Weaving can be viewed as a handcraft, an ethnic tradition, a global commodity, and a prototype for binary systems. It can also be viewed as embodied cognition, a term that came up frequently during a recent conference, Weaving: Cognition/Technology/Culture at Columbia University, New York. The purpose of the conference was to challenge the common assumption …

Our amazing conference just finished, and to top it off, this week’s Friday Fibers Roundup features articles on some of our Keynote speakers and demonstrators (plus some extras)! 1) This video shows Aram Han Sifuentes’ Protest Banner Lending Library where Sifuentes leads workshops to teach others how to make their own protest banners in lieu …

Closing out SDA’s Outstanding Students Award Winners is another top-notch gallery of student work featuring innovation within the field of fibers and textiles. All were nominated by the chair of their department, and will receive a certificate as well as a one-year membership to the Surface Design Association. For more information on the Outstanding Student Awards …

This week’s Friday Fibers Roundup features a mix of drag race costuming, fashioning the future, and the decolonization of craft. 1) “Steps Towards Decolonizing Craft” by Aram Han Sifuentes explores the problematic use of appropriation, primitivism, fetishisation, stolen, and stripped of context cultures become when artists and craftspeople are “inspired” or “drawn to” cultures not …

Our second gallery of SDA’s Outstanding Students Award Winners is just as amazing as last week’s, and features innovation within the field of fibers and textiles. Nominated by the chair of their department, all winners receive a certificate as well as a one-year membership to the Surface Design Association. For more information on the Outstanding …

Surface Design Association is pleased to present our Summer edition “Making our Mark: SDA at 40” to celebrate our 40th Anniversary. With opening letters from President Astrid Bennett and Guest Editor Wendy Weiss, this Journal reflects on the amazing people that helped SDA grow into what it is today, as well as looks forward to …

From multiple fiber-based exhibitions opening, to sculptural embroidery works, this week’s Friday Fibers Roundup has got you covered. 1) Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Rooms just opened at the Seattle Art Museum in Washington State, and has been selling out since opening day. Kusama’s experiential art is one that speaks to both artists and non-artists alike with …

The winners of SDA’s Outstanding Students Awards were recently announced, and this year had one of the strongest batches of submissions yet! All the student’s work features innovation within the field of fibers and textiles and is part of a cohesive and professionally accomplished body of work. With 45 winners (both nationally and internationally), we’ve …

This week’s Forty Year Flashback comes to us from our Spring 1990 Journal “ON STAGE: Surface Design and the Performing Arts” with the title article by Deborah M. Dryden….

This week’s Friday Fibers Roundup features a mix of workshops, flax processing, the politics of everyday materials, as well open-source activism through banners and protests. 1) “Open-Source Activism” by Sarah Archer looks at the powerful use of bold, graphic banners in relation to protests throughout history (via American Craft Council). 2) A charity is bringing …