2019 Program Archives
Our theme for the year 2019 was Green/Recycle and our programs and mini workshops supported it.
Calendar of Events
List of Services
- November 25, 2019
Annual Holiday Party and Silent Auction of members’ donated fiber art was followed by a special presentation: Wearable Art: A Journey Through Time. Presenters Ruth Anderson, JoAnn Musso and Lu Peters walked us through time as they shared signature garments from their artful closets.
- October 28, 2019
The Recycled Runway: Green/Recycle Challenge was an amazing fashion show of garments, ensembles, and accessories created by our members using recycled materials. Lu Peters provided the commentary for the fashion show.
The Trashion Show: The Miss Universe Contest mini workshop was led by Carol Kovacs. Members participated in teams to create six color-themed planet themed ensembles from an eclectic array of recycled materials. Models also walked the runway.
Sherrie Tootle was our official fashion photographer.
- September 23, 2019
Jason Willaford shared his large works of art created from vinyl billboard materials, which he assembles using painting and sewing techniques. Carol Kovacs led the mini workshop using recycled materials to create whimsical Bottle Dolls.
- September 19, 2019
North Texas Giving Day
- August 26, 2019
Closing reception was held for our annual juried member’s show Planet Fiber and our Members’ Challenge Tie One On.
Both themes reflect our commitment to embrace recycling and endorse the effort needed to conserve resources to protect our planet from climate change.
- July 29, 2019
The Recycled Garden Party was the theme of our Members’ Birthday Party, potluck dinner and birthday card exchange.
Juried art work was accepted for the August members’ exhibit at C.C. Young.
- June 24, 2019
Dr. Keith Kriegel presented his program Sculpting and Carving Books, and shared his process for transforming discarded books into award-winning works of art.
- June 2019
Entry Skills Workshop
- May 20, 2019
DAFA Board of Directors Installation and Volunteer Recognition featured short biographical talks from each director to introduce themselves to the membership. Our mini workshop was our annual ATC (Artist Trading Card) Exchange with the theme of Recycled/Green.
- April 22, 2019
Beads! Beads! Beads! We celebrated Earth Day by making three types of recycled beads: tubular fabric beads with Traci Hutton, paper beads with Lisa Covert, and jelly roll coiled beads with Carol Regan.
Mary Ellen Searcy led the mini workshop in how to create a buttonhole edge stitch and a whipped back stitch as a fine finishing method for fiber art.
- March 25, 2019
Member and past president VET shared her artistic journey of becoming an accomplished recycled material fiber artist in her Dreaming in Real Time. In the mini workshop, she led us in creating a Shoofly Quilt Block from her citywide Freedom Quilt Codes project.
- February 25, 2019
Val Guignon presented a program on Working with Recycled Materials to create 2D and 3D fiber art. Val shared her work and process of creating sculptures, spirit dolls, landscape and fiber collages. The mini workshop explored her mosaic style using paint and recycled papers and fabrics.
- January 28, 2019
List Item 1
Mixed Media Mania! Our annual members’ workshop featuring three mixed media projects, made from recycled materials started our year of Recycled/Green. We made a pop-up Valentine’s Day card with Carol Kovacs, a Family Memory Game with Karen Zupanic, and VET helped us create a special Diva Doll. We also held a raffle of donated fiber art materials.
2019 Member Spotlights
List of Services
- Ruth Anderson
Our third Member Spotlight features Ruth Anderson, an innovator in new techniques and applications in fiber art.
- JoAnn Musso
Our second Member Spotlight features JoAnn Musso, the recipient of the Outstanding Long Time Member Award in honor of her decades of service.
- Carolyn Skei
Our first Member Spotlight focuses on Carolyn Skei, whose accomplishments and inspiring work showcase the transitioning role of fiber as a fine art.
November 25, 2019:
Wearable Art: A Journey Through Time with Ruth Anderson, Jo Ann Musso, and Lu Peters. (Plus Annual Holiday Potluck Dinner & Silent Auction)
Ruth Anderson, JoAnn Musso and Lu Peters are the presenters for this program on wearable art. Walk through time with them as you hear about signature garments from their artful closets.
