The Best of Tennessee Craft: 2024 Biennial opened at Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts in Gatlinburg, TN, on October 14th. These bead tapestry crochet baskets are among the over 70 artworks from some of the best craft artists in Tennessee.
Unfortunately, I won’t be able to make the closing Artist Reception on December 13th from 5-7pm, but I hope you will!
An exhibit that opens July 26th at Bailey Contemporary Arts in Pompano Beach, Florida, features textiles that incorporate words into the fabrics. I’m happy to say that my Yes No and White Lies bead tapestry crochet baskets and He Said / She Said, Too are included.
Yes No is read from top to bottom:
Three rounds of Yes and three rounds of No.
Twelve Yes and Twelve No on every row.
Twenty-four up and down all around.
Twenty-four diamonds in a row.
Twelve merged hearts below.
How many times is Yes a No?”
You may interpret the message as you wish, but my intention is that the victim is saying, “No”, but the perpetrator is saying,” Yes”.
What inspired White Lies? We live in a complex world where very little is black and white. The truth hurts but is ultimately less painful than an embellished white lie. Let there be light. Let there be truth. Let there be no more white lies!
He Said She Said, Too, is based on my observation that history, for the most part, has been written by men from their point of view. What women say is often labeled as heretical. The same situation is often perceived very differently from a man’s or a woman’s point of view. This is the second of 2 pieces that explore the same topic.
Unfortunately, I won’t be able to see the exhibit in person – but I hope that you can! If so, please post comments and pictures!
Positive Negative: Greed vs Generosity and Entitlement vs Responsibility is my most recent double sided bead tapestry crocheted piece. The open rim and positive dazzling interior invite and emanate love and the qualities that I hope will overpower the negativity of the exterior.
Positive Negative: Greed vs Generosity and Entitlement vs Responsibility, cotton thread and glass beads, 7″ x 9 1/2″, 2022.
I should probably rename it Negative Positive because this basket was rejected by one juror but awarded second place in another international exhibit, Small Expressions, sponsored by the Handweavers Guild of America. This traveling exhibit will be at Pacific Northwest Quilt & Fiber Arts Museum, WA, July 5 – September 3, 2023; Haywood Community College, NC, September 21 – November 9, 2023; Yadkin Valley Fiber Center, NC, December 8, 2023 – February 15, 2024; and Vanderbilt’s Sarratt Gallery, TN, March through early May, 2024. I hope you’ll be able to see it in person and soak up the positivity!
I shared the inspiration and technique used to bead tapestry crochet “White Lies” with juror, Judy Zugish, and other HGA Convergence attendees at the recent “Dogwood to Kudzu” basketry exhibit. Just click the picture or the caption to hear more about it. Thanks so much for making this video, Kennita!
The Handweavers Guild of America ‘s Convergence last week in Knoxville, Tennessee, was educational, relatively safe, and so much fun! Don’t be fooled by their name, though, because this organization embraces a lot more than just weaving, including spinning, dyeing, felting, sewing, bobbin lace, sprang, and crochet!
On Friday morning I taught how to load size 8 seed beads onto Aunt Lydia’s size 3 crochet cotton thread with a spinner, how to design a motif, how to carry a color, the bead tapestry crochet stitch, and how to crochet a basket with a beaded motif. For more about this class, take a look at my previous blog with a link to a video.
I visited exhibits after class. There were so many in the Convention Center and downtown that I had to return several times over the course of the conference to take them all in.
What else did I do? Well, I attended talks and fashion shows, learned how to do sprang with Carol James, toured Arrowmont, the Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center, Great Smoky Mountains National Park Collections Preservation Center, and crossed the state line to visit the Center for Craft, the Black Mountain College Museum and Arts Center, SewCo, and Local Cloth in Asheville, NC.
The best part, though, was meeting so many talented and excited fiber enthusiasts in classrooms, ballrooms, lecture halls, elevators, and on the tour buses. Time well spent.
Tapestry crochet has helped me through some of the toughest times of my adult life. It continues to help me deal with misinformation and now the pandemic. Lies are prolonging the pandemic and making so many innocent people suffer and die! I retired from teaching at TTU last summer, but will never stop trying to open minds and expand horizons. My most recent contribution is:
Prevention Trumps Disease: Covid Hijacks Independence but Masks and Vaccines Ransom Freedom attempts to rectify the confusion between masks, vaccines, and freedom. Although Covid-19 is the disease overwhelming us now, all types of preventable illnesses restrict our freedom. The healthcare system, represented by red crosses, is able to contain, treat, and eliminate many diseases, thereby restoring our freedom to walk, run, dance, eat, pray, and sing together. Red, white, and blue represent more than just the United States, as the flags of many nations include the same colors. It is disease that takes away our freedom, but vaccines and masks can restore it. Doing something for your own good and the good of the world should not have to be mandated, but in some cases it is the only way out of a dangerous and disastrous situation.
