.

Biography
A recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, sculptor Mo Kelman has taught at leading New England arts institutions and shown her work in more than 40 exhibitions across the United States and in Europe, Japan and Korea. Kelman recently received an Artist's Fellowship from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts. In her current work, Kelman dyes fabric "skins" using her own innovations on a Japanese shibori method, stretches them over bamboo or wire structures and tethers them to the wall. She has exhibited at the Federal Reserve Art Gallery in Boston; Providence College; the Wheeler School's Chazan Gallery; the Cleveland Museum of Art; the British Crafts Center in London; the International Shibori Symposium in Nagoya, Japan; the International Textile Symposium in Kyoto, Japan; and at the Cheongju International Craft Biennale and Heyri Art Factory in South Korea. Kelman, who lives in Providence, is a professor of art at the Community College of Rhode Island and has taught classes and workshops at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Massachusetts College of Art and RISD. Kelman received her MFA from the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth.

Workshop participants should bring the following items:

4/7/12 TBA

5/4/12 (Friday) - Visit to Rough Point, home of Doris Duke
Welcome to the Newport home of Doris Duke-heiress, philanthropist and art collector. Enjoy her magnificent oceanfront estate, still decorated as she left it, where you will see French furniture, European art, Chinese porcelains, and Turkish carpets collected from exotic locations around the world. Located on Newport's exclusive Bellevue Avenue, Rough Point provides a sweeping ocean view and expansive grounds designed by renowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.

6/2/12 (Saturday) - WGRI Resident Authorities, Members Show and Tell & Annual Potluck
We would like to have 3 members (to be determined) of our group speak about their work and then have an after lunch show and tell from the general assembly.

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