Category Archives: Weaving

Juliet Martin: SAORI and Spontanaeity

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TSGNY: What is your fiber process?

Juliet Martin: I weave on a Japanese SAORI loom and make fabric to sew into sculptures and tapestries. In Japanese, “sa” is the first syllable of “sai,” the Zen idea that everything has its own individual dignity. “Ori” means weaving.

"Men I Have Known: Carnival Kiss"; 2012, 19" x 30" x 9"; acrylic yarn, wool yarn, cotton yarn, wool roving,

TSGNY: How does SAORI differ from other kinds of weaving?

JM: SAORI is abstract expressionism through fiber – emotional expression that emphasizes the creative, spontaneous act. The loom has just two heddles. I do not use a shuttle. My fingers comb the weft. This encourages improvisation. It’s as spontaneous as I am.

TSGNY: Once you weave the fabric, what happens next?

JM: I sew sculptures in reaction to the base I have made.

"Men I Have Known: California Boy"; 2013, 17" x 53" x 9"; acrylic yarn, wool yarn, cotton yarn, wool roving.

TSGNY: Would you describe the whole process as improvisational?

JM: While I start with a form in mind, most often the materials shape the sculpting process. I am always generating ideas. I have over a hundred little notebooks. Often as I fall asleep, I jot down ideas so I won’t forget them by the morning. On the subway, I develop a palette for the project. Once at the loom, I create the “paint” to make the “painting.” But I can’t help breaking the guidelines I set for myself – for instance, I may select a palette of only blue, but if I’m blocked, I’ll add a bright pink thread.

"Blue"; 20" x 20" x 8"; acrylic yarn, wool yarn, cotton yarn, wool roving, burlap, driftwood, safety pins.

TSGNY: Was there an “aha!” moment when you knew SAORI was right for you?

JM: My first lesson produced my first weaving, and almost immediately I felt an unmatchable bond with the medium. I randomly grabbed my first color combinations from the scraps basket – mismatched light blue and neon orange. I knew it was right. I have always worked with color experimentally. Weaving lets me stretch those wings. I am consistently told that I have “good color sense”; SAORI was so intuitive that I could employ it right away.

First Lesson/First Weaving; 2011, 20" x 12"; acrylic yarn, wool yarn, cotton yarn, wool roving.


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TSGNY: What kind of artwork were you doing before you started working on the SAORI loom?

JM: I studied painting at Brown University, but it never reflected my intentions. I went to SVA for graduate work in computer arts. Computers, whose technical rules enforce structure that I could not find in painting, forced me to think more clearly, pushing me creatively. Even now, in weaving, I can make the creative “most” from a technical minimum. I taught and produced digital art for the next decade. I created Web-based art pieces, produced games, and designed digital interfaces. Then, wanting to work in something tactile, and to escape imitating machine-made sculpture, I was a ceramist for around five years, which piqued my interest in textures and materials.

"Dirt"; 2009, 16" x 5" x 5", stoneware.

TSGNY: What have you carried from ceramics into your textile work?

JM: When I worked in clay, my hands left beautiful scars in it. When I started weaving, being reduced to two dimensions left my work feeling unfinished. My visual sentence needed exclamation points and question marks. I took an old piece and cut it up and ran it through the sewing machine. It was done—it showed my voice, my hands. Now I weave with a three-dimensional shape in mind, or I work more freeform. I try to make the shapes as if they made themselves, unbridled and whimsical.

"Stuffed Rosaries"; 2013, 12" x 60" x 12"; acrylic yarn, wool yarn, cotton yarn, wool roving.

TSGNY: Did SAORI enable you to do things you had not been able to do before?

JM: I can improvise. Once the warp is set on the loom, you can create freely. The canvas opens itself to self-expression. Decisions may not lead to your preconceived vision, yet your actions create a new vision. Loose threads are embraced rather than rejected. I like to add distractions to add life to something static; for example, roving or ribbon. The difference in texture is liberating.

"Men I Have Known: Online Romance"; 2012, 20" x 30" x 10"; acrylic yarn, wool yarn, cotton yarn, wool roving.

TSGNY: Does SAORI weaving pose any particular challenges?

JM: I have to monitor the materials when setting a warp or weaving the weft. Metallic threads shine but break. Wool yarn will shrink. Mohair can rip. But this awareness means that if you run into something unexpected, you can turn mistakes into design elements. One “mistake” is weaving together two types of yarn, wool and acrylic, and then drying at high heat after washing. The wool shrinks and felts but the acrylic keeps its original shape. The contrast makes for beautiful, organic results, but the product has to overcome the process. In SAORI there are no mistakes.

"Virgin White"; 2013, 55" x 34" x 7", acrylic yarn, wool yarn, cotton yarn, wool roving, driftwood.

TSGNY: Finally, are there contemporary artists whose work inspires you, perhaps ones we may not know?

JM: In college I was introduced to the stuffed animal sculptures of Mike Kelley (on view at MOMA/PS1 until February 2). I saw that even lightness and humor could be challenging and edgy. I am so happy to have seen Tracy Emin. Her blunt, smart work satirizes gender politics. As a fiber artist, she uses traditional women’s work and turns it into empowering tools. Joan Snyder is a visual feast. Her colors and textures are vibrant and chilling: reds, yellows; her abstract flowers fall off the canvas. Her paintings hark to fabric.

TSGNY: Thank you, Juliet. You can see more of Juliet’s work on her website and can learn more about SAORI weaving here.

Nancy Koenigsberg: Metal That Floats

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TSGNY: What fiber techniques and materials do you use in your work?

Nancy Koenigsberg: My process is very elementary. I work either on a frame loom or on the wall with a loose warp and a grid on paper. The works I do on the frame loom are woven, often with a modified soumak wrap around a single warp. Many of them are modules, which I then layer or join to make larger works. The later works are not done on a loom; they’re square-knotted. In both the woven and knotted pieces I work with metals — either coated copper or annealed steel wire.

Tempest, 2011, 48" x 48" x 7", coated copper wire, woven on a frame loom and sewn.

TSGNY: Metal is not immediately associated with fiber techniques like weaving and knotting. How did you arrive at wire as your primary material?

NK: When I began to work in fibers in my current mode (as opposed to the needlepoint rugs and furniture coverings I was designing for my own company), I went to the New School and studied mostly off-loom techniques with Gayle Wimmer.  Then I became interested in working on a floor loom as well as a frame loom, using natural materials — cotton and linen.

Light, 2011, 48" x 48" x 8", plied twisted copper wires, woven on a frame loom.

NK: It was a gradual evolution from natural fibers to metal:  first telephone wire, then copper, then steel. The first wire was a gift from a friend, and when I saw what could be done, even with telephone wire, it was an aha! moment. The same was true when I purchased a small roll of steel in a hardware store in order to form a more rigid work for the free-standing pieces I was making.

Tumble II, 2001, 24" x 8" x 12", annealed steel, coated copper.

TSGNY: How would you compare the woven and knotted work?

