Yarn/Rope/String Catalogue
Tommye Scanlin
A Year of My Life: 2018
2018
wool, natural dye, linen; hand woven tapestry; 52 x 11 x 1 in.
These works are from my ongoing series I call my Tapestry Diaries. Since 2009, I have woven tapestries in which a small section is done each day without a predetermined size or color, with those decisions made as I sit down to weave. By the end of the year, 365 little woven areas have become part of the whole tapestry. During each succeeding month, I also incorporate an image of something from my environment that I first photograph or paint, and then render within the small daily bits of weaving.
scanlintapestry.com ׀ @bittersweettapestrystudio
Jessie Bloom
Beacon
2021
linen, tencel, hand dyed nylon; 60 x 36 in. with bar
My current work explores the connections among atmosphere, landscape, light, and color. I focus on how these elements relate back to the viewer and their changing experience of a space. Seasonal and daily cycles shift the air and light of our natural surroundings, creating new environments. They soften the light and alter how we perceive color and space.
Jessiebloomstudio.com | @jessiebloomstudio
Virginia Mahoney
Blinders
2021
copper, reclaimed fabric, food net, thread, string; soldered copper frame, wound and stretched fabric, hand stitching, embroidery; 36 x 24 x 15 in.
My sculptural relief forms reference the body, reflecting upon sensation, reaction, and thought with intricately rendered fabrications. The objects play with language ambiguity, using text as a device to clarify or confound, to captivate with stories that are personal yet communal. I use complex assembly of commonplace processes to invoke both familiarity and wonder. This unorthodox approach toward physical material qualities bypasses convention and embraces possibility.
Blinders is inspired by images of protective gear worn by medical personnel, law enforcement, protesters, and others since the 2020 pandemic. Focusing on current and past societal practices of exclusion and division, the forms emphasize the shield-like nature of the barriers we invent and allude to the multiplicity of ways we create or experience separation from one another literally and/or symbolically.
virginiamahoneyart.com ׀ @artisteach
Meredith Strauss
Blockchain
2021
nylon rope, grip mat; ikat dyeing and stitching; 34 x 40 x .5 in.
Combining my knowledge of ikat dyeing and weaving techniques with my love of ethnic textiles, I have developed a hand-stitching style to create bold graphic images that is simultaneously complex in structure yet simple in execution. While my pieces may appear woven, they are actually stitched, therefore deceiving most weavers.
meredithstrauss.com ׀ @meredithstrauss
Kimberly English
Blood, Breath, Gradient
2021
secondhand t-shirts, reclaimed yarn; hand weaving; 72 x 108 x 2 in.
Deconstructing textiles began as a way to familiarize myself with their construction. By investigating making through unmaking, the labor of a fabric’s creation is revisited. By recontextualizing everyday cloth, I explore themes central to the history of “women’s work,” its labor force, and the local impact of a global economy, primarily through found textiles and reclaimed yarn. While I use this material familiarity to highlight universal themes prevalent in the garment’s connotation, I beckon the viewer to see the object and its life anew, subverting the hegemony and history stitched into the seams of the fabric.
kimberly-english.com ׀ @kimberly__english
Kandy Lopez
Br00klyn Betty
2021
yarn, spray paint, plastic canvas; hand weaving, painting; 90 x 60 in.
As an Afro-Caribbean visual artist, I am eager to be challenged materialistically and metaphorically when representing marginalized individuals that inspire and move me. My works are created out of the necessity to learn something new about my people and culture. I am interested in developing a nostalgic dialogue between the artwork and the viewer. If I’m not learning from my materials and how it affects the message, it's not worth creating.
kandyglopez.com ׀ @kandyglopez
Betty Vera
Breathing
2020
cotton; jacquard tapestry, hand embroidery; 46 x 59 in.
The ’accidental’ often catches my eye and I photograph it quickly with my cell phone to work with it further and develop a woven image. My digitally manipulated photographs eventually translate into digitally controlled interlacements of threads to create the image.
