Blog – Page 2 – FiberArts Guild of Pittsburgh

Interview with Peter Clouse

July 27, 2021

With Fiberart International 2022 coming up we wanted to check on artists who participated in previous exhibitions, see what they are up to now and how participating in the exhibition impacted them. If you are a previous Fiberart International participant and would like to update the community on the happenings in your life, please contact Katie Bulova at bulovakatie@gmail.com

Written by Katie Bulova

Peter Clouse is a fiber artist hailing from Saginaw, Michigan. He was a participant in Fiberart International 2016.
His practice implements ecological frugality: his paradigm is to create art “from nothing.” He calls this approach to material gathering democratic. Everyone has access, and everyone can create. Peter uses found, discarded, or donated materials in his works.

Interview with Marie Bergstedt

June 30, 2021

Written by Katie Bulova

Marie Bergstedt is a textile artist living in San Francisco. She works primarily in pictorial narratives sculpted with textiles. Her works tell stories, such as family history, family mystery, and the struggle of her community. Exploring relationships and memories are the key to her work. She uses haberdashery, such as buttons and yarn, to capture the spirit of street musicians and joyful dancers, as well as those pondering serious issues. She is a two-time participant in Fiberart International and has exhibited her works throughout the world.

Interview with Deborah Corsini

June 30, 2021June 9, 2021

Written by Katie Bulova

On a balmy day in May, I had the privilege of talking with Deborah Corsini. Deborah was a 2016 Fibeart International participant.

She is a weaver of fifty years, trained in the French/American style of tapestry weaving, a slow process that builds an image line by line. With an appreciation for Navajo designs, Deborah often pays homage to the Navajo style with her pieces; this includes wedge weave, a Navajo technique that is woven at an angle to the warp creating lively graphic designs and scalloped selvedges.

Interview with Penny Mateer

May 26, 2021May 26, 2021

With the new exhibition coming up we wanted to check on artists who participated in previous exhibitions, see what they are up to now and how participating in Fiberart International impacted them. If you are a previous Fiberart International participant and you would like to update the community on the happenings in your life, please contact Katie Bulova at bulovakatie@gmail.com

Written by Katie Bulova

Penny Mateer – Fiberart International 2010 and 2016

The benefit of living in a small city such as Pittsburgh, home to the Fiberart International, is that very often, your circles overlap with other circles. I met Penny Mateer for the first time on a beautiful spring day, sitting distanced, in the sun, in a backyard urban garden. Within five minutes, we had established two overlapping connections in public health work.

Interview with Erin Miller

May 26, 2021May 13, 2021

Written by Katie Bulova

Erin Miller – Fiberart International 2016

“We are all finding news way of connecting”

These are the words that Erin Miller spoke as she met with me for the first time over Zoom. Erin is a fiber artist who concentrates her practice on cloth and color. She was in a brightly lit studio in Kentucky on Berea College’s campus. I was in a makeshift basement studio in Pittsburgh with the washing machine running in the background. Talking with Erin, a 2016 Fiberart International participant, made me realize that even with the spin cycle, I was pretty lucky to be just where I was, talking with her.

Guiditta Brozzetti

March 8, 2023April 13, 2019

Written by Deb Brandon

There it was: Laboratorio Guiditta Brozzetti, the Guiditta Brozzetti workshop, a hand-weaving museum and school hidden inside the imposing church of San Francesco delle Dome in Perugia, Italy. I’d made an appointment to visit the studio months earlier, when I decided to travel to Perugia for a friend’s wedding. If I was going to travel that far, I definitely wanted to scope out textile-related landmarks in the area.

Feathers and Finery

March 8, 2023March 25, 2019

written by Deb Brandon

The first is Portrait of Princess Nāhiʻenaʻena holding the feathered royal kahili, by Robert Dampier

We treasure gold and diamonds, silver, rubies, and emeralds. But what if precious metals and gemstones didn’t exist? Would we have looked to other natural resources to treasure? Or to something completely different, such as handmade items or special artistic skills?

Weaving for the King

March 19, 2019

Written by Deb Brandon

Can you imagine weaving for the king?

For the Love of Textile Arts

February 7, 2019

written by Deb Brandon

I learned to knit from my mother when I was seven. Knitting was followed by needlepoint, crocheting, felting, and spinning, all fun and interesting. Learning to weave when I was 35 felt as if I’d come home, as if I’d been a weaver in a previous life. At the loom, I felt connected to weavers everywhere, through space and time. With weaving, my love for textile arts soared. I wanted to see (and feel) it all: scrumptious raw cashmere, hand-spun silk, gorgeous hand-wovens, an amazing range of ethnic textiles—silk scarves from Laos, felted slippers from Turkey.

Memories of Barbara Luderowski

June 11, 2018June 10, 2018

Written by Jean Thomas Memorial tributes to Barbara Luderowski continue to come from many sources–locally, nationally and internationally. “Barbara was an artist—unique, highly perceptive and intelligent, feisty,—and always on the advance. May her creative, pioneering spirit continue to guide the Mattress Factory.” Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald. In a 2002 interview with a Post-Gazette writer, …