This piece is in the 2022 Craft Biennial at the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Massachusetts, through June 12th, 2022. Not only are the compliments the finished piece is receiving a pleasant reward, the concentration required to bead tapestry crochet such a complicated basket was meditative and the repetitive motion released endorphins. Combined, tapestry crochet is a win-win-win!
My YES NO basket is one of 52 pieces (selected from 1100 entries) included in The Excellence in Fibers VI juried exhibition. Just click on the arrow under the Vessel category in the photo box of the exhibit web page to see it. The online exhibit runs through March 28th, 2021.
The basket is read from top to bottom:
Three rounds of Yes and three rounds of No.
Twelve Yes and Twelve No on every row.
Twenty-four up and down all around.
Twenty-four diamonds in a row.
Twelve merged hearts below.
How many times is Yes a No?”
You may interpret the message as you wish, but my intention is that the victim is saying, “No”, but the perpetrator is saying,” Yes”.
How did I crochet different images on both sides of a single-walled basket? It was accomplished with four beaded threads, a white thread with white beads, a white thread with red beads, a red thread with red beads and a red thread with white beads. Carrying 3 threads made the fabric stronger and and having red and white threads with red and white beads allowed me to place red or white beads where they were needed while crocheting red or white stitches, following a graph. I used the same technique to make the White Lies Basket.
My web page includes a free video that shows how to tapestry crochet with 2 beaded threads and my Bead and Felted Tapestry crochet book has more projects using two beaded threads. I hope you’ll give bead tapestry crochet a try!
The Handweavers Guild of America’s Convergence 2020 has been postponed to 2022, including the exhibitions. So, what a happy surprise when a letter arrived informing me that my White Lies bead tapestry crochet basket had won the third place award in the Dogwood to Kudzu basketry exhibit!
Very interesting, especially since the same basket had been rejected from Convergence’s Small Expressions exhibit; different judges and different criteria and different odds. It just goes to show that rejection of your work should not be taken personally, because the very same piece can achieve greatness in another venue!
This basket was inspired by the news, social media, and situations closer to home.
Let there be light.
Let there be truth.
Let there be no more white lies!
I was honored to have two of my tapestry crochet pieces accepted into the 2012 TACA Biennial: The Best of Tennessee Craft exhibit at the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville.
My Hat and Geometry Tote in TACA’s 2012 Biennial Exhibition.
Even better is that my Geometry Tote received a Purchase Award! I’m so excited that it’s now part of the Tennessee State Museum’s permanent collection. I blogged about this Tote earlier, when it was published in Crochet World and recently posted about the Hat, too.
The Biennial Exhibition runs through October 21 and the reception will be this Saturday, the 29th, from 6-9pm. I would love to see you there! If you can’t make it to the reception, you can still make it by crocheting your very own Geometry Tote from the instructions in the February 2011 issue of Crochet World.
If you’re in southeastern Tennessee between March 28th and May 13th, please visit the Jewish Federation of Greater Chattanooga. Why? Because some of my tapestry crochet pieces have been included in an exhibit there based on the quote by Bertolt Brecht, “Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.”
Four of the eight pieces of my Lessons Series included in the Drawn In exhibit.
Unfortunately, I won’t be able to make it then, but if you’d like to see my tapestries and meet the other artists in the exhibit, Judith Mogul and Frances McDonald, you’re invited to attend the reception on Thursday, April 7th, at 5:30.
The Federation is located at 5461 North Terrace Road in Chattanooga, TN 37411. The exhibit hours are Monday through Thursday from 9:00 to 5:00 and Friday from 9:00 to 4:00. It will be closed on April 19th, 20th, 25th, and 26th. All of their programs and exhibits are open to everyone, regardless of religious affiliation.
The curator, Ann Treadwell, said she was “looking for three different ways in which artists can be ‘a hammer’. First through the use of words in decision making (Carol’s pieces); second in acknowledging the love for cars that shapes us and that we should push back (Judith’s work); and third the use of the artist as a “conductor” to engage others in the creative thought process and thereby change their lives (Frances).” For more about the exhibit, please contact Ann at atreadwell@jewishchattanooga.com or (423) 493-0270, ext. 13.
