Author: Harmony Weavers Guild

April Program April 11 @ 10:00 a.m.

Meet at 10 a.m. in the Lobby of the Visitors Center

RSVP to Dinah Kirby by Monday, April 8

Our April Meeting will take place at the Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, 5105 Kennett Pike, Winterthur, Delaware. We will meet in the lobby of the Visitor’s Center at 10 a.m. and will be escorted by the staff via shuttle bus to the Museum, where we will tour the Library and Conservation Laboratory.

The tour will take about 2 hours, after which we will have a brief business meeting in a classroom reserved for us. After the meeting, HWG members are free to tour the rest of the house, dine in the cafeteria in the Visitor’s Center, and take a walking tour of the gardens with Pam Sapko, one of our members who volunteers in the gardens. Winterthur is offering this exclusive behind-the-scenes tour for the Harmony Weavers Guild free of charge as thanks for all of our contributions to their events and workshops! Please RSVP to Dinah Kirby by Monday, April 8.

Winterthur is the premier museum of American decorative arts, with an unparalleled collection of nearly 90,000 objects made or used in America since 1640. The collection is displayed in the magnificent 175-room house, much as it was when the family of founder Henry Francis duPont called it home. The graduate degree programs and extensive research library make Winterthur an important center for the study of American art and culture. The Winterthur Library is an independent research library with a world-class collection dedicated to the understanding and appreciation of artistic, cultural, social, and intellectual history of the Americas in a global context from the 17th to the 20th centuries. Its holdings include rare books, manuscripts, original works of art on paper, ephemera, photographs, the archives of the Winterthur estate and its history as a museum, and more. Of particular interest to our Guild, the collection includes several pattern books which we will have a chance to see.

The Conservation Department cares for the 90,000-piece Museum collection, prepares the objects for display and trains the next generation of conservators through Winterthur’s Art Conservation Program at the University of Delaware.

Winterthur is also 1,000 acres of protected meadows, woodlands, ponds, and waterways. The 60-acre garden, designed by du Pont, is among America’s best, with magnificent plantings and massive displays of color throughout the year. Don’t miss this wonderful opportunity to experience Winterthur on a tour tailored to our unique interests!

March Program — Zoom and in-person
March 14 @ 10:00 a.m.
presented by Molly Elkind

The world of contemporary work in tapestry is exciting and diverse. Many artists are exploring the potential of texture, creating works that come forward in space or even become completely three-dimensional. In this slide lecture, view the work of a wide variety of weavers who are pushing tapestry beyond two dimensions. Warning: you may leave with a strong desire to weave with weird materials in new ways!

From her blog Talking Textiles — https:// mollyelkindtalkingtextiles.blogspot.com/ — “So . . . what is woven-ness? Over-under-over-under. Interlacement. Warp and weft crossing in specific patterns. All of these, and also: the making of a web, the combining of two or more elements into one integrated whole, the weaving together. Not for nothing do we speak of the fabric of society and the worldwide web. If we probe deeper into the modality of weaving we find an approach, attitude and orientation, that is crucially different from that offered by knitting and crochet, different from surface embroidery, different from felt- and paper-making. All of these connect elements in different ways and moods and for different purposes. All can make images, but those images will be very different from each other because of their modality.

So I continue to read and to make small experiments, seeking to find the magic center place in the Venn diagram where technique, material, form and concept all converge. I am a weaver, and weaving is a beautiful, ancient, and nuanced language. But all languages grow
and change by incorporating “foreign” words and phrases too. Is it tapestry when the weft is plastic? Grass? When the warp includes wire? Is it weaving when strips of fabric are interlaced into metal hardware cloth? I’m about to find out. If you’re still with me, thanks for following along.”

February’s Program — Zoom
Thursday, February 8 @ 10:00 a.m.
presented by Lisa Trujillo

Lisa Trujillo, is a member of the Trujillo family of weavers who settled in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, between Santa Fe and Taos. Spanish settlers came through
Mexico seeking land and the Trujillo family was one of the original families who made Chimayo their home. Lisa learned to weave after marrying seventh-generation master weaver Irvin Trujillo in 1982. She has developed into an award-winning weaver, using traditional techniques and materials to create new work. She has taken an active role in preserving this rich Hispanic weaving tradition by publishing “A Chimayo Weaver’s Guidebook” and teaching workshops. She and her husband have passed their love of weaving on to their daughter Emily Trujillo, who has become the eighth generation of the Trujillo weavers.

If you are interested in learning more about this weaving tradition and the Trujillo family, visit www.chimayoweavers.com. If you would like to borrow “The Centinela Weavers of Chimayo; Unfolding Tradition”, “A Chimayo Weaver’s Guidebook” or “Images of America:
Chimayo”, contact Dinah Kirby. They are available for purchase on the website listed above.