Love the Fabric Workshop. Love it.

Finally! Finally I've managed to land myself a job at the fabric workshop! I've been trying to get my foot into that door since graduating! And it's amaaaazing! I was brought in March to work as a seamstress on a two-month project with New Mexico artist, Paula Wilson.

(We took over an ENTIRE floor to work on this project with Paula.)

The absolute amazingness of the fabric workshop was immediate. I love working at Viv Pickle but there's something so rewarding about working in an environment that utilizes your creativity: on my first day in the studio I was asked my opinion on fabrics and colors, trusted to make intricate samples and integrated fully into the project.

(Me sewing a giant brick wall/curtain on as absolute BEAST of an industrial.)

It's been almost two months since I started working there two days a week. Now I'm there four days a week... even some late nights and weekends. The work is challenging (I've spent hours brainstorming archival engineering with a master printer and the project manager), physically exhausting (today I spent over an hour sewing an 11ft piece of felt into a decorative architectural cornice), and totally starstrucky! The fabric workshop and museum archives are FULL of yardage by artists like Felix Gonzalez Torres and boxes labeled Laurie Anderson. Not to mention I totally shook Nick Cave's hand two weeks ago. Ack! SERIOUSLY. The Fabric Workshop has worked with soooo many amazing and famous artists!

(Louise Bourgois! Swoooooon!)

The opening is RAPIDLY approaching (May 7th! One week!) and I only love working there more and more! I'll get some more photos of us working in the studio over the next week!

Be My Valentine, FiberArts Magazine!

At the very last minute I sent off one of my knit postcards to the annual FiberArts Magazine fiber postcard valentine competition. It didn't win any prizes, but it did manage to make it into the April/May issue!


Ok, so every year you send a pre-addressed/stamped hand-made, fibers postcard to the Interweave studio and they mail it back to you via their local post office in Loveland, Colorado... which also means that this was the perfect opportunity for me to test the real world mail-ability of my postcards! (Note the just-in-case $1 stamp. Y'know.. just in case.) But it arrived at the Viv Pickle studio in fine condition! Yay!


Happy Universal Love Day to All! Check out my postcard in the spread:


OOoooooh... sooo exciting! I hope I didn't offend any of those fibers ladies with my roughly knitted language. :0)

You can see all of the entries from the magazine here at the FiberArts magazine website!

Stuff and Things

Ack! Is it the end of April already? Wtf? Somehow I thought it was still February. Casa Renick Rinehart has been a bit above crazy lately. By which I mean: so much more than crazy that I have been running around all over the east coast and all over the country trying to make some pretty big decisions. For those of you paying attention to my neurosis, you're probably wondering if I'm going to grad school in the fall. Unfortunately, (or maybe not so unfortunate if you're my bank account) it turns out that I will not be going back to school... so, I've bought myself a pick up truck and I'm moving to Chicago instead! Aaand... I'm moving kinda' soon.

Like one month from today.


Aaaah! Soo much to do! What with the logistics and the packing and selling of most of my earthly belongings... (keep an eye out for the porch sale!)

But in the mean time I've been keeping the busiest ever! I've been doing some free-lance t-shirt printing, some last minute quilting, and- super exciting- I've started working a few days a week at the Fabric Workshop and Museum! (OOoooooooh... yessss. I've been trying to get in there for years!)

Anyway, keep an eye on the blog for lots of photos and stories from the past couple of months and current projects!

Fun-a-Day 2010! This Weekend!

It's that time of year again!


And unlike last year... I actually finished my project AND got it turned in on time! Which, let me tell you, was no small feat. The drop off day was last Saturday and as those of you from the Philly area can attest... we had a bit of snow that day.

So I bundled up my knots and trudged them the three blocks to the drop off site. Snow up to my knees! It was beautiful!

And the project itself came out pretty well too:


Raph let me use her cursive typewriter to type the labels for all the knots (date, fig #, historical name.) And after only a few embarrassing incidents with a can of gold spray paint...


Come on out on Friday or Saturday to see all the amazing projects! There are always SOO many creative collections: the show is always worth coming to West Philly for.



*** in other news!! Because the snow blanketed the city last weekend, the opening event for the Text/Textile Show has been POSTPONED until this Sunday, Feb 14th! Be my Valentine and come see my work! 1-5 pm, 704 Catherine st at the DaVinci Art Alliance.

Text/Textile Show Opening This Weekend!

