Craft Show Artists 2010

Tricia C. Adler — Dingmans Ferry, PA     

Recycled inner tubes from tractors, trucks, motorcycles and bicycles all have a place in my current work - designing handbags. The design process is intoxicating. As sections of cut and scrubbed inner tubes are manipulated one-of-a-kind handbags begin to materialize. The development of each new bag is informed by a spontaneous cut of the inner tube. Machine sewing, hand sewing, riveting, grommet setting and bolting are all construction methods employed. When applicable, surface design may consist of found objects, expired license plates and/or oil pigment. I delight in re-purposing materials usually destined for a landfill.

Elyse Allen — New York, NY   |   elyseallentextiles.com

Combining knitting with embellishing, I mix cashmere with Swarovski crystals to create timeless wearable accessories. The textiles have dynamic color and pattern effects that are exciting and refined, yet highly functional.

Tess Coburn — East Hampton, MA   |   teresacrowninshield.com

Teresa Crowninshield creates a collection of elegant silk and cashmere coats and jackets for women. Our aesthetic is both classic and fashion-forward. Teresa personally designs, drapes, and drafts each pattern, perfecting every curve by hand with old-world techniques. We believe that an elegant well-fitting jacket can transform and even "make an outfit." We believe that skillful draping and sensitive pattern work is the key to unlocking the unique beauty of each woman's figure. This, combined with our use of sumptuous silks and cashmere, creates a winning combination of art and style. Teresa invites you to see the entire collection at teresacrowninshield.com.

Ignatius Creegan & Rod Givens — Petersburg, VA   |   ignatiushats.com

Braided Wheat straw is stitched together to form a hat body that is finished with wire and ribbon. It is then trimmed with findings and milliner made trims.t

Deborah Cross & Gordon Heinel — Freedom, CA   |   deborahcross.com

I try to design my clothing to be elegant, flattering and wearable. I search for fabrics and colors to achieve a unique style.

Randall Darwall — South Yarmouth, MA   |   randalldarwall.com

We are studio 'clothmakers' trying to weave and dye the best fabric possible for the marketplace, working with methods and techniques not possible in commercial production. We particularly like the unpredictable potential that only the hand weaver is free to explore in process. We design as we work, struggling to keep up our end of the conversation with color, fiber, structure, and the constantly chiding voice of function. We use many different kinds of silk yarns in order to make the color glow, to create depth, and to record the motion of weaving.

Anne M. Emlein — Providence, RI     

Designed in the spirit of playful sophistication, my knitwear, a collection of mix & match multi-seasonal separates is an exuberant, feminine approach to tradition, with a twist! Every piece is created in my studio using a variety of knitting techniques that I have developed and perfected, specifically hand-manipulated lace, short-rowing, and felting. Blending natural fibers such as wool, cashmere, silk, linen, mohair and angora, I create knitted fabrics of uncompromising quality. My exuberant approach to color and design brings yarn to life and life to clothes!

Marie P. Galvin — Boston, MA   |   galvinized-hats.com

Hats have always been a part of Galvin's vision of the perfect accessory. Her award winning sculptural millinery features contemporary designs employing her own innovative & distinctive techniques. Creating unique fabrications & specializing in sculpting feathers & unique trims into modern silhouettes are a significant part of the process as the hat design itself. "My mission is to create unique handcrafted headwear, providing multiple expressions for the women who wear them."

Kristin Gereau — Waukesha, WI   |   kgtextiles.com

Because I'm drawn to great color and texture, each wearable accessory is designed to have a three dimensional quality when worn. All my wearables are knit using hand manipulated techniques on a knitting loom. Each accessory is an original design using premium, eco-friendly, fibers such as Merino Wool, Silk, Bamboo, and Tencel.