Heather Larsen
Caprice
2019
wool, cotton, silk, tender weft/cotton warp; 24 x 18 x 1 in.
Using a tapestry technique, I have combined my love of textiles with my fascination for the human face. Seeking always to make my tapestries more expressive, I employ techniques that subvert the tapestry grid, adding life and movement to these portraits in cloth. Through my larger-than-life portraits, I hope to call attention to the female experience from a female perspective, conferring elite status to everyday women.
Mary Zicafoose
Crane Count Week No.7, Platte River
2022
2-ply Crown Colony wool on 8/3 linen warp, indigo vat dye, PRO WashFast Acid Dye; created completely using weft-faced ikat, resist- wrapped yarns dyed in indigo; 38 x 132 x 1 in.
Crane Count Week No. 7, Platte River, is my acknowledgment of an ancient ritual of nature, the annual spring migration of Sandhill Cranes winging across America. The inspiration to capture this fleeting Great Plains landscape into a large-scale ikat tapestry came at the onset of Covid. As humanity locked down, the natural world continued on, seamlessly. The pandemic provided a space in time for my studio to take note, make comment, and embark on a very complicated and graphically complex tapestry. Suddenly, we had all the time in the world to wrap miles of yarn with thousands of tiny pieces of ikat tape that created a resist to not only the indigo dye, but also to the events of the world.
maryzicafoose.com ׀ @maryzicafoose
Ingrid Restemayer
Dangerous Cargo
2020
mixed media, paper; etching and hand embroidery; 20 x 20 in.
Minnesota is an inner-continent state profuse with waterways, which prompts me to look at land and water culture simultaneously. I’ve begun using my signature techniques and blending in the language of nautical flags. The pandemic lockdown had the whole world thinking of ways to communicate from a distance. I began looking back at how nautical flags were an effective, analog, international mode of distance communication.
ingridartworks.com | @ingridartworks
Dale Roberts
Distorts – Installation View
2007-2019
found objects; crochet; 108 x 216 x 72 in.
We artists often set before ourselves challenges that will allow for new direction and growth. With that in mind, I started on a new series of small works titled Distorts. Initially the pieces were to be part of a series of 100 small, wall-mounted sculptures, each unit having somewhere in its construction the use of the crochet needle. The works, no larger than a shoebox dimension (4.5 x 7 x 12 in.), are created with the intent that they be mounted as part of an overall installation. The series has now reached 333 sculptures. A blogsite shows each piece as it is added to the series with the various ways they have been installed.
Kristen Kaas
Emanate 3
2021
linen, silk, acrylic; hand woven triple cloth; 20.75 x 15.5 x 2 in.
My weaving explores the layers of protection and padding we create to protect ourselves. With a sense of play and touch, my work often combines contradictory elements, such as whisps of delicate threads next to clumps of textured tangled yarns. Delicately woven layers of pleats and ruffles have been entwined together to create a sculptural and textured surface that undulates in and out of view. The waves of fabric emphasize a continuous flowing movement, exploring what it is that we are sheltering from. Layers such as these are often perceived to be fanciful, frilly, decorative, or traditionally feminine. Instead, these layers explore the idea of creating safety, security, and refuge. Woven layers, fringed edges, and hidden elements seek to push the boundaries of hand weaving.
kristenkaas.com ׀ @kristenkaas
Meredith Strauss
Embrace
2021
nylon cord, polyester matt; 45 x 19 in.
Integrating my knowledge of dyeing and weaving, I developed a hand-stitching style using nylon cord. The cord is simultaneously complex in structure yet simple in execution to create bold graphic images.
Christine Miller
Encoded
2020
8-gauge wire warp, 28-gauge wire weft, fiber wefts, beads, 28-gauge wire embellishments; handwoven on an 8-shaft floor loom, all elements shaped by hand and stitched together with wire; 9 x 6 x 6 in.
