2021 HGB Show & Sale Juried Showcase Exhibit Theme – Colorful Colorado

O beautiful for spacious skies
For amber waves of grain
For purple mountains majesties
Above the fruited plain!

The rich colorful Colorado view from Pike’s Peak was Katharine Lee Bates inspiration for those words.

Applicants to the 2021 HGB Show & Sale Juried Showcase are asked: How does the richly hued beauty of Colorado inspire your fiber art?

Share with us, in your fiber art form, the ways of creative inventiveness and stimulation animated by the intensity and undertones personified by our beautiful and beloved state.

Juror: Peggy Turchette – Creator of the Pavlova Project

HGB Showcase Manager: Maribeth Hite

Juror’s Choice Award
and
People’s Choice Award
Elizabeth Berger
Forest Bathing – 27″ x 19″

Artist Statement: The colors dressing Colorado’s aspen during the autumn season really pop, especially when contrasted with a backdrop of dark greens and blues. I took the photo in which this embroidery piece is based on while on a fall hike in Telluride. Soaking in this uniquely Coloradan color palate refreshes my body and cleanses my soul.

Materials and Techniques: This hand-stitched piece uses embroidery floss on muslin fabric, taking eleven months to complete. The French knot is the featured stitch, with the leaves outlined in backstitch. The technique of clustering French knots resembles pointillism in the world of painting.

Special Sale Chair Recognition
Deborah Davis
Autumn at Caribou Ranch – 22” x 37”

Artist Statement: Hiking at Caribou Ranch in the Boulder County hills is a seasonal tradition when I photograph and absorb the blue skies, bright yellow and golden-brown shedding aspens, gentle meadow views and surrounding hills, and breathe in the tang of early autumn. Tapestry design for me begins with a memory of a place or event and the impact of color as part of that time. The annual (masked) hike during the pandemic was both poignant and joyful, and it inspired me to sort through collected photos I took over the years at Caribou Ranch. I developed the cartoon over two months and wove the tapestry throughout the fall and winter of 2020 and into the spring of 2021. My goal was to recreate a sense of place while experimenting with abstract shapes, analogous colors, and color movement to convey a naturalistic scene.

Materials and Techniques: Weft is multiple strands of wool and warp is cotton seine at 10 epi. Handwoven tapestry on a vertical loom.

Linda Arnn
Ocean Comes to Colorado – 8” x 21”

Artist Statement: While walking along the coast, my eyes spotted a lovely piece of driftwood which would fit into my suitcase. Happily, it flew through the sky to its new home in Colorado. Sometime later a friend sent me a box of seashells and remnants of ocean life. My boxes of yarn contained the colors of the sky and the sea, the earth and the plants which all invited the driftwood and its companions to become a colorful part of its new home in Colorado.

Materials and Technique: Wool, cotton, and acrylic. Crochet, knitting, wrapping.

Linda Arnn
Old Cottonwood Remembers – 8” x 30”

Artist Statement:  While walking through the woods my boot tripped on a long-forgotten piece of cottonwood bark. Fascinated by its beauty, possible history, shape, and willingness to come with me, I carried it home. In each season of its long life, what colors and shapes had decorated the tree?

Material and Techniques: Wool, cotton, and acrylic. Crochet, knitting, wrapping.

Elizabeth Berger
Mesa Mosaic – 21” x 23”

Artist Statement: The wildflowers of Colorado’s springtime showcase a wide range of amazing colors as they replace the white of snow. These effervescent wildflowers make a dramatic foreground to Boulder’s foothills. I took the photo in which this embroidery piece is based while on a spring hike in the South Mesa area.

Materials and Techniques used: This piece uses pearl cotton number 5 thread on 28-count cross stitch fabric. The design was inspired by mosaic tile work, but my “tiles” are made from luminous cotton thread, taking eight months to complete.

Cathy Bickell
Colorado’s Spacious Skies

Artist Statement: I have been raising sheep for many years and have come to love the textures of the various types of wool that they grow. After learning to spin, I was introduced to the process of felting which is a fantastic medium wherein I could use my wool. Creating wearable art became a passion where I could use wool meshed with fabric making one-of-a-kind garments. “Blue Skies” has allowed me to incorporate the wonderful blue of the Colorado Skies, the soft white of the clouds and a bit of the silvery stars. The reverse side is a quiet interpretation of the night sky and Milky Way. The wool in the vest gives warmth when worn in the cool of Colorado evenings.

