Silvermine Arts Center presents an international exhibition that seeks to showcase the best of contemporary fiber art that reflects the breadth of functional or non-functional works that use fiber and/or fiber art techniques in traditional or innovative ways. Artwork in this exhibition may be made from natural or high tech materials that reference fiber and that blur the lines between art, architecture and craft.

Join us for the Opening Reception on Saturday, May 17, 5-7pm

Pictured: “Sacred Erosion” 46” x 46” Handwoven ondulé, dyeing, stitching.

Hour by Hour celebrates the devotion to process inherent in time-based artistic practices, drawing attention to the layered, methodical steps that culminate in each piece. The exhibition showcases a diverse selection of mediums—including woodcut prints, ondulé fiber weavings, soda-fired ceramics, and abstract paintings—each bearing the mark of sustained engagement and the passage of time.

Pictured: “Posidonia” 29” x 28” handwoven ondulé, dyeing, stitching

TEXTILES – SUMMER SESSION 4
June 30-July 12, 2024 (11 STUDIO DAYS)
Amy Putansu
Ondulé: Weaving Waves

Warp ondulé is a weaving technique that requires special tools and methods for managing the floor loom. This workshop is an introduction to maneuvering woven threads into sinuous, waving pathways throughout the interlacement. Students will work with a variety of fibers while exploring structures and techniques that emphasize the unique qualities of ondulé weaving. We will produce a selection of samples through a round-robin series. Demonstrations will include resist dyeing, warp painting, various weave structures (including twills and overshot), inlay, and the use of supplemental threads. Students will finish by planning and producing a small ondulé piece. Intermediate level: students should be skilled at independently dressing a floor loom. This workshop takes place in a second-floor walk-up studio that has partial access by a stair lift.

Where Water Meets Land | Katie Hudnall, Amy Putansu, and Sarah Vaughn

June 25 – August 3, 2024

Woodworker Katie Hudnall grew up along the Potomac River and spent childhood summers on the South Carolina coast. Her fanciful, sometimes functional, sometimes impractical, painted wooden objects are inspired by furniture, illustration, tools, toys, and all things nautical. Katie prefers using recycled and found wood whenever possible as it sparks new discoveries and encourages an openness to change and adaptation.

Textile artist Amy Putansu spent her childhood growing up on the Atlantic Ocean along the rugged coast of Maine. Her hand woven “paintings” use a rare weaving technique called ondulé which allows her to manipulate threads into wave-like patterns that suggest the fluidity and movement of water. These contemplative works keep Amy connected to her heritage and homeland while serving as personal meditations on the impermanence of all things.

Glass artist Sarah Vaughn has always been drawn to rivers, lakes, and anywhere she could become lost in a sea of smooth stones. She creates recollections of rocks, small moments that are not meant to last, in materials that are permanent yet fragile. Her perfectly composed and stacked groupings of glass and porcelain rocks serve as a metaphor for personal experiences and the precarious nature of life.

This group exhibition features paintings, collages, and sculptures that embody the alluring ambiance between sunrise and sunset. Plein air paintings capture the scattered, sleepy light of Dawn; Collaged drawings depict sidewalks blanketed by moonlight; Mixed-media sculptures portray nocturnal animals. Each artist reminds us of the recurrent and striking period of time when the atmosphere is neither totally dark, nor completely lit.

Artists: Caleb Clark, Bryant Holsenbeck, Bill Killebrew, Inigo Navarro, Isaac Payne, Amy Putansu, Daniel Robbins, Peggy Root, and Deborah Squier.

MAIN LEVEL GALLERY Opening Reception: Friday, May 3rd (5-7pm)

In this group show I share six small wall pieces of handwoven cloth, wood and nails. Visit Sager Reeves Gallery here.

Solo exhibition of new work at Blue Spiral 1 Gallery in Asheville NC.

In her most recent body of work, Amy Putansu’s ondulé weavings, with their wave-like patterns and textures, emulate the geographic shifts we encounter as we observe the world around us. She assimilates reflective color and sinuous line, giving the impression of land meeting sea meeting sky and everything in between.

For those who have ever been interested in, or wanted to try weaving on a floor loom, this workshop is for you. It is absolute beginner-level, no previous experience necessary. Students will begin by learning the lingo and taking a tour of the tools and equipment involved in weaving. Emphasis will be placed on preparing materials and setting up the loom: the most labor-intensive part of the process. And then the fun begins- students will weave a set of sample fabrics to wet-finish and compile into a swatch book. This class is also perfect for those who want to graduate from rigid heddle weaving to the four-shaft floor loom. Students will learn the back-to-front warping method, and weave a variety of basic structures such as plain weave, twills, and basket weave in colors of their choice. This workshop will prepare students to plan a woven project, dress a loom, and weave a simple fabric of their own design.

FMI here

Andy Fletcher | Lita Kenyon | Katie Musolff | Amy Putansu

https://sagerbraudisgallery.com/

A series of three workshops that build from a one-day beginner to a three-day advanced. Workshops can be purchased as a package (10% discount!), or available à la carte. For pricing and to register go to Cloth Fiber Workshop. Any skill level is welcome at any of the workshops

August 29 One-day Workshop for beginners +

Decorative hand stitching can enliven any textile or garment with color and texture, and even mask stains or act as mending on our well-loved fabrics. This six-hour workshop will introduce students to the basic tools and materials for hand embroidery. Students will explore and practice the four major categories of hand stitches: outline, border, fill and decorative details, and make a small sampler in class.