I have been weaving with wire to create sculptural expressions for the last 30 years. The sculptures are born from an art material that I create—a metal fabric, handwoven on a floor loom using wire and fiber. Encoded presents mysterious information that is indecipherable. We recognize patterns in order to unlock meaning, but sometimes the truth eludes us. As our technological capabilities continue to advance, the power to manipulate and skew meaning, and truth infiltrates our reality. We are drawn to ancient artifacts that feel solid with unmoving truth, even when there is still a barrier for complete understanding. Will our advancements ultimately lead us to our downfall?
christinekmiller.com ׀ @christinekmillerfiberartist
Saaraliisa Ylitalo
Evanescence
2021
pine paper, mulberry paper; 48 x 36 in.
My husband died suddenly in 2015. This piece is part of a series that explores memory and how, no matter what we do, it fades. We cannot hold on to memories. The netting is hand knotted from pine paper or spun with mulberry paper and dyed in indigo.
saaraliisa.com | @saaraliisaylitalo
Alex Friedman
Flow 10: Twisted
2019
wool weft, cotton warp; hand woven tapestry; 38 x 38 x 1 in.
Making a tapestry is my passion. Working only two elements, the warp and the weft, I am fascinated by all the design possibilities. Within this simple grid format, color, shape, line, and texture come together to complete my artistic expression. My materials are all organic and I like to permit my tapestries to move into the third dimension and abandon the traditional rectangular format. I use a variety of weaving techniques to foster the “organic- ness” of the materials. The possibilities seem infinite. I continue to explore and to be mesmerized.
alexfriedmantapestry.com ׀ @aqsfriedman
Deborah Corsini
Golden Boy/Black Widow
2021
wool, natural dyes, cotton bandana, Lurex, rayon on cotton warp; hand woven wedge weave, eccentric weave tapestry; 54 x 33 x .5 in.
This tapestry is an abstracted expression of my unease as witness to all the political, environmental, and social changes going on around the world. It is a metaphor of the duality of good and evil. The “Golden Boy” is our beautiful planet, its sustaining life force, and natural symbioses. The “Black Widow” is all that is wrong in the world—the pandemic, war, pestilence, climate change, famine, atrocity, inequality, loss of democracy—that is eating away at the stability and security of all life inhabitants of this planet. A delicate veil of thin spider-like threads laces through and over the central spine of glowing color. From both sides, red talons (like fingernails) squeeze this golden force.
Sarah Haskell
Hold Me Like A Mother: Red
2022
Maine beach stones, naturally dyed linen thread; hand crocheted; 20 x 18 x 2 in.
As weeks of uncertainty rolled into months living with political unrest, Covid, and climate insecurity, I found myself in need of an anchor to ground my unsteady nerves. At first, I took small natural objects such as a mushroom, a pinecone, or a shell and crocheted a little nest or cozy to hold it safe. I began to do the same for stones I gathered from Maine’s shoreline.
I bound these stones in soft coverings, held securely as a mother might swaddle her baby. I photographed them in different groupings, suggestive of partners, families, tribes, or collectives. I have also arranged them in random piles, spirals, and straight lines. Whether solo or in clusters, these stone cozies have the gravitas I need to settle my unease.
sarahhaskell.com ׀ @sdhaskell
Sinéad Hornak
I Wish I Said I Loved You
2021
cotton yarn and thread; jacquard weaving, freehand embroidery; 22 x 17.5 x 1 in.
My work is rooted in the abstracted body, through poetry, embroidery, distorted imagery, and mixed media. I explore the idea of the body as a vessel, being the container of the soul. In my jacquard series, I am using a personal narrative to document the body in moments of intimacy, expressing the gradual decay of the form and the battle between the soul inside and the exterior presence of the body. This work is a testament to the ambiguity around the human experience especially in moments of vulnerability and sex. I am coming to terms with a dying relationship, signifying the conflict between my emotions, internally and externally, and allowing space for the internal being, our rawest self, to come to fruition.
sineadhornak.com ׀ @sinead_hornak
Jill Green
Knots and Bristles
2021
wood handle brush, natural bristles, waxed linen; 3 x 4 in.
Vegetable scrubbing brushes. Not intended for use.
