Whether it is in her striking doubleweave wallpieces or elegant wearables, Jennifer Moore is widely known for her luminous color gradations and distinctive designs that are at once both balanced and dynamic. For the past twenty years her weaving has been exhibited and won awards throughout the United States and abroad. Her work has been published in numerous magazines and in several books in the Fiberarts Design series. Jennifer holds a Master of Fine Arts in weaving from the University of Oregon, where she specialized in exploring relationships between weaving, music and mathematics in doubleweave wallpieces. She currently maintains a studio in Santa Fe, New Mexico and travels throughout the world giving lectures and workshops in weaving and design.
What are our parameters for designing a weaving? Often they're set by what yarn is in the stash, weaving something new to wear, or weaving a gift. One way to broaden our skills, or to take a new look at our process is to delve into Symmetries, Tessellations and Golden Proportion.
The leader of our June program and workshop, Jennifer Moore, will explain these principles -- but our minds already recognize something as either beautiful, or if not "correctly" executed, as off-putting. The geometry of weaving weft through warp creates the blocks within which we play with design and weave structure.
What makes something beautiful? Surely, each person has different tastes, but there is science behind what we find pleasing. As explained by Carol Bier, curator of the Textile Museum in Washington, DC: "All patterns, whether in nature or in art, exhibit a systematic organization. But possibilities for the repetition of that design, whether symmetrical or asymmetrical, are limited by the laws of pattern formation and are subject to the constraints of symmetry."
A tessellation is created when a shape is repeated over and over again. All the figures fit onto a flat surface exactly together without any gaps or overlaps. In short, a tessellation is any repeating pattern of interlocking shapes. The definition sounds fairly simple, but the ideas involved in designing and understanding tessellations can grow very complex and interesting. We've witnessed the complexity of design using tessellations in M.C. Escher's art, or the intricacy of a woven rug.
Golden proportions, also known as the golden ratio is a geometric method of balancing height to width is also found in nature. Believed to be recognized long ago by ancient Greeks, the rules golden proportions have been employed in architecture, painting, pottery and jewelry making. Nature, too, employs golden proportions in the claws of a lion, the horns of a ram, the tusks of an elephant, the beak of a parrot and the shell of a snail. Such perfect shapes appeal to us through an irresistible combination of order and beauty.
To register for the workshop, send a $25 deposit check (made out to SCHG) to Leah Kerr (address in your members' year book).
General program questions can be directed to the Program Committee. We hope to see you at the June meeting!