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In Memorium: Maria Estela Serafini (8-23-1948 – 4-2-2009)
By Jan Austin
At her first TWiNE meeting, Estela asked “What is this ‘ends per inch?’ ” She had learned to weave on a picture frame with tiny nails on the top and bottom and lots of fine cotton warps. . . . she was free to use various setts within the same tapestry, sometimes weaving over one under one, other times weaving over 3 under 3, thus achieving wonderful variations in texture using just a long tapestry needle. . . . She was unconstrained by the concept of “ends per inch,” and we were intrigued by these tapestries that were like nothing we had ever seen before. . . .
Estela . . . always had to include one of these 3 materials in each tapestry: silver, mother of pearl, or copper. . . . Estela [said once] that she wove with her gut; when a tapestry was finished she would be exhausted; her arms, her legs, even her HAIR felt tired. It was not only tapestry: Estela approached every aspect of her life with complete devotion. We all remember her emails that said “I hug you with my heart,” and there was never a doubt in any of our minds that she really meant it. |
below: Estela Serafini, GEOMETRIZING CONCEPTS, 7” x 6 ½”, 2002, wool, cotton, wire; photo: Barbara Burns |
The ATA Award to Margaret Swanson
By Merna Strauch
The ATA Award of Excellence was bestowed on Margaret Swanson at the recent biennial conference of the Association of Southern California Handweavers (ASCH) in Riverside, California.
Margaret loves watching the sailboats in the marina near her Coronado home (near San Diego) and was inspired by them to weave her winning piece, Red sails in the Sunset . . .
Margaret says: . . . I have for the past 10-12 years focused mostly on tapestry after developing an enduring love of Navajo weaving. Much of my tapestry weaving has been developed along those lines with color fields and geometric forms. |
below: Margaret Swanson, RED SAILS IN THE SUNSET, 15" x 19", May 2007, cotton warp, wool weft, hand dyed |
Volunteers Make it Happen: Elaine Duncan
Compiled by Ronda Karliukson
I have been intrigued with many forms of weaving. . . . Tapestry has held my interest since the beginning. Each pass of the weft creates new decisions and challenges. . . . I am constantly engaged with the design and the process.
Everything inspires me - nature, people, authors, colours, poetry, songs, travel. I get so excited as I see the potential of a tapestry in things around me. Images evoke feelings and feelings evoke images. . . .
in the Fall of 2006, Joan Griffin asked if I would be interested in heading up the new PR/Public Relations committee. . . . This has been a steep learning curve for me, which I am enjoying. ATA volunteers and board members are a great group of very hard working and dedicated people. |
below: Elaine Duncan, LA MADRE DEL MAIZ |
below: Elaine Duncan, LOGAN BERRY LEAVES |
Kudos: Anne Jackson, Nicki Bair, and Judy Schuster
Compiled by Merna Strauch
Anne Jackson’s Witch-Hunt: Maleficium (In Memoriam) is touring Europe as part of the European Tapestry Forum exhibition, “Artapestry 2”; and has been purchased from the exhibition by the Art Endowment of the City of Aalborg, Denmark. The exhibition began in Aalborg, is currently on show in Bergen, Norway, and will be in Angers, France, in December, and in Lulea, Sweden, in spring 2010. Further details from www.tapestry.dk
. . . Nicki Bair [‘s] Tricolor Fuselli, a long, pulled-warp spiral, took a first in the multi-dimensional category [in the Association of Southern California Handweavers’ biennial conference in March].
Judy Schuster’s multi-media portrait piece, Odysseus And The Sirens, was accepted among very tight competition in “Beadwork VI: The Beaded Book.” |
below: Anne Jackson, WITCH-HUNT: MALEFICIUM (IN MEMORIUM), 72" x 67" (1800 x 1700cm), 2007. This solo accomplishment is part of Anne's "current labor of love, looking at all the attitudes to witchcraft, as metaphor or crime or whatever, we have had over the centuries." |
below: Nicki Bair, TRICOLOR FUSELLII, detail, pulled warp tapestry
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below: Judy Schuster, ODYSSEUS AND THE SIRENS
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Newletter of the American Tapestry Alliance |
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