New store hours: Fridays & Saturdays: 10AM-5PM

LETTER FROM THE BOARD

Dear members, friends and supporters:

The NM Fiber Arts Center board continues to work through many issues and projects trying to help our organization restabilize.

The best news is the reopening of the Espanola Valley Fiber Arts Center. The Center opened its doors again July 17th, and we were heartened by all of you who have come to purchase, visit and encourage. Debbie Harris, the retail manager, is there Fridays and Saturdays from 10 AM to 5 PM. And sales bring in much needed revenue. Debbie will be working to get the on-line store up, using the newly installed Point of Sale system that Denielle Rose helped set up during the shutdown time.

Many volunteers helped get the Center ready to open, cleaning (including getting rid of the moths that had moved in while we were closed), setting up COVID-19 safe procedures and getting looms and other equipment ready for sale, use and rental. Others have been felting and carding fibers to expand our offerings. Thanks to the many of you who have donated money as well as yarns, fibers, looms, and other items that we are able sell. And of course to the volunteers who put this newsletter together.

We are very grateful to Denielle Rose, who worked without pay through the COVID shut down and very ably helped the Board get oriented and understand the complex issues facing our Center. We are appreciative and now that her work has been accomplished, she is moving on. We wish her all the best and hope that she can find time for her own fiber arts creativity and life with her family.

As a result of the severe financial losses due to the COVID shut down, we will not be able to bring on additional paid staff for the near future. We are very much in need of volunteers. Here is a quick list of volunteer roles that we would love to see filled. This would help contribute to the many rewarding and beneficial activities that take place at EVFAC.

• Grant coordinator

• Volunteer coordinator

• Organizer for annual meeting

• Fall Fiber Fiesta volunteer lead

• Educational programs coordinator

• Respond to donations/contributions

• Membership coordinator

• Contractor to upgrade dye kitchen vent

We thank you for all the support you have given the Center. We look forward to classes resuming and even going online. We are now conducting our zoom board meetings the 4th Thursday of the month at 4 pm. We invite you to join us! We will send out an email blast as the meetings draw near, then simply email board@evfac.org and we will send you the zoom link.

Sincerely,

Sandra Liggett
Board President

BIG FABRIC SIDEWALK SALE!
September 25 & 26, 10:00am-5:00pm

We're having a sale!

The past six months have been full of ups and downs but one thing that never changed was the unwavering support of our members, community, and patrons.
We now have a HUGE supply of yarn, fabric, and other supplies and we want to help you build your stash!
Come join us on Friday, September 25th and Saturday, September 26th to take advantage of sale prices! All bulk/donated yarns will be $4.50/lb and fabrics $1/lb. In addition, we will be discounting select items throughout the center!

For safety and social distancing our sale will be set up outside (weather permitting).

Please get in touch if you would like to volunteer to help with this event. For more information please email info@nmfiberartscenter.org

OPEN WEAVE WITH DAIN DALLER

Ever wanted to learn to weave? How about trying a more advanced weaving technique like shadow weave or woven shibori? Now’s your chance!

EVFAC is now offering an ongoing "pay-as-you-go" weaving class for students of all skill levels. Every Saturday from 1-3:30 Dain will be available to help you with whatever weaving technique you desire from beginner to advanced.

Attend as many or as few as you want. Class size is limited to 4 at a time due to our social distancing protocol. To reserve your spot, please email Dain at warpboard@yahoo.com no later than 4 PM on the Friday before you wish to attend.

It is alright if you can't make it some Saturdays. Simply email each Friday to let us know you plan on coming back and we will leave your project on the loom waiting for you. Sorry, but tapestry techniques will not be taught in this class.

$35/Session+Materials fee: paid only at the first session: $10. Students are also welcome to bring their own supplies.

Saturdays: 1:00-3:30. Classes begin September 5th and are ongoing.

WE HAVE SOME AWESOME DONATED EQUIPMENT!

• Three beautiful double band flax/cotton wheels (they can also spin wool), great for spinning fine yarn. All functional and all are at least 100 years old!

• A colonial skein winder-otherwise known as a weasel (as in pop goes the.. over 100 year old)

• Leclerc Artisat Jack Loom in “Like New” condition. 38” weaving width, 4 harness, 6 treadle. Comes with reed and bench. A great forever loom, at a great price. $850

• Herald Loom. 34” 4-Harness jack loom. Comes with reed and rattles, Folds up nicely, great space saver. $500

• Gillmore Jack Loom. 40” 4 harness. $600

• 60” Homemade floor loom. Includes parts to be converted into a walking loom. 4 harness/4 treadle with Leclerc hardware. BIG! STURDY! Comes with a bench and reed. A whole lotta loom, for a low, low, price! $300

• 40” 6 harness jack loom. Unknown make. Folds up nicely. Sectional warp beam. $500

• 60” Leclerc Jack Loom. 4 harness 6 treadles. With bench and reed. $800

• We also have a great selection of used reeds at very reasonable prices. 6, 8,10,12, & 15 dents in many lengths ($15-$80).

