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The Potential Energy of One Week

samples of shibori-dyed fabrics
Paisley’s fabric samples from her week-long shibori workshop in October make up a rainbow of colors and patterns. (Photo: Paisley Holloway)

 

As a block of time, a week is most suited to building, developing, progressing. It is long enough to see forward movement, yet large progress tends to happen on the scale of months or years. Most weeks blend together with those on either side of them, more marked by variations to routine than by anything truly out of the ordinary.

But what about the rare, uncommon week? For Jackie Dering and Paisley Holloway, a 1-week workshop at Penland this fall was the ideal opportunity to step away from the general flow of life and immerse themselves in a week of something totally different. The result was more than just a set of new craft skills.

Jackie and Paisley work at Valdese Weavers, a North Carolina company that has created jacquard fabrics for over 100 years. When the opportunity arose for two of the company’s employees to take a Penland workshop thanks to the generous support of Penland friend Laura Levinson, Jackie says, “We both jumped at the chance!”

The workshop, taught in October by textile artist Carol LeBaron, focused on shibori techniques with acid dyes. “Carol really brought a new perspective to the class,” Paisley explained. “It wasn’t traditional shibori, and she really let us go wild with what kind of techniques we wanted to use.”

 

textile artist applying pattern to fabric
Instructor Carol LeBaron demonstrating a screened technique. (Photo: Jackie Dering)

 

At Valdese Weavers, Jackie works with patterns as a designer, and Paisley is a colorist. “It was funny,” Paisley tells me, “she and I went in different directions that were very related to our jobs, but we didn’t do it on purpose.” Paisley focused on the play of colors on fabric, experimenting with color mixing and overdyeing in her pieces. Jackie, meanwhile, found herself exploring patterns and design techniques. She tells me how she got excited about clothespins as a way to create resist patterns: “I thought I knew what they would look like before I prepared the fabric, but it came out totally different from what I expected. It was a cool, happy accident, and so exciting!”

Both Paisley and Jackie returned to Valdese Weavers the next week with lots of samples to pin on their walls. “I have some really cool patterns that I want to try as woven fabric,” Jackie says. Paisley adds, “I look at my pieces all the time for inspiration.”

 

Woman holding a clamped fabric; dyed fabric sample
Jackie with one of her intricately-clamped pieces ready for the dye pot. To the right is one of her finished pieces, the pattern created totally with clothespins. (Photos: left by Amanda Thatch, right by Jackie Dering)

 

A wealth of inspiration is a solid result from a week’s work, but I was surprised to hear just how much more both Jackie and Paisley got out of their workshop. Both of them commented on how creatively rejuvenated and refreshed they felt by Friday afternoon. “When you’re designing for a client every day, you can start to feel a little stagnant,” Jackie explained. “It was great to feel so engaged in something new and to know that I’m still a creative individual.”

The class quickly developed a sense of community, too. “There were so many people from different backgrounds who were there for different reasons,” notes Paisley. Jackie commented on how rare that feeling of rapid community can be. “By the end of the week, you feel like you’ve made all these friends. As you get farther along in your career, that doesn’t happen as much,” she explained. “For me, that was a really nice reminder, just feeling like ‘I’m still a human being; I can still make a new friend who’s older than me, who’s different than me.’”

It’s a tall order for one week to serve up personal connections, intense focus, new skills, freedom to experiment, and creative validation. But on those rare weeks when the pieces all come together, surely the only thing to do is to embrace it all.

—Sarah Parkinson

 

 

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Explore Shibori with Carol LeBaron

Carol LeBaron in her studio

The Japanese art of shibori, or shaped resist dyeing, is as old as it is varied. Since the first known example of the technique in the 8th century, artists have used shibori methods to produce patterns of miniature dots and bold lines, sharp angles and soft curves. Shibori has traditionally been done with indigo dye on natural fibers such as silk and hemp. And the intricate patterns it produces often echo the natural world as wellfrom the driving diagonal lines of a rainstorm to the rippling patterns on the surface of a lake to the delicate symmetry of a spider’s web.

Textile artist Carol LeBaron’s work is, at first glance, a far cry from the indigo and white designs that many people associate with shibori. But she is one in a long line of artists using and reinterpreting these techniques. Much of her current work draws from itajime shibori, a method of folding and clamping to produce pattern on cloth. And her imagery, like many traditional shibori patterns, also reflects nature. Her fabrics are rich with colordeep greens and saturated reds outline leaf shapes, while bright golds and oranges suggest dappled sunlight filtering through a forest canopy. As Carol explains, each piece “elicits the specificity of a particular time of day, weather, or place.” She describes her work as “a combination of contemporary aesthetic, modern technology, and ancient techniques.

 

textile piece by Carol LeBaron
A detail from “Taming the Forest,” a large installation piece Carol made using her clamped resist technique.

 

This fall, Carol will bring her knowledge of those techniques to Penland when she teaches “Explore Shibori: Acid Dyes” from October 18-24. Like Carol’s work, the one-week course will use traditional shibori methods as a jumping-off point to create new layers of pattern and color on cloth. Students of all levels will get the chance to put their own spin on techniques that have captivated artists for centuries. Space is still available to take part in Explore Shibori. Register here.

 

Explore Shibori: Acid Dyes

This workshop will explore the limitless possibilities inherent in acid dyes. We’ll begin with simple immersion techniques, creating a base and adding layers with direct application. We’ll explore shibori techniques in the hot acid dye pot, which can cause wool and silk to hold the shape when dried. This week will be an investigation that will result in a rich assortment of samples and many techniques and ideas to follow up in your own work. All levels. Code F02TA

Carol LeBaron is a studio artist who has taught at Haystack (ME), Arrowmont (TN), Campbell Folk School (NC), Peters Valley (NJ), and East Tennessee State University. Her textile work has been exhibited at the Nashville Airport, the Textile Museum (DC), and the International Shibori Symposium (Hong Kong) and has been included in publications such as Surface Design Journal, Fiberarts Design Book Seven, and 1000 Textiles (Lark Books).

carollebaron.com

 

Spring Growth by Carol LeBaron
“Spring Growth,” resist-dyed wool, acid dye, hand stitched, 48 x 96”

 

REGISTER NOW FOR FALL 1-WEEK WORKSHOPS
October 4 – 10  |  October 18 – 24  |  November 1 – 7