Upcoming Local Show at Loewen Gallery in Williamston: Adorn

Loewen Gallery's  August Show is a break away from their usual beautiful quilts and is a juried show titled "Adorn"  The show will run August 6th - August 29th.

The Opening Reception for Adorn is on Saturday August 8th from 12pm to 2pm and I plan on being there. Winona, the gallery manager, and I picked out a grouping of my jewelry to be on display and available for sale for this show. 

Loewen Gallery is located at 128 W Grand River Ave, Williamston, MI 48895

A few pieces that will be in the show: 

Weavings and Beadwork accepted to Exhibits lately

I tend to think that I'm not creating as much as I'd like to be, but, the things I am making are selling and headed to exhibits, so I'll take that as a success. Two exhibits will have my piece for a year. The first is Handweavers Guild of America's Small Expressions. This show starts in New Orleans at Longue Vue House & Gardens in New Orleans, Louisiana from August 10, 2026 - October 16, 2026. From there the travel schedule is HERE and goes through May 11 (currently). My first Resist Bangle (in red) as accepted and is on the move. 

The second show that will have my work until April 25th, 2027 is called Piercing the Silence: Everyday Art of The Resistance at the Museum of Beadwork. Both of the pieces I entered were accepted: Angry Angry Angry Feminist and Rainbow Resist. I'll miss having both of these pieces in my personal collection...I might be making more. I'd like to go to Portland, ME to see this show in person, but with all the travel plans this year and next I'm not sure I can fit it in. 

The last exhibit that my work was accepted to is only during the Handweavers Guild of America's Convergence Conference. Perception was accepted to Threaded Revelry: Throw Me Something, Mixed Media Exhibit and will be on display August 13-16, 2026,  at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Complex Weaver's Conference 2026

View from our hotel room

The Complex Weaver's Conference was June 12-14th and I haven't fully had time to process or get to my studio. When I'm at the conference, it's all "I can't wait to go weave!" then I go home and it's back to the daily stuff... I spent a wonderful 2 and a half days after the conference with my cousins in Denver and then went right back to work for 9 days straight (and put together a new bed, had a mattress delivered, caught up at Physical Therapy...) I know I need to give myself breathing room, but with only so many vacation days and 2 conferences this year I failed to do so.

Keynote Speaker: Madelyn van der Hoogt

I'm finally unpacked and processing. My head is deflating from the compliments and excitement around my 2 hour seminar and discussions of hanging fiber work (I presented my seminar "Finish and Exhibit That Piece!").  I took a number of seminars myself, apparently when I signed up I wanted to know allllll about pleats and textures. I maybe could have done with a little less of that, or mixed in some other topics, note for next time. 

Samples from the Marge Coe seminar I took

I met Cally Booker who pointed out that we've been connected on social media since the early twitter days (2 decades?!) and we were finally meeting in person. It was such a huge compliment when she told me that she sends her students to my YouTube videos to see double weave pick-up in action. Then I was sitting next to Heather and she said the same, she references my videos specifically for double weave pick-up. Cally has just released her book Designing and Weaving Double Cloth in the UK and it's set to release in the US at the end of October. Yay for connecting and meeting with other double-weavers!

Heather, myself and Cally

I had a little jewelry set up (which I failed to photograph) for Market one evening and another weaver said she loves the earrings she bought from me at Convergence a number of years ago and she purchased a few more pairs. Sales at this short market were actually much better than I'm used to for a weavers conference. I get it, most of us are looking to buy yarn. I really appreciate and love all the support that this group provides. The excitement and passion is absolutely contagious.

Samples from the Wendy Morris seminar I attended

I think my favorite seminar I took was with Wendy Morris "Weaving Peaks and Throughs." Her talk was wonderful and straightforward along with lots of beautiful samples to see. All of the classes had beautiful samples and it is always an honor being in the presence of so many amazing weavers... "weaving royalty" someone murmured when we were in line for check-in at the hotel behind a few well-known teachers.

Elizabeth Bryan (Weaver Bee) and myself

I have Elizabeth to thank for convincing me to send in some proposals for this conference, and for being my roommate. I was nervous about this being a "complex" weavers conference as I don't think what I do as particularly complex...but apparently the stigma with double weave pick-up is that it is, in fact, very complex. I think of it more as tedious or time consuming rather than "complex" but I am working towards integrating more patterning within my pick-up work...so I am heading into the realm of what I would consider complex. I found myself looking up cones of fine linen yesterday... but for now I'm working with what I have, because I have a lot of yarn to use. 

I didn't take a lot of pictures, at the conference or the remainder of my visit. I did get a chance to visit with two of my cousins. Kyle lives in Denver with his lovely family (thank you for hosting me!) and his older sister Michelle was there helping with the kids. It was really nice to catch up. 

Cousins!

I also made it back to Boulder for an evening. I took the train and bus from Denver to Boulder which was really nostalgic. I had dinner with Russ who moved out there after training me at my current Millwork Specialist position here in Michigan.

Russ and I in Boulder

I packed a lot into one trip, and I'm still letting everything I learned between looms and people and family to steep into my wellbeing...while preparing for my next weaver's conference in August.