Textile and Weaving

Two major influences on the last 20 years in my fiber work involved studying under the fiber artist #Alma Lesch and the basket maker #Hisako Sekijima.

Exploring natural dyeing through vegetable (plant) material using wool and cotton resulted in meeting the author of the 1970s "bible" of #Natural Dyeing by #Alma Lesch who taught graduate classes at the University of Louisville. After producing a series of textile sculptural fabric forms completing my masters degree in secondary education weaving natural materials as basket forms simply evolved because of the by-product of boiling natural materials for dye sources. I studied at #Brookfield Craft Center (now closed) in Connecticut in 1983 exploring vines with master basket maker #Hisako Sekijima who was exhibiting her recent work in New York City during that summer of '83 at #Wave Hill along the upper weast side along the Hudson River. Honeysuckle vine, which is abundant in Kentucky, was the most beautiful fibers and 'wood'-like vines that still remains one of my favorite materials. Perhaps, in the future, I will consider using natural dyestuffs with this white linear vine (as well as embellishments of vintage buttons) to connect the two major influences on my fiber sculpture: Alma Lesch and Hisako Sekijima.