Sheila Hicks at Joslyn

I've been trying to get to this show for a while now, and I actually paid and made it to the gallery at Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha about a month ago, but they were having trouble with their alarm system, and there were strobe lights all over the museum flashing rapidly.  It was instant headache time, so we left, and I made it back today alone.  I'm so glad I didn't miss this.  What a wonderful exhibit!

Sheila Hicks is a native of Hastings, Nebraska.  Here's what Joslyn has as her bio:

Hicks was born in Hastings, Nebraska, in 1934 and trained as a painter at the Yale University School of Art, taking courses with famed color theorist Josef Albers, pre-Columbian art scholar George Kubler, and the architect Louis Kahn. Although she had learned to embroider and knit early in life, Hicks became interested in textiles in 1956 while studying Latin American art. The following year, she traveled to South America, a formative experience for the young artist. With Santiago, Chile, as her home base, Hicks toured the continent to photograph the landscape and historical sites and learn indigenous weaving techniques. These textile practices, along with other skills the artist discovered during her extensive travels — such as back-strap weaving and Moroccan and Guatemalan rug-making — continue to inform Hicks’s approach, even as she has developed new ways to use thread. 

I really  love almost all of what they showed, although I found it interesting that the first smaller room of the exhibition gallery, that you could see some of without a ticket, was the least interesting, at least to me.  Her colors and use of varied textiles and threads is really inspiring.  

I find myself eager to try to make art rather than just garments.  We shall see how that goes.  I purchased the exhibition catalog, Sheila Hicks: Material Voices to inspire me as time goes on.

Birthday Knitting

I have to tell about my birthday party. I wasn't going to mention my birthday, but I haven't had a 'girls' birthday party for years and years. I decided that since my church knitting group meets on the 2nd and 4th Mondays, and my birthday was on the 5th Monday, I would just invite them over for Birthday Knitting.

We are a small group, and there were only 4 of us last night, and it was all pretty low key, but we had a really good time. The highlights were Pretzel M&Ms and Ghirardelli Brownies. There was also a tour of my home. I don't know about you, but I love seeing other people's homes, and the best way to get to see theirs is to show them yours. It's also a good way to make oneself do the housework.

So I would suggest that you all have a Textile Party, whether it's a birthday or not. It's just fun to get together and talk while you work on your project.

Green Lace - Dyeing is Done

Here you can see the Before and After pictures of the lace I dyed.


Photo Link

Photo Link

I am very pleased with the results. I used Procion dye from Dharma Trading, and did it in the washing machine. It took me several hours last night, and I ended up washing it numerous times after it was dyed, to remove all the excess dye. I think I'm finally done with that, and I love the color. The color I used was Sage Green.

I'm ready to begin 'auditioning' things to use as an underlayer, and as Els suggested, silk organza is first on my list of possibles, and I have some loden organza that may be the perfect color.

I have a lot of colored organza, as at one time I was sort of planning to try to copy a technique I'd seen that had a dress with a doubled organza skirt (fold at the bottom.) It had organza shapes within the skirt in various colors. It was very pretty, and looked a little like an underwater scene. I collected colored organza in a desultory fashion for a while, and the mood seemed to pass before I tried it. I still think it would be fun to use it for something, probably something much smaller in scale.

Even though I love the results of the dyeing process, I am not eager to do it again. It was a lot of anxiety about the result, along with worry about using somewhat toxic stuff in my home. If I'd been able to do it in a bucket, it might have been less worrisome, but I knew the lace wouldn't have room enough to move freely, and the washer was my only choice, and actually was probably a lot less mess than anything else would have been. I have to say if I have to dye something again, I will probably chicken out and use Rit. Before this, the only thing I'd dyed for quite a while were lingerie findings, and I saved my old crock-pot to use for this in future. It has a Teflon interior that was beginning to flake off, but I don't think that would matter with dye, since Teflon is non-reactive.

I did have a birthday recently, and I wouldn't normally say anything about it, but I got the most darling little Birthday Sewing Bird from my mother, and I had to share him with you. He stands by my computer and I smile whenever I see him, he's just so cute and silly.

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