Friday Fibers Roundup

December 23, 2016

This week’s Friday Fibers Roundup features articles about three different exhibitions, soft sculptures, and an adorable mini loom.

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1) This video from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, shows firsthand how embroiderer Rosie Taylor-Davies recreates the amazing Middle Ages craft of Medieval embroidery (via Slate).

2) Natalie Baxter’s Warm Gun series addresses the increase of gun-related violence plaguing the nation with her adorably lopsided fabric sculptures (via Huffington Post).

3) California Art Quilt Revolution: From the Summer of Love to the New Millennium exhibition includes works by pioneers of the art quilt movement embracing the quilt medium as their primary means of expression. The show is on display at the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles until Jan 15th, 2017.

4) In 1500, there were over 6,000 looms to weave velvet from silk threads in Venice, Italy. As of right now, there is one last company left weaving the traditional way: Tessiture Bevilacqua Venezia.

5) These mesmerizing zoetrope gifs (white and pink) are hard to stop watching.

6) In “Sustainable Solutions to the Clothing Industry’s Staggering Waste Problem” Leeron Hoory review’s Cooper Hewitt’s exhibition Scraps: Fashion, Textiles and Creative Reuse, and looks at the toxicity of the contemporary clothing industry (via Hyperallergic).

7) Artist Mariko Kusumoto turns textiles into delicate orbs to be worn as necklaces, brooches, and rings. Left intentionally ambiguous, these pieces act as a way to engage the imagination (via Colossal).

8) Our Spring 2016 “Transgressing Traditions” cover artist, Ben Venom, was recently interviewed by CBS News on his rock and roll contemporary quilts.

9) We all knew it, but a recent study found that people who participate in arts and crafts feel happier, calmer and more energetic the next day. Also not surprising is that knitting and crochet are two of the best crafts to improve mental health (vis The Telegraph).

10) How adorable is this working mini loom?