We are currently offering socially distanced equipment rentals! Come in to use a loom, the thumper, the dye kitchen, or the carder & picker. Appointments can be made in person during regular hours, or call and leave a message to make your reservations! 505-747-3577 or Email Debbie!

WHY MEND? We are living within an unfolding economic paradigm in which textiles have reached a state of ubiquity that renders them nearly invisible. This is the age of fast fashion, where clothes are cheap and the trends change by the micro-season. Planned obsolescence is not just a tactic for the latest tech gadgets—most new garments fall apart after only a few washes. Clothing production and consumption have roughly doubled since 2000, and with the expansion of this industry is an increase in the ecological impacts of industrial textile production, which makes up 10 percent of annual global carbon emissions (more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined). And even though our garments use precious resources to produce, we don’t seem to value this at all--87 percent of textiles produced are incinerated or end up in a landfill.*

In this climate of perpetual discard, we can look to the textile traditions having to do with mending as a way to understand what it means to have a deeper relationship with cloth. Across many cultures, mending techniques evolved from a reverence for woven cloth and the necessity to make do with what you had. Out of the many mending processes scattered across the globe, the one that speaks to me with the most resonance is the Japanese art of boro mending. I’d been peripherally aware of the technique for years, and noticed it’s trending popularity on social media, but my true love for boro was born one evening in a conversation that I had with my dear friend Risa. She immigrated to the US from Tokushima, Japan, a city with a rich history of indigo dyeing, sashiko embroidery, and boro mending. We were sharing a meal, and she began to talk to me about the Tokushima life cycle of cloth.

As a garment becomes worn, it is mended with a visible patch, typically made of indigo-dyed fabric and secured with rows of stitching with white thread. Sometimes, the stitches are arranged into complex designs; other times, they are in simpler configurations. Over the years, the garment will be continuously patched, earning a second skin of stitches and hand-dyed cloth. Eventually, the garment disintegrates, and it becomes a tea towel, then a cleaning rag. After this, it will be cut apart into patches, which are used to begin the process anew.

I was thoroughly taken by this cyclical approach, by this story of cloth that did not die but was continuously born anew. And there was something deeper that called out to me. The high visibility of the mending evoked to me a sense of pride in the art of survival. This was not Dutch darning, designed to camouflage the places that had become worn. With boro, everything is on the surface. It strengthens torn cloth not by making the places where it was rent disappear, but by emphasizing them. This is transformation that does not attempt to hide the past, but honors every worn place as a part of lived experience.

When Risa traveled home to Tokushima last year, she brought back an incredible and somewhat tattered piece of indigo-dyed sashiko fabric for me. She believed it was at least 100 years old. She told me the story of tracking it down, following a chain of leads to a small shop in which a woman had been practicing boro and selling this special cloth for her entire life. She included with the fabric a pile of gorgeous ikat dyed scraps. Along with another important weaver in my life, we’ve been slowly stitching this cloth back together. It feels incomparable to anything else; the act of holding an unknown person’s quiet labor in your hands to honor their work. As we’ve worked on this piece together, our ties to each other have been strengthened, and I hope to have many more opportunities to share this mending project with anyone in my life who has taken me deeper into the world of cloth.

One of the most common reflections I’ve heard as we move through the pandemic is a real need to reevaluate our pace. We all seemed to be on a trajectory of perpetual increase and were stopped in our tracks. What we bring with us to the other side of this experience is important, and it’s my hope that we connect with processes that are nourishing, resourceful, and that stop the consistent expansion that has been the status quo for our whole lives. There is so much that needs mending, but when we put our hands to the task, and meet the challenge without trying to camouflage the past, we find that a resilient, beautiful cloth is produced…one that is maintained with love and care, one that lasts.

We desperately need to reinstate reverence for cloth. Those of you who have experienced true timelessness while sitting at a loom already know this. Our garments are more than material objects that we use to project our identity: we are in intimate contact with them, and they absorb the experiences that happen around us and within us as we wear them. When we take the time to mend what becomes worn instead of discarding it, we break the cycle of waste, and we imbue the cloth with the thoughtful labor of our hands. Of course, I have no illusions that mending will disrupt and transform the entire industrial garment industry. But I do believe that our actions set off reactions, and there’s no telling how powerful that can be. Even the most complex tapestries are woven one pick at a time.

*these statistics come from the UNEP and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

April Camlin is a textile artist who resides in Baltimore, Maryland. Visit www.aprilcamlin.com to see her beautiful work and learn more about our guest writer.

The Live Wire Exhibit is now Live: Virtual & in person!
View fiber art works from across the country, as well as your favorite local artists in Santa Fe, New Mexico at the wonderful Form & Concept Gallery. The exhibit is up now and runs until October, 2020.

