WGRI Programs 2023-2023
Submitted by Jaimee Veronneau
Vice President, WGRI
November 5th, 2022 at 9:30am
Location: New Hope Chapel, Carolina, RI
Talking Flax with Renee Josephine Walker-Tuttle
Residing in Portsmouth, Rhode Island Renee was intrigued when she discovered flax was grown, harvested, and spun on Aquidneck Island. In her talk she will outline the history of flax in colonial America. Flax, the predominant textile fiber in the 18th century, was spun in large quantities during “spinning bees” in protest of taxes on consumer goods prior to the Revolutionary War. Patriot commentators published articles in the Newport Mercury outlining the importance of flax, which was easily grown in Rhode Island, in establishing a self-sustaining colony. In conducting her research she found documentation of enslaved people being forced to participate in all aspects of textile cultivation, processing and manufacture. The invention of the cotton gin and spinning jenny solidified the institution slavery for almost another century in which all colonies actively participated. An increase in cotton production resulted in the rapid decline in the manufacture of linen and an increase in the products agricultural fragility.
Renee Walker-Tuttle received an M.S. in Historic Textiles & Dress from the University of Rhode Island where she served as both Collections Assistant and Textile Conservation Lab Manager for the Textile & Fashion Collection. During and following her undergraduate studies she worked for Colonial Williamsburg’s Costume Design Center and the Dewitt Wallace Conservation Center. As proprietor of Renaissance Conservation Services, she has consulted as a curator, conservator and collections manager for several national institutions including the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, The International Tennis Hall of Fame, and the Library of Congress. Regional organizations include Blithewold, Newport Restoration Foundation, Newport Historical Society, Old Colony History Museum, Webb Deane Stevens House, Connecticut Landmarks, and the New Hampshire Historical Society where she documented over 3,000, textiles and manufacturer samples. Her experience ranges from the analysis of textiles found in 5th century Maya tombs from Copan, Honduras to the conservation of 21st century plastics in textile and fashion collections. She served as a visiting lecture for Framingham State University Department of Fashion Retailing and Design from 2016-2018 and Roger Williams University Theater Department in Costume Design from 2018 to present. In addition to her professional endeavors, she is an active member of the American Institute for the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC) and served as a board member for the Costume Society of America Northeastern Region from 2013-2016. Her expertise and research interests are in women’s 18th century hair, cosmetics, fashion as well as colonial and early American flax (linen) cultivation and production.
December 3rd, 2022 at 9:30am
Location: New Hope Chapel, Carolina, RI
Holiday Party!
January 7th, 2023
Location: New Hope Chapel, Carolina, RI
Off-the-Grid, Elisabeth Hill
Feeling hemmed in by the ho hum of parallels and perpendiculars. Join me in an adventure out of the straight and narrow! Through the miracle of Zoom/Powerpoint, we will examine multiple structures that allow the warp and weft to shift and move, creating a dizzying array of curves, undulations and textures. We will discuss techniques and tips for weaving these structures, and examine many fabric sample slides. A small set of drafting exercises in .PDF form will be sent prior to the presentation.
Elisabeth (Lisa) Hill is a weaving enthusiast. She has been weaving for close to 30 years, and completed a 6-year Master Weaver Program at Hill Institute in Florence, MA in 2012. Elisabeth is past Program Chair for the Weavers of Western Massachusetts and formerly a tech editor for and frequent contributor to Handwoven Magazine. She has taught at guilds, weaving conferences and folk schools all over the country and has kept a weaving blog since 2010. Elisabeth has designed weaving patterns for WEBS yarn store and Gist Yarns, and continues to create original designs for sale through plainweave.net.
February 4th, 2023
Location: New Hope Chapel, Carolina, RI
Go Big with Color and Weave Effects, Karen Donde
Have you ever wanted to weave giant houndstooth patterns that show up frequently on fashion runways? Houndstooth is simple to weave on four shafts, belonging to a class called color-and-weave effects. Generally, motif size is limited by yarn thickness. However, using a thick-and-thin technique in a structure similar to shadow weave can simulate the large motifs seen in jacquard woven fashion fabrics. Participants will see how to expand popular motifs.
Karen Donde weaves garments, fashion accessories and home textiles for sale and teaches beginning-advanced weaving classes and assorted workshops for guilds and conferences. Teaching credits include HGA’s Convergence 2012, 2014 and 2016 and 2020, Southeast Fiber Forum, the Mid-Atlantic Fiber Association’s Workshop Weekend, Midwest Weavers Conference, Intermountain Weavers Guild Conference and Florida Tropical Weavers Conference. In Asheville, NC, she has taught at Sutherland Handweaving Studio, Friends & Fiberworks and Local Cloth.
