pictured here is a shifu square... first in the hand of velma bolyard and then my own because she sent it to me. but more than that, she made it from indigo yarn i sent to her and she combined it with her spun paper into a little nine patch. all slow intention and something shared. and we met on the internet.
i have added a link to the slow cloth group on facebook to my side bar. its the picture with all the hands touching cloth. i know some folks have issues with facebook, so do i, but maybe, just maybe, this group could take some of the "drugged up speed" out of it. anyway, there was a good discussion going on. and i already see the release of some pent up anguish ... (see judy martin's post here). stuff that we hold back but has been needing to be said. it is time to acknowledge some of the issues that are poisoning creative endeavor.
i have taken the liberty to document the transcript of the first discussion. just because i feel it was a good start and to give non members a feel for what might be brewing. (some links to some of the folks in this conversation are listed below)
elaine lipson started by saying....
The idea of slow cloth came about for me, in part, as a response to the DIY/craft trend that's being overrun by badly made things. I want to make things with fiber and fabric that are not just handmade, but well-made, and made with intention. Your thoughts?
cathy cullis said:
Hello, pleased to have found Slow Cloth via Jude..... making with intention to explore and develop one's own skills is crucial to me. There is an anxiety to make things fast, and things that fit a certain trend, and I understand that. But as an artist I want to challenge people to look at materials, cloth and stitches, in a way that reflects my own personal journey.
i said...no handmade is not enough. i think it is all about the shortcut. the marketing of shortcuts. i am thinking a lot about that lately. a short cut eliminates the scenery, the enjoyment and also the true time it takes to understand the nature of the thing you are doing. it eliminates the possibility of learning from doing... and therefore does not promote skill and the beauty of the personal touch... the things that comes from you as you touch and express. it is the death of the original thought. it promotes and empty shell of a thing. it makes us miss the point. it leave one unfulfilled and yet proud of it. it saddens me.
glennis dolce said
the marketing of shortcuts", this brings up a lot of thoughts for me. i am currently working on my workshop outline for 2010 and plan to work the concept of slow cloth into it. it is such a dilemma- teaching something meaningful in a 3-6 hour window! how to give people what they think they want, yet not giving up my desire to keep the class true to my own intentions...
it is easier when i'm working by myself in my studio, but in a workshop/class setting - this will be my challenge this year.
i trust that by participating in this group i will find new and better ways of getting across the idea that it's good to slow down and focus on mastery of one or two things rather than collecting small amounts of knowledge of many.
and no, handmade is not enough!
i said ...one step in a process can be a whole experience
glennis said...so true! one thing i notice in the classes at quilt shows is that many students are in such a hurry. they want to pack as much as possible into a class (to get their $ worth?) . wouldn't it be fun to spend the whole class on ONE SMALL THING. master it, and let it lead you to new heights?
and i said...if there is one thing you could teach, wouldn't it be that? priceless.
velma bolyard said...
having taken several book arts classes, the ones that take time, that i delve deeply into, are for me the ones that have meaning. working for a week on one book teaches so much.
on the other hand, as a teacher, the most beautiful words i have heard are these: "you are a good teacher, you let me make mistakes". what happens next is the moving into skill from those mistakes. and with skill comes confidence and the need to explore more deeply. and then, if we're lucky, there is art.
i said...and it takes time to make mistakes. that time is crucial to learning, and if you don't make them you are worse off.
michelle griffith said...Vertical Learning" v. "Horizontal Learning"
Getting the balance right between having a broad knowledge of the area we are studying, and specialising within carefully selected areas of that field.
Kaei Hayakawa of Arimatsu once advised me to "spend a lifetime becoming one with the cloth" This is my mantra.
I attempt to follow his advice . . . always small steps . . .
One eye on the past, the other on the future . . .
glennis said...
ah yes, it's that balance thing...
peg mathes yates said...
I think Cathy's comment is important~reflecting her own personal journey~. To find a way to express myself in a style that is my own is something I have not accomplished. Yet. But I will. Too many outside influences clutter my head. I think a piece of cloth and a needle and thread is going to be my beginning. Letting the needle tell me where it wants to go.
serena potter said...
