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October Issue 2004
Catherine Ellis to Give Talk at Center for
Craft, Creativity and Design in Hendersonville, NC
The Center for Craft, Creativity and Design in Hendersonville,
NC, presents a Tea Time Talk on Oct. 5, at 4pm, with Catherine
Ellis, fiber faculty from Haywood Community College's Professional
Crafts Program. The Talk is in conjunction with an exhibition
of works by students and faculty from the Haywood Community College
Professional Crafts Program currently on display in the Center's
gallery through Oct. 22, 2004. The Talk will be held in the Conference
Center next door, and refreshments will be served.
Ellis divides her time between studio work, and teaching the Professional
Fiber Program at Haywood Community College. A weaver for many
years, she developed the process of woven shibori and continues
to explore new applications of the process. Ellis teaches and
exhibits internationally. Her work has been recently published
in Memory on Cloth: Shibori Now by Yoshiko Wada, Fiberarts Design
Book Seven, and The Nature of Craft and the Penland Experience.
Her own book, The Weaverís Studio: Woven Shibori, will
be published by Interweave Press in 2005.
Ellis offered the following statement: "I have been a weaver
and a teacher of weaving for 30 years. My training was in the
technical aspects of fabric construction and controlled dye processes.
I have learned to think as a weaver, solve problems as a weaver,
and approach the world one thread at a time."
"For the last dozen years I have been developing a new weaving and dyeing process and have called it 'woven shibori'. What began as a resist for indigo dyeing has evolved into multiple layers of dye and discharge. It has provided me the vocabulary to translate into cloth the landscape of my surroundings in western North Carolina."
"The process of woven shibori has breathed new life into my textile work. It feels as if Iím beginning my craft all over again, discovering new ways of weaving and responding to the unexpected. It has informed my teaching and given me the opportunity to connect with weavers all over the world. There is much more to be explored and itís a privilege at this point in my life to be on the edge, anticipating what is yet to come and having the opportunity to share what I continue to learn."
The Professional Crafts Program at Haywood Community College in Clyde, North Carolina has become a model program. Offering students tracts in clay, fiber, jewelry and wood, students are also taught marketing and business skills. At the end of the two-year program, students graduate with a diploma, portfolio, studio and marketing plan, and a body of work. The program began in the mid-nineteen-seventies in recognition of the strong heritage of craft in the Smoky Mountains Region. The program is so successful that students come from throughout the United States and abroad to attend. There are extensive waiting lists for each of the disciplines.
For more information call 828.890.2050 or visit (www.craftcreativitydesign.org).
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc. Copyright© 2004 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts Online, Copyright© 2004 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.