Red Thread Studio

Thoughts on a Year on the Midnight Clear

2009-12-24T19:46:57-07:00

Warning: Long and rambling post. I know I keep talking about more frequent short posts, and I'm trying to get there, really! Has this been a really strange month for everyone, or just me? Maybe I should say strange year, and I can't believe it's almost over. I have twelve days off for the holidays, and I really need it to regroup and reconsider all that's happened this year, and my intentions for next year. I'm at a stitching standstill. I can't seem to get moving on anything. It's partly that I'm so immersed at work with a particular side...

MoreCloth.com Site and Blog

2009-12-02T16:06:40-07:00

I've been meaning to post a link to this for some time -- MoreCloth.com is a very cool site with a color portal that allows you to find fabrics on Etsy or Glorious Fabrics. They also have an excellent blog on textile design and printing. The fabric selector works like this; you click somewhere on a color strip: And it takes you to a selection of available fabrics in that color range: Top: 100% Cotton Japanese Fabric Bottom: Joel Dewberry for Free Spirit And then you click on the swatch you like to go straight to the Etsy listing or...

Full Cold Moon

2009-12-01T19:24:20-07:00

Turn that TV off now baby I'm so low I don't even sing Tell me something about my country Tell me one good thing King and Malcolm, lamb and lion Setting Alabama free Thirty thousand angels flying From Montgomery Put that paper down now, baby I'm so low I don't even sing Tell me something about my country Tell me one good thing - one good thing, by anais mitchell The full moon is beautiful in the sky, bringing a bitter cold front with it. It seems like winter has already been too long, and I'm dreaming of beaches. It's...

A Gift in Your Honor

2009-11-28T09:43:48-07:00

December 1 is this blog's two-year anniversary. Despite all of my uncertainty about where to go with this blog, or how to find time to properly grow it, and my frustration with the way my life choices have turned out this year, this blog remains a source of great satisfaction and purpose for me, because of my wonderful readers. I am continually grateful that people from near and very far come by and visit and return. I haven't been very good about responding to comments, but I truly love to receive them. Thank you to everyone who has written and...

A Storyteller's Story Up at HandEye

2009-11-13T22:07:40-07:00

A Storyteller's Story, my profile of Jude Hill of Spirit Cloth, is up at HandEye Magazine online, complete with a slideshow of Jude's wonderful work. Keith Recker, who is publishing, editing, and doing much of the writing for HandEye, was terrific to work with, and I hope to do more for this exciting and ambitious new publication. And if you become a Facebook fan of HandEye, Keith posts fascinating and relevant links just about every day for people interested in art, craft, culture, and environmental issues. I called myself an "explorer" in my author bio, because I thought I was...

How We Talk About What We Do

2009-11-07T16:06:10-07:00

It seems that the conversation about how we talk about what we do is getting louder, and more insistent: We're just not happy with the available words as we identify ourselves as creators, and we want something that is neither limiting nor misleading. Joanne Mattera has written a provocative post about not using an adjective in front of artist; i.e., don't call yourself a fiber artist or an art quilter or a ceramicist, just call yourself an artist, and then live up to it. In Joanne's view, this helps artists to avoid getting trapped in the fiber/craft ghetto and opens...

Full Hunter's Moon

2009-11-02T21:08:41-07:00

The first night of driving home in the dark was made a little easier by the Full Hunter's Moon, exact earlier today but still shining. This is the only full moon in November, but we'll have two in December, closing out this extraordinary year with a blue moon on December 31, which should mean that anything is possible. I have a great blue moon soundtrack to post then. A year ago we were celebrating the triumph of hope over experience, corruption, and everything else, and though the year has been full of trouble, we still have that joyous victory (at...

Is 2010 the Year of the Maker?

2009-11-01T10:00:07-07:00

Many people who work with textiles (or ceramics, wood, glass, you name it), myself included, struggle with defining themselves. Are we artists, artisans, crafters? The answer often seems to rely on our own inner perception of the seriousness of the work, or on some kind of amateur/professional fault line. But lately I'm hearing more people use the term "maker," an interesting, and possibly very helpful, variation on the theme. For most of us, choosing a position on the art-craft continuum isn't really necessary until we have to define our work for others, or make decisions about our own long-term direction...

Oops

2009-10-24T18:52:08-06:00

I made a small correction to an old post and the new Typepad republished it as a new post --- sorry. I deleted the repeated version. The original post is here. Meanwhile, I got an e-mail from the wonderful people at Maiwa about a very unfortunate situation there. They had scheduled an Indian artisan leader and speaker, and he was refused a visa by the Canadian government. Read her post here. This visa refusal seems utterly absurd, and sad for those of us who love textiles, craft, and culture.

Gifts and Catching Up

2009-10-24T16:55:45-06:00

The best part of the trip to Houston was, as expected, meeting glorious Glennis, the Shibori Girl and her friends. I splurged on two of her silk scarves: Through Glennis, I also met Katrina, a very talented garment sewer and silk specialist. Both Glennis and Katrina had been on a textile trip to Japan, and had great stories of ducking out for authentic Japanese food, and befriending indigo dyers -- read more on Glennis's blog. I also met Jennifer, who sells vintage textiles and had vintage sari ribbon, but sadly I didn't get back to her booth to buy. I...