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Noh Coat Challenge

Join us in weaving cloth to make a Noh Coat for the 2023 ANWG Conference.

The Noh Coat challenge is based on the work of American fashion designer Bonnie Cashin. Our idea is that anyone interested will weave fabric and make the coat in time for the ANWG conference in 2023. It would be a spectacular expression of handwoven cloth. This is not a juried exhibit, but we will have some event to show off our coats at the Conference.

The challenge is to make the coat according to the pattern in Threads Magazine (Oct/Nov 1990, No.31). Cashin created many variations of what began as a basic kimono shape. The version we are making is simple and does not require great sewing skills. The coat is unlined, has one piece sleeves, bound edges, and the side seams are open from the waist down. This means that the coat is all about the quality of the handwoven cloth.

An online discussion group has been set up and many are already hard at work making muslins and sampling. In addition, a number of guilds are organizing study groups. Find more information on the website at Noh Coat Challenge.

About Cashin

Bonnie Cashin was an American mid-century fashion institution credited with introducing layering, mix-and-match, and ingenious closures and trims in American fashion. She designed costumes for Hollywood, designed women’s uniforms for the U. S. military, designed bags and gloves for Coach, designed clothes for Sills & Co., and started a knitting company.

Her practical clothes display simplicity of design, adapted to the wearer’s modern, busy, and more casual lifestyle. She wanted her clothes to be functional and comfortable. She favored highly textured fabrics, large-scale tweeds, and dramatic designs. Her designs were well suited to woven fabric and she worked with famous mid-century weavers such as Dorothy Liebes and Bernat Klein.

Presentation and Workshop Opportunity

For anyone wanting more inspiration, Dr. Susan Torntore, from the Whatcom Weavers Guild, ANWG rep, retired professor of textile history, museum curator and author, is available to give an illustrated presentation on the work of Bonnie Cashin, focusing on her two iconic garments—the Noh Coat and the poncho—and the innovative and colorful handwoven textiles used to make these in the 1950s through 1970s. Susan Torntore delivered this presentation at the Greater Vancouver Weavers and Spinners Guild in Vancouver BC in October to a rapt audience. It was the perfect beginning for those taking up the Noh Coat Challenge. Susan is available for guild presentations, and is also developing a workshop to learn more about Cashin’s Noh coat inspirations and philosophy, and explore the innovative handwoven fabrics Cashin used in her designs with fabric samples and draft ideas. Participants will be able to make the pattern and a personal “fitted” muslin, and explore binding methods. You can contact Susan at sjtorntore@gmail.com

For More Info

For more information about the challenge, to request a copy of the pattern, or to join the online discussion group, contact Toby Smith at tobysmith.3920@gmail.com or Isabelle Fusey at ifusey@telus.net. See you in 2023 in your Noh coat!

Stay updated ~~ The Weaving Guilds of Oregon steering committee is very busy planning for the upcoming ANWG Conference. Please continue to visit our website for information and conference updates. If you would like to receive information delivered to your inbox, please subscribe to the conference blog.

Tapestries by Margaret Kilbuck Johansen (1923-2004)

We hope to have in conjunction with the 2023 Association of Northwest Weavers’ Guilds Conference, a major tapestry exhibit celebrating tapestries woven by noted Oregon fiber artist Margaret Kilbuck Johansen.

