My new community site for textile folks

Waving to everyone in very excited manner this morning! For l those with very sharp eyes. Last night a little bit of text appeared in my side bar which reads “Visit stitchin fingers a new community site for stitchers.” Well for anyone who noticed great work!

I have finally got around to doing something I have meant to do for ages and that is create a stitchin/textile community site over on Ning.

For a long time I felt that the community needs a hub that can act a depot to spread news of events etc. Ning is a social software site that helps people build communities. I think may provide the service the textile folks need. Ning looks to be good place to make announcements, share news and photos hang out online etc.

I have called the network Stitchin Fingers So far I have put a forum on there, and since Ning has an RSS feed so you can subscribe and new activity will appear in your reader. It is an ideal place to act as a hub for all sorts of news and activities that the whole community can make use of. So all are welcome to use it and be as active as you choose on the site.

It is free and looks like members can have up to 100 photos. Members can load their own photos, create albums, share them etc. This feature alone would have made it ideal for any of the challenges I have run. It means people who don’t have to have a blog can join in on activities and for those that do have blogs they tell us about them there! But its more than simply that. As I say its a community site - or I see it as that and I will keeping pure self promotion at bay . People can use it to spread the word about textile related events but I don’t see it as an avenue for business to peddle their wares.

Last night I spent far too long trying to decide on a theme and I will organise some sort of image in the banner. I don’t want to spend an age designing something only to find not one is interested. Basically I will polish it the more people join and use it.

Since its free you have nothing to lose head over to Stitchin Fingers, sign up, join and leave a hello message and we can see what develops from there. Bloggers and those on lists please help spread the word because it will not work if people don’t know about it. This is a community site so lets hope it builds!

I have described it as “The group is open to all who are interested in textiles both contemporary and historical. Since many textile practices cross or inform each other all areas are welcome “
Actually I will reshape the description when figure out how to describe the group as I am sure it will shape itself!

If you are not sure what a Ning site is take a look at the fiberarts mixed media group as you can see it is for anyone who is interested in contemporary fiber arts and its a good example of what a group site can look like

This is what prompted me to finally get this network site going as Tricia of Lets Create contacted me as she is establishing a group for people who are interested in challenges. Go and check out her blog here This is the sort of news that is ideal to spread on the Stitchin Fingers site.

On another note I thought I would bring this link to Designer Bookbinders to the top as kimsarahtillyer left a comment point me to it. Designer Bookbinders was founded over fifty years ago and is a society devoted to the craft of fine bookbinding. There is some delicious eye candy in their gallery so do go and gobble some up (after you have checked out Stitchin Fingers that is)

 

Vintage needlework magazines

I love curling up with a magazine and I have pointed to the On-Line Digital Archive of Documents on Weaving and Related Topics hosted by the university of Arizona as a wonderful resource for anyone interested in textiles. Many of these copyright free online books are not only of historical interest but are also a fantastic design source.

Today I want to highlight a few recent additions to the site as recently 8 issues of the the Home Needlework Magazine form 1914 and 1915 have been published on the site. These magazines have a dated charm that delights us one hand and yet many of the designs in them are very modern and can be easily adapted to a contemporary piece.

For instance look at these two designs I found in the Home Needlework Magazine March 1915.

For readers who are interested in historical or vintage knitting, crochet, tatting and lace patterns you will discover plenty between the covers of this magazine.

They are well worth downloading these PDF files and browsing during a quiet moment.

 

Studies in Western Tapestries

Studies in Western Tapestries describes itself as “a survey of tapestry news and current tapestry research”. Aimed at art historians, historians and all tapestry weavers the site houses extensive information and scholarly articles on tapestries. Published by Guy Delmarcel and Koenraad Brosens, of the Université Catholique de Louvain.

The study of Western tapestry has been booming since the 1980s. Pioneering exhibition catalogues as well as important studies disclosing tapestry collections in both the USA and Europe were published. As a result, the nineteenth-century classification of tapestry as a mere branch of the applied or decorative arts has been proven inaccurate. Art historians now fully recognize that tapestry indeed ranks among the beaux-arts or the fine arts. Studies in Western Tapestry presents a specific setting for tapestry studies. Thorough analyses of production centres, important tapestry sets, prolific tapestry designers, iconographic themes, and historical collections are published in this series. The studies focus on Western tapestry produced between c. 1400 and 1960.

 

Spinning and Weaving WebRings

Diane left a comment asking if I knew of webring for weavers. The Spinners and Weavers WebRing is I think the ring that Diane is looking for. I thought I would highlight it here rather than leave the answer in the comment field as I hope it is useful to others too. The webring is open to all who spin and weave. There is also Hand spinning webring. The Handweavers webring is another that includes weaving.

Toddles off now that I have been reminded I have all these sites to check out!

 

I have been thinking about weaving …

A friend has recently given Jerry an old table loom. It’s in need of a bit of TLC so he is renovating it.

So I have been thinking of weaving and poking around the net a bit. Of course weaving can be done from any fiber but usually when we use the term we think of yarn. There are three dimensional forms of weaving and some of these have long traditions such as Plaiting Corn Dollies and Harvest Knots.

Toddles off thinking about Christmas decorations …

 

Weaving at the Bauhaus

Illustration in fiber has long been a contentious issue in the world of art practice. Translating an image into weave is still done today. For instance the Victorian Tapestry Workshop often source their designs from painters and hand weave an image. This practice seen as derivative by some still causes some to argue that since the image making is derivative it is a lesser art. It was the same at the Bauhaus as weaving was seen as “Pictures made of wool” and a craft form that was feminine in nature.

Following on from my previous post I have found this academic article by T’ai Smith about how weaving was viewed, theorized and practiced at the Bauhaus.