NK:  I really prefer the knotted works.  There’s more flexibility in size and shape, and it’s possible to break the grid. The woven pieces are worked on a frame loom with nails on four sides, which creates a regular grid. With the knotted pieces, I work against the wall, and often have gridded paper under them — either to give me regular squares or to show that the squares should not be regular.  It is amazing to me how even and regular the pattern becomes without anything to steer it off.

Denver 7, 2012, 13" x 13", coated copper wire, woven and knotted.

TSGNY: What are the particular challenges of working in wire?
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NK: As far as physical challenges, some of the wire created hangnails, split nails and calluses. Gloves do not work for me.  My doctor tells me tetanus shots are a must since I get materials from many sources.  In the realm of creative challenges,  I have recently returned to working in series: same size and similar materials. For a recent show in Denver I made a series of twelve small works, 13″ x 13″. The curator stipulated a limited palette, certain particular hues. It was a challenge to create that number given these parameters.  But I loved doing it and plan to set up a similar series again soon.  Often in my larger works once the design and materials are determined there is not a lot I can change, so I am doing the same thing for a long period of time.  Here I was able to make lots of modules within the set of guidelines I was given and then combine them in different ways, which kept the process alive and interesting.

Denver 4, 2012, 13"x13", coated copper wire, woven and knotted.

TSGNY: What does wire enable you to do that you couldn’t do in your earlier work in natural fibers?

NK: For free-standing pieces, I am able to achieve strength and rigidity through the wire. But the wire isn’t necessarily rigid. In my most recent work I have used fine-gauged wire to create soft draped pieces, which retain the floating quality I am striving to achieve.

Thirteen Nets, 2005, 72" x 96" x 15", coated copper wire and glass beads, knotted.

TSGNY: Did working in wire change your artistic intent?

NK: Unlike my earlier dense, opaque work in natural materials, with the use of metals I became interested in light and transparency.

Red 2, 2012, 32" x 49" x 6", coated copper wire, woven on a frame loom.

TSGNY: Finally, are there artists whose work inspires you who you feel we should know about?

NK: I spend a great deal of time looking at drawings and sculpture. For many years I have been following the work of Alan Saret and Mark Sheinkman  I am particularly interested in the linear aspects of their work. Two other artists who have inspired me are the late Joanne Segal Brandford of the US and the late Mira Schendel of Brazil.

TSGNY, Thank you, Nancy. You can see more of Nancy’s work here and in a two-person show at the Flinn Gallery in Greenwich Connecticut, A Fine Line: Kennedy & Koenigsberg, from March 14 to May 1, 2013. Nancy is also founder and president emerita of the Textile Study Group of New York, which celebrated its 35th anniversary in 2012.

Karen Henderson: Weaving the Intangible

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TSGNY: What fiber techniques do you employ in your work?

Karen Henderson: I weave, dye, and stitch to create pieces for the wall that are inspired by landscape.  Often I use a linen or hemp warp, and then experiment with different materials (silks, papers, cotton) for the weft.  I enjoy playing with various textures, transparency, density. Sometimes I incorporate very simple tapestry areas as part of that exploration.  My dye techniques include direct painting, gradation dyeing, batik, shibori, and rust printing. I also work with techniques of color removal. I figure I can’t weave everything, and I really enjoy working with a variety of materials, so I also use all the same techniques on purchased fabrics such as hemp, linen, silk gauze or organza, and rayon.

TSGNY: You’ve got so many different fiber techniques at your command  – how long have you been working with fiber?

KH:  Using textiles in my art has been a long-time love affair, which took root when I learned batik in my high-school ‘crafts’ class. I was completely addicted to batik for a few years, making clothing that I would sell at small local craft fairs. I also made wall pieces using batik on rice paper. That led me to study textiles in depth at Moore College of Art & Design in Philadelphia.  From there, it’s been a gradual evolution over the years to what I do now, but there were definitely moments or specific pieces from school or right after graduating that I can look back on and see a direct line to what I do now.

Burning Off. 2012. 4"x 4"; cotton and silk organza, dye painting and color removal, shibori, and hand-stitching.

TSGNY: How did you initially use your textile training?

KH:   After graduating, I went to work as a textile designer for the home-furnishings industry, while continuing to pursue my own studio work.  I’d wanted to be an art-to-wear clothing designer, so I explored similar techniques and themes on fabrics for clothing, but my skills as a seamstress are not always the best.  I’m a little spontaneous where one should be more technical and patient.  So it makes sense that I’ve eventually gravitated towards work that is meant for the wall. Before I had my own loom, I was working with purchased fabrics that I would dye, layer, stitch or otherwise collage together; but even back then I was beginning to refer to landscape.

Reverie. 2012. 12” x 12”; handwoven linen, cotton and silk, with cotton gauze and silk organza; dye painting, color removal, shibori, with hand-stitching.

TSGNY:  Do your technique or your choice of materials pose any particular challenges?

KH: Mainly the big challenges for me are how to create the feeling of atmosphere or light – to capture some part of nature. I’m also hoping to convey some emotional quality to the piece with materials that are physical. I’m trying to make the intangible come together in fabrics.  That’s something I’m always working on, and struggling with.  Many fabrics don’t work out the way I’d hoped and end up back in the drawer, out of sight!  Often, though, after a time, I’ll take these projects out and look at them with fresh eyes. Since my previous efforts or expectations are gone, I can rework them into something new.  Fabric can be very forgiving that way, very easy to change.

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Commission in progress.

TSGNY: Aside from this great quality of being forgiving, would you say that working with fabric enables you to represent landscape in a way you might not have been able to do in another medium?

KH: Fibers are so tactile . . . the textures can be so rich.  And weaving my own fabric definitely allows me to play with my ‘canvas’ as it were. Also, being able to physically manipulate the surfaces adds more textures and depth that I’m not sure other media would allow me to do the same way.

Harbinger. 2012. 12" x 12"; handwoven linen, cotton chenille and silk, with cotton gauze and silk organza; dye painting, color removal, shibori, with hand-stitching.

TSGNY: Would you say that the evolution of your process has altered your intent?

KH: Mainly I see that my work goes back and forth on how abstract or not my approach might be . . . sometimes my landscapes are more literal, and other times it’s not so obvious.  And I think the process dictates my direction.  I don’t always plan each piece, so allowing for some exploration and response to it is important to me.

Ripple Effect. 2012. 12" x 12"; handwoven linen & silk, with raw silk and silk organza; dye painting, color removal, shibori, and hand-stitching.

TSGNY: Finally, are there artists who inspire you who you feel we should know about but may not have heard of ?

KH: I’ve been very influenced by my former professors at MCAD: Deborah Warner, Lewis Knauss and Michael Olszewski.  I would not have grown as much an artist without their encouragement and advice over the years.  There are so many other fiber/textile artists whose work is also extremely inspiring to me, I really couldn’t list all of them. Other artistic influences are the works of Kahn, Klimt, Rothko, and Turner.

TSGNY: Thank you Karen. You can see more of Karen’s work on her website.

Larry Schulte: The Half-Seen World

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TSGNY: What is your medium?