Jerold Ehrlich
Left Hanging
2012
rebar; foraging, welding, grinding; 6 x 12 x 12 in.
Rebar is used as the skeletal armature for poured concrete with which the structure to be built is formed and framed. Surrounded by concrete, the tension inherent in the steel holds the concrete in compression, adding strength to the static load. The tension is directional. Add energy, either through gravity or heat, and the rebar expresses itself in ways that are characteristic of the material but not reflective of its intended use. I use rebar and other construction detritus to explore the nature and discuss the relationship between use and reuse, between energy and tension, between static and active, between inside and out, between container and contained, between moment and time.
jerryehrlich.com ׀ @jerryehrlich.sculpture
Laura Strand
Light of Dawn
2018
cotton yarn, fiber-reactive dye, silver leaf, silver leaf image of Eve; hand woven, hand painted; 35 x 54 x .5 in.
The transitional world reflected on the surface of water provokes introspection when I walk at the edge of a pond. Recreating the power and presence of those moments through weaving, dyeing, and screen printing focuses those experiences. One of the outcomes of those reflections has been a pairing of a bas-relief sculpture of Eve (San Petronio Cathedral, Bologna, Italy, by Jacopo della Quercia, 1485) with the solace of water. There is an intensity between the sacred nature of water and the profane understanding of Eve as the original sinner.
The suppleness of the weaving, the intensity of color relationships, the slow repetitive physicality of weaving is a beautiful language to use when thinking about the ineffable nature of water and its ability to provide solace.
Robin Bernstein
Lorenzo’s Primo
2018
string (some vintage), wax, wood; jigsaw cut plywood, surface of melted beeswax and other materials smoothed as it cools, string pressed into the wax; 37 x 44 x 1 in.
This is part of an 18-piece series about the Holocaust. It is made by pressing thousands of tiny cut pieces of string into wax. The intensely repetitive nature of cutting and pressing honors the victims of the Holocaust, a crime of immense and utter brutality. It also memorializes aspects of human nature by holding up stories to the light. Lorenzo’s Primo highlights how courage and humanity are possible even under horrific circumstances.
At Auschwitz, Lorenzo Perrone, (a modest Italian forced laborer) saved Primo Levi’s life by bringing him a piece of bread and soup every day for five months, secretly and at great risk. After the war, Primo Levi found Lorenzo and tried to return his gift by saving him from tuberculosis and alcoholism.
robinlbernstein.com ׀ @robinlbernstein
Anita Bracalente
Midwest Landscape III Rural Crafts: Breadbasket Doily
2015
perle cotton, Czech seed beads, cotton thread; knitting, stitching; 8.5 x 16.5 in.
My textiles are constructed of knitted beads comprising interlocking ordered patterns, which frequently dissolve into nonlinear disorder, randomness, and reinvention. The knitted beads are strung (backwards) onto the working thread and then knitted off.
We are habitual creatures. Our lives are structured by behavioral patterns—beneficial, destructive, personal, and communal. Pattern recognition is the prerequisite guide of all sentient beings. In material culture, patterns are universally recognizable and accessible, transcending language barriers, and historical epochs. They are recognized cross culturally, admired, shared, and reinterpreted. My ideas derive from an intimate encounter with patterns found in nature and in the material culture of textiles found worldwide, but especially those of the rural Midwest.
@anitabracalente
Melissa Lusk and McCrystle Wood
Meander 09
2020
linen warp, wool weft; hand woven, shaft switch technique on a four-shaft loom; 61 x 25 x 1 in.
It is amazing what you can do with dots and dashes! The single stitch or float is the smallest mark that can be presented in woven cloth. We design with this smallest unit as our fundamental drawing tool. The placement of each white mark on the black background is planned before the weaving begins.
We use the shaft switch technique developed by the British weaver Peter Collingwood. This approach allows the four-shaft weaver to exchange two layers of cloth with stitch- by-stitch precision across the width of the cloth. Meander 09 uses distinct individual marks, dots, single stitches, which draws the viewer into a topography new to woven cloth.
