September 10, 2025 | Weaving Origami and Beyond with Susie Taylor
Guild Monthly Meeting
9:30am, First Baptist Church in person and zoomed to home members
A survey of works from the origami series to the present.
Susie Taylor will discuss several bodies of her work including the evolution of her process incorporating origami and weaving together. She will also talk about how her work, Social Fabric and Swatch, use cloth as a metaphor for connection. Origami was introduced to her as a child, but it was later after she had studied weaving in art school and worked in the textile industry that she discovered a technique that allowed her to bridge weaving and origami together to create abstract and dimensional textiles. She was inspired to elevate weave structure as subject matter in her work Social Fabric and Swatch. This work aims to shed light on how cloth metaphors are woven into our language and culture. Using optical effects, she creates large-scale weavings about weaving that challenge the perception of the viewer.
Bio
Susie Taylor received her B.F.A. From Kansas City Art Institute and M.F.A. From UCLA and then later earned a Certificate of Excellence (Level 1 Handweaving) from Handweavers Guild of America.
She currently lives and works in Rochester NY and is represented by Johansson Projects (Oakland CA).
Residencies: Praxis Digital Weaving Lab (Cleveland, OH)
Recent exhibitions: Black Mountain College Museum (Asheville, NC), Palo Alto Arts Center (Palo Alto CA), Peeler Arts Center (Greencastle IN), Johansson Projects (Oakland CA)., Momentum Gallery (Asheville, NC), Hosfelt Gallery (San Francisco, CA)Institute of Contemporary Art (San Jose CA), Craft in America Center (Los Angeles CA)
Susie's work has also been seen on Colossal Art and New American Paintings, The LA Times, American Craft, Fiber Arts, Fiber Art Now, The Textile Eye, Complex Weavers Journal, Shuttle Spindle and Dyepot, Handwoven, Journal of Weavers Spinners and Dyers, The Bulletin (Guild of Canadian Weavers), and Weven magazines.
She has taught at Penland School of Craft, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, and Tyler School of Art and Architecture.
October 8, 2025 | The Language of Line with Micala Sidore
Guild Monthly Meeting
9:30am, First Baptist Church in person and zoomed to home members
Examples of the ways that tapestry weavers employ line in their work—from all over the world.
We are lucky to share her visit, with the Eastern Great Lakes Fiber Conference (Oct. 8-11, 2025). Micala's class is Tapestry Landscapes and Identities: A Tapestry Workshop
Bio
I first studied weaving in 1973, completed my first tapestry in 1979 and, between 1984 and 1987, spent altogether 25 months as an intern at La Manufacture National des Gobelins, the French state tapestry studio.
My first solo exhibit of tapestries was in 1984. I have since had three other one person shows, and participated in many group exhibitions.
In 1987 I established the Hawley Street Tapestry Studio.
My first article, 1991, was for the German quarterly Textilforum, and I have written over 45 articles since then; I have given talks on tapestry and fiber art in 11 countries.
In 1991 I began the series called "Black + White + Red All Over", and in 1998 showed them first in Poland (when there were 19). There are now 69.
In 2014 I curated a traveling exhibition called "The Art is the Cloth", and in 2020 Schiffer Books published my book of the same name. My second book, “Tapestry Talking”, Subtitled “Understanding the Language of Handwoven Art” also from Schiffer Books, will come out in late May, 2026.
November 12, 2025 | The Real Polar Fleece with Linda Cortright
Guild Monthly Meeting
9:30am, First Baptist Church zoomed to the big screen, and to home members
Nothing could be more contrary to the world of natural fibers than “polar fleece.” Unless it’s the real polar fleece. Join Wild Fibers editor Linda Cortright on this delightful journey to Antarctica and the Russian Arctic in search of the real polar fleece. You will enjoy stunning photos, and some of the wildest tales of Cortright’s career—including teaching Santa Claus how to spin!