Larry Schulte: I have never worked in just one medium.  The two kinds of work that I’ve done most extensively and have exhibited the most are woven painted-paper pieces based on the Fibonacci sequence, which I have been making for nearly 40 years; and screenprints, which I have been making for about 10 years.

"Grid 8," 34" x 34," woven painted paper. Collection Museum of Nebraska Art.

LS: I also make small works that I can create at home rather than in the studio.  These include woven photographs, paper-punched photographs, and stitched prints and photographs. I like to play with a variety of media – each medium teaches me something that I can apply to the other work.

"Metallic Red, 2008, "4" x 6", paper-punched photographs.

TSGNY: How does working in a smaller format in other media inform your larger work?

LS: The small woven-photo pieces don’t take much time — I can complete one in two to three hours.  The photos are of patterns and textures that I might want to create in a larger work.  With the small woven-photo pieces, the image is already there, so I don’t have to spend additional time in image preparation. This lets me see in a single evening how a circle image will interact with a square pattern image, which I can then translate into a larger woven painted-paper piece, or a screenprint. Similarly, the paper-punch pieces let me see immediately the results of layering one pattern over another pattern.

"Bridge," 2011, 4" x 6", paper-punched photographs.

TSGNY: How did you begin the woven-paper work?

LS: I was getting my Master’s degree in watercolor and at the same time I was taking several weaving classes.  At some point, I started weaving a paper weft into the fiber warp on a loom.  Eventually I did away with the loom altogether and wove paper with paper by hand. I start with two pieces of heavy white all-cotton paper, paint each piece with acrylic paint (one for the warp, the other for the weft), cut them into strips and weave them together.

Cutting painted paper strips to weave.

LS: When I was weaving on a loom, I worked with all kinds of techniques: ikat, overshot patterns. The woven painted paper pieces have a more simplified structure. Originally, I used a plain weave, simply over-under.  As the works increased in size, I made a modification to a twill weave, over two under one. This modified twill was also an iteration of the Fibonacci Sequence.  The twill weave also allowed the strips of paper to be closer together in a tighter weave, which keeps the painted image more intact.

"Red Field," 2010, 54" x 54", woven painted paper.

LS: The work has never really been about the medium, though, it was about creating a visual image of mathematical structure.  It’s just that the woven painted-paper medium was one of the most satisfactory ways I found of creating a visual structure.

TSGNY: That visual structure has a strong mathematical basis. How did the Fibonacci sequence come to play such a central role in your work?

LS: I chose the Fibonacci sequence many years ago, for several reasons.  I was a mathematician before I ever started making art.  I have a degree in mathematics, and taught math for a few years.  Yet when I first started making art, I was painting landscape.  I grew up on a farm, and nature is an important part of my work.  In a way, I feel that all of my work is landscape.  The Fibonacci numbers are related to the structure of nature. They occur in everything that is a spiral:  pine cones, seashells. One of my favorite places the numbers show up is in the head of a sunflower.  There are two spirals of seeds in a sunflower head, one clockwise and the other counter-clockwise.  The numbers of seeds in the two spirals are always two consecutive Fibonacci numbers. The width of the strips I cut always varies proportionally to the numbers in the Fibonacci Sequence (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, . . . each number always the sum of the two previous numbers).

"Squares 1," 2005, 4" x 6", woven photograph.

TSGNY: Your other main body of work is screenprinting on both paper and cloth.  When did you add that to the woven-paper work, and how does its imagery differ?

LS: I took a screenprinting class at Manhattan Graphics Center and responded immediately to the technique. I knew that I wanted to pursue it in depth.  I began creating patterns in Photoshop to use for the screens. Mathematics came into the work in the form of Moiré patterns as well as Fibonacci patterns of circles, lines, squares.

"Web Net Veil 86," 2010, 30"x 22", screenprint.

LS: My screenprinting images also include blueprints, EKG patterns, weaving patterns, topological charts.  I began layering all of these unrelated images to create new patterns. I called one grouping the “Chaos Series” because of the random way I was layering totally unrelated images.

"Science 65," 2012, 20" x 20", screenprint.

TSGNY: Does your choice of techniques enable you to do things you wouldn’t be able to do in other media?

LS: In all of my work, there is a kind of hiding, a kind of half-seeing, that requires the eye and mind to complete the image.  This is particularly true in the woven painted-paper pieces.  A circle painted on the piece of paper that become the warp strips still reads as a circle, even when half of the image is hidden under the weft strips.

"Culvert," 2010, 4" x 6", woven photographs.

LS: The same is true in the layering of ink in the screen prints.  The images I use always leave some open areas, so that the layers underneath show through. This “seeing through” would be difficult if you were strictly painting, or weaving, or drawing.

"Web Net Veil 10," 2009, 30" x 22", screenprint. Collection Dubuque Art Museum.

LS: I continue to explore this “half-seeing” in many media. When creating work to enter in the 9 x 9 x 3 exhibit, I experimented with layering felt for one piece, wrapping gridded wire with rayon in another, printing and stitching on cotton fabric for yet another.  Each of these experiments somehow involved layering, which seems to be a recurring theme in all my work.  The layering of felt started me thinking about other ways to create linear patterns.  The wrapped gridded wire started me thinking about other ways to create grids for screen printing that you could see through.  Stitching on cloth that has already been screenprinted is something I have been playing with for a couple of years, and may turn into a larger of body of work all on its own.  It’s a medium I want to investigate further.

"Untitled," 2011, 12" x 13", screen-printed stitched blacksilk.

TSGNY: Would you say your intent changes as a result of working with each new process?

LS: I am always amazed that I don’t know what my intent really is until a few years into a process.  For example, only in the past year did I begin to understand that part of what the layered screenprints are about is related to the internet, and the unlimited information that we take in each day.  The layering is a visual way of understanding and dealing with unlimited information.  Conceptually, I am dealing with the idea of creating pattern from chaos, mixing layers of unrelated images that result in a new structure. It’s as if I know intuitively what it is I am doing before I can verbalize what it is I have done.

"Untitled," 2011, 5" x 7", stitched photograph.

LS: My best work always comes when I allow the medium to work, when I don’t try to conceive too much in advance, when I simply respond to what has started.

"Science 84," 2012, 20" x 20", screenprint.

TSGNY: Thank you, Larry. Finally, are there living artists who inspire you who you feel we should know about?

LS: Living artists whose work I admire would include painter Steven Alexander, fiber artist Maureen Bardusk, painter and blogger Joanne Mattera, and TSGNY’s own Nancy Koenigsberg. My other influences include Kandinsky (especially his writings, including “Point and Line to Plane” and “Concerning the Spiritual in Art”); Mondrian, Anni Albers, Lenore Tawney, John Cage, Agnes Martin, and Gertrude Goldschmidt (Gego).  I’ve also been inspired and influenced by many outside of the visual arts world, particularly poets Mark Doty and Dale Kushner, pianist Aki Takahashi, choreographer Mark Morris, fiction writer Louise Farmer Smith, composers Eric Richards and Michael Byron, percussionist Haruka Fujii, and mathematician Stephen Wolfram.