The plan for my exhibit was to bring the crocheted tapestries to Poland on the plane, help with the installation, travel while the show was up, repack everything, then fly back home. So far, the plan is working.
Most of the framed tapestries fit into our regular suitcases, but I purchased a mixer case for the large Mother’s Advice series. International flights allow each passenger 2 check-in bags free of charge and a carry-on, and Andrzej and I were able to fit everything into our bags, so I didn’t have to pay anything to ship the exhibit to and from Poland!
All ready to go! Names make the bags easy to locate and help keep them from being misplaced.
A delayed flight made our connection tight – but we made it! My brother-in-law and sister-in-law met us at the Warsaw airport and then drove us to Lodz. I really lucked out when I remarried ten years ago. Not did I get a wonderful husband, but Andrzej comes from a very loving and accomplished family.
Andrzej Kuab and his team made quick work of the installation at the Central Museum of Textiles.
Curator Jolanta Piwonska, me, and Museum Director Norbert Zawisza next to the exhibition poster.
The public was very receptive during the opening! What a relief!
Since no one there understood how tapestry crochet was done, I demonstrated during the opening reception. They were not only amazed that my pieces were crocheted, but also surprised that there were no threads on the back.
When finished, this piece will be in my Mother’s Advice Series.
My work fit in well with two other museum exhibits; a contemporary needlework exhibit that showcased Polish crochet, knitting, tatting, and cross stitch, and another exhibition that featured large, woven tapestries.
A biennial contemporary Polish needlework exhibit at the Central Museum of Textiles in Lodz.
A contemporary woven tapestry exhibit at the Central Museum of Textiles.
The Curator arranged for me to see some early twentieth century crochet in the storage area of the museum. There was no tapestry crochet, but an interesting variety of crocheted edgings on handwoven towels, clothing, bedding, and tablecloths.
The crocheted edging complements the bold geometric pattern of this handwoven linen towel from Polesie, Poland (dating to 1920-1930), in the collection of the Central Museum of Textiles.
The crocheted borders and embroidery on this handwoven linen blouse (1938) from Chociw, Rawski region, Poland, in the collection of the Central Museum of Textiles, are exquisite!
Crocheted borders surround this colorful handwoven wool bedspread (1955) from Deba, Opoczynski region, Poland, in the collection of the Central Museum of Textiles.
Below is one of the thirty six tapestries from the exhibit. It pretty much sums up my life because I worked a really long time before this could happen.
What Experience Taught Me from my Lessons Series.
The exhibit came down today – and we fly home on Sunday. I love to get away, but am really looking forward to being home again – to catch up with everything that needs my attention – and so that I can plan my next adventure!
Do you need an excuse to visit Poland? Well – here it is! You’re invited to my tapestry crochet exhibition at the Central Museum of Textiles in Lodz (pronounced woodg), Poland. It opens next week at 1 PM on Tuesday, May 12th, and will be up through May 28th.
Your official invitation.
The Harvest was inspired by Polish and Mexican icons, Mexican milagros, personal convictions, and childhood memories.
How did I get my tapestry crochet into such a prestigious venue? Well, when my sister-in-law brought me to the museum in 2001, I thought, “Wouldn’t it be great to have my work displayed here some day?”
When my husband and I began planning our next visit, I thought, “If I want an exhibit, then I need to make a proposal.” So I did – and the museum accepted it – and now you are invited to see it! They chose a very appropriate piece for the invitation – don’t you think?
Sometimes it’s being in the right place at the right time or knowing the right people. Damon MacNaught recently asked me if I would like to exhibit some of my work over the summer at the Thigpen Library Gallery at Volunteer State Community College in Gallatin, Tennessee. Of course, I said, “Yes!” The show, which opens today, is a sampling of some of my earlier and later work.
The colors of each Lessons Series (1993-1994) piece reflect individual realizations. I didn’t notice which one Damon was labelling until I cropped the picture for this blog – a coincidence?
Damon and his wife, Shayna, made quick work of the installation.
This Self Portrait (1982) is the first piece that I tapestry crocheted back and forth, switching hands and the end of every row.
Jane Armour, from the Thigpen Library, graciously accepted copies of my More Tapestry Crochet and Bead & Felted Tapestry Crochet books, which are on display (along with some book projects) in the glass case.
The public is invited to the exhibition and also to my 10am Tapestry Crochet lecture at the Thigpen Library on July 28th, the day we take down the show. So if you’re in the area between June 2nd and July 25th (or on July 28th), please stop by to experience CAROL VENTURA Tapestry Crochet!
CAROL VENTURA Tapestry Crochet exhibition at the Thigpen Gallery.