Saaraliisa Ylitalo
Memory Catcher
2020
mulberry paper, pine paper, indigo, gold leaf; hand spinning, hand netting, indigo dyeing; 48 x 48 in.
I have been working in the textile arts for more than 45 years. My work has always been a reflection of events, real and psychological in my life or in the lives of those around me. Most recently I lost my mother and my husband. In the time after their deaths, sorting through their possessions, I have thought a lot about our memories and how we hold them. They are precious but so ephemeral. Will I remember the occasion if I throw away an object? These works try to catch and hold the memories in a net, but ultimately nets like our minds cannot hold all the remembrances. They will be sifted by time and become more tenuous and evanescent.
saaraliisa.com ׀ @saaraliisaylitalo
Rebecca Smith
Night Fire
2016
yarn, beads, wire; tapestry weaving; 16 x 27 x 2 in.
My defining paradigm is the use of light as an element of design. Light filters through and emanates out of my weaving through the manipulation of yarn, beads, and wire into free-flowing shapes. My works are small, intimate musings on color, texture, and their interactions with light.
rebeccasmithtapestry.com | @rebeccasmithtapestry
Denise Kovnat
Pagoda
2019
hand-dyed reeled silk, three painted warps combined; echo threading, 12 shafts; shawl
I call this shawl Pagoda to honor the Chinese origins of sericulture. The motifs remind me of the roof of a pagoda. Reeled silk is one of the strongest fibers known to humankind. It is reeled directly from the cocoon in a painstaking process.
Katherine Hunt
Permutation 4
2020
cotton fiber, graphite, glue, latex, acrylic, cotton canvas; glued, painted; 36 x 36 x 1.5 in.
Drawing with fiber and existing in both two- and three-dimensional space, I animate the expressive and conceptual potential of line, adding a different tactile material to the language of drawing while lifting line from its conventional two-dimensional support, to create process-oriented, mixed-media works that reside in-between painting and sculpture. By disciplining myself to use one continuous thread line, I’m required to listen to the nature of the material and welcome unexpected potential for error. By preserving the line’s course, I create visual recordkeeping of such thought processes and decisions within the abstract monochromatic pieces, inviting viewers to engage with their own subjectivity, sit with imperfection, and make their own personal associations.
katherinehunt.xyz/home.html ׀ @katherineahunt
Ruth Manning
Prism Sticker
2020
cotton, wool, silk, linen, rayon, spun paper, metallics, ribbon, Mylar, plastic netting, fabric, acrylic painted mounting; traditional handwoven tapestry, wedge weave tapestry, slit tapestry, sewing, half hitch knotting; 12 x 9 x 1 in.
Recent changes in my vision have led to a very real alteration in the way I see the world, and it’s reflected in a series of pieces I call Adaptations. Each work shows the progression I followed as I adapted to my new reality. As I moved through this process, I was left with both internal and external changes to myself and continue to experience that adapted outlook.
ruthmanningtapestry.com ׀ @ruth.c.manning
Debra Disman
Profusion
2018
bookboard, mulberry paper, watercolor paper, hemp cord, raw canvas, awl; sewing, stitching, threading, knotting, tying, folding, gluing, hole-punching; 8.75 x 24.5 x 7.75 in.
I work in forms inspired by the book and in multidimensional media of my own devising. Although loosely tethered to the book as structure, the work is moving progressively into other conceptual realms where devotion to material labor and a passion for the haptic qualities of fiber, thread, cord, and cloth become powerful motivators and themes. Fascinated by the parallels between books and buildings, I see each constructing public and private spaces where stories are “read” on many levels, often revealing more than their creators ever intended. Related to the body and the corporality it creates and inhabits, I seek through my work to offer places of contemplation, solace, and bafflement, while instigating exploration, investigation, and examination of what we think we know, and are.
debradisman.com ׀ @artifactorystudio
Yulie Urano
Red Home
2019
handmade paper, hair, ink, sashiko thread; paper making, letterpress, sashiko embroidery; 9 x 10.5 in.