I’ve collaborated with performing artists in the past, creating stage sets and woven costumes for a ballet company and very large-scale woven paper stage sets for the Japanese saxophonist Ryo Noda, when he performed at the Asia Society.

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Woven painted-paper stage design, 1988, 6 panels, each 8' x 4', Asia Society.

TSGNY: You can see more of Larry’s work on his website.

Ann Roth: Planned and Unplanned

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TSGNY: What is your fiber technique?

Ann Roth:  I work with the simplest of all weaving patterns — plain weave — but I use fabric strips for both warp and weft. The warp starts as whole cloth (100% cotton; bleached, de-sized and mercerized), which I dye using shibori techniques I’ve adapted.

Shibori warp in process.

AR: Before I do any dyeing, I map out areas that will eventually be bound or blocked off and go over the lines using a long basting stitch. This keeps the lines ‘readable’ after going through the dye, and helps me gather the fabric evenly. I do this for straight lines and to outline circles. In some cases, I cut two identical pattern forms from corrugated plastic board and clamp them together with fabric in between. Because of the width of my fabric strips, I have to widen circles into ovals to allow for the condensing that occurs when the warp is threaded on the loom. After all the warp fabric is dyed, I rip it into strips, maintaining the pattern order. I use ikat techniques to dye the weft strips.

Warp going on loom.

AR: As much as I dislike using a computer to make art, I have found it to be a valuable tool for the design process. Using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, I can make quick schematics of composition ideas. This greatly speeds up my ability to change and relocate colors and patterns. I can even approximate the effect of the optical mixing that occurs when weft overlaps warp by creating a weft color composition, reducing the opacity, and layering it over the warp composition.

Warp and Weft Schematic

AR: Sometimes precisely calculated, sometimes left to chance, the colors meet and/or overlap as the weaving progresses. These variations can create both subtle and dramatic forms and color contrasts. All of this play with color and pattern creates the illusion of layered, deep and contemplative spaces.

Weaving in process.

TSGNY: Ikat and related techniques exist in many cultures. Are there particular cultures whose textile traditions have a particularly strong influence on you?

AR: In 2010, I traveled to Uzbekistan to see Central Asian textiles and came home laden with lengths of ikat cloth, ranging from very simple patterns in cotton to meters of silk with complex patterns entirely dyed with natural dyes.

Ikats by Fazli tdin Dadajonov, Fergana Valley, Uzbekistan

AR: The exuberance of the colors I found not just in fabrics, but also in their food markets and bazaars dared me to open up to strong color and pattern in my work. The love and commitment of the artisans to their craft boosted my confidence to follow my own artistic instincts. My recent work is all inspired by that trip.

"Shadow of the Silk Road" (2011) Cotton: hand-dyed shibori warp, hand-dyed, ikat weft; handwoven; 3 panels, each 65.5” x 27”; overall 65.5” x 85”

TSGNY: What kind of artwork were you doing before you started working with this combination of ikat, shibori and plain weave?

AR: While I was in graduate school at the University of Kansas, I was inspired by landscape — in particular, the moods and appearances of the ocean off Deer Isle, Maine —  I worked at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts during the summers. The structure of Japanese armor, which I “read” as systems of marks, led me to make rows of diagonal and vertical marks on layers of semi-transparent parachute nylon I found at the state salvage store. I dyed and printed on the fabric and also glued on fabric strips. The pieces were large (around 6’ x 8’) fields of 2-4 layers of fabric sewn together in rows and gently gathered.  There was visual and physical depth, and they created the feeling of being in a physical environment.

Ocean Visages, MFA Thesis Exhibition, University of Kansas (installation view) Nylon: dyed, printed, collaged, hand sewn; sizes vary, approximately 72” x 84”

AR: When I finished my MFA I no longer had access to a large wall space, so I turned to the loom to explore my interest in Japanese ikat and shibori techniques. The idea of working with fabric strips for warp as well as weft just surfaced. Maybe it came from a residual memory of making cloth loop potholders when I was young? Initially I intended to make rugs, tapping my interest in Japanese and Scandinavian traditions of making the functional beautiful. I grew up sewing, loving fabrics and the beauty of quilts and rag rugs. I quickly abandoned that concept once I realized how much time I was already putting into the dyeing and weaving process.

"Leap Year" (2012) Cotton: hand-dyed shibori warp, hand-dyed ikat weft; handwoven; 3 panels, each 64” x 38”, overall 64” x 126”


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TSGNY: Does your technique pose any particular challenges? If so, how have you overcome them?

AR: There’s a lot of math involved in figuring how much fabric is needed for each piece, but that seems to fit with my personality. I’ve worked out shrinkage and uptake percentages and made an Excel template that performs the calculations. Rolling on the warp is an exercise in patience because ½” strips of fabric at 6 e.p.i. stick together.

TSGNY: Would you say this technique enables you to do things you have not been able to do in any other medium?

AR: I ask myself sometimes why I don’t paint, and the answer is: I like to have direct contact with materials, to hold them in my hands. There is a lot of repetition in measuring, binding and then unbinding for shibori and ikat, stripping the fabric, threading the read and headless, treadling and passing the shuttle that is calming and reassuring.

"Margilon 1 and 2" (2011) Cotton: hand-dyed shibori warp, hand-dyed ikat weft; handwoven, 2 panels, each 32” x 28”, 32” x 59 overall

AR: The processes I use to create my weavings connect with the part of me that likes to plan and calculate, but they also thwart those inclinations in very healthy ways. I can calculate distances and patterns all I want, but I am prone to math errors, and there is always the serendipity of dye leakage. As hard as I try to maintain an even tension as I roll on the warp, there is always some displacement of pattern elements. The challenge of opening up to the reality versus the plan has been freeing emotionally and extremely exciting.

"Here" (2011) Cotton: hand-dyed shibori warp, hand-dyed ikat weft; handwoven; 32” x 28”

AR: I also make paper weavings to try out ideas. Because the ikat and shibori weavings are so labor intensive, I have learned to be more playful through making these small paper weavings. It’s an easy, quick and fun way to experiment with color and pattern. I rarely make a weaving that is strictly an enlarged study, but use the paper experiments to ignite and process ideas.

Paper weaving

AR: It’s been both liberating and fulfilling to relax my need to have the “correct” answer instead being willing to embrace the unknown as a revealing, rewarding adventure.

“Passages 4: Release” (2012) Cotton: hand-dyed shibori warp, hand-dyed weft, handwoven; 48” x 35

TSGNY: Has your artistic intent changed as a result of working  in this ikat/shibori process?

AR: My MFA thesis committee suggested that I explore making the marks that I was applying to the surface of the fabric become part of the physical structure of the finished piece. I am still interested pursuing marks as structure to create large fields, but I don’t have a large enough space to do that. In my weavings, I continue to explore the illusion of layers and depth I was exploring in my MFA thesis. By making multi-panel pieces, I can also work on a large scale as with Leap Year and Shadow of the Silk Road. I find myself moving away from the color field concept for the present. I still think about “building” marks, though.