Ruth Anderson , a founding member of both Quilters Guild of Dallas and Wearartists of Dallas, will highlight details of a favorite hand painted silk jacket. She will share her fascinating history of making connections through the Wearartists community.
JoAnn Musso , former president of International Quilters Society, a Fairfield and Bernina Fashion shows designer, and past president of DAFA, will present her elegant turquoise vest constructed with her innovative Strip Embellishment technique. This is in keeping with our focus on recycling and reusing scraps and leftovers from other projects.
Lu Peters will speak about the futuristic design of Transformational Reconstruction used in creating her Deep Pocket Investor concept garment, shown at DAFA and QGD shows and at a Materials Hard and Soft exhibit. She will show her techniques of faux trapunto quilting and ink jet printing on organza used as embellishments.
Silent auction information
Please bring a piece of your art to donate to the silent auction. We will have other items available too. We have linked our auction bid form if you would like to start the process now. Press the button below to download the auction form. Please bring the completed form with your art. If you don’t want to fill out a form, no worries, we will have someone to help you at the meeting.
Join us Monday, November 25th at 6 p.m. for our annual holiday potluck dinner, silent auction of members’ donated fiber art and special presentation: Wearable Art: A Journey Through Time .
October 28, 2019: Recycled Runway Green/Recycle members' challenge; the Ms. Universe Contest mini-workshop
Recycled Runway is BACK!
The DAFA Member’s Green/Recycle Challenge is to create a garment, ensemble, or accessory (hat, bag, shoes, scarf, jewelry, etc.) utilizing at least one recycled object as a significant part of the design. This can be a repurposed textile, article of clothing, a thrifted garment/accessory, or any object of any kind that can be attached to or transformed into your creation. Keep it simple and make it fun!
Be a part of the runway or be a fashion diva. Wear your entry down the runway or bring your own model. We will have paparazzi there to shoot the whole show.
The Ms. Universe Contest mini-workshop
We revive the Trashion Show mini-workshop where members will participate in teams to create six color-themed ensembles to walk the Recycled Runway. In keeping with our year of recycling and the
Planet Fiber annual members’ show, the theme is the
Ms. Universe Contest with many planets represented. Fashionable models, creatively dressed by their team of designers will walk the runway.
Carol has amassed an amazing assortment of recycled materials donated by enthusiastic members. Please direct any questions to
Miniworkshops@dallasfiberartists.org
Please bring your Go Kit, tape (any kind), a stapler, any glue you may prefer,
needle and neutral thread, scissors.
$5 kit fee.
Here is inspiration for you from our previous Trashion Show, the
White Trash Bride .
September 23, 2019:
A presentation by artist Jason Willaford
Jason Willaford is our featured speaker for September. Jason creates works of art from recycled vinyl billboards. He will talk about his journey from being a figurative painter to a minimalist to his current process and medium. His multi-media presentation includes video of him working in his studio, from a work in progress to the finished piece.
ARTIST STATEMENT I have been repurposing vinyl billboards to create work since 2012. Trained as a painter, my interest in this new medium began with a curiosity to uncover what became of graffiti-tagged billboards once they were deemed ruined by advertisers. I tracked down a source of these discarded billboards and acquired an inventory that has since become the medium used to create numerous series, varying from large-scale wall pieces to free-standing sculpture and sight-specific installation. Two-dimensional works have given way to increasingly voluminous objects in recent bodies of work like Mappings in which modular sections of vinyl sprawl across expansive spaces. Overall, my constructivist methodology has become intwined with a painterly approach with color and form in mind. My ever-evolving approach to creating is complimented by the medium’s versatility, allowing me to investigate numerous ideas.