As a female, first-generation Japanese American, I am attempting to realize and balance how these different qualities affect my art and my identity. I have started to use my own hair in conjunction with the paper structure to tell my story about where, what, and who is home to me. The graphic nature of the hair and thread help create a visual tie between the personal and abstract qualities of the bloodlines and storylines of my family through a byproduct of our bodies, long black hair. By intertwining this very intimate material with these visceral and ritualistic processes, I am working to reflect and enhance my concepts related to lineage, heritage, and familial affection.
yulieurano.com ׀ @yulieu
Suzannne Paquette
Retour
2020
cotton warp, wool weft with some synthetic fibers; tapestry on vertical Gobelin loom; 70 x 35 x .5 in.
Retour was influenced by my daily encounters with the inhabitants of Morocco where I often stayed over twelve years. My creations were nourished by my reflections on our respective cultures and our way of life. The door or the arch symbolizes the passage between the private and public, and between two cultures.
The format is similar to that of a door. Thus, from afar, the viewer perceives the work as an open door on my universe, where figuration meet abstraction. At the threshold, in a relationship of proximity to the work, he sees what escapes the eye that does not linger. That is the beauty of the fiber, the texture of the weaving, the amalgams of colors as well as the touching imperfection of the figures.
Caroline Bagenal
Shift
2022
paper, embroidery threads, yarn; embroidery; 14 x 8 in.
In this work, I explore the underside of embroidered texts. Each stitch on the surface of the paper is connected to the stitches on the underside by a network of connecting threads, like roots. The underside interests me as a manifestation of the creative process, unconstrained, unknowable, whimsical, playful, and mysterious. As opposed to the legibility of the topside, the underside questions how an unknown language or illegible writing can communicate with a viewer.
carolinebagenal.com ׀ @carolinebagenal
Nolan Wright
Skirting the Issue
2020
pine needles, waxed linen thread, poly and c-lon cord, anodized wire, dyes, acrylic paint; 8 x 12 x 12 in.
This is a playful exploration of color, texture, technique, and form using coiled, artist- dyed and paint-dipped, southern long-leaf pine needles, coated copper wire, waxed linen and other threads for the stitching. The same materials were used for the knotted skirt except for the wire. A light coat of baked bees wax was used for the finish.
Erika Diamond
Spider Vest
2018
Kevlar thread, donated fabrics, pearl cotton, gold gimp; bobbin lace, hand weaving on floor loom; 50 x 16 x 3 in.
My work questions the fragility and resilience of both the human body and our connections to each other. It proposes that we have the power to keep each other alive. Spider Vest is part of an ongoing series of fashionable safety vests created with bullet-proof Kevlar material in response to the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting. Each one is designed to fit and protect a different person from within my own queer community, reflecting their individual ideas around personal safety and style. These textile objects question who is valued, seen, and protected in our contemporary American society, while adding to an ongoing catalog of the people in my life and my persistent efforts to hold on to those vital connections.
erikadiamond.com ׀ @diamond_erika
Minna Rothman
Svalbard: Arctic Glacier Melting
2021
wool, linen, silk, silk boucle, cotton lining; linen warp and weft (The use of linen weft enabled use of various weaving)
A melting glacier forms a creek, flooding an area that has been under ice for centuries. The newly exposed surface reveals the silent work of meltwater. Lower elevations of a rugged terrain are smoothed with the valleys filled with rocks creating a lichen-covered plateau.
mzrstudio.com | @minnarothman
Susan Iverson
Two Paths/Same Path
2020
wool, silk, linen; 63 x 38.5 x 8 in.
The recent political, environmental and medical events in the US and around the world have made me reevaluate my understanding of history and the education I received and accepted. My recent series All Things Equal has allowed me to investigate these thoughts and try to put them into a personal perspective. The tapestries speak to the long history of humans and their relationships to each other and the environment through thousands of years of development. While the tapestries grew out of my frustrations, they do express hope.
susaniversonart.com | @susaniversontapestry