"Shadow of the Silk Road" (detail)

TSGNY: Finally, are there living artists who inspire you whose work you feel we should know?

AR: Artists who have influenced my work include El Anatsui, Cynthia Schira, Reiko Sudo and Nuno Textiles, and Ana Lisa Hedstrom. TSGNY member Valerie Foley’s Daily Japanese Textile blog has been an important inspiration for my interest in pattern and color.

"Passages 2" (2010) Cotton: hand-dyed shibori warp, hand-dyed ikat weft; handwoven, 56” x 42"

TSGNY: Thank you, Ann. You can see more of Ann’s work on her website, and in the show In Response: Weavings by Ann Roth and Vita Plume; May 31-September 6, 2012, Gregg Museum of Art & Design, Raleigh, North Carolina.

Susan Martin Maffei: Making Her Marks

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TSGNY: You are known as a tapestry weaver, with occasional crochet and other embellishments. Has tapestry always been your medium?

Susan Martin Maffei: Although I studied drawing and painting at the Art Students League in NYC, textile making has always been the most natural expression for me. As a child I spent a lot of time with my grandmother, who was a great textile maker. I learned many textile processes even before I learned how to read or write: crochet, knitting, sewing (I had and still have a miniature Singer machine on which I made doll clothes while my grandmother made grown people clothes) as well as lace and tatting.

Susan Martin Maffei at the loom, working on the portrait of her grandmother.

TSGNY: It almost sounds like textiles were your first language.

SMM: My search for a textile language has actually been a lifelong process. My journey began with workshops, which are the standard now for students wishing to learn about tapestry. Of those workshops, Jean Pierre Larochette and Yael Lurie had perhaps had the most longstanding influence on my work.  My partnership later in life with Archie Brennan, a well-known Scottish weaver, has allowed me to focus on work and travel and teaching related to this medium and my passion for it.

“Reconstructing Wracraw.” 2011, 13”x76”; 4-selvedge tapestry, cotton warp, wool, cotton, linen and silk weft. Wool crochet (cloud, building, people).

SMM: Along the way, I began to study the history of tapestry in ancient cultures, in particular Andean, that were built upon textiles. I never cease to be amazed by the complexity of their underlying understanding and yet the simplicity and beauty of their work, and the fact that these ideas were expressed in textile form. The pattern of the underlying structure produces a repeat in the image: repeats are the inevitable meeting of the process of the weaver and the structure of the work. One cannot happen without the other. This visual pattern releases a chemical in the brain, much as a repeat in music does, and releases a sense of pleasure or satisfaction in the viewer. So the connection is integral and is complete.

TSGNY: When you refer to the pleasure of the repeats, are you talking about the Andean textiles, or your own work?

SMM: I was referring specifically to the visual satisfaction of the repeat of Andean textiles, but I also try to capture that in my own work.

"Feather Works IX- Duck," 2010, 9 3/4” x 12 3/4”, 4-selvedge tapestry, wool warp, alpaca weft with duck feathers.

SMM: When I first began this journey, I was very fortunate to be in the right place at the right time and to have been able to apprentice at the Scheuer Tapestry Studio in NYC to have a nine-month fellowship at Les Gobelins in Paris to perfect my techniques.

“Another View- the Pompidou-Near Mme. Touitou,” 2008, 55” x 50”; cotton warp, wool, silk, linen, cotton weft, wool crochet trim.

TSGNY: The emphasis at the Gobelins is on the interpretation of paintings, but you have taken tapestry in a different direction.

SMM: For a long time tapestry was looked upon as a reproduction of painting, ignoring its particular language. In its long history tapestry moved from a strong medium working within the bounds of shapes, pattern, and color to one that had the great ability to duplicate painting in fabric, and hence a secondary reproductive medium. My efforts have been to bring it back to a position of originality in my work.  Many years ago, in my exploration of its inherent qualities, I began not to use an image in another medium that would influence the mark but instead to take an idea and simply begin to weave. I have tried very hard over the years to work within the mark-making peculiar to the medium by working directly on the loom.

“Morning Walk,” (detail), 2010, 4” x 240”; 4-selvedge tapestry, cotton warp, wool, silk, linen and cotton weft, plus wool quipu trim.

Fever may accompany to these problems in some cases is possible and can pharmacy cialis cute-n-tiny.com be reversed. Home Infusion services also cater to the needs of the growing number of people due the effects that it gives viagra purchase uk cute-n-tiny.com to a person. But you should not use kamagra 100mg oral jelly effect lasts online cialis soft for 4 to 6 hours, which gives you the strong and powerful erection for sexual intercourse. Since it’s regarded as the World’s Strongest Antioxidant, which will definitely boost up your immune system in order to fight all the causes that lead to male sexual disorder such as hypertension or high blood pressure falls in the category as the impact of http://cute-n-tiny.com/tag/spider/ tadalafil 20mg no prescription. TSGNY: How is mark-making in tapestry different from other media that we might think of as freer, without the physical constraints of the loom and the grid?

SMM: Certainly the grid is the basic structural foundation that you must deal with in tapestry. Weaving tapestry is always a challenge. You are limited by the warp and weft relationship. You must also build from one side to another in a way that is dictated by how the shapes lie, so you must learn to think in a sequential manner.  You cannot build out into open space. You often are building the negative background to get the positive shape that lies on that support. That’s another way you must learn to see. You must learn to see that a line on a paper is not the same as a line in tapestry. But you can fool the eye, and by establishing a pattern and particular progression make what appears to be a beautiful smooth line. This also applies to shapes. There are other techniques particular to tapestry that were developed early on to allow subtle shading and overlays. My focus on representing an image within these limitations of structure became a form of problem solving.

“New York Times Series—Travel” (portrait of the artist's grandmother), 1999, 87”x 42”; cotton warp, wool, nylon, linen, cotton and silk weft.

TSGNY: Do you still work in other media?

SMM: I love watercolor, pen and ink and printmaking, as well as the book arts and pursue each of them as an adjunct to my work, exploring the different languages of different media. Each medium has a particular characteristic mark, usually related to how the material builds. A watercolor builds and layers with transparency, and would never look like it was done in oils. With oil, you could never get the transparency of a watercolor. Although you could do something in each medium that would simulate the other, you would more likely lean on the special aspect of each, the qualities that give each medium its own voice.

“Sport Series—Boxing,” 2009, 18” x 8”; cotton warp, silk, wool, cotton and linen weft with cotton crochet boxers.

TSGNY: How would you describe tapestry’s “voice”?

SMM: Tapestry’s special attributes are its tactile surface, depth of color, and the variety of available fibers that communicate the essence or affect the emotional response of the image. The visual strength of tapestry lies in the saturation of color, pattern and texture, and grace of progression of marks or shape building, as well as the fact that it is a cloth and hangs.  Tapestry’s presence, when successful, has a more sensuous relationship to the viewer’s response.

“Alvia Jane & Family Quipu,” 2010, 40” x 45”; cotton warp, wool weft. Quipu-respun wool. Rocks from family property with names of ancestors.

