Category Archives: Textiles

Guild meeting-Kay Sekimachi

Sekimachi Nagare VII1970 Kay Sekimachi, born San Francisco, CA 1926 woven nylon monofilament 80 x 9 x 9 in. (203.2 x 22.8 x 22.8 cm.) Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase 1972.183.* I read that she did quadruple tubular forms. I’m not sure if this is one of those, but it looks like it could be. You can see pictures of more work that is in the Smithsonian Collection here. None of them are on view currently. I wonder if you could see them if you made an appointment.

Our guild is doing something a little different this year by having a couple of programs about weavers who do notable work, but may not be well known locally. The program was given by Sarah, and she did a great job. It happens that I was actually familiar with this Kay Sekimachi, having read about her in American Craft magazine. What I remember most from the article is how organized her “stuff” is, becoming art in itself by being placed on a shelf with nothing else. Take a look at her worktable here. Is that the way your worktable looks? Not mine! Of course, maybe that helps explain her success and her work.

Kay was born in San Francisco in 1926. During WWII she was interned with her family. Later, after seeing one weaving class, she bought a loom. Her oral history interview can be found here; I found it very interesting.

You can always do an Google search to find images. Here are links to a couple of galleries that either have or have had her work: Jane Sauer and Brown Gotta. I love her leaf bowls!

*Personal, Educational and Non-Commercial Use
Personal, educational and non-commercial use of digital images from our Web site is permitted, with attribution to the Smithsonian American Art Museum, for all images unless otherwise noted.

Another wishful-thinking field trip

Another field trip is in order…Denver. Wonder how long it would take (and how much it would cost) to travel from DFW to Denver, down to Santa Fe/Taos, then on to Flagstaff, Scottsdale, and Tucson? The train between Albuquerque and Flag might be fun.

Anyway, this Denver Museum Spun: Adventures in Textiles exhibit looks to be a great one. This picture is amazing! Look how the pieces seem to be lighted from behind; they seem to glow, don’t they?

Today will be another day to the same–weaving, wrapping ikat. Gosh, I hope my math is right! If not, I’m doing a lot of wrapping for nothing. Maybe I should plan on a stand-up wrapping table. I am going to weave standing today.

 

 

Not much

There’s really not much to write about around here. I’m still wrapping ikat, weaving, cutting the weeds and brush, etc. My mother got to go home–she and her dog are very happy about that. My sister took Dandy to visit her at the rehab center. As soon as he got out of the car, he knew where he was and could hardly stand it until he got inside to see his “friend.” Dandy

Have you ever thought about getting a sari cleaned? I hadn’t either. Here’s an interesting article about that. I actually don’t understand why labels always say to dry clean silk. The cloth has been around for a lot of years before dry cleaning.

Fabric rugs and more rabbit holes

I was reading an article about repairing fine china. At the bottom of the article was another article called READING, WRITING, RUGS. This bottom part was all about the rugs that young girls made, I’m assuming somewhat like samplers were used to teach fine hand-sewing. Here’s an excerpt from the article:

Girls’ academies from Maine to Tennessee offered formal training in “rug work.” Students used mixtures of fine imported silk and hand-dyed rags to depict villages and farms, and they sometimes added exotic beasts based on prints in encyclopedias.

This article took me to a couple of other sites pertaining to textiles. There’s the gallery of antique textiles where I found this bit of textile that I love. There are also auction sites showing pictures of some of the antique rugs here and here, and to fabric artist and restorer Tracy Jamar. Jamar and Jan Whitlock are co-authors of “American Sewn Rugs: Their History With Exceptional Examples”. Jamar is offering a workshop on shirring of the type that was used in the construction of the rugs.

More rabbit holes for me….