Beads are another love of mine. I have been working off and on with them for some thirty years, starting with jewelry and adding bead embroidery and most recently, embellished quilts. One of my mentors has been my sister, Robin Atkins, teacher, friend, and fellow beadophile. It was under her tutelage that I learned bead embroidery. I have adapted the basic embroidery stitches for the application of beads to quilts. The work here spans three years and began with a car accident.

I was rear-ended on the freeway and couldn’t do any sculpture for more than six months. I could, however, manage fabric and beads. Not one to sit idle, I began to explore the relationships between beaded and quilted surfaces and how they relate. I wanted to see beads as an integral part of the design, not just sitting on the surface. Beads and fabric complementing one another, neither one predominating, balanced. These quilts are some of the results of my explorations.

View more of Thom's work on his website: ThomAtkins.com

Although textiles have always interested me, it wasn’t until I was finishing my M.A. In Music Theory and Composition at San Francisco State College that I took a class in Surface Design in order to complete some graduation requirements. I began weaving in 2002 and in 2003 produced my first fiber art piece. However, it wasn’t until four years ago as my mother lay dying, that I was able to find my voice as an artist. I wanted to weave her shroud and capture her body image on a textile that would carry her essence beyond the cold fact of her death. This became the beginning of my exploration of the feminine form as a vehicle for my own spiritual growth. I consider my work to be a pictorial autobiography with images of women both personal and archetypal.

In producing my work, I use a process called double weave pick-up in which I weave two layers of fabric at the same time. The layers are of very different weights. One is tightly woven and made of heavy linen thread.The second layer is transparent and is woven from very fine, thread. To produce the body image on the heavy linen threads, I use small iron ingots to rust the lines of the image using a pencil drawing as a guide. Than I paint onto the threads using fiber reactive dye and discharge. The process of weaving these two disparate layers together to form one image is very slow and labor intensive. I find that as the weaving progresses, one weft shot at a time, the feelings that were the original impulse for the image become, with time, clearer and more defined.

With photographs and examples of my work, I will show the step by step process that I use to produce these images.

Guild member Bambi Jones will present a program which will introduce us to the beautiful world of Navajo weaving. Bambi studied with Marilyn Brandon at Cabrillo College and has made several trips to Table Mesa, NM where she worked with native weaver Sarah Natani. She will bring a warp on the loom, a warp ready to put into the loom and a selection of weaving tools. She will demonstrate technique and answer questions. She will also bring a selection of both native weavings and those she has done herself. This promises to be a visual treat, and a unique opportunity to find out more about this kind of weaving.

Frances Dorsey will weave together, literally and metaphorically, threads of the Pacific Rim, from WWII , Saigon of the 50's and early weaving of the Andes, in stories, images, textiles. As a child, in the 1950's, Frances Dorsey lived in Saigon and now she "works in cloth as a way of engaging critically with painting and of bringing global themes within the scope of family life and domestic practices." Read the entire statement and view images from her show at Mount Saint Vincent University at this website.