SMM: My particular journey has been very slow and has taken many years but I feel confident that I now have a basic understanding of its strengths. I say “basic” because I continue to search and study: I am sure there are other connections and more to learn from other textile societies. I am looking at all the cultures of the past and their uses of textiles, and am adding different trims and embellishments, recycling old tapestries this way, as well as weaving my work in forms of scrolls, books, bags, and wrappings. Our textile history is so rich, but few people realize that. But I continue to not choose an image to weave, but instead explore and build an idea or a narrative directly on the loom within the bounds of what I have learned so far of the language of tapestry.

“Sicilian Defense,” (scroll & bag), 2010, 12” x 65”; 4-selvedge tapestry and bag. Tapestry: cotton warp, silk, rayon weft with silk lace trim. Bag: Cotton warp, silk, cotton and linen weft.

TSGNY: Thank you, Susan. Finally, are there any artists whose work you particularly admire you think we should know about?

SMM: Historically, many artists I admire from the cultures I’ve explored are anonymous. I’ve already mentioned the team of Yael Lurie (tapestry designer and painter) and Jean Pierre Larochette (tapestry weaver and designer) who use the language of tapestry to the best advantage of anyone in the field. I enjoy the drawings and tapestry of Norwegian artist Jan Groth. He has an elegance and expressive emotion of what at first appears to be just simple line. I enjoy the work of Kiki Smith in particular for her love, observation and depiction of everyday events of nature. I enjoy David Hockney for his inventiveness in many media and love of the narrative as well as his exploration of history of art in different cultures. There are of course many others, but I think this is the top of my list.

TSGNY: You can see more of Susan’s work in Crossing Lines, and at her two websites: the first includes the work of Maffei and Archie Brennan, as well as information on technical aspects of the medium, equipment, links to their students’ work; the second is specific to the artist’s book Susan is producing in a limited edition about her scroll tapestries.

“Could These Be Purple Martins?” 2007, 4-selvedge tapestry, 4” x 65”; cotton warp, silk, wool, linen and cotton weft, plus wool crochet berry trim.

Michael Rohde: On and Off the Grid

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Photo: Rod Carroll

TSGNY: You have a longstanding commitment to weaving as the basis of your artistic practice. When did that begin?

Michael Rohde: In the early 1970s, curiosity about how cloth was made took hold of me. I bought a small loom and started on a path that has held me steady for nearly forty years. For quite some time, I wove rugs, but as image took over from function, I’ve moved to tapestry. These days I often work at a small scale, most recently with silk yarns, as in “Aeolus,” which was shortlisted for the Kate Derum Award.

“Aeolus,” 2011, 5¼” x 5¼” (mounted size 7¾" x 7¾").Tapestry: silk, natural dyes; four-selvedge wedge weave. Photo: Andrew Neuhart.

TSGNY: Did you have a background in other arts before you became a weaver?

MR: Weaving is really the only form of art that I have pursued with any rigor, but along the years, a number of events have shaped my approach to making. To fill out my lack of training in art, I enrolled in the Glassel School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, where I was heavily influenced by the teaching of C. Arthur Turner, based on Bauhaus approaches, notably Joseph Albers and Johannes Itten.

TSGNY: Both Itten and Albers were color theorists, and color is central to your work. Was it their approach to color that influenced you?

MR: Certainly Albers and Itten’s color theories are strong influences, and guiding principles for me when it comes to making color choices, both what color combinations I use in the weavings, and in dyeing the yarns. Some of my early education about how colors are related came from the dye process itself. I’ve always used the red, yellow and blue primaries to mix the hues I want, be it in chemical or natural dyes (even to developing formulas to make neutral grays from the primaries).

Notebooks: samples of wool on the left and silk on the right; record keeping as a guide for the next time.

MR: My materials are often wool or silk and other non-manmade fibers; I buy yarns in white, and add my own colors when I start a new piece. One of the second or third classes I took to learn about fiber processes was a class in dyeing, when I lived in North Carolina. Slowly, I have explored ways of putting color on yarn, initially with chemical dyes, but later, as I learned which plant dyes were most lightfast, this came to be my preferred way of working. After years of working with the brights of chemical dyes (even toned-down mixtures), I’m drawn to the more subdued palette of vegetal dyes.

Lately, these have been dyes derived from plants and a bug or two.  This gives me the range of colors I want, and I’m not limited to what is available in pre-dyed yarn. Although it seems like this adds extra time to the process of making my work, I feel the end result is worth it. Years of color mixing, matching and record-keeping make the dye process easy for me, and only adds about 5-10% to the total weaving time.

Skeins from a recent round of dyeing for scaling up the silk wedge weaves.

TSGNY: Doing your own dyeing gives you both enormous freedom and control. What about your commitment to working on the loom? Would you say that constrains you in any way?

MR: Around the end of the 1970s, gallery owner Warren Hadler asked the question, “Since the loom operates on a right-angle grid, why try to force the technique to simulate curves?” That became a major direction for how I approached design.

Looking at Albers’ many color studies also had an effect on how I approach design. The simplicity of the shapes he used in those studies became a guide and a challenge to me: to make my own designs, but try to embody something of his elegant design choices. Add to this Hadler’s suggestion to stick to what the loom does easily, and many of the design decisions are pared down to a manageable range of choices.

“Danse,” 2002, 82" x 54". Rug: hand-dyed wool on linen warp. Photo: Andrew Neuhart.

MR: My rugs were pattern or block based — like “Danse” — but as they became more and more image based – for example, “Winter/Lake Biwa” in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago — they were hardly ever used on the floor.

“Winter/Lake Biwa,” 2001, 59" x 48". Rug: hand-dyed wool on linen warp. Photo: Andrew Neuhart.

TSGNY: So even though you still called the work a rug, it was already being viewed in an art context. Was this the first time you started thinking about tapestry?

MR: Very early in my weaving career, I’d learned some tapestry techniques, and had a passing interest in learning Navajo style weaving, but didn’t pursue it due to time limitations, opting for loom-controlled block-weave rugs. Wanting ever more harnesses to make more complex block patterns, I began combining inlay areas, maybe a forerunner of the tapestry shift. Gallery owner Gail Martin was the one who first encouraged me to explore tapestry formally. Gail’s suggestion occurred about the same time as an invitation to exhibit in the 2004 Triennial of Tapestry in Lodz, Poland. It was also around the time the idea of invading Iraq was being proposed. “From My House to Your Homeland” came out of this confluence of events, and refers to a line in a poem by June Jordan, making reference to houses disappearing in the sands of war. That piece was a milestone for me: the idea came before the design.
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“From My House to Your Homeland,” 2003, 54” x 98”. Tapestry installation, hand-dyed wool and silk. Photo: Andrew Neuhart.

TSGNY: Even when moving from loom-controlled work to tapestry, you’ve stayed loyal to grids and angles rather than curves. Does that grow out of your response to Hadler’s observation?

MR: Another reason Hadler’s suggestion resonated so well with me was that it was a time when I was trying to be a production weaver, while holding down a full time job. The simplicity of grids and angles is easier to weave, and parallels where I diverge from normal art-school training: the last course I took was drawing, and though I was encouraged to continue, free-form, organic shapes just don’t appeal to me as much.