I think there is a lack of mentorship in quilt making and a fear by established artists, to let anyone new in, or to speak out when there are those who don't know what they're doing, and do something stupid. I think it's because blogs made some people famous and people are scared to ever say something is dumb or sucks because that might mean they tick off some future up and comer.
I came across a website where an up and coming fabric designer was churning out quilts and hanging them on metal plate racks, designed to hold decorative plates, and of her 600 followerers, only one woman, dared to comment and say....THAT might damage your quilt. When in fact out of the more established quilters more people should have jumped in and said.......you're committing a quilt atrocity.
and since then I have a hard time calling what a work with a quilt because I think that many people will equate it with that crap that gets tacked onto a kitchen table, or nailed to a wall, or hung on a plate rack. And I freely call it crap because that is how the maker treats it.
If one wants their work to be respected they should first treat their work with respect regardless of materials used or the fashion in which they create it.
And regardless of how accomplished you are find someone beneath you to take in and nurture. Artists for many years have understood the importance of this but I feel like it's been let go.
glennis said...
mentorship is a good topic here. although i don't think i qualify as "established" , i have several young people i am mentoring in various ways and enjoy the interaction. i would agree that we do lack a willingness to to be critical, to be discerning, to state our likes and dislikes honestly and with respect. i don't think that saying that something "sucks" is very helpful though. Elaine and i were talking about this the other day and i talked about the current trend toward the "everyone gets a trophy" thinking. even when a youth sports team loses each team member gets a trophy. in school, teachers are wary of damaging self esteem by being critical or pointing out errors. i don't see this leading to raising the bar or being very helpful. criticism is healthy and needed. i know i appreciate it in my own work- especially from people who's work i respect, many who are part of this group!
boy- this thread had covered lots of ground! thanks Elaine!
i said...
mentorship in general, teaching a skill, creating the time to share, one on one. in this way a student learns that respect includes criticism. we are moving to fast. teacher and student need to know each other...
i do think that trying should be rewarded. which it is if you are learning something. it is the kind of reward that might be the problem.
great discussion.
tracy hudson said...
Mentorship is itself a reward - when you look into someone's work deeply enough to respond honestly, and respect the person and the work enough to share your own acquired knowledge, you're rewarding the effort.
Everything said here resonates, so that I can't think of much else to say, except that I'm glad for this gathering.
Wishing for everyone, including myself, to remember the value of slowness and time taken to nurture and know and master, with hands contacting cloth, needle, thread. Our materials teach us, but we have to be very quiet and listen.
judy sall said...
I have migrated toward slow cloth as a vehicle to practice handwork, which I think (or thought!) was a dying art in today's world. I am thrilled that there are so many of us who do some form of handwork, be it quilting, embroidering, beading, or some other related area of fiber art. What I am loving about slow cloth is that I am taking the time to think about how to proceed, but I don't have a complete picture in my mind of how the finished work will look. It's 'patience' work, but also a joy to do, and I have no timetable for finishing it.
As for mentorship -- I have been blessed with many mentors over my lifetime of creating, and hope I have been one to others as well. I belong to a few forums where we share information about dyeing, and I'm thinking this FB group will work well as a mentoring medium for those of us who love handwork!
kim baker said...
I welcome this group, especially at this time in my artful journey. When I depart from slow deliberate process, I lose the soul of the work. For example, when I first got a big midarm quilting machine, I almost completely quit quilting. I lost the connection I felt to the fabric and the thread. I became ungrounded and flighty and dissatisfied with everything I made. I am slowly learning to use the machine for some parts of the process, but making sure the handwork gets incorporated.
and so i say...it is nice to know that sometimes we think alike. that affirmation which we seek through our own creativity, can also come through conversation and respect for what we all know to be true regardless of what we might be be swept up into. facebook is annoying as an organization but there are real people there so that can change. many eyes. many eyes. (continued here)
ps. not to be rude...but don't join this group just to say hi to all your friends, join it because you are serious about learning something or teaching something, serious about limiting the annoying chatter that is so much the reason for not joining facebook in the first place. join it to simply be in the company of slow intention and expertise, lets' make it a quiet place. it needs to be about raising the bar, even if it is our own, not self promotion.