Materials and Techniques: The outer fabric is recycled thrift store silk clothing. The inner layer is fine micro-Merino wool that has been dyed. An additional layer of fine Margilan silk completes the sandwich.
The technique is known as NUNO FELT. It is a wet felting technique which simply uses cool water, soap, hand rubbing, and rolling. This action allows the wool fibers to intermesh into the silk fibers to create a stable piece of fabric.

Darlene Danko
Holidays in the Mountains

Artist Statement: We always wear colorful items no matter what day or time it is. But red and green is perfect for Christmas, so wear red and green at Christmas to celebrate the holiday. When I weave on my loom, I look out the window and see all the green trees in the mountains, and it pleases me to incorporate this color in my work.

Materials and Techniques: 50% rayon, 50% cotton, and metallic. Weaving.

Darlene Danko
Sunset Over the Rio Grande

Artist Statement: Purple is my favorite color and I love weaving with it. The combination of red and purple reminds me of the sunsets over the Rio Grande that I see poking in my window in the evening.

Materials and Techniques: 20% silk, 80% bamboo, rayon and metallic. Weaving.

Linda Farrelly
Rocky Mountain National Park – 8” x 10”

Artist Statement: When I moved to Colorado, the first thing I fell in love with was the sky. In this piece, I printed two copies of a photo I took in RMNP and wove them together using a twill pattern. On each side, the twill is woven to emphasize the blue sky and white clouds, a column of mountains in the center. In some ways, it is a landscape but it would be more accurate to call it a portrait of a time and place.

Materials and Techniques: Inkjet-printed paper. Weaving/Interlacement.

Linda Farrelly
September Morning – 8” x 10”

Artist Statement: I woke up early one morning and took my coffee and cell phone onto the front porch, where I was greeted by an amazingly colorful sunrise. I took some pictures as I watched the sky change. For this piece, I printed out two copies of my favorite shot, choosing plain weave so all the colors would mingle and play off of each other. The trees frame the shimmering sky, landscape into a portrait of a time and place.

Materials and Techniques: Inkjet-printed paper. Weaving/Interlacement.

Barbara Herrli
Colorado Strata – 24” x 24”

Artist Statement: The many layers of rock upon which our state is built is the foundation for this piece.

Materials and Techniques: Cotton fabrics sewn together in strips, crosscut by gold seams, with handstitched accents. Piecing, stitchery.

Sue Hintz-Siegrist
Title: Canyon Spirit – 70” X 27”

Artist Statement: This piece was inspired and designed using actual pieces of canyon rocks that I had collected, and matched colors with yarn. I had been looking at some woven Navajo design motifs and combined several to make up the design, which I thought would be appropriate to the idea of the canyon.

Materials and Technique: Rep weave structure in all cotton

Sue Hintz-Siegrist
Native Dance – 29” x 42”

Artist Statement: This piece rather evolved as I wove it. It gained rhythm as I worked out the interaction of the colors, and it reminded me of the dancers in a Pow Wow I had attended, especially the jingle dance where the women wear costumes covered in the small beads that are incorporated into the fringe.

Materials and Techniques: Rep weave structure in all cotton with bead embellishment

Maribeth Hite
Buffalo – 30” x 12”

Artist Statement: An iconic image of Colorado is the Bison. It is also the mascot for the University of Colorado (my alma mater). I rendered this magnificent beast in silk, embroidery, and beads. Her magnificence (yes, she is a female) says “Colorado” to me.

Materials and Techniques: Crazy Quilting, embroidery, beading on a lurex background. Silk, cotton, synthetics, and beads

Maribeth Hite
Crazy Mountains – 20” x 12”

Artist Statement: I see the mountains every day, and they change every day. The sky changes as well. Creating a simple shape for those mountains, allowed me to focus on the many colors in the sky throughout the day.

Materials and Techniques: Silk, cotton, beads, synthetics. Crazy Quilt Techniques using cotton embroidery and glass beads. The sky is a combination of machine stitching and “Fabric Magic” shrinkage.

Amy Mundinger
Horizon: As far as the eye can see – 8” x 10”

Artist Statement: Living in the West draws my eye to the mountains and to the endless horizon. There is nothing that makes my heart soar more than driving on the open road with 50-100 miles visibility.

Materials and Techniques: Wool weft, cotton warp. Tapestry weaving.