When I transitioned to tapestry, I was weaving full time, and in theory would have more free time for representational work, but I’d been working in geometric shapes for so long, that I wanted to continue exploring how much could be expressed with these limits.

TSGNY: It sounds like you feel the move into tapestry has allowed your work’s content to deepen, while working within those limits.

MR: Even when I think I am only making patterns, I find ideas have crept into the work. “Transect” was designed and woven as a pattern piece, but at the time of major health care debates – where did all these Blue Crosses come from?

“Transect,” 2009, 75” x 48”. Tapestry: wool, silk; indigo, walnut dyes. Photo: Andrew Neuhart.

MR: “Sustainability” (exhibited in the American Tapestry Biennial) expresses a hope for people of all skin colors to live together, but also stands as an icon for global overcrowding.

“Sustainability,” 2007, 66” x 39¼”. Tapestry: wool, silk, alpaca, mohair, llama, camel; indigo, madder, walnut, cutch, weld. Photo: Andrew Neuhart.

MR: “Water” was made for the Textile Museum’s exhibition “Green: The Color and the Cause.” I began with an image from a satellite map of the land around a huge manmade lake in Brazil. It comments of the issues of water usage: man’s intervention has consequences; where agricultural areas become green, other areas die off.

“Water,” 2009, 35” x 48”. Tapestry: wool, natural dyes. Photo: Andrew Neuhart.

MR: Travel can also be a source for my work: “Tibetan Prayers” (currently in Crossing Lines: the Many Faces of Fiber) came from a month-long trip to eastern Tibet, and makes reference to their small printed paper prayers. The choice of materials (Tibetan and Navajo wools) draws a connection between these people: the loss of their homeland and historical way of life to invaders.

“Tibetan Prayers,” 2006, 49½" x 38½". Tapestry: Navajo wool, Tibetan wool, madder. Photo: Andrew Neuhart.

TSGNY:  Does “Aeolus” represent a new direction for you — are you finally escaping the grid?

MR: The wedge-weave technique is one I’ve known about for some time, but never tried. Many weavers (and friends of mine) are well known for what they have done in the technique: Martha Stanley, James Bassler, Connie Lippert and Deborah Corsini to name a few. The technique is based on the principle that you begin by weaving at an angle to the warp,  building up a wedg that continues. Weaving in this direction is contrary to the normal weaving, where warp and weft are at ninety-degree angles. As a  consequence, when it’s released from the loom tension, the cloth relaxes. What had been straight edges become scalloped — heresy for someone who has spent years trying to achieve perfect, straight selvedges.

I’d always been reluctant to try something that others had done so well, and, for which they were known. I wanted to make something that would have my own stamp. So I’ve gravitated to silk, to color choices that are out of the ordinary, the small scale, and four-selvedge technique (though this is hardly unique, as Stanley and Navajo weavers have used this for their weaving). After making dozens of the small (five by five inches or less) pieces, I’m just now venturing toward larger explorations.

TSGNY: Finally, are there artists who inspire you whose work you’d like us to know about?

MR: There are weavers who work in unusual methods, or research and use techniques that are seldom embraced these days: Jim Bassler and Martha Stanley, who I’ve already mentioned, and Polly Barton. Artists who use color in ways that excite me, be it complexity of color in limited range, or unusual combinations — Rothko, for example, and a contemporary painter, now on the West Coast, Ruth Pastine. I would have to add Agnes Martin, though also for her “Writings,” a hard-to-find, but worthwhile book.These artists do wonders with limited use of line and form.

TSGNY: Thank you, Michael. You can see more of Michael’s work on his website, and in the TSGNY exhibit, Crossing Lines: The Many Faces of Fiber.

Virginia Davis: Exploring Surface and Substance

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TSGNY: How would you describe the relation of your work to fiber?

Virginia Davis: My work is in a niche between weaving and painting. The weaving technique is called ikat. I place the image on the threads before weaving the “canvas.” The technique of ikat consists of marking a group of threads, reserving areas by tying or other means, and then applying color to create a pattern on the warp — the vertical threads. The weft — the horizontal threads — can also have a pattern created in the same manner. In my work, most of the time, I execute the patterning in such a way that the color placed on the warp and weft thread combine to produce my desired image.

“Blue,” 2009, 34”x32”, ikat weaving with acrylic paint on the surface of the twill weave.

VD: After weaving I stretch the work, again commenting on a traditional presentation of painting. Now, on the woven ikat, I have the opportunity to paint, collage, embroider, etc. After weaving, the ikat image lies below the picture plane and another image can be placed on the surface. Unlike the planning that goes into the ikat, my creation of the images in this part of the work is very unconscious. In “Blue,” I used masking tape in the painting portion of the piece, and the combination of painting and weaving techniques produced the contrast in the blues.

“This is not a slide,” 1994, 35”x35”, ikat weaving, gesso, oil pigment, printed label collaged, nail polish for dot.

VD:  Through weaving, the texture of the canvas can be controlled, introducing a substance to the surface image, or the embedded image. Linen is my fiber of choice, commenting on the support stratum used by many painters since the Renaissance. “This is not a slide” is a signature work illustrating the historic use of linen as a support for painting with oils in European art. However, since the origin of ikat is likely Asian, the conjoining of the two signifies the international unity of art.

TSGNY: Were you a painter before you started working in this layered form?

VD: My previous work in art had been woodworking in New York, followed by traditional sculpture at the Sir John Cass School of Art in London and then at the Art Students League in New York. I wanted to learn additive sculpture and went to the Riverside Church School of Arts and Crafts in New York City to take a course in yarn, rope making, and dyeing. With so much yarn, I took a course in weaving with Sandra Harner at the Riverside Church School and quickly realized that, with so much to learn, this was my direction.

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The “Tartan Series,” 1989, 6 modules, each 36”x36”, dye and linen.

VD: This was in the early ‘70s. Sandra would present the various types of weaves students could opt to study. I was immediately attracted to ikat, fascinated by the control of color and the design one could achieve.

“Tartan 3,” 36”x36,” The third of the 6 modules.

VD: In the “Tartan Series,” for example, the tartan image is that of the Davidson clan, and is ikat-woven in the correct distribution of lines and stripes for a tartan. The weave structure, a 2/2 twill, is conventional for tartans. The image of the tartan is placed on a plain weave background.

“Tartan Complement 3,” 36”x36”. The fourth of the 6 modules.

VD: My passion for ikat has led me to study it with practitioners in Japan, India and Mexico and to seek out examples in museums all over the world. In addition I have learned and teach other reserve techniques. This range of techniques enables me to make unique statements about image, surface and substance.

“Blue Arches 1,” 2011, 40”x36” pigment in linen, ikat weaving.

TSGNY: Thank you, Virginia. You can see more of Virginia’s work on her website:  at TSGNY’s Crossing Lines show; and at the 8th Fiber International Biennial, Snyderman-Works, March 2–April 28, 2012, Philadelphia, PA.