Jason Willaford received his BFA from Florida State University where he studied under Jim Roche and Color Field painter Trevor Bell. After years as an encaustic painter in Marfa, Texas, he shifted his focus to vinyl-based constructions, which were exhibited in a solo exhibition at Oklahoma Contemporary in 2014. In the summer of 2015, Willaford participated in a residency at the former home and studio of Elaine de Kooning in East Hampton, NY and presented the resulting body of work in a solo show at Dallas Contemporary 2015.Upcoming Willafordhas been selected by Green Box Arts Festival 2018 to create a billboard project past artist have included Spencer Finch. Willaford’s work can be found in over 200 private and the public collections of Bloomingdales, Toyota, Neiman Marcus, Clements Collection UTSW among others.
There will be Show and Tell.
BOTTLE DOLLS mini workshop on September 23, at 5:30 p.m.
Create a doll, animal, creature, fairy, or alien from your imagination using Carol Kovac’s marvelous supply of miniature wine bottles, fabrics, yarns, found objects, and ephemera. Be inspired by her samples and techniques!
Please bring your Go Kit, scissors, needles and neutral thread, and glue
$5 kit fee
September 19, 2019: North Texas Giving Day
August 26, 2019: Planet Fiber Closing Reception and Awards Ceremony
This year’s theme for the members' show, Planet Fiber, reflects our commitment to embrace recycling and endorse the effort needed to conserve resources to protect our planet from climate change.
Planet Fiber, as well as our member challenge show
Tie One On, were on display at the CC Young gallery.
July 29, 2019: Recycled Garden Party, Members' Birthday Party, Birthday Cards, Art Take-in for Show.
It's my birthday too, yeah
They say it's your birthday
We're gonna have a good time
Happy birthday to you
Yes we're going to a party party
Yes we're going to a party party
Yes we're going to a party party!
June 24, 2019: Sculpting and Carving Books with Dr. Keith Kriegel
Sculpting and Carving Books with Dr. Keith Kriegel
Our speaker Dr. Keith Kriegel takes discarded books and repurposes them into pieces of art. He was born and raised in Austin, Texas. After graduating from dental school, Keith set up a restorative dental practice in Dallas. For multiple years, D Magazine and Texas Monthly magazines have recognized him as one of the top dentists in Dallas and Texas. That same attention to detail and skill with his hands in his profession was perfect segue to carving books as a pastime.
In 2017, one of Keith’s books won Best Sculpture in the Visual Arts Guild of Frisco’s
ARTrageous Show . Also in 2017, his work was shown in the Visual Arts Guild of Frisco Juried Exhibition at Collin College. In 2018 one of Keith’s books again won Best Sculpture in the
ARTrageous Show . In July of 2018 a book won Best of Show in the
Plano 125 Art Show at the Eisemann Center. Keith has also won awards for photography and had his photographs published.
June 22, 2019: Entry Skills Workshop
Announcing The Entry Skills Workshop
Saturday, June 22, 2019, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
The Point at C.C. Young Retirement Community
As a Dallas Area Fiber Artists member you are guaranteed to have one piece accepted into the show. We will help you prepare your submissions to the 2019 Dallas Area Fiber Artists annual juried show Planet Fiber.
We encourage you to register for the event. The event will be cancelled if we don’t have ten registrations by Wednesday, July 24, 2019. If cancellation occurs, notice will be sent to all members.
You may visit any, or all, of the five stations set up.
Station 1 Prepare your entries for installation (hanging) at the show. Free
Station 2 Photograph your entries. A photographer will shoot your entries in high resolution, with a full shot and a detail shot of each entry. $10 for one entry, $20 for two entries and $30 for three entries.
Station 3 Resize photos of your entries and submit your entry. $10 for one entry, $20 for two entries and $30 for three entries.
Station 4 Write an Artist’s Statement and biography. Free
Station 5 Headshot. Our own Sherrie Tootle is providing this photography service to our members. $20 for one pose.
All photography and entry fees will be paid when checking out. Cash, checks and Paypal are accepted.
May 20, 2019: Artist Trading Card (ATC) exchange and Board Installation
The Mini Workshop starts at
5:30 p.m. and is our famous
ATC Exchange . Make at least ten artists trading cards to trade among the members. The theme is
Recycled/Green .