Juanita Girardin — Velarde, NM   |   juanitagirardin.com

My current quilted work is focused on garment form, abstract asymmetry and a restrained approach to surface design. After 30 years as a handweaver and an expert colorist, I studiously limit my palette to neutral colors in my quilted work. I begin with multiple layers of plain silk fabric. Raw edged shapes, often cut away from other garments, are captured beneath a transparent top silk layer to create pattern. The layers are basted, quilted together and then shrunk to create subtle surface texture via the disparate cloth qualities. Finally the cloth is embroidered or over stitched much like drawing with thread. All garments are designed to compliment a contemporary wardrobe.

Rae Gold — Pittsburgh, PA   |   adcockstudios.com

This year I am applying with a brand new line. It is still wool but these are hormone free merino sheep. The yarn was spun in Rhode Island and custom woven in PA. I am very particular about material so this is extremely soft and supple. The resist work is so much more exciting like creating wearable sculpture. Light, flattering and unique. I do not know anyone who is using this technique right now in wearables so it very exciting to feel like being on the cutting edge. What is most important is the material feels so good and looks so beautiful on the body.

Danielle Gori-Montanelli — Fairfield, CT   |   studiodgm.com

When I start a piece, I have only a basic vision in my mind, more about what the work feels like than what it looks like. I just throw myself into the rich warm textures and colors of the felt and watch the pieces evolve almost by themselves. I cut the felt both by hand and using custom dies, then start building up the layers, sewing them together or using thermal textile adhesives. I enjoy the improvisational nature of the process, toying with the colors and forms and letting the work just happen.

Sally Jones — Oneonta, NY   |   sallyjones.com

Original designs are painted and screen printed on white silk yardage. Clothing and scarves are made from a variety of the patterns and colorations, pieced together.

Selma Karaca — Brooklyn, NY   |   selmakaraca.com

I have been working on "Spirals", "Whirling" since 2000, Spirals one of my signature style that one long Stretch Cotton fabric spirals around the body, as I stitch them together, also make the shape of the body as an infinite movement. The Whirling style, I use bias ribbon fabrics while swirling (sewing) around the foundation fabric to create layers of dimension around the body. To be able to create the texture and layers I use wide variety fabrics (canvas, silk, cotton, contemporary horse hair ribbon "synthetic" and more). As well as the pieces made out of long fabric strings and the other style helps me to create my unique way of making wearable pieces (spirals, whirling), as I use painting on whirling dresses or Agape collection from the web page. Also if I need a special color I use dyes and paint and wide variety of techniques and fabrics as well as recycle materials.

Chunghie Lee — Providence, RI   |   chunghielee.com

Pojagi, Korean traditional wrapping cloth, construction is triple time sewing which makes the combined stitched lines as strong linear elements. To express the concealed beauty of nameless women's lives, I use transparent silk, layering them together to create dimensional and illusive movement quality. My non-wearable works include contemporary pojagi wall hanging, soft sculpture, etc. My wearables become an interactive dialogue with the architectural installations I execute for specific sites.

Sonya Mackintosh & Steven Seward — Sheffield, MA   |   smartwks.com

Drawn to the textures, colors, and patterns found in nature, my resulting scarves are nubby and uniquely three-dimensional with a mixture of fabrics and tones. Those who wear them can express their own individuality and satisfy a need for style and comfort. I achieve the quality I strive for in my work by manipulating traditional knitting looms and finding innovative ways to use them. I also enjoy experimenting with combinations of yarns that are effected differently by heat and water. My studio was founded in 1994 in order to foster an environment where I could focus my work on designing and producing scarves. My scarves are well regarded and are found in fine galleries, boutiques and craft shows in the US and abroad.

Amy Nguyen — Jamaica Plain, MA   |   amynguyentextiles.com

I am inspired by the craftsmanship and peaceful nature inherent in the intricate hand-dyed kimonos created by innovative Japanese artisans thousands of years ago. I am equally drawn to technological advancement in textiles and the resources that are available today. I explore these opposites--pushing in new directions--using hand hewn techniques while imbuing a contemporary sensibility in each piece of wearable art I create. Each piece of white cloth undergoes multiple processes of hand-dyeing, stitching and manipulation until it can be reconfigured on the body to accent the natural curves of the human form. Past and present, old and new, curved and angular merge to complete my vision.