In Person:
To see selections of the exhibit visit the Form & Concept Gallery located at 435 South Guadalupe Street, Santa Fe, NM 87501.
Hours of operation are Tuesday-Saturday: 10am-5pm

Online:
To see the entire show online simply click here!

“Fiber is the material of revolution. Think of Betsy Ross stitching an early version of the American flag or Eugène Delacroix’s Liberty holding colors aloft to usher in the French Revolution. In recent decades, boundary-shattering artists from Judy Chicago to Faith Ringgold have provided potent kindling for social and political movements by utilizing or referencing fiber. Live Wire explores fiber’s remarkable ability to conduct world-changing ideological currents. This national group show of contemporary fiber artists is presented in collaboration with the Española Valley Fiber Arts Center.”

Look at these smiling faces from 2006! A big thank you to Jeannette Flamm for donating these wonderful pictures from quite a few years back! Come into the center to look at the wonderful binder full of some classic pics of our beloved members!

CLASSIFIEDS: LOOMCRAFT 45" MAPLE FLOOR LOOM WITH 6 TREADLES, 4 HARNESSES AND 8 DENT REED. IT INCLUDES A WARPING BOARD, 3 SCHACHT SPINDLE SHUTTLES, 1 LECLERC SHUTTLE, 18 BOBBINS AND VARIOUS CONES OF WARP AND WEFT FIBER. IT IS 53" WIDE PLUS A 5" WARP BEAM CRANK X 39 1/2" H. USED BUT IN EXCELLENT CONDITION. PICK UP IN ELDORADO OF SANTA FE. PRICED AT $995. CALL 505-690-9145.

A BIG BIG BIG THANK YOU TO ALL VOLUNTEERS & DONORS!
Please log your volunteer hours and donations online at: https://www.nmfiberartscenter.org/donate-or-volunteer so we can give you the thanks you deserve. We appreciate your hard work and we need you. You are what makes our organization go round and we are forever grateful!

VOLUNTEERS
Endless praise and thanks to all who volunteered:

Vanessa Harris • Karen Rose • Marion Carter • Amanda Speer • Dain Daller • Carol Neukirk • Debbie Harris • Leigh Alexander • Nadina Barnes • Enid Sepulveda Rodriguez • Denielle Rose • Lynne Hoyt • Glenna Dean • Kathy Konecki • Sandy Liggett • Mark Bond • Laura Ninnemann • April Camlin • Barbara Roybal Rebecca Adams • Olimpia Newman • Denielle Rose • Alysha Colangeli • Emily Trujillo • Robert Sturm • Guillermo Tilley • Lyndsay Remerowski

DONORS
Our most sincere thanks goes out to all who donated:

Judy Buckingham • Mary Grow • Sandy Liggett • Bethe Orrell • Karen
Rose • Craig Parker • Michal Sommers • Margaret Odiorne • Karen Campbell • Glenna Dean • Daniel Aldis • Laura Shepherd •Dain Daller & Amanda Speer • Marion Carter • Mimi Lipps • Alex Sullivan • Nijole Saponara •Susan Maturlo • Laura Ninnemann • Sheila Burke •Asha Pollem • Kathleen Cook • Orlando Rodriguez • Dr. Karen Hall McNamara • Cathleen Fry • Becky Vanderslice • Pamela Grob • Kristin Rowley • Jennifer Moore •Carol Hennessy • Marci Lebowitz • Priscilla Stultz • Caroline Dechert • Sandra Liggett • Michelle Sbraga • Jiwanshakti Kaur • MaryVivian Maestas • Deb Salazar • Patricia & George Spillman • Kay Lewis • Polly Barton •Loree Nalin • Mary Remerowski • Barbara Roybal • Litzi Engel • Nancy Kaumeyer • Christina Allday-Bondy • Kristin Rowley • Lisa Trujillo • Barry Cotter • Connie Gerth • Tamara Yingling •Kathryn Slezak • Julia Karsjens • Sharon Woodbridge • Catherine Jacobus • Kathy Konecki • Sandra Hopper • Leigh Alexander • Suzie Briddsang •Donna Eddy •Sheila Burke • Ken Stedman •Lillia McEnaney •Ramona Marcus • Shari Hirst

• Gay Lynn Gremmel • Hari Kaur Hari • Shirley Davis • Leslie Zwail • Mariane Whittemore • Karen l Campbell • Jean Neblett •Leticia Gonzales •Mary Beth Yates • Gail Long • Deborah Harris •

Beck & Bulow • Northern New Mexico Community College •

Los Luceros • Laura Martin

• Please note again: we apologize if your name is missing from our list. This is because your information was not input into our jotforms document! Please log your volunteer hours and donations here.

EVFAC+NMFAC
325 PASEO DE ONATE
ESPANOLA, NM 87532
505-747-3577