Karen is a juried member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild and graduated in May 2013 from Haywood Community College’s Professional Crafts-Fiber program. An experienced and award-winning writer with a bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Missouri, Donde now writes for and about weavers. She is a contributor to Handwoven magazine and other industry publications.
Karen is currently president of Complex Weavers.
March 4th, 2023
Location: New Hope Chapel, Carolina, RI
Inspirations and Revelations of Fiber Artist, Laurie Carlson Steger
Laurie Carlson Steger will present the personal side to her inspiration and art work recently on view at the Fuller Craft Museum. Discussing her works Clouds of August:1945 and Last Wishes, she will talk about sensitive subjects commonly experienced by all, and explain how these feeling were expressed in fiber. A visual presentation will include design inspiration, the technical development, working with the TC2 jacquard loom, and the technical issues that lead to unexpected resolution of both works.
Laurie Carlson Steger began weaving in the 1960’s and studied at The Worcester Center for Crafts in the 1970’s and the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, earning a BFA and MFA in Artisanry/Fibers. She is a Master Weaver who explored weaving with fiber optic materials and consulted in the field of smart textile applications. She earned the Handweavers Guild of America Certificate of Excellence in weaving. Steger is the current Associate Dean of the Weavers’ Guild of Boston. She recently led a collaborative project with the WGB members to create a quilt using handwoven cloth, titled Home Sweet Home displayed at the Fuller Craft Museum within the exhibit, Interpreting Change: Weavers’ Guild of Boston 1922-2022. Her work has been included in Fiberart International, FAN:Excellence in Fibers, and London Hat Week, among others. She taught Textile Science at Boston area colleges, and has led workshops/lectures at many weaving guilds and other textile organizations.
April 1st, 2023
Location: New Hope Chapel, Carolina, RI
The Completed Weaving:
How Mounting Systems Affect the Finished Display of our Textiles,
Claudia P. Iannuccilli
This presentation will examine traditional mounting techniques, looking beyond at how new materials can be used to improve not only the display of textiles but also their longevity. Attendees are invited to bring in their finished weavings for a hands-on question and answer session to follow the lecture.
Claudia P. Iannuccilli – Studio of Textile Arts
Conservation Emeritus, Textiles and Costume Conservation
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Claudia is presently the owner of the Studio of Textiles Arts (SOTA) which she opened after twenty-six years of dedication to the care and presentation of the collections of Textiles and Fashion Arts at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA). SOTA works with private textile and conservation clients and national costume exhibition installations as well as consultations on archival storage and disaster preparedness.
During her two-decade tenure at the MFA, Claudia worked on numerous exhibitions, including Poetry of the Loom, Secret Gardens: Paisley and Kashmir Shawls, Common Threads: A Showcase of Samplers, Fashion Show: Paris Collection, High Style and Hoop Skirts: 1850s Fashion, Hippie Chic, Gender Bending Fashion; several international traveling exhibitions such as La Parisienne and Casanova’s Europe; and gallery rotations involving the Japanese Noh robe collection.
Claudia received a BS and MS in Historic Textiles and Fashion Arts with a specialization in Conservation from the University of Rhode Island. She remains an active member of several professional organizations, including American Institute for Conservation (AIC), International Council of Museums, Textile Society of America, Costume Society of America, and Providence Art Club. She is also part of AIC’s Cultural Emergency Response Team, an extension of her time serving as a standing member of the MFA’s disaster preparedness team.
May 6th, 2023
Location: Newport Art Museum Time: 10am
*we’ll figure out carpooling as the date gets closer
Social Fabric: Textiles and Contemporary Issues
From the cradle to the grave, human beings are wrapped in, and surrounded by textiles. What people make to clothe, protect, and decorate themselves and their spaces, tells us about their cultures, eras, identities, families, and lives. This exhibition brings together a diverse array of contemporary textile artists who are weavers, sculptors, quiltmakers, and visionaries to examine the complex issues of our time. Together, their practices demonstrate and reimagine the expressive and social functions of textiles. Some of the themes include: climate change and sustainability, adaptation and reuse, war and survival, human rights and social justice, the reclamation of history, the reaffirmation and celebration of communities, and gender, ethnic, and racial identities.
The artists in this exhibition take on the challenges of a variety of materials, pushing textiles in new directions and seeing how far they can go. Through textiles, they inspire new conversations about contemporary issues.
Featured artists and organizations include: AIDS Quilt RI, Jim Arendt, Judy Chicago and International Honor Quilt artists, Elizabeth Duffy, Brooke Erin Goldstein, Sabrina Gschwandtner, Letitia Huckaby, Tamara Kostianovsky, Jesse Krimes, Dinh Q. Lê, Aubrey Longley-Cook, Veronica Mays, the National AIDS Memorial, L. J. Roberts, Alison Saar, Marie Watt, Emma Welty, and Nafis M. White.
June 3rd, 2023
Location: TBD