Past Programs

Elizabeth will talk about Indigenous Oregon Basketweaving, including artistic traditions, native plants, and contemporary work.

Elizabeth’s academic interests include the relationship between textile traditions, ethnobotanical practices and cultural identity in western North America. Recent research includes analysis of prehistoric textile technology in the Northern Great Basin. For her master’s thesis, Elizabeth examined environmental activism of California’s native basketweavers and their feminist political-ecological approach to natural and cultural resource management. This research in heritage management advocates for the use of museum anthropology collections by descendant communities for education, research, and as a vehicle for engaging communities. Her doctoral research focuses on ethnobotany and weaving traditions of indigenous peoples as expressed through the ancient art of basket weaving during the 19^th and 20^th centuries in the Pacific Northwest and Western Interiors.  Elizabeth works in the museum field and as an archaeologist, and currently serves as the Anthropological Collections Manager at the UO Museum of Natural and Cultural History.

Join the Zoom meeting by clicking this link:
https://zoom.us/j/2290207971?pwd=elJvd2w0L2NsMlJPZXhNM3JlTFphZz09

Elizabeth will talk about Indigenous Oregon Basketweaving, including artistic traditions, native plants, and contemporary work.

Elizabeth’s academic interests include the relationship between textile traditions, ethnobotanical practices and cultural identity in western North America. Recent research includes analysis of prehistoric textile technology in the Northern Great Basin. For her master’s thesis, Elizabeth examined environmental activism of California’s native basketweavers and their feminist political-ecological approach to natural and cultural resource management. This research in heritage management advocates for the use of museum anthropology collections by descendant communities for education, research, and as a vehicle for engaging communities. Her doctoral research focuses on ethnobotany and weaving traditions of indigenous peoples as expressed through the ancient art of basket weaving during the 19^th and 20^th centuries in the Pacific Northwest and Western Interiors.  Elizabeth works in the museum field and as an archaeologist, and currently serves as the Anthropological Collections Manager at the UO Museum of Natural and Cultural History.

Join the Zoom meeting by clicking this link:
https://zoom.us/j/2290207971?pwd=elJvd2w0L2NsMlJPZXhNM3JlTFphZz09

Carly will talk about multiheddle weaving on a Rigid Heddle Loom.

Website: https://www.lovelikesalt.com/

Join the Zoom meeting by clicking this link:
https://zoom.us/j/2290207971?pwd=elJvd2w0L2NsMlJPZXhNM3JlTFphZz09

Carly will talk about multiheddle weaving on a Rigid Heddle Loom.

Website: https://www.lovelikesalt.com/

Join the Zoom meeting by clicking this link:
https://zoom.us/j/2290207971?pwd=elJvd2w0L2NsMlJPZXhNM3JlTFphZz09

Wild silk is much more than the miraculous journey of metamorphosis from caterpillar to silken luxury. It is tightly woven to an ancient living culture raising tasar, muga, and eri silkworms in remote forests of central and eastern India. Raising wild silkworms, reeling cocoons, spinning fiber, and weaving silk cloth provides sustainable work and a regular income, while protecting the environment, lifting the status of women, and maintaining a traditional lifestyle. 

In this Zoom presentation, Karen will share photos and stories captured from weavers, spinners, and silkworm farmers over thirty years of field research, and will transport you into their homes and villages to witness the love and dedication involved in each part of the process from soil to cloth.  

Bio

All things silk has provided Karen Selk with a thread that binds together travel, research, writing, artwork, educating, and managing a successful business selling silk yarns and fibres for over 50 years.  She has given hundreds of workshops and presentations on silk and weaving worldwide and has written over fifty articles on silk.    Her passion to learn about everything silk has led her throughout Asia and the wild silk forests of India in particular, for more than 30 years.  The culmination of her field research has been published in a book: In Search of Wild Silk: Exploring a Village Industry in the Jungles of India. She lives on Salt Spring Island, BC, in the Salish Sea on the west coast of Canada. 

Publications

In Search of Wild Silk: Exploring a Village Industry in the Jungles of India, published March 2023 by Schiffer Publishing.

Magazine Articles in 2023/24

• Selvedge – Issue 113
• Shuttle Spindle & Dyepot – Summer 2023
• Textile Asia Journal – September 2023
• Creative Fibre – June 2023
• Embroidery Canada – Fall 2023
• Textile Fibre Forum – December 2023
• SpinOff – Winter 24/25

Website:  www.karenselk.com

Note that there will not be an in-person meeting this month!

