Dear Members:

Our organization is struggling. MoFA is in a state of crisis.

Board positions will be open in May and only a few people (of the many asked) are willing to serve. Our 2008 conference has been cancelled due to lack of volunteers. At our last meeting in Warrenton we repeatedly asked, "Is it worth it to continue MoFA?" The nine of us there agreed that we wanted MoFA to carry on in some form. But change is required. We need fresh ideas and input from people associated with the fiber arts: people like YOU.

We all have busy lives with family, work and other obligations. Sometimes the days are not long enough to fit it all in. Sometimes adding just one more task just seems impossible. But here's the hook for me: the MoFA people make me feel good about my self and my work. Because of them I am a better person and creator. I have never left a MoFA event without feeling more energized, confident and excited. What a gift!

MoFA was lucky enough to have visionary founders with high standards. Now we need to look ahead, reorganize and redefine our goals as necessary. We can only do that work as a team. Actively participate in creating your kind of organization. Please attend the May 17 meeting in Columbia.

Best wishes,
Debbie Prost
2006-08 MoFA President

IMPORTANT MEMBERSHIP MEETING:
REDEFINING MoFA

May 17, 2008 ~ 10am-1pm
Columbia, MO ~ Daniel Boone Regional Library

Exit off whatever highway you come in on to Columbia at one of the Broadway exits. That is the main street in town going east and west. The library is on Broadway and Garth St, which is one block West of Providence Rd, the next big north and south street.

The library has two huge yellow and orange sculptures on the outside and it is pretty visible! Parking lots are all around with street parking too.

Bring a sack lunch.

A meeting announcement and agenda will be mailed to all members in the upcoming weeks. This is an important meeting with the vote for the new Board, Constitutional revisions, and most importantly, the future direction of MoFA.

Look at where MoFA has been... Think about where we want to go.

Susan Shoaff-Ballanger and Jay Ballanger participated in the "Pojagis from American Friends" exhibition held at the Cheongju Craft Center in Cheongju, Korea. The exhibit was held October 2-28, 2007. Susan and Jay had previously attended a workshop at Shakerag Workshops in Sewanee, TN with Korean artists Chunghie Lee and Jiyoung Chung. Susan and Jay were invited by Chunghie Lee to exhibit their pojagi work in Korea. Pojagis are traditional Korean wrapping cloths made to wrap special gifts, cover food bowls, used for storage, and many other utilitarian as well as artistic uses.
                                                                                               
Valerie Doran Bashaw, Woven Wind Fibre Studio, just completed and installed a commission piece for the Kansas City Kansas Community College in December 2007. Titled "Four Seasons on the Kaw River", it is 43" tall and 72" wide, composed of four vertical panels all attached to each other. Each panel is made of horizontal strips of shibori-dyed silk (several types of silk are used), the strips are sewn together and top quilted, and then stretched onto a frame. The Shibori technique lends itself well to describing the weather, as the fabric can look like rain, sunshine, flowers, ice and wind, lightning and more. The college was most cooperative and has installed it over a stairwell with terrific lighting, so it really brightens a rather dark area and has been well received. Valerie also was featured in a Missouri Life magazine in an article titled "Shibori Sensei" and is having 3 shows locally in the springtime in the Kansas City area. 

Nancy Clark and her work were featured in Missouri Life magazine in the February issue. It's on page 93, entitled Woven Warmth – Kansas City Artist Weaves Fabric with Love.

Sharon Kilfoyle is currently teaching Shibori, felting and design at Duksung Women’s University in Seoul, Korea for the next several months. While in Korea she will be also being doing workshops in Matsyama, Japan. In October and November she will be teaching at the World Shibori Conference in Paris in conjunction with the Paris American Academy. This past spring Sharon also received orders for her fabric from Yves St. Laurent.

Iwona Rypesc-Kostovic is having a solo exhibition of her artwork – wall hangings, art-to-wear and digital prints in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. For more information about the exhibition please click here.

Biology meets the consumer ecosystem in the art installation, "Niche: Nature Morte in the Simulated Garden", in the renovated main floor of KU’s Spooner Hall, 1340 Jayhawk Boulevard. The installation is created by artists Betsy Knabe Roe, Marguerite Perret and Bruce Scherting. It is open daily, Tuesday through Saturday from 9am to 4pm beginning February 12, 2008-2009. Admission is free.

Joanne Woll was recently in the 50th Anniversary Exhibit at Southern Illinois University–Edwardsville as well as in the Metzger Memorial National All Media Exhibit at the St.Louis Artists' Guild. She was also part of the Member's Choice Exhibit at the Northern Arts Council Gallery in Ferguson, MO. 

Jo Stealey was invited to participate in the International Fiber Biennial at Snyderman Works Gallery in Philadelphia this year. The opening was March 7. Jo is also one of ten artists selected for the Art St. Louis Honors Awards 2008 exhibition which opened on March 15. The exhibition was curated by James M. Smith.

