Convergence, 2008

Hi everyone. I'm back from the Handweaver's Guild of America's conference called Convergence. It was held at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, Florida. It truly is a convergence of weavers, spinners, dyers, and fiber art people from all over the world. I had a great time visiting with friends I've known from other guilds and haven't seen for a long time. I also enjoyed making new friends as we chatted over breakfast or dinner.

It was a whirlwind of activity running from class to exhibits to speakers to vendor hall! Oh yes, Vendor Hall! Always a disastrous place to be if one is watching their dollars! I purchased some beautiful yarns from HABU Yarns and some exotic beads from Hand of the Hills. I visited with my good friend John Marshall who designs and sells gorgeous Katasome hand dyed garments. I once took a class with John and am still trying to find the space and time to do some Katasome. It is a Japanese paste resist method of dyeing using soy milk as a binder for the natural dyes. Making the stencils is a real challenge for me. Check out John's website at http://www.johnmarshall.to/ . He has a fabulous site. If you want to get a flavor of his humor click on the tab for The Divinely Amused!


I'll share some more info about Convergence in the next few days. I had great teachers and came away with a lot of wonderful information.


Here are a few pictures from the conference.




My partners in crime on the Gallery Crawl, Georgeann, me, and Martha! Both are friends from my past! We enjoyed being together again.

My friend, Mary Zicafoose in front of her Tapestry piece at the Art Alliance Exhibit. Mary is doing a series of tapestries which are exploring identities. This piece exemplifies the fact that chromosomes are a part of our identity. Mary also had several pieces on display in the main terminal of the Tampa Airport. After being phone challenged (as Mary put it , "Neither one of us should have a cell phone!") we were finally able to connect and spend some time together chatting and reconnecting. Check out Mary's website at http://www.maryzicafoose.com/.


This is a picture of some of the Yardage Exhibit at the Convention Center. The fabrics were hung beautifully from the second floor railing in this circular rotunda. My favorite was Jane Dunnewold's piece. It's the third from the right with the gold suns on it. The technique is layered surface design. Way to go Jane! The piece just shone when the daylight streamed in.