This week’s Friday Fibers Roundup features a mix of soon to be open exhibitions as well as articles focusing on the inclusion of humor and the abject into art. 1) Symmetry Breaking presents eight artists from the Pacific Northwest: Emily Counts, Jovencio de la Paz, Jo Hamilton, Anya Kivarkis, Brenda Mallory, Kristen Miller, Emily Nachison …

Pleating: Fundamentals for Fashion Design by Leon Kalajian & George Kalajian (with Foreword by Jack Sauma) is a beautiful book that eloquently explains the an array of pleating techniques in an accessible manner. With over 300 images and illustrations, Pleating is an essential reference for any artist, fashion designer, craftsperson, or pattern maker looking to …

This week’s Forty Year Flashback comes to us from the Winter 1999 Surface Design Journal “NEW New Tools” with the article “Illuminating Vision: Materials and Meaning in the Work of Olga de Amaral” by Twylene Moyer….

This week’s Friday Fibers Roundup is a collection of articles and exhibitions that critique our current culture (both local and internationally) and offer insightful ways to rethink how things are traditionally done. 1) “A Legacy: Hair, Language, and Textiles” by Sonya Clark reflects on the use of familiar materials as language used by craftspeople, and …

This week’s Friday Fibers Roundup explores projects, artists, and exhibitions that attempt to pick apart the categories of art, craft, and design that we so often put people’s work into. 1) Have you ever wondered what happens to those massive painted theater backdrops when a show ends? Well, Jen Kahn (who has been a stage …

This week’s Friday Fibers Roundup features a variety of exhibitions, artwork, products, and interviews all dealing with issues surrounding how we treat and see our bodies. 1) The exhibition Intimate Lines: Drawing with Thread, curated by Carol Eckert, features 16 artists using a needle and thread like a pen to compose intensely personal stories and …

A crowd favorite from Making our Mark: SDA at 40 conference in Portland, OR was the Small Works exhibition. The show featured 122 pieces in any fiber-related material, from SDA members both local and international. To celebrate and be inclusive to all members–not solely the ones who could attend the conference–Small Works was open to …

This week’s Friday Fibers Roundup features a variety of makers addressing the conceptual feast that blankets have to offer. From political to personal, comfortable to subversive, blankets have been a tool that artists have been using for ages. 1) “The Colorful Quilt Squares Chilean Women Used to Tell the Story of Life Under Pinochet” by …

Surface Design Association functions primarily on the energy provided by a vast network of dedicated volunteers. While there is no doubt SDA appreciates this service, sometimes a thank you doesn’t go far enough. So I suggested to Managing Editor Lauren Sinner that a recurring artist conversation with a volunteer would go a long way to …

This week’s Friday Fibers Roundup spotlights a variety of exhibition reviews and previews spanning from local (LA, NY, and Chicago), to international (Japan, Peru, and Germany). 1) “What Does It Mean to Make Art in the South Asian Diaspora?” by Hrag Vartanian reviews the exhibition, concepts, and issues within the work at Lucid Dreams and …