Margaret Wheeler’s current project involves working with Jerod Tate, a Chickasaw composer who has received a Continental Harmony Grant. Tate is composing a symphony in seven parts based on Chickasaw legends ad stories. The work will include poetry, dance, vocal and instrumental music and will reflect all aspects of Chickasaw culture. It is scheduled to be performed November 2009 in either Oklahoma City or Norman, OK with the possibility of a national tour. Margaret is the set and costume designer for the production. Margaret will also be part of the History of Native American Garments Fashion Show on April 28 at the Gene Autrey Museum in Los Angeles, CA.

Columbia Weavers/Spinners Guild Youth Art Competition and Exhibition

Columbia Weavers and Spinners Guild was very proud to sponsor the sixth annual Youth Fiber Art Competition and Exhibition, held at the Boone County Historical Museum. The interest and enthusiasm from the art instructors, student artists, parents, friends and the museum and its many visitors made this a very exciting event for our guild and its members.

For many of the young artists it was their first experience with an art show in a professional setting and possibly their first visit to a museum. Hopefully, this will plant seeds which will mature in an appreciation for the arts in its many diverse forms.  The promotion of fiber arts within the community among the younger generation is something everyone can enjoy and an art form which can be carried on throughout life. 

This year the following schools participated in the exhibition:

Prairie Home R5 School District	Lee Expressive Arts Elementary
Parkade Elementary	Rock Bridge Elementary
Mary Paxton Keeley Elementary	Mill Creek Elementary
Derby Ridge Elementary	New Haven Elementary
Columbia Catholic School	West Junior High School

The exhibition began on Saturday, March 1, 2008 with an opening reception from 2-4pm on Sunday, March 2, 2008. Several special awards were given out at 2:30pm. The public was invited. It certainly gives the young artists a thrill to see a large turnout viewing their artistic endeavors.

In August 2006 I drove out to Penland, North Carolina for a two-week workshop called “Building History with Surface & Structure” taught by Barbara Cooper. The catalogue’s course description stated:

Since I have no formal art training (I received an Anthropology degree!), I’ve never been privy to the experience of group critiques, hours of slide shows, and intense discussions about art—though I’d longed for it. Well, at Penland this longing finally found some satisfaction! It was a two- week infusion of art, ideas and experimenting. 

I had carried with me tubs of soft fiber accessories—fabric, ribbon, yarn—as well as paper, plastic rings and other doodads I thought useful. While I did use a bit of fabric, I ended up concentrating on items I collected on site—leaves, sticks, stones, broken glass and metal odds & ends from the scrap yard, plus some purchased items from the hardware store. 

I began the physical creative act by deconstructing a shoe to see the pattern it came from. I sewed oval leaves together into pods. I cut up roofing tarpaper and designed patterns for small canoes. Manipulating poultry wire into a vessel structure, I covered it in plaster and beeswax, and then lined it with velvet and glass. I buried fabric in the mud to color it, imbedded beeswax into it, ripped it and wove it into a poultry-wire vessel. I bent and riveted together large rusted metal rings with teeth, creating a giant seedpod to which I attached tarpaper, then covered it in wax and mud. I even tried welding, but didn’t like it—too much between the work and me.

At first, I had a hard time switching my gears re: process vs. product. When fantasizing about this class, I imagined working on a great sculpture, but Barbara encouraged us to think about process—the way things are constructed—rather than concerning ourselves with a final, shining piece.

Because I came to Penland to learn, I really opened myself up to Barbara’s experience, wisdom and ideas. In my regular life I’m not always as supple and flexible as I’d like to be; so, at the workshop, I tried to soak it all in. This was the mantra I carried in my heart: “I will surrender to the flow of the spiral and trust what I am shown.”

Barbara had her own mantras/bullet points for class that I still carry with me:

My experience at Penland truly proved transformative. I met wonderful people, shared ideas in a spiritually inspiring setting, ate delicious food, and just breathed art for two weeks.The biggest effect on me was the idea of process vs. product.  Practicing mindfulness in the creative process and being in touch with my “ingredients” are most important to me right now.  I continue to struggle with the idea, but being aware of that struggle makes the process a little easier.

PS—I’d like to thank MOFA for the scholarship I received to help fund this experience. It helped with travel expenses to get out to North Carolina. I appreciate being honored by your selection committee!      

Catherine Armbrust   
www.cadencefiberarts.com

This was a piece commissioned and created following Catherine's program at Penland:

Dolls, Mixed Media, Anthropomorphic Workshop (Animal Figures), Akira Blount
Advanced Week 1-13-08
www.folkschool.org

Such a simple listing in the John C. Campbell Folk School Catalog! Such a phenomenal class!!

It’s a llooonnnggg drive from St. Louis to Brasstown, NC. I left Saturday morning, spent the night in Murphreysboro, TN; and continued on to Brasstown Sunday morning. I had done a AAA triptych for the drive, and I was thankful that I had. Signage for the Folk School was not abundant!!

Sunday evening started with registration, room locating, then dinner, and then a brief meeting in our classroom to meet the teachers.

