February Jury: “Mix It Up”

For the first three blog posts of this month, I’ve been writing about the jury process in our gallery. All of the photos I used as illustrations came from our January 10, 2011 jury day. At the end of the last post, I said, “And guess what? We’ll do it all over again next month!” Sure enough, we did.

Tuesday, February 15, was jury day again in our gallery. The show theme, “Mix It Up,” encouraged gallery members to use two or more different fiber techniques in their work.

After each jurying, the jurors select “Jurors’ Choice” items. We don’t have prizes, but we do put a nice, shiny gold sticker on the wall next to each selected piece.

Here are the Jurors’ Choice awardees for the Mix It Up show:

This fabulous vest (above) is a made in a technique called "freeform crochet." It would look terrific on any model in the Fashion Week shows in New York City this week. The artist is Elida de Souza Moore.

Artist Floris Flam uses monoprinting and stitching to create this softly meditative wall quilt (left), entitled “Blue Hills.” It would be perfect for a nice yoga corner in someone’s home.

Paige Garber is the artist who created this eye-popping wall hanging (right), “Cosmic Confluence,” which incorporates felt-making, stitching, applique, and other techniques. Put it in the entrance hall to your home to give your guests a warm welcome.

In addition to selecting Jurors’ Choice pieces, the jurors for each show write a statement about the show as a whole. Here’s what jurors Ann Liddle and Carol Holmes wrote about “Mix It Up”:

“This was both a difficult and easy theme. Using a variety of fibers and techniques is common among our members. Even so, some lovely examples of mixed techniques and fibers were submitted. We especially liked the color and stitch explosion of Elida's vest, the monoprinting and stitching techniques in Floris' quilt, and the lively but delicately balanced felting and stitching in Paige's wall hanging.”

Jurying vs. Judging

The question has arisen as to what is the difference between jurying and judging. Some artistic disciplines use the terms interchangeably. Others, for example in the world of art quilts, maintain a careful distinction. “Jurying” is the process of deciding whether a piece is admitted to a given show. “Judging” is reserved for deciding which pieces in a given show should be given awards.

To take our gallery’s February show, Mix It Up, as an example: all of the pieces submitted for the show were juried. Most were accepted; a few were rejected. The three pieces pictured above were selected (judged) from all of the theme pieces to be awarded Jurors’ Choice recognition.

Next Post

For my final February post (before I turn the blog over to Larry for March), I’ll be writing about the Travels of a Fiber Lover: how I go about finding fiber shops, what kinds of interesting fiber art I see in other countries, and how the work of other cultures influences what I do.

Hot Tropics––Judges' Recognitions

Monday was jury day at the Gallery. All unsold artwork from the holiday show went home to their artists and new work took its place. The theme of our new show is Hot Tropics: Warmth in Winter's Freeze. This month's judges said "Using fiber to evoke summer's heat and tropical breezes we chose the pieces to represent sun, sea and sand. Everyone worked in their medium to warm up the season."

The jurors also selected three pieces for special recognition. I hope the artists will give me some material to post later in the week, but for now, here the three special pieces:

Anna Yakubovskaya's painted silk top:

Ann Graham's dyed silk scarf:


Elida Moore's red/hot orange crocheted/knit shawl:

Please stop by our Gallery to be warmed by the tropical colors of our new show.

Jewelry in peyote stitch beadwork

Peyote stitched beadwork may be used to produce elegant jewelry. Above is an example of very simple 2 bead wide peyote stitched strips suspending an artist made piece of fused dichroic glass. The beads complement the colors of the glass without overpowering it, allowing the pendant to be the focus of attention. (Necklace by Joanne Bast)

The second example, also by Joanne Bast, suspends an artist made pendant, here an enamel on silver piece with strips of peyote stitching. The difference is that in addition to plain seed beads, pressed glass beads with asymmetrically drilled holes are incorporated into the peyote stitching.

An additional use of peyote stitch is to create several strips of peyote and then braid them together.

Peyote stitch may also be done is a more freeform mode. In these first 3 bracelets by Potomac Fiberarts Gallery member Gladys Seaward, areas of peyote stitching are done with different sized beads, causing the finished construction to take on a more fluid and organic form. The sinuosity of the forms is enhanced by judicious increasing and decreasing. Gladys states, "Freeform beadwork is my favorite beadwork technique. It is the most creative outlet as it allows me to create my own original designs as I weave on and attach the beads."

I will finish today's blog with a few of my own bracelets where freeform peyote stitch is handled in a different manner. Instead of blocks of different sized beads, I have employed massive increasing, adding more beads to each row, and decreasing, to add shaping. This caused the peyote stitch framework to ruffle, producing 3-dimentional forms. I also often do my jewelry items in modules that are linked together with peyote stitched loops. This allows flexibility and gives the piece a place to twist and turn without wearing the constructing threads. Like Gladys, I now use almost entirely fireline, a thread intended as a fishing line.

I find freeform peyote work enticing as I never know what the end construction will turn out to be. The pieces evolve as they are created. Joanne