Weaving Memories at Fiber Fair
- Sep 30
- 5 min read
On Saturday September 20, The Art Center played host to Fiber Fair, a celebration of the massive range and impressive history of the fiber arts. We were joined by representatives of local fiber guilds, fiber arts businesses, and individual working artists.
Visitors strolled through in steady waves throughout the event, keeping the day lively and full but not overwhelming. People had the opportunity to watch Ailan Olsen and Dr. Andrea Winkler demonstrate drop spindling, one of the earliest methods of making thread, and the slightly more “modern” spinning on restored spinning wheels, one of which was in use 200 years ago. Jaime Rosegren of Fiber Parts, a fiber arts supply shop in Avondale Estates, let people take a history-inspired memento home with them. She spent the day demonstrating the use of indigo dye, one of the oldest known natural dyes, on souvenir handkerchiefs. The representatives of the Atlanta Knitting Guild connected with the knitting-curious and showed how to perform the stitches that turn yarn into cloth. Needlefelter Robina Gillaranz showed the process of making her magical felted characters from armature to final detail, and Diana Quinn, president of the Southeast Fiber Arts Alliance, showed the process of sewing bowls from rope.
People of all ages, but especially the kids, enjoyed the hands-on table that took up the center of the room. Visitors got to feel raw cotton, alpaca, merino, and wool to get a sense of the difference in these commonly used fibers. They got to have hands on some of the equipment historically used to process these fibers into finished thread and cloth, including antique carding combs provided by Andrea and The Art Center communication manager Carman’s own very rough first attempt at a length of thread made on a drop spindle.
Ray Callaway of the Chattahoochee Handweaver’s Guild provided another hands-on opportunity for guests. With the aid of the Guild’s traveling teaching loom, Ray led visitors through the process of using the heddles to raise warp threads and pass a shuttle through to make another line of thread in the cloth.
For those who wanted to practice their new hobby at home, Johns Creek Books was on hand with a range of helpful how-to books for fiber crafts, as well as some fictional fiber stories for all ages to enjoy. Cool People Sew and Fiber Parts had booths to give people a chance to stock up on tools and materials, and The Art Center did a de-stash of our craft fabric for people who needed scraps for quilts and other projects.
Cat Lemon’s angora bunnies stole the show, of course. Coming all the way from Mila’s Bunny Farm and Yarns in North Carolina, the four angora rabbits let people hold them and pet their luxuriously soft and fluffy coats. The unbridled expressions of joy we saw from adults and kids alike when they realized that we had bunnies in the building will be a memory we treasure.
When the kids could be pulled away from the bunnies and the demonstrators, they were busy working hard on fiber crafts of their own in the All Ages Craft Room. They solved fiber art puzzles on a worksheet, colored our mascot (Art the Otter) with an angora bunny, designed fabric pennants for their rooms, practiced weaving on mini cardboard looms, and made tasseled bookmarks. But where the kids really let their creativity fly was with the creation of yarn dolls. They got to pick the yarn and make different choices for how to tie the doll to make dresses, pants, and hair for their dolls. Some took it the extra mile and used our fabric scraps to give the dolls fabulous fashions.
Throughout the event we had some hands-on workshops available at low cost. Chris Harris started us out with a fabric flower workshop, a preview of her more in-depth brooch workshop coming up soon. Teresa Kim followed with traditional Korean brush painting techniques reimagined in acrylic on fabric handkerchiefs, showing students how to manage the paint so that it became part of the fabric and flowed like a more liquid medium. Jaime of Cool People Sew finished us out with an incredible workshop on creating a zippered pouch. We got to see some of the results, and they looked beautiful with contrasting inner liners and a clean zipper insert. Cool People Sew teaches at their own shop just ten minutes down the road from here, in a building reminiscent of a sewing speakeasy.
As you might imagine from these descriptions, it was an extremely lively day. We were fortunate to have so many visitors pass through our doors for the Fair, and our demonstrators reported that the attendees were all engaged and interested in learning the whole time they were there. Robina, our needlefelting demonstrator, told us about a young boy who was mesmerized by the idea that you could create fantasy creatures out of nothing more than some loose wool and a felting needle, and spent a long time talking with her and asking questions. One of the attendees came up to us, excited to share the moment they’d witnessed when another young child got to try the drop spindle and just lit up at the thought of making thread. A parent approached us at the end of the Fair and expressed gratitude that the Fiber Fair was offered and that their child had gotten to experience so many different art forms and try so many new things. That in and of itself made the whole event worth it to us.
This was the first time The Art Center has tried an educational event quite like this in conjunction with a gallery exhibition. We felt it was an important one to share with the community, to help foster an appreciation not only for the contemporary form of the art but also for its vast and important history. We wanted to connect people to the fiber arts in a more tactile and interactive way, and get them in contact with several of the local fiber guilds. For a long time in history textile creation was a point of social connection, from spinning circles to quilting bees, and these guilds bring that tradition into the modern era.
There is still time to see the By A Thread exhibition and Sandy Teepen’s Solo Quilted Collage exhibition! The closing reception for By A Thread will be held on Saturday October 11 from 1:00 pm-3:00 pm. In addition to our usual light refreshments and chance to meet the artists, artist Laura Leiden will be delivering an artist talk and a live demonstration of her signature alcohol ink painting that serves as a key part of her unique quilting process. The reception is free and open to the public, so be sure to stop by!
