Lower Lake >> Today is the last chance to visit this year’s Quilt and Fiber Arts Show at the Historic Schoolhouse Museum.
For the 23rd year running, the Lower Lake museum brought in textile artwork not only from across the county, but around the globe. But this year things were a little different. For the first time they had an even more diverse range of items such as woven baskets and felted pieces. The organizers also changed the title of show from textile arts to fiber arts to fully encompass the highly varied show.
Two weekends ago, the exhibition’s opening reception was the most successful one in years, with roughly 60 people in attendance, despite a postponement due to the fires. The reception featured multiple demonstrations by various artists, including two spinners, a backstrap weaver, a table loom weaver and a basket weaver. The afternoon really provided an inside look into how different textiles and fiber arts are constructed.
Over two decades ago the exhibition began as a simple quilt show. “It started as quilting because quilting is such an important activity to the culture in the area,” said Lake County museums curator Tony Pierucci. “Sitting around and having quilting meetings was a great way for people to get together.”
In 2003 Sheila O’Hara, a tapestry artist, asked if she could join the show and bring along her students as well. That’s when the exhibition became about more than just quilting, but textiles in general. O’Hara teaches once a week and each year her students turn out a new piece or two for the show.
Over the years, O’Hara has written for a number of weaving magazines and some of her articles are displayed at the museum alongside a tapestry woven to accompany each article. She hopes it makes the art form a little less intimidating. She wants “to show people that there’s how-to magazines out there,” she said. “They don’t have to design everything on their own. They can get ideas from books and magazines.”
This year it was time for yet another change. The exhibition gained artist Sherry Harris, a basket weaver and, like O’Hara, an art teacher. Her students’ work is also on display at the museum.
The added artwork was a natural progression for the show. “We realized that fiber arts in general, spinning on a wheel and weaving, are equally as important and surprisingly rich in the county,” explained Pierucci.
The show also features handwoven backstrap pieces from Guatemala and quilts made in Peru. Local community members and artists loaned items from their personal collections. One such artist, Rachel Wolynice, learned backstrap weaving in Indonesia and Guatemala and resides right in Kelseyville. She loaned her own handmade pieces and art she picked up during her travels.
Pierucci credited the show’s successful run to the increased diversity. “I think you bring in more artists, you bring in more diverse media … a larger variety of people are more apt to come,” Pierucci said.
The exhibition is an opportunity to view textiles in a new way. “It’s very educational because we have everything in there from backstrap weaving to hand weaving to industrial weaving,” said O’Hara. “A lot of people don’t really have any idea how fabric is woven … We all wear clothes, we sleep in bedding made of fabric. Everything all around us is textiles but not everyone knows how they’re manufactured.”
The Quilt and Fiber Arts Show can be seen today from 11 a.m. -4 p.m. at the Historic Schoolhouse Museum in Lower Lake, 16435 Main St.
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019.