Come and see my art in a local textile show! Here's all the information for the opening:

"This exhibit at Da Vinci Art Alliance aims to complement various citywide exhibits happening in conjunction with Philagrafika 2010, a multi-sited international festival of contemporary art (www. Philagrafika.org). Participating artists for "TEXT/TEXTILE" were encouraged to think text, grid, language, words, script, graphics; and think texture, technique, tradition, innovation!!!

As curator, I want to represent what is happening in Philadelphia's own studios w/in the context of this specific challenge: text/textile. Studio artists, teaching artists, student artists, professional artisans, and exquisite crafters... all inclined to find & create a link with the concept/context of text/textile were invited to submit work, from which I chose select pieces, for this salon-style exhibition."

I decided to submit my knit postcards to the Text/Textile show:


And although presentation/installation is, ahem, NOT my strong point... I am lucky enough to be surrounded by other, talented artists to help me out. (Even at the last minute... thank goodness for overnight shipping.)

Eileen made me crazy amazing little individual shelves for the cards! They're made of masonite cut by the magical laser machine at SAIC.

(They smelled of wood fires and looked like mission-style furniture!) They were PERFECT and I can't wait to see how the cards look hung in the gallery. Thanks, Eileen!

The show looks super interesting: I can't wait to see all the art installed. Also, Philagraphika looks amazing!! If you're in the Philly area, or planning on visiting any time in the next THREE MONTHS you should check out some of the million and a half events going on around the city! Overwhelming calendar of awesome events! There's even an exhibition by one of my absolute favorite artists, Lisa Anne Auerbach!! Although I've been inspired by her knit pieces for years, the piece she has set up here is print-based. Oooooh, I can't wait to check it out!

Soo... yeah! if you're in Philly on Sunday, and the snow doesn't bury you in too deeply, come and see me at the opening! (Opening is from 1-5pm, I'll probably be there between 2 and 4pm.)

The Pie Diaries: Month 5

January: Time Travel Pie

(aka Creme de Menthe Pie)

In honor of the beginning of the last season of LOST, I present pie from a bygone era. Creme de Menthe makes me think of 1950's holiday cocktail parties and a time when it was totally acceptable to make an entire desert out of other, pre-packaged desserts. The alcohol content, albeit more symbolic than anything else, evokes a bit of a desperate housewife image. Also, it's green. YES! And although the time tumbling cast of LOST only spent a hot second in the 50's... hell, why not! (Thanks to Brece for the recipe!)

16-18 chocolate oreo cookies, (my aunt used 24 for a 10" pie plate)

1/3 c. melted oleo

26 large marshmallows

1/2 c. milk

1/4 c. green creme de menthe

1 c. whipping cream, whipped and unsweetened (believe me you do not need any more sugar!)

2 squares chocolate

Crush cookies to fine crumbs (blender). add melted oleo and mix well. shape into pie pan and chill. mix marshmallows and milk in top of double boiler. stir over low heat until marshmallows have melted. cool to room temperature. add creme de menthe. fold into whipped heavy cream. spoon into pie shell and chill. garnish with grated chocolate and remaining additional heavy cream and/or fresh mint leaves.

(*Oleo?? Clearly I didn't use Oleo. I used Earth Balance. Which is like Oleo but fully endorsed by the Whole Foods Generation. Seemed to work just fine as a replacement.)


Apparently Lee owns a blender! (Which would have come in really handy that time I tried to make a ginger-snap crust a few months ago and ended up making the most pathetic mortar and pestle out of a titanium thermos and a metal bowl. Not even kidding. It wasn't pretty. Or quiet.) The blender crushed those oreos with ease, though, so the crust was completed without insult or injury.

Who doesn't love a good double boiler? It took a while to heat up (mostly because the only other pot i own is a huge soup pot...) but the marshmallows melted quickly and evenly once the water was finally boiling.


Oh man... adding the Creme de Menthe was like adding alcoholic food coloring! I have no idea what kind of drinks you'd make with Creme de Menthe... but that stuff is STRONG! (The color, that is, not the alcohol...) I imagine you have to mix it with a bunch of stuff to dilute it enough to be safe for drinking.

I topped the pie, fittingly enough, with shavings from an individually pre-packaged, mini hershey's chocolate bar after letting the pie chill for several hours in the fridge. And, when served, it was delicious. No seriously. DELICIOUS! I mean, how could it NOT be when it's main ingredients are Oreos, marshmallows, alcohol and sugar?? But, astoundingly, the pie was even better than the sum of the delicious delicious parts. LOST club gave it a unanimous A+ rating, with some members risking missing important scenes to serve themselves seconds! I HIGHLY recommend this recipe to anyone who enjoys the mint/chocolate combination and wooing their friends.