About Margaret Kilbuck Johansen
Margaret Kilbuck Johansen was a recognized fiber artist in Oregon. Originally having studied lithography, she began weaving after moving to the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area in the mid-1950s. At the forefront of the emerging fiber art movement in the 1960s, Johansen quickly became proficient in the craft of weaving.
In Pittsburgh, she taught weaving and design at the Arts and Crafts Center and was an assistant professor of art at Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie-Mellon University) for 15 years. In addition, she taught at Oregon State College of Education (now Western Oregon University) in Monmouth, and at Linfield College, in McMinnville. In 1966, she received a grant for creative weaving from the Louis G. Tiffany Foundation and was named the 1970 Artist of the Year in Pittsburgh. She was one of the first Americans invited to exhibit her work in the Biennale Exhibit of Tapestry international tapestry show in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1965; the invitation was extended again in 1969. She participated regularly in juried exhibits, one-person shows, and major exhibitions – including the Paris Mobilier.
A self-taught weaver, she attributed an influence on her art by her Native American heritage and her early years living in Hood River, Oregon. Following 20 years of life on the East Coast, the family relocated to a farm in McMinnville in 1975, where she continued to pursue her interest in gardening and art, and was a member of the Arts Alliance of Yamhill County and Native Plants Society. Johansen was described as a quiet, supportive, and generous individual.
Weaving processes and techniques
Johansen was dedicated to the marriage of art and craft, with neither existing without the other in her work. Usually first drawn on paper or as collage, her tapestries were followed by woven samples experimenting with various yarns, structures and color schemes. Today, many of these preliminary sketches of her tapestries still exist.
Most of Johansen’s tapestries are woven primarily with wool on cotton or linen warps, but silk, mohair and other materials are also used. Weaving methods include classical tapestry techniques, free-form weaving, rya and soumak.
1991 artist’s statement
“The Marian tapestry [about the tapestry at St. Elizabeth Church, Portland, Oregon] was designed and woven specifically for its space in the church of St. Elizabeth, and for those who come here for renewal, strength, and love.
The sense of place that affects our lives is reflected in the strong horizontals of flowing river, path of earth, and the mountains whose blues and greens merge. The vertical lines of Mary and the young Jesus are equally strong in line and contrast. But the weaver has an additional agenda. In mind constantly is the idea of convergence of physical space and spiritual space, and the way this convergence is unique to us as a community, and to us as individuals. The weaver has a total commitment to the methodical process of handling one thread and then another in what becomes a humble act of worship, of caring and of considerable joy.”
Johansen tapestries in and around Salem
Johansen’s tapestries can be found in numerous churches and other public areas in and around Salem: McMinnville Public Library; churches; Trappist Abbey (Mt. Angel); Linfield College; Oregon State University, College of Agricultural Sciences (Corvallis); State Office Building (Salem); Jason Lee House (Salem); as well as numerous private homes. Her work is also in the Bank Suisse in Geneva, Switzerland; Wilmington Art Museum (Wilmington, Delaware); Reed College (Portland, Oregon), and the Moravian Church (Bethel, Alaska). She worked primarily with natural fibers, experimenting with natural dyes and handspun materials. Her tapestries reflected her pleasure in and knowledge of the Pacific Northwest’s nature and landscapes. A major work was a 12-piece series called “Native Wisdom,“ exhibited in Portland in 1993. Johansen enjoyed the challenge of designing commissioned pieces for churches and private homes requiring specific themes, colors and sizes.

Works by Margaret Kilbuck Johansen

Stay updated!
The 2023 ANWG Conference steering committee is very busy planning for the upcoming Association of Northwest Weavers’ Guilds Conference. Please continue to visit our website for information and conference updates. If you would like to receive information delivered to your inbox, please subscribe to the conference blog.

 

The Who, What, Where, and When of WeGO

A wonderful aspect about being a part of the weaving and fiber arts community are the great organizations that help support special events that include the next Association of Northwest Weavers’ Guilds Conference. If you’re planning to attend the 2023 Fiber Connections conference, you may be wondering about what the Weaving Guilds of Oregon (WeGO) is, and would like to know more about this statewide organization.

Who is WeGO? WeGO was formed in 1982 and currently has over 780 individual members in the 16 Oregon guilds. The organization’s purpose is to share information and resources, educate and promote fiber art throughout the state of Oregon. Every three to five years, WeGo sponsors a statewide traveling exhibit; and every 10 years since 1981 WeGO has sponsored the ANWG conferences in the ‘01’ years.  Due to the pandemic, the 2021 conference was rescheduled to June, 2023.  The new venue is the Riverhouse Convention Center and Hotel in Bend, Oregon.

What is WeGO? Weaving Guilds of Oregon, Inc. is an organization of weaving, spinning and related fiber craft guilds in Oregon.