Donna Pattee
After the Floods – 10.5” x 17”

Artist Statement: The colors of the autumn leaves in 2013, after the Great Flood, were intense and stunning. I created an afghan to commemorate the event and those colors, but then realized I had left out several integral parts of that fall. Thus, was born the “After the Flood” wall hanging. This is more accessible and portable than the afghan and includes not only the colorful leaves, but also the tumultuous rivers, the Colorado mountains and blue sky, and even pinecones on evergreens and berries on bushes and vines.

Materials and Techniques: Wool, cashmere, silk, bamboo, nylon, glass beads. Crochet.

Donna Pattee
Colorado Crystals – 8” x 21”

Artist Statement: Is there anything more beautiful than a winter day in Colorado when the sun comes out after a snowfall blankets the earth? A trip into the mountains after just such a day inspired this piece. While I’m happy to be inside looking out, the sparkling snow, blue shadows, and contrast of deep green against white all speak to my soul. And if I’m really lucky, the storm will have painted my windows with a swath of ice crystals, too.

Materials and Techniques: Wool, nylon, silk, cashmere, glass beads. Crochet, embroidery.

Janet Strickler
Life on the Rocks – 12” x 16”

Artist Statement: The red rocks and soil which gave our state its name has been part of my landscape since infancy. I never tire of the shapes and shadows of these rock outcroppings, from Settlers’ Park to the Flatirons in Boulder and the cliffs above the river in Lyons, to Roxborough State Park and Garden of the Gods to the south.

As much as I enjoy the large silhouettes of these landforms, I am also endlessly fascinated with the small-scale life-forms that inhabit them. I especially love the lichens, a remarkable symbiosis of algae or cyanobacteria and fungi, that are thought to be some of the oldest living organisms on dry land. This abstract piece is an attempt to capture a little bit of that magic.

Materials and Techniques: Couched and knotted hand-dyed vintage 2/5 cotton and 20/2 cotton, on purpose-dyed commercial cotton twill.

Sue Torfin
Color My Night – 19” x 26”

Artist Statement: Just as our beautiful state of Colorado is awash in colors that are always fluid, depending upon the location and the light, I find textiles to be a medium awash in colors that are complex, pliable, and varied. I enjoy the creative process that includes the use of color for effect, including how various colors engage each other to create a complex tapestry. Color engages us at an emotional level and creates a mood, elicits memories and associations. Just as I respond to the many hues that greet the eye as I experience the glories of nature in Colorado, I also respond to the human-made beauty that artists and architects bless us with. They inspire me to use my own creativity to express my unique take on beauty in an attempt to enrich our world and our emotional experience.

Materials and Techniques: The background is a felted canvas, which incorporates small pre-felts and some silk embellishments. On top of that, I sewed scraps of previously felted and nuno-felted fabric in the shape of buildings and vegetation. Lastly, I needle felted a few embellishments.

Gina Wimberly-Gard
Staunton 2021 – 30” x 40”

Artist Statement: This work is inspired by a moody and colorful grove of Aspens in Staunton Park. It was a bright fall day which suddenly became thundery and stormy and I felt like I was pitched from the familiar welcoming trail into a wild woods much more than I had anticipated. I made a drawing of some photos I had taken at the time. I had the intention of trying to capture the spirit of the moment in tapestry format. However, since I also enjoy felting, I realized my idealized image might work well in a landscape felt work.

Materials and Techniques: Wool and silk. Felting. I used wool roving and layered it on top of each other changing orientations of each layer to help obtain an even felt. On top of the base layers, I placed roving in shapes or cutout shapes mixed with silk. I placed the piece between some net and wet the piece with a gentle wool/silk detergent in water and then began the felting process by rolling the piece between bubble wrap wrapped around a swimming pool noodle, changing orientations to help get an even felt.

HGB Fiber Art Show & Sale Juried Showcase

Each year, during the five-day HGB Fiber Art Show & Sale at the Boulder County Fairgrounds, Handweavers Guild of Boulder members show their best work in the juried showcase. According to the theme chosen for that year, members of the Guild interpret their reflections in a wide variety of media including weaving, quilting, knitting, crochet, basketry and felting which may be hung on the wall or stand as sculpture.

The Showcase brings visitors the opportunity to see creativity and skilled artisanship up close and personal, and the chance to vote on the People’s Choice Award for their favorite work.