Mary Zicafoose: Weaving in Code

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Mary Zicafoose with a fraction of the wrapped ikat sections required for a single tapestry.

TSGNY: Which textile techniques do you incorporate in your work?

Mary Zicafoose: I am a rug-weaver-turned-tapestry-weaver who developed a fascination with ikat about 25 years ago. What began pretty innocently with a few scraps of a Hefty garbage bag knotted around a hank of yarn has evolved into complex tapestry imagery created by very intricate and layered ikat wrapping and tying techniques.  The process now demands months of wrapping, tying small pieces of japanese ikat tape — a brittle cellophane tape — around individual strands of mountains of silk and wool.

Wrapping ikat before dyeing. The weft section shown here will become approximately 3 inches of the finished piece.

MZ: For the last 10 years I have produced ikat tapestries almost exclusively.  I’m currently working on a commission for a home that will require about 80,000 ikat ties.  When done tying I will dye the yarn and then untie all 80,000 design sections.  The weaving is almost a secondary process: literally just what holds all the ikat-dyed yarn together.  That said, the weaving is a monumental and time-consuming activity unto itself, since the pieces are large in scale. This particular tapestry will be a panel about 10’ x 10’, woven in silk, dyed the colors of the prairie sky before a thunderstorm.

At the Loom: "Blueprint" in Process. All three sections of the triptych are woven simultaneously, row by row.

TSGNY: Was that first experiment with a shredded Hefty bag the result of an aha moment when you knew ikat was something you just had to explore?

MZ: Yes, of course.  I was working on a pretty involved classical tapestry piece, struggling to make it appear painterly and more spontaneous.  Just for the record, the words “spontaneous” and “weaving” are rarely used in the same sentence — they occupy two different universes, coming from completely different hemispheres of process.

I was very frustrated, feeling gridlocked and constrained by technique and the limitations of my equipment.  Then I flashed on a scrap of ikat cloth my aunt had given me as a child –a memento from some exotic junket she had been on — that I had held onto as precious.  I thought that’s where this needs to go: I need to embrace a textile process that allows some element of surprise or chance to occur.   This was in the 80s when there wasn’t much ikat going on anywhere. And so began the study.  I went to the Fairfield, Iowa, public library to get a book on ikat applications for tapestries and rugs, only to discover that no books on ikat process existed.  To date, almost 30 years later, there might possibly have been three books written on the subject.  I think I may have drawn the card to write the fourth.

"Ancient Text - Chain of Command" (diptych), 76" x 45", Weft-faced ikat tapestry.

TSGNY: What are the particular challenges of the ikat process?  How do you overcome them?

The Ikat cartoon: the design "exploded" in preparation for dyeing.

MZ: Ikat is a synonym for challenge.   A bolt of hand-dyed silk ikat fabric,  whether a beautiful 18th-century adras ikat robe or one of my ikat tapestries, is the composite visual solution to thousands of tiny complex problems. Ikat is based on math, geometry, dye chemistry, and the ability to think and design abstractly — expanding shapes and images at the ikat board to then severely compress them at the loom.  It also requires an abnormal otherworldly amount of patience with process–an actual fascination or addiction to process, I would say.

Unwrapping Ikat

MZ: I used to teach a lot of ikat until my process became so complex and layered that I could no longer explain it within a workshop context.  Also, very few weavers were interested enough in the visual product to invest and go where this takes you.   Weavers already have a time-consuming and totally demanding and economically unforgiving process–why take it to the 10th power?

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Silk Ikat sorted and collated. Each ball of yarn is numbered with its place in the weaving sequence.

MZ: My undergraduate degree was in photography and my graduate work was in clay.  The sculptor in me is waiting for the day I’ve tied that last ikat wrap.

TSGNY: Clearly ikat has its rewards, because you haven’t tied your last tie yet. What does ikat enable you to do that you had not been able to do in other techniques?

MZ: I always describe ikat yarns as being “coded.” Understanding the mechanics of this code has enabled me to create work that was never within my grasp, pieces that I would not have dared dream of creating. Recently I’ve been working almost exclusively in black and white, offset by sections of saturated color.

"Ancient Text - Indigo and Ochre" (diptych), 2007, 58" x 62", Weft-face Ikat Tapestry.

MZ: What is the visual difference?  Well, for one, complex ikat carries an energy, a frequency that makes it resonate differently than other textiles.  Perhaps it is the layers of overdyeing that produce more complicated and compelling saturations of color, perhaps the massive amount of human handling and touch that imbues it with so many layers of the “handmade,” but the element of magic is the serendipitous alchemy that happens when miles of wrapped ikat are submerged into vats of dye.  What sections resist the dye and where dye wicks up under the tape is random and uncharted and defies all plans and promises to clients.  The dye ebbs and flows and seeps and creates new and unexpected colors. The moment that the wrapped yarn slips into the colored waters of the dyepot is the precise moment the muse is invited to enter into the process. It’s as though another hand, another breath, has entered.

"Blueprint #7" (triptych), 2009, 84" x 88", Weft-face ikat, hand-dyed silk/bamboo on linen warp.

MZ: I am endlessly intrigued by this process and its applications.  I have had the great pleasure and opportunity to crisscross the globe traveling to ikat-producing countries and cultures.  I have wrapped ikat on remote islands, in Andean mountain villages, in factories, mud huts, and on horseback.

Matching colors. Zicafoose dyes all the yarns, referring to her library of more than 1,000 dye recipes.

TSGNY: Are there artists – in this medium or in others – you’ve come across in your travels who inspire you and who you’d like us to know about?

MZ: Besides my ethnic contemporaries a few artists in the UK are doing contemporary ikat.   I purposefully don’t follow their work.  Is that foolish?  It’s too easy to be influenced by your peers within your medium and field, actually to be deeply influenced by what they are doing. For me visual influences are as powerful as auditory–like when you hear a song you can’t get it out of your head.  It’s best if I just do my work and tell my story and not read too many other stories while I’m at it.  Yes, that may be foolish.  Ptolemy Mann is a UK ikat weaver of talent and note. American ikat weavers include Virginia Davis  and Polly Barton.

Early on in my rug-weaving days Mark Rothko was my big inspiration.  We all are familiar with how he treated large fields of color–how the edges collided and bled into each other–so very ikat.   When my husband Kirby and I traveled extensively in Peru and worked in Bolivia I fell under the spell of all things ethnic and ancient.  It took years behind the loom to weave South America out of my system.  When I finally emerged from that I fortunately had a strong sense of who I was as an artist and as a weaver and was very freed to be inspired by and to build my work on non-textile influences such as the visually powerful works and writings of Meinrad Craighead, the visionary Catholic nun;  Mary Oliver, the beloved Northeastern poet: the sculptor Martin Puryear, and the architect Phillip Johnson.  Sources of inspiration are an endless craving.

TSGNY: Thank you, Mary.

You can see more of Mary Zicafoose’s work here.

"Blueprint - Wine & Willow," (diptych), 2008, 48" x 76", Weft-face ikat.