Spring Break
Weaving through creativity
Textile class enthralls students
Melinda Latham, Daily Staff Writer
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Classes that combine woven structure and fiber concepts give students like Suzi Varin, a senior photography major, a chance to work with the raw materials.
"It's nice to rediscover thread and fabric," Varin said.
Creations range from traditional tapestry pieces to more abstract art involving fabric, fiber and yarn.
Some students find ways to incorporate nontraditional materials with traditional methods. Pam Guerrero, a senior in spatial art, made a rug with strips of old clothing woven together with thread in a floor loom. She said that other students have used materials like plastic bags to create woven art pieces.
"People always relate weaving to a craft, and in some ways it is a craft," Guerrero said. "But it's really a beautiful art."
Guerrero said that it doesn't take long to learn how to weave with the loom. Students also learn how to use dyes, create threads and weave the thread in small, handmade tapestry looms, which resemble a wooden frame with nails holding stretched thread across the frame.
Weaving and fabric work stretches back in time and keeps people in touch with their roots, Underwood said.
"It's ancient knowledge," she said. "It goes back at least 100,000 years. It keeps us human."
Susan Napper, a senior majoring in studio art, said the classes spur creativity.
"She's teaching us to think outside of the box," Napper said of Underwood.
As some students worked at the looms, drawing them back and forth with rhythmic efficiency to create rugs or woven art, other students created freeform fabric art. Varin, who made a piece with random swirls of loose threads, said she liked the historical aspect of the medium.
"Not only is there creative freedom, there's a renaissance feeling to going back to fiber and sewing," she said. "It's refining your roots, going back to something that probably wasn't cool."
Cool or not, Varin said she made this course a priority.
"I knew I wasn't going to leave this school without taking this class," she said.
Holly Connor, a senior art major, said she enjoys the class enough to stay late.
"It's one of the only classes I want to stay at after it ends," she said.
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