October 24-25 Two-Day Workshop, beginner - intermediate +

The two-day workshop will allow us to study a number of stitch-types on cotton or linen fabrics that can stand alone as samplers or serve as the beginning of a sampler booklet (see the Intensive embroidery workshop). Demonstrations, instructional booklets and plenty of practice-time will introduce students to a wider range of decorative stitches with some exploration into combining stitches for design effects.

November 27-29 Three-Day Workshop, beginner - advanced

In this workshop students will prepare, create and finish a small cloth stitch-sampler book. Fabric sampler books are not only beautiful objects, but also serve as documentation for your craft, and heirloom teaching tools. We will begin by preparing the “pages” of linen or cotton for your booklet, then design and stitch each page to one’s personal preference. Finally we will finish and bind the booklet, and students will leave with an original, completed treasure.

A series of three workshops that build from a one-day beginner to a three-day advanced. Workshops can be purchased as a package (10% discount!), or available à la carte. For pricing and to register go to Cloth Fiber Workshop. Any skill level is welcome at any of the workshops.

August 22 One-day Workshop for beginners +

In this brief six-hour introduction to resist dyeing students will prepare fabric samples for a pre-made organic indigo vat using the most basic shibori resist methods of stitching, binding, and fold & clamp. Tools and techniques will be introduced and students will dye their own fabrics in organic indigo, leaving with at least three cotton handkerchiefs.

October 3-4 Two-day workshop, beginners - intermediate +

This class offers hands-on experience in making indigo vats “from scratch”. Students will work together to make organic indigo vats, and dye in them on the second day. Recipes and procedures will be shared. This workshop will provide an opportunity to prepare more elaborate patterned resists based on traditional Japanese methods. Students will leave with one or two dyed shibori fabric pieces. (bandanas)

November 20-22 Three-day Workshop, beginners - advanced

The focus of this workshop will be making and maintaining an organic indigo vat, with tips on how to achieve a healthy vat in the home studio. At least two indigo recipes will be explored, with opportunities to create and dye in each. The resist-patterning aspect of the class will touch upon the more complex and time-intensive techniques on larger pieces of cloth such as bandanas or scarves, and combine the basics of stitching, binding, and folding methods.  

Discover how beautiful embroidery thread can be, when colored with natural dyes. Working with sustainably sourced, high-quality cotton threads, learn to properly clean and prepare small skeins for dyeing in indigo, plus many more colors. Create your own selection of threads for use in simple embroidery samplers, which will be stitched the second half of the week using introductory embroidery stitches. All levels welcome; good eyesight or magnification is helpful. FMI visit here

Working with basic geometric shapes, we will playfully generate an assortment of original repeating patterns to be translated in stitched resist techniques on fabric. The textiles will be dyed in organic indigo vat, which students will assist in making from “scratch”. 

Traditional Japanese shibori textiles include continuous surface designs that are carried out with the beauty of hand-stitched resist, offering an organic line quality to a precise arrangement of shapes. This contrast will be our inspiration as each student designs a handful of patterns. Each student will select one or more patterns to carry out on cloth and dye in indigo during class. 

FMI here

The show will be held in the Lower Level Gallery at Blue Spiral 1 and will include ceramics, weavings, basketry, embroidery and more.

Ongoing Conversation: Recall, Recollect, and Reconstruct  2019-2020 Invitational

Ongoing Conversation is a curatorial project by Soude Dadras. Over the past five years, Dadras has curated several international exhibitions in Istanbul, and Kyoto respectively. Dadras’ is well versed in the study and history of Persian Rugs and Textile Art History. The Iranian native holds a degree from Islamic Azad University. In addition to her curatorial practice, Dadras remains active in the field as a visiting scholar at the University Of Pittsburgh and guest lecturer at the Carnegie Museum of Art, a Persian Carpet & Kilim Appraiser, and an Antique Carpet Restoration Specialist. The mission of Dadras’ Ongoing Conversation is “to bring together disparate voices in the visual arts through an international purview in order to examine cross cultural similarities of the human condition.”

Kyoto International Community House (kokoka), Kyoto, Japan

The fan reed, or ondulé reed is a unique tool for the hand loom that is growing in awareness and popularity, while still being rather illusive as a technique. Amy Putansu has dedicated many years to this practice and will share her own methods for achieving curves, waves, and undulations in woven threads. Students will gain extensive hands-on experience learning the ondulé weaving method on traditional floor looms in terms of maneuvering the tools and equipment to achieve this special cloth. FMI Here.

“Small Works” is an exhibition including many of the artists represented by Sager | Braudis Gallery. Artwork in this exhibit will not exceed 8x8” in dimensions, and will vary in media and style. Amy Putansu is exhibiting brand new “sketches” on silk with indigo, charcoal and stitching called “Sea and Sky Studies”, each priced at $395. FMI here.

This three-day workshop will focus on beginner-level shibori with organic indigo dyeing. Shibori is an ancient resist-dyeing method that produces unique patterns through stitching, binding, wrapping and other methods. Although shibori has been practiced in Japan, there are versions found in cultures all over the world, such as adire in Africa and bandhani in India. In this workshop you will make a series of resist-dyed fabrics touching upon all of the basic shibori techniques and learn to make an organic indigo vat from "scratch". At the end of the workshop you will have a number of finished scarves and bandanas. FMI here.

Thursday, Friday & Saturday, June 13, 14 & 15
Hours: 10 am – 4 pm
Level of Expertise: all levels
Instructor: Amy Putansu
Fee: $300 + materials

→ See Materials List & Fees

Registration options:

• Online via PayPal:

• By mail. Download mail-in Registration Form

• By phone. Call Cloth at 828.505.2958