Here are some reports from Guild members who attended Convergence in Grand Rapids, MI, June 25 - July 1.

From Tracey Appleton:

Convergence is always a wonderful whirl of sights, texture, ideas and projects in the making. But I think my favorite part is catching up with friends from far away places and making new ones. The shows and exhibits were very centrally located so it was very easy to get around and see everything. I particularly liked the Small Format Tapestry exhibit. We had some great speakers. Particularly notable was the closing ceremony speech given by Mary Fisher. She brought us all to tears as she recounted her struggles with the HIV virus and her efforts to bring awareness to the public.

Although the vendor hall seemed a bit quieter this year, I got to participate in a lot of great classes. I started off with a 3 day pre-conference workshop on woven shibori with Catharine Ellis. We wove off our samples at home and then dyed them using natural dye extracts. Catharine is a great teacher and we had a lot of fun. I took a seminar from a Korean mother daughter team who teach at the Rhode Island School of Design. They take the traditional pojagi cloth and put a contemporary, artistic spin on it as a medium. Their work is beautiful.

I had another seminar from a mother daughter team, this time from Japan. These two have been studying the Miao people of China for 20 years. The emphasis on this class was the glossy indigo fabric that the villagers make. It is very labor intensive. I also took a class that was a walk through of the jury process of the pieces that were accepted to the fashion show.

Then I sat in on a panel of 5 heavy hitters in the tapestry world; Jon Eric Riis, Helena Hernmarck, Sharon Marcus, James Kohler and Marcel Marois. They each discussed a little bit about the kind of work they do and their processes. My last class was an overview of contemporary Japanese textiles. It was basically a look at Nuno fabrics (not nuno style felting). It is a traditional Japanese textile house with a very non-traditional spin on textiles. Check it out. www.nuno.com

I left Grand Rapids thinking about how it continues to be important to carry on our textile traditions, and to do our part to share them with the world and our communities, even if it is only in a small way.

From Barbara Boone:

Sometimes the catalog description and your expectations don't mesh. This time I was lucky. The workshop, studio and seminars were all interesting and informative. The workshop was Makiko Tada's All-in-one-Kumihimo. This is my third workshop with Makiko. Someone says I am becoming a "groupie". I borrowed Anne Rock's (Berkeley guild) karakumi-dai to learn this kind of braiding. It is essentially a twining technique that has much in common with some of the Peruvian braids I have learned to make. I spent three days mostly un-braiding to get a poorly tensioned, narrow, four inch braid. It is a very engrossing activity and I am hooked.

The one day studio was an interesting followup to Makiko's class. Anthropologist Sadae Torimaru has spent some 20 years among the Miao people of south eastern China studying their textiles. There wasn't enough time in one day to do more than two simple braids. An assistant demonstrated another braid using a technique that is very close to western bobbin lace. Sadae's daughter, Tomoko, acted as translator. She is also entering the field and studying weaving.

The seminars were: Inge Dam's Borders and Selvages Inspired by Ancient Techniques; Elaine Bradley's Grand Lace Inspirations; and Laurie Autio's two part symmetry class.

I had a chance to meet Barbara Setsu Pickett and make a brief visit to her velvet workshop. I think she is worth considering for a workshop with our guild or at CNCH.

The bonus was having a chance to see Janis and Dave Saunders of WeaversHand, and, pleasant surprise, Nilda Callañaupa. Nilda was on her way to a festival at Santa Fe and made a last minute decision to go to Grand Rapids.

From Marilou Moschetti:

The overall feeling at the Convergence 2006 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, was one of "coming together" to share, learn, and catch the wave of new materials available to textile artists today. In addition, elements of textile work were shown in many forms and integrated to create clothing, wall art, and home decor. Internationally known Korean artists, used cloth, paper and threads combined to establish themselves as innovative front runners in the textile industry.