What is an ATC? Artist trading cards are what Wikipedia calls “miniature works of art ... usually traded or exchanged.” The origins of ATC's are often traced to the mail art movement with origins in Switzerland.
ATC artists make their cards in any and all art mediums – from pencils, paper, and paints to contemporary materials like metals, fibers and recyclables. Many Dallas Area Fiber Artists members love working with cloth, thread, yarn, buttons, etc., but there is no requirement that your ATC's for this exchange be strictly “fiber art.”
When sized properly, ATC's fit standard card collector sleeves/pockets, allowing them to be maintained in notebooks, etc. That
standard size is 2.5 x 3.5 inches . Orientation of the design may be either horizontal or vertical.
Our May 20 program starts at 6:45 p.m.
The May 20th meeting is the installation of our officers and board. We recognize our volunteers, and our board will introduce themselves to you with short biographical talks. We will serve you yummy desserts!
There will be Show and Tell. Please limit yourself to two items.
Photo by Brooke Lark
Earth Day, April 22, 2019: Beads! Beads! Beads!
• Small ruler
• Straight pins
• Chalk or pencil for marking on black fabric
• Colored thread to contrast on black fabric
• To-Go Kit
March 25, 2019
VET will present our
March 25th
Green/Recycle program. She will talk about her artist journey of building her skill set through art by drawing, painting, sewing, weaving and sculpting. Program starts at
7 p.m.
Our Mini Workshop starts at 5:30 p.m.
With
VET’s help, we will create a
Shoofly Quilt Block from the
Freedom Quilt Codes project. Blocks will be made from fabric, using glue and hand stitching. All supplies are provided, including embellishments and handouts.
This workshop is free and open to the public. Please bring your To Go Kit.
The March meeting will be in the room to the side of the exercise room.
March 25, 2019, at 7 p.m.
VET will talk about her artist journey of building her skill set through art by drawing, painting, sewing, weaving and sculpting. The transition to mixed media was a natural progression as she began involving recycled found objects. She now gets paid to dream.
As a recipient of the National Endowment of the Arts Award,
VET worked on a collaborative multi-disciplinary performance and exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Art.
She is a native Texas artist who incorporates recycling awareness and arts education within her projects and residencies. Her affiliations include the Texas Commission on the Arts, North East Texas Library Systems, City of Dallas Neighborhood Touring Program, City of North Richland Hills, Dallas Independent School District, Dallas Museum of Art, Crow Collection of Asian Art, Dallas Children's Museum, Irving Art Center, Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District, A.R.T.S. for People, Junior Players, Young Audiences North Texas/Big Thought, Young Audiences Houston, Young Audiences Northeast Texas, Youth Services Council, Good Shepard Episcopal School, Booker T. Washington School of Visual and Performing Arts and numerous other local arts organizations.
VET received her Bachelors of Arts and Performance at the University of Texas at Dallas. She currently teaches and exhibits throughout the state of Texas.
See more about
VET and her F
reedom Quilt Codes project at:
http://www.artcycletx.blogspot.com
and
https://artcycletx.wixsite.com/freedomquilts
There will be Show and Tell.
March 25, 2019, Mini Workshop at 5:30 - 6:45 p.m.
Our guest speaker is
Vet .
With
VET’s help, we will create a
Shoofly Quilt Block from the
Freedom Quilt Codes project. Blocks will be made from fabric, using glue and hand stitching. All supplies are provided, including embellishments and handouts.
This workshop is free and open to the public. Please bring your To-go Kit.
We will meet in the room next to the exercise room. Go through main doors and walk straight back.
Val Guignon will present our February 25th Green/Recycle program on Working With Recycled Materials to create 2D and 3D Mixed Media fiber art.
She will share her commitment to reusing materials in her art, and explore her innovative processes of creating sculptures, spirit dolls, accessories, landscape and mosaic style fiber collages. Her recycled supplies include paper, wire, string, Fuse-a-Shade fabric, found objects, ephemera plus scraps of her signature hand dyed silks.