Success!

Thoughts On Knots

"Down through the ages the tying of knots and the making of rope have played highly important roles in the life of Man. That there has always been a need for rope or cord of some kind can be readily appreciated. Since rope could have served but few useful purposes unless it could have been attached in some manner to the things it was desired to pull, life, or secure, Man, at the time of his first conception of the use of rope, must have conceived of some means of tying knots."

Thus begins the introduction of Raoul Graumont and John Hensel's Encyclopedia of Knots and Fancy Rope Work: Fourth Edition (1942). And although the history given in their brief preface is entirely dated, some interesting tidbits were intriguing enough to be worth repeating here.

The Making of Rope! (as of 1942, remember... Mostly, I just loved the old-school, industrial photos that the book posited as "how to make rope" as if it were the only way.)

Step one: Bales of fiber are put through a series of carding machines that transform the "hemp" into a consistency referred to as "silver.")

Step two: Through multiple cardings, the "silvers" are separated into smaller strands and those strands are spun into yarn.

Step three: Individual strands of yarn (of differing, specific guages) are plied together to make rope.

Step four: Multi-stranded ropes are again plied to create thicker, stronger, finished ropes.

Step Five: Uhm.. this diagram shows more plying? The photos aren't actually labeled all that clearly...

Step six: Finished ropes are wound onto spools to maintain their twist and tensions.

Knots: Symbolism and Superstition

I have found, through my informal investigations of history and myth, that objects with the most important functionalities are often associated with the most powerful symbolisms and superstitions: a correlation that is exemplified perfectly by the history of knots.

One example of this is the Early Egyptian, Greek and Roman practice of omitting knots in any of their artistic renderings. No knot was illustrated in their paintings, even where they very clearly should have been. Instead, rope was draped over the spot to indicate the existence of an absent knot. It's theorized that the reasoning behind this tradition was the supposed relationship of rendering to reality: were the knots to be permanently embodied in art the knot it represented in real life would thusly be permanently tied. Since knots were used as temporary holdings for farmers, sailors, etc. the inability to untie a knot would have disasterous consequences.

Similarly, among the Lapps, certain Germanic races, and the aboriginals of Borneo (as well as other ancient peoples) there was a strong superstition against pregnant women wearing knots or knotted garments. It was thought that the presence of a knot would cause complications during childbirth. In the more superstitious cases, even the husbands of pregnant women would abdicate the wearing of knots until the child was born. In some sections of Scandinavia even use of words related to knots were seen as having great power: parents with a large number of children would often name a son "Knute" or "Canute" (translations of "knot") in the hopes that the name would act as a form of birth control.

Among some European tribes, there was a belief that knots had the ability to either cause or cure illness. One such superstition was that a fever could be cured by tying knots in the bows of a willow tree: one knot for every day of fever. Then by the incantation of certain words the tree would acquire the fever and the patient would be cured.

Witches and Wizards were often considered to be able to control the magical powers of knots. Sailors would go to a witch or wizard to purchase "the wind tied up in knots," embodied by a piece of rope tied into three knots. In an emergency, these sailors were told that by untying the knots in sequence they could release the winds: first a strong wind, then a gale and finally a hurricane. (Apparently, there were risks that came along with the use of such powerful magic.)

Knots have also led to numerous common words and phrases, such as "cutting the Gordian Knot" (a bold and direct way of dealing with a complicated project), knots per hour (the method of measuring boat speed- actually derived from the use of knots) and the literary term "denoument" (a french translation of unknotting or unravelling that refers to the point in a plot where complicated things become clear).

Oh man.. I could go on and on. There are infinite applications for knots, cultural histories that range the globe and span history, even a whole branch of mathematics that deals with "knot theory." I had no idea that by committing to this project that I would be presented by such a wealth of metaphor... which just proves yet again why i love textile so much: The history of our culture, of humanity, is tied up by textiles. (Pun intended.)


**Sources consulted:

Encyclopedia of Knots and Fancy Rope Work: Fourth Edition (1942), by Raoul Graumont and John Hensel

Rigamaroles & Ragamuffins: Unpicking words we derive from textiles (2007), by Elinor Kapp

wikpedia entry for "knots"