Join the Zoom meeting by clicking this link:
https://zoom.us/j/2290207971?pwd=elJvd2w0L2NsMlJPZXhNM3JlTFphZz09

Wild silk is much more than the miraculous journey of metamorphosis from caterpillar to silken luxury. It is tightly woven to an ancient living culture raising tasar, muga, and eri silkworms in remote forests of central and eastern India. Raising wild silkworms, reeling cocoons, spinning fiber, and weaving silk cloth provides sustainable work and a regular income, while protecting the environment, lifting the status of women, and maintaining a traditional lifestyle. 

In this Zoom presentation, Karen will share photos and stories captured from weavers, spinners, and silkworm farmers over thirty years of field research, and will transport you into their homes and villages to witness the love and dedication involved in each part of the process from soil to cloth.  

Bio

All things silk has provided Karen Selk with a thread that binds together travel, research, writing, artwork, educating, and managing a successful business selling silk yarns and fibres for over 50 years.  She has given hundreds of workshops and presentations on silk and weaving worldwide and has written over fifty articles on silk.    Her passion to learn about everything silk has led her throughout Asia and the wild silk forests of India in particular, for more than 30 years.  The culmination of her field research has been published in a book: In Search of Wild Silk: Exploring a Village Industry in the Jungles of India. She lives on Salt Spring Island, BC, in the Salish Sea on the west coast of Canada. 

Publications

In Search of Wild Silk: Exploring a Village Industry in the Jungles of India, published March 2023 by Schiffer Publishing.

Magazine Articles in 2023/24

• Selvedge – Issue 113
• Shuttle Spindle & Dyepot – Summer 2023
• Textile Asia Journal – September 2023
• Creative Fibre – June 2023
• Embroidery Canada – Fall 2023
• Textile Fibre Forum – December 2023
• SpinOff – Winter 24/25

Website:  www.karenselk.com

Note that there will not be an in-person meeting this month!

Join the Zoom meeting by clicking this link:
https://zoom.us/j/2290207971?pwd=elJvd2w0L2NsMlJPZXhNM3JlTFphZz09

This meeting has been canceled. Click here to view the presentation from the morning meeting:
The recording passcode is K^a+WQL2.

In this Zoom presentation, Rebecca will talk about her transparent weavings featuring a loosely woven background cloth that she creates with very fine linen, inlaying heavier threads during the weaving process to add designs and imagery. These weavings feel lighter than air. 

Website: https://rebeccasmithtapestry.com/index.html

In this Zoom presentation, Rebecca will talk about her transparent weavings featuring a loosely woven background cloth that she creates with very fine linen, inlaying heavier threads during the weaving process to add designs and imagery. These weavings feel lighter than air. 

Website: https://rebeccasmithtapestry.com/index.html

Note that there will not be an in-person meeting this month!

Join the Zoom meeting by clicking this link:
https://zoom.us/j/2290207971?pwd=elJvd2w0L2NsMlJPZXhNM3JlTFphZz09

It’s our annual December meeting tradition – the mini workshops. Join us and make something fun for the holidays!

Please note that this meeting will not be available via Zoom.

It’s our annual December meeting tradition – the mini workshops. Join us and make something fun for the holidays!

Please note that this meeting will not be available via Zoom.

WWW: Why We Weave

This presentation documents Rosalie’s work from the earliest overshot pieces woven on a rented floor loom to her current studies in Kumihimo, Block Design, and Rep Weave. Teaching others has become one of the biggest rewards for her as to Why We Weave. 

See her work at https://www.rosalieneilson.com/

Join the Zoom meeting by clicking this link:
https://zoom.us/j/2290207971?pwd=elJvd2w0L2NsMlJPZXhNM3JlTFphZz09

WWW: Why We Weave

This presentation documents Rosalie’s work from the earliest overshot pieces woven on a rented floor loom to her current studies in Kumihimo, Block Design, and Rep Weave. Teaching others has become one of the biggest rewards for her as to Why We Weave. 

See her work at https://www.rosalieneilson.com/

Join the Zoom meeting by clicking this link:
https://zoom.us/j/2290207971?pwd=elJvd2w0L2NsMlJPZXhNM3JlTFphZz09