Jeung-Hwa Park — Providence, RI     

Innovative scarf that creates a sculptural sense of aesthetics to knitting.

Heidi Paul — San Francisco, CA   |   designbyheidipaul.com

Heidi Paul is a mix media fiber artist. As a working studio artist, Heidi combines techniques and fibers to create one-of-a-kind garments, hats and accessories, conceptual and sculptural work. I am a re-designer. I take discarded clothing and give them a new life. I reclaim wool sweaters from friends, family and thrift stores. After disassembling each piece I over-dye them, sometimes using a Japanese Shabori technique. I am also a felt maker and include some bits of hand-felted wool or Nuno into some of the pieces. I work mostly in Cashmere but don't exclude other beautiful fibers. The finished piece becomes a visual composition of new intention.

Michael Radyk — Athens, GA     

The first loom I ever touched belonged to my grandmother, who immigrated to America from a Russian village in 1910. As a child in western Pennsylvania, I watched as she magically transformed delicate yarns into the linens, curtains and blankets that were part of my family's daily life. I learned early on how objects of plain function could come to life as works of individuality and imagination. My weavings begin with symmetrical lines. They evolve spontaneously, as I explore unlimited possibilities of color, pattern and texture through deconstruction and reassembly. In musical terms, I think of my weavings as a raga, a traditional pattern of rising and falling notes in Hindu classical composition around which creative improvisations can dance and play. I create patterns in my work by varying the visual repetitions and rhythms of the woven structure.

Britt E. Rynearson — Kenmore, WA   |   brittrynearson.com

My new work draws modern lines around the body. Each piece is illuminated from within. Using fabric, I can paint a landscape that moves and wraps around the body; ripples, waves, peaks, valleys. Texture and pattern are elemental aspects of the work and come from my connection to the water. The movement of the surface of water is alive and indescribable. I aim to achieve the same in my textile work.

Jane Sisco — Evanston, IL   |   janesisco.com

By envisioning simple, functional, and flexible garments on the human body, I engineer the textile designs to move across and around the garment. Front and back relate to each other, sleeves relate to the body, and hem relates to the shoulder. The design undulates across the body, and moves with the body. Collectively reminiscent of Asian apparel such as the Japanese Noh robe, the Korean chima choguri, and the Ottoman kaftan, these garments honor the salwaar kameez and the kurta of India.

Andrea Valentini — Providence, RI   |   andreavalentini.com

Andrea Valentini fuses architecture with fashion by blending materials from one industry into another. Her signature sculptural fabrics are designed from a hybrid approach of laminating unconventional materials into conventional practices. She produces one sheet of fabric at a time for each lifestyle bag. Valentini's tactile surfaces are intended to heighten the sense of touch in effort to connect a moment through texture. Her jewelry is also inspired by manipulating unconventional materials and reinterpreting their nature into elegant textures and forms to enhance the everyday. An example of bead ball chain is manipulated into a double helix pattern reminiscent of DNA, the blueprint for life. Designing from the inside out, she draws inspiration from what she feels and can translate everyday objects into intimate objects of desire, integrity and passion. Made in the USA.

Teresa M. Widuch-Kowalczyk — Evanston, IL   |   yantar.com

Teresa Maria Widuch was born into an industrious family in Poland, surrounded by the conflicting forces of an artistic family and the scarcities of communism. This early exposure to the possibilities of meeting necessity through beautiful form guided her through a multitude of careers and countries, exposing her to all walks of life. Throughout, she has worked on her art, developing an aesthetic that shows ingenuity and authenticity: an efficient use of materials with a clean line that is elegant but never flashy. All work is done entirely by hand to create a fine-tuned sculptural effect. Each piece is given the time necessary to ensure the highest level of quality. Teresa has chosen from the finest merino wools, wool felts, cashmeres, suedes, and ultrasuedes from around the world for this purpose. Each piece is individually designed, cut, and assembled: no two pieces are exactly alike.