Val’s art has been greatly influenced by all the bits and pieces of fiber in her studio to create inspired works of art, recycling scraps in innovative forms.
Val’s early love of making art led her to graduate from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY with a degree in Industrial Design, and to traveling the far corners of the US and Canada, while earning her master’s degree in Hippie. She has been selling her work and exhibiting nationwide for 40 years, while teaching a variety of techniques from fabric dyeing, sculpture, and welding.
Visit Valery Guignon online at guignondesigns.blogspot.com
FaceBook: www.facebook.com/VALERYGuignonDesigns
Instagram: GValeryG
There will be Show and Tell.
At Val Guignon's mini workshop at 5:30, we will learn to create a Fused Fabric Brooch, using Valery’s beautifully hand dyed silk scraps, and accented with a found object.
Kit fee is $5 and attendees should bring glue (or a glue gun) and their basic To Go Kit.
January 28, 2019
2019 Member Spotlights
Member Spotlight
Ruth Anderson
Our third Member Spotlight features the multi-talented fiber artist Ruth Anderson.
Connecting people with ideas and others is Ruth Anderson’s prime motivation as an artist and active participant in all the groups and associations to which she belongs. She focuses on discovering new techniques and applications in her fiber art. Her talents in quilting and fiber art are equaled in her abilities to bring people together and provide stimulating environments for education and personal growth. Her artist statement affirms her belief in the “joy and accomplishment that handwork brings to the individual, in the continuance of the art form throughout history, and in the discipline and recognition of fine craftsmanship”.
Ruth is one of the early founding members of The Creative Stitchers Group in the 1970s, which eventually became the Dallas Area Fiber Artists. She is also a founding member of the Quilters Guild of Dallas and the Wear Artists Group, and is a true pioneer in the fiber art movement. Other memberships include the Dallas Hand Weavers and Spinners, Embroiderers Guild of America, Dallas Needlework and Textile Guild. Her years of teaching quilting, embroidery, embroidery, weaving, and wearable art, judging art shows, designing, quilting library research, and exhibiting her award winning fiber art have all benefitted our group and community.
Ruth spearheaded the project of professionally mounting Margaret McDermott’s massive Asian textile collection donated to UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Over a five year period, she mounted large textiles onto stretched linen for display throughout Zale-Lipshey Hospital, Aston and Sprague Buildings, providing an extraordinary visual experience for patients and visitors. As both a frequent curator and current member of the Board of the Museum of Geometric and MADI Art in Dallas, Ruth is instrumental in bringing the geometrically design fiber arts and textiles to local art aficionados.
As both a judge and a teacher, Ruth emphasizes the initial visual impact of viewing art, color and design, composition and scale. Additionally she considers the suitability of materials, techniques employed, and the quality of workmanship. As a State Fair of Texas quilt judge, she annually awarded her own Originality in Quilting Design Award for 15 years. She developed the Quilting Curriculum and taught at Brookhaven, Richland, Eastfield, and El Centro Colleges, SMU, UTD, and Olla Podrida quilt shop.
Ruth is often seen wearing unique origami paper jewelry, which was inspired by her viewing a Japanese art exhibit. The boxy and triangular shaped origami patterns are her favorites. Ruth’s quilts have also earned many local and national awards for design, pictorial design, and craftsmanship.
Member Spotlight
JoAnn Musso
A Passion for Fashion
Our second Member Spotlight features the talented fiber artist, JoAnn Musso, whose art, mentoring, and contributions to DAFA are inspiring and impactful. She was awarded the Outstanding Long Time Member Award in May to honor her decades of service.
JoAnn’s passion for couture sewing and teaching led her to pursue a career as a wearable fiber artist, utilizing her decades of experience as a couture seamstress, and creator of wedding and ball gowns.