For those of you familiar with the work of Akira Blount – her dolls are even more amazing when seen in person. Akira is a real person, also. She’s a wife, a mother, a grandmother, and an artist. Finding out that she was a normal woman made the class much more enjoyable and a great deal less intimidating. Dee Dee Triplett, the teacher in residence for dolls, was also great, and a very talented doll maker in her own right (cover of premiere issue of Art Doll).

On Monday morning, we started by learning about making our own patterns. Most of the participants (12 of us) were experienced doll makers, and, even those who weren’t had made a few dolls before. This fact alone made the class go so much more smoothly. (We’ve all been in classes where the prerequisite knowledge is not always possessed by all participants!) Akira suggested shapes, and we all started to design patterns for our rabbits and cats. Plain old white t-shirt material works very well for soft sculpture doll heads. We all made several. We then learned sculpting techniques for both heads and hands. We used fabric stiffener, paint, pencils, and gauze to “skin” the heads. We learned how to make hands do what WE wanted them to do, and not just what they chose to do. We studied different jointing methods for arms and legs, and we had great fun costuming our creations.

By Friday afternoon we had all completed at least on figure, most of us doing two or three. The student show for exhibiting examples of the classes taken during the week was not well-attended, though. A large storm was heading in and everyone wanted to head out as early as possible. I stayed on through Friday night’s concert and left Saturday morning after breakfast. I was unaffected by the storm as I was driving the opposite direction of most attendees.

About a year ago, a friend told me about a print-on-demand website that could print my graphic art designs onto greeting cards for a nominal price. I checked out the website, CafePress.com, and found it to be a great resource for a variety of reasons.

You can...

set up a store front (for those of us still working on setting up an actual website, this was a way to    “get out there” on the internet)

download your art (photo or graphic) into a private “basket”

choose the products you want your art to be printed on (you can even designate the size of the print    on the product)

“tag” the items for site-searches as well as internet searches

set your own price (they show you the wholesale price of the item, and you can determine your retail    price)

Initially, I used the site to create gifts for family and friends, but eventually expanded the site and went “live”. It has been fun and rewarding to see my items sell and to track which art is selling. Products range ”from baby bibs to bumper stickers” and “from greeting cards to sweatshirts” — essentially mainstream fiber (tote bags, t-shirts and sweatshirts) and gifts including items such as framed prints, tile coasters and even clocks! Overall, the quality has ranged from good to great. Anytime I call with a question or concern, they take care of it immediately and resend a product at no charge.

The site...

walks you, step-by-step, through the set-up process (you can choose your template and fill-in-the-    blanks)

offers tutorials on creating your art for maximum “printability”

gives you alerts when something sells

provides sales reports showing the city and state the item ships to

takes care of shipping and financial transactions (no Pay Pal)

charges a minimal fee (@ $6/month), which they take out of your sales

sends you periodical “profit” checks (you tell them how often)

Overall, it has been a good resource for me. Although I’m not quite ready to retire from the profits, my storefront is currently paying for itself monthly. If you are interested in checking out a storefront for yourself, check out my site at www.cafepress.com/upsidaisy

Creative Felting    $14.95
Houghton, Lizzie
Lark Books 2007
This is a beautifully photographed book. You will find the basic felt making techniques in the beginning illustrations. The eye candy is the photography, suggesting themes that come to mind when you work with certain colors, ex. Blue: rock pool, alpine meadow and wave. This is just a nice book for your felting library.

Fabric Art Workshop, Exploring Techniques and Materials for Fabric Artists and Quilters    $22.95
Stein, Susan
Creative Publishing International 2007
This is one of those how-to books that you may have some of its’ contents scattered throughout several other books that you own or would like to own. Now you can have a lot of info in one spot! Included are foiling techniques, simple silk screening, paintstiks and rust dyes. There are 27 techniques in all!

Silk ‘Paper’ Creations for the Fiber Artist    $17.95
Pinnell, Judith
Milner Craft Series 2004
If you are looking for a new art form “silk paper” might be the thing for you. This book has supply list, good photographs and how-to projects for you to try. As usual, the pictures of the materials are very alluring.

Simple Contemporary Quilts, Bold New Designs for the First-Time Quilter    $24.95
Shrader Van Arsdale, Valerie
Lark Books 2007
Maybe 2008 is your year to try a new Fiber Form and Quilting is the one that’s calling you. Or you don’t know it yet, but if you check out this book, then quilting will be calling you. The designs have a very modern and painterly feeling to them and look like they would be fun to make with a group or another friend. Why not ask a fiber buddy to join you and choose one of these babies to make together? Donate it to a church or a hospital.  And, have fun!!!

300 Papermaking Recipes    $21.95 (new)
Reimer, Mary & Reimer-Epp, Heidi
Martingale & Co. 2003
I love this little book. If you go to Amazon.com you can find it both new and used. It has great suggestions for the classroom as well as for the artist. The paper is fun and funky.  If you have never made paper before and just want to play and do a little recycling, this is the book for you.