Where are WeGO meetings held? WeGO meetings are held twice a year, in the spring and fall.  Meetings are held in different areas of the state to help facilitate guild participation.

When did WeGO begin? Dee Ford Potter of Bend, Oregon, invited the 1981 Association of Northwest Weavers’ Guilds to the biennial conference in Oregon.  In the process of organizing this conference, Dee contacted guilds around the state for help and formed the network that became WeGO, Inc.  Guilds recognized the value of inter-guild communication and sharing, and formally organized WeGO in 1983. It is now a non-profit corporation.

Stay updated!

The Weaving Guilds of Oregon Conference Steering Committee is pleased to be hosting the next Association of Northwest Weavers’ Guilds Conference.  Please continue to visit our website for information and conference updates. If you would like to receive information delivered to your inbox, please subscribe to the conference blog.

2023 ANWG Conference

We’re getting very excited about the 2023 Association of Northwest Weavers’ Guilds Conference and hope you are too!

If you have visited the 2023 ANWG Conference website or are receiving conference blog posts, you may be wondering about our conference theme, colors and venue. Well, wonder no more!

Our conference theme, Fiber Connections, celebrates all the connections that are made as a result of the coming together of fibers and people. We weave for our families and friends, connecting us socially.  We weave for sale, connecting us with clients.  We weave for fun to connect with our inner child, and we weave to connect with our creative selves. Without fiber connections you would have no spun yarn, no weaving, no felting, no braiding, and no wonderful fiber arts guilds to bring us all together.

Our conference colors reflect the colors of the host state, Oregon. These colors connect us with the other states and provinces of ANWG with whom we share these great waterways, majestic mountains, vast forests, and rich fields. We hope you find inspiration in these colors when creating your own unique fiber works of art!

 

The adobe rusty-red represents the rimrock overlooking so many places in Oregon, including Central Oregon’s Smith Rocks.

 

 

 

Green is for our agriculture, forests and the Willamette Valley.

 

 

 

 

Blue is for the waters in and around us.

 

 

 

 

Gold is for the golden fields, sunshine on a summer day, and our state gem, the sunstone.

 

 

 

Purple represents our majestic mountains and renowned wine industry.

 

 

Stay updated!

The Weaving Guilds of Oregon steering committee is very busy planning for the upcoming Association of Northwest Weavers’ Guilds Conference. Please continue to visit our website for information and conference updates. If you would like to receive information delivered to your inbox, please subscribe to the conference blog.

 

Welcome to the 2023 ANWG Conference Website

The Weaving Guilds of Oregon (WeGO) are excited to host the 2023 Association of Northwest Weavers’ Guilds (ANWG) Conference. Over the next two years, we’ll use this website to provide information leading up to the conference, keeping you updated on how our plans are progressing, along with details about events, workshops and seminars, and other exciting aspects of the conference.

Here, you’ll learn about the conference theme, Fiber Connections, and how it celebrates the connections that are made as a result of the coming together of people and fibers. You can also read about the significance behind the conference colors, and how they have been chosen to represent the host state of Oregon and what it is that connects us to the other states and provinces of the ANWG.

It is our hope that the information provided on this website will encourage you to make plans to attend this exiting conference. In addition to traditional events such as the ever-popular fashion show, spirited juried and open shows, wide-array of guild booth displays, lively market hall, and inspiring keynote address, we’ve also lined up unique events and amazing new shows.

As we move closer to 2023, we’ll rollout out more information about the conference and events on this website, so stay tuned! Or better yet, if you’re interested in receiving email updates, sign up and we’ll send information to your inbox as it becomes available.

We want to keep you informed as we move forward, and be responsive to your questions and concerns so that your experience as a conference attendee will be truly memorable.

Linda Gettmann & Sue Walsh

2023 ANWG Conference Co-Chairs

Hello world!

Welcome to the site for the ANWG 2023 Conference.  We’re just getting started with building this place, so forgive us for being pretty barren right now.  We promise you’ll have lots to see coming up later this year!