On the national level, JoAnn’s wearable art has been shown in many impressive venues. Her wearable art has been in the Houston Museum of Art fashion show, America Quilters’ Society Paducah, KY National quilt show, several International Quilt Association (IQA) Stitch ‘N’ Time fashion shows, three Fairfield Fashion Shows and two Bernina Fashion Shows all at Houston IQA Festivals. Additionally, she helped to raise awareness of breast cancer in her special IQA exhibits, Cancer Coats: A Survivors’ Story in 2008 and 2015. She also judged wearable art at the International Quilt Festival and served as the national President of IQA.
Internationally, JoAnn was honored to have been the creator and producer of a special wearable art fashion show, orchestrated by the Minister of Culture of the Republic of Turkey, for their International Quilt Show.
JoAnn’s elegant, creative efforts are inspired by her colorful imagination that she calls “the playground in her mind”, and her vast experience in couture sewing, garment design, and construction. Her respect and passion for helping other women find their voice in both style and positive imaging also incentivize her in promoting the fiber arts.
She is fearless in trying new materials and techniques, exemplified by her masterful use of paper as fabric, in the 2006 Business Suit, which was constructed of interfaced newspaper stock market reports. She is most memorable for her artful Scarlett O’Hara ensemble (recycled tablecloths) she entered in the DAFA Recycled Runway. Recently she has been knitting necklaces of bronze and copper wires with Swarovski crystals and accented with vintage brooches.
Enjoy this sampling of her work throughout the years!
January-June 2018 Member Spotlight
Carolyn Skei
Storytelling Through Fiber Art
Our first Member Spotlight focuses on the multi-faceted fiber artist Carolyn Skei, whose accomplishments and inspiring work showcase the transitioning role of fiber as a fine art.
Visit her website to see her colorful body of work and to read her personal story of what inspires her eclectic array of fiber art:
https://www.carolynskei.com/
Carolyn is the consummate story teller who incorporates her thoughtful insights about her family history, social conscience, and love of nature, into compelling fiber art that engages the viewer on many levels. Carolyn’s creative tool box is stocked with a masterful photographic lens, photographic manipulation, artful sewing talents, mixed-media techniques of fabric and paper collage, Gelli ™ plate monoprinting, fabric dyeing, polymer clay, bookbinding, painting, and batik.
Carolyn’s interest in the human form is a frequent theme in her fiber art. She employs forms of silhouette that she generates from profiles captured in her photographs. Her contributions to the Wonders Group
Enigma Tarot Project
of 2013 included mixed-media
silhouettes of humans reflecting various movements and emotions, such as the
Passover figure of a mother in the act of protecting her child.
In April 2018, Carolyn will be presenting a Lightning Talk ( 20 slides and 20 brief commentaries) on
The Magic of Gesture: Loving the human figure in fiber art at the Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) International Conference
TEXtiles in San Antonio. Additionally, another photographically inspired silhouette art quilt
Texas Boy With Fish will be exhibited in the juried show.
Botanical themes also appear frequently in Carolyn’s work, such as in her award winning art quilt
Wild, Wild, Plum , which invites the viewer to examine a close-up view of a wild plum. She employs vividly colored fabrics and detailed with her signature quilting stitching style using specialty machine motifs for accents and shading. Her fiber art is deeply influenced by her life as a Master Gardner, certified Tree Care Specialist, past print and online editor of
Neil Sperry’s Gardens Magazine , and editor of two recently published horticulture-related books.
National and International Exhibitions are among the many achievements for our award winning Dallas Area Fiber Artists member: Carolyn is one of the featured artists in the April 23 – July 15, 2018 San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles SAQA exhibition
GUNS: Loaded Conversations which addresses the topic of gun violence in America. Her art quilt
Particularly American Horror includes outlines of victims and hand-written text of media reporting after the Las Vegas shooting. A previous art quilt
Tears for Newtown received a first place award at the Quilters’ Guild of Dallas exhibit in the small art quilt category.
Carolyn’s contributions to Dallas Area Fiber Artists have been many: she has served several terms on the Board of Directors as Website/Communications and Programs Director. She is an accomplished speaker and workshop contributor, always willing to share her knowledge and mastery of techniques as well as her wit and charming stories.
