Friday Fibers Roundup

October 6, 2016

From the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture to a gendered look at what pockets represent, this week’s Friday Fibers Roundup looks at fashion, past lectures, upcoming calls, and an exciting research trip by SDA’s Editor and Assistant Editor!

1) President Obama helped inaugurate the National Museum of African American History and Culture recently in Washington D.C. The museum exists to both memorialize and educate, takes visitors down the path from slavery to civil rights to the Black Lives Matter movement, and everything in between.

2) In “6 Math concepts Explained by Knitting and Crochet”, Lela Nargi explores the connections between basic mathematic principles and how they are visually represented through needlecraft (via Mental Floss).

3) Jessica Tang’s embroidered work illustrates the struggle to define the multifaceted cultural identity of being a Chinese-American born female (via The Creators Project).

4) This year’s Textile Society of America (TSA) conference is fast approaching (October 19th through 23rd in Savannah, GA). Get caught up from the previous symposium with lectures from Xia Gao, Ruth Barnes, Ann Hamilton, Rowland Ricketts, and many more.

5) Delhi Style Blog recently featured Kasha, Karishma Shahani Khan’s newest collection, focusing on design as a form of storytelling and the multi layered sensibility of Indian fashion.

6) “The Politics of Pockets” looks at sexist and political history about how gender and class dictates whether or not a garment gets usable pockets (via Racked).

7) Deadlines are fast approaching for The Center for Craft, Creativity, and Design’s Craft Research Fund grants. The Project and Exhibition Research Grant application is due October 21st, and the Travel Grant application is due October 31st.

8) Adidas has started designing athletic shoes that are made from recycled sea plastic. Check out this video to see how!

9) South African artist Barbara Wildenboer creates sculptures from book, maps, and atlases in her ongoing project Library of the Infinitesimally Small and Unimaginably Large (via Juxtapoz).

10) Hiroko Kubota began this project in order to immortalize internet cats on clothing back in 2013, but it has now shifted into customized embroideries of people’s pets in pockets (via Colossal).

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BONUS!

As of next week, Marci Rae McDade and Lauren Sinner will embark on a 3 week research trip for Surface Design Association! We’ll be traveling to American Craft Council’s Present Tense Conference, Visions Art Museum: Contemporary Quilts & Textiles’ Breakout Quilt Visions 2016 juried show, Textile Society of America’s Cross Currents Symposium, the World of Threads Festival in Oakville, and to Cranbrook Academy of Art to visit Mark Newport’s MFA class and to jury SDA’s Exhibition in Print! We are so very excited to go on this trip and to share all of our experiences with you.

Trust us, we’ll have plenty to share once we get back- both in the Journal as well as the Blog. If you’re interested in keeping up with our travels as they happen, you can follow SDA, Marci, and Lauren on Instagram throughout all three weeks!

• Surface Design Association’s Instagram: @surface_design
• Marci’s Instagram: @marciraetoday 
• Lauren’s Instagram: @kritzrackerz