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

Convergence Conference 2024, Wichita Rundown

Sunset view from the Riverwalk my first night in town.

Convergence 2024, where to even start?  This year became all about the people for me. I want to meet more weavers that I feel like I clique with, but I get shy. Last Convergence I took a chance when I saw Elizabeth (weaverbee.ca) in the gym and introduced myself because I follow her on Instagram and love her posts. That turned into us hanging out together in Knoxville, catching up on the phone over the last 2 years and then being roommates this year! You can find her too on Instagram as @WeaverBee.

Elizabeth/WeaverBee, I had a great time being roommates!

So when I saw @SydsThread (SydneySogol.com) in the Convergence Marketplace wandering around by herself I got up the guts to tell her I love her posts and am a fan, same with @ComfortCloth (comfortclothweaving.com) who I caught at breakfast the next morning. I now know them and Sydney and Tegan instead of just their Instagram handles. They were both leaders this year for conference and through them I also got to meet Denise Kovnat. We all ended up piling into an Uber when I found the three of them waiting for in the lobby and I had some free time to go see the Complex Weaver's Exhibit.

Outside of Elizabeth/WeaverBee these are the ladies 

I ended up spending the most time with; Denise, Tegan and Sydney!

John Mullarkey (malarkycrafts.com) was shopping when I got to catch up with him and he joined the group that Elizabeth had already compiled for dinner before we all headed to the fashion show. Karen Donde (karendondehandwovens.com) was part of that dinner group who is the outgoing President of Complex Weavers, passing the torch on to Elizabeth at their conference which was just before HGA's. I also seem to have started to make a point to have an afternoon catch up with Clara at Convergence Conferences who I know from our years together at the Lansing Weaver's Guild, she lives in Florida now and we overlap a little between her time there for Complex Weavers and mine at Convergence. 

John and I

Clara and I

I got to meet a bunch of the interns and talk about fiddly weaving things with Andrea! Getting to join this Conference would have been a dream for me at their stage in the Fiber Conferences realm and I'm glad to have them joining us (they have REALLY LONG days as interns so thank you thank you thank you for all of their hard work.)  Check them out on Instagram: @AndreaAlexanderArt @AnneXavierHeide @Arghavan_Booyeh.Art @LesMaillesSerrees

Group Photo with some of the interns and Sydney! (Check out Andrea's scarf!)

I've generally been terrible at taking photos and I'm impressed that I remembered to take some selfies as I connected and reconnected with other weavers.  When I go to a multiple day weavers conference I tell people it's not a vacation as much as I'm going to "commune with my people" because the energy at these is just wonderful.  I wish it didn't trickle away so fast as I settle back into my normal day-to-day at home...this year I'm going to make myself make sure to reconnect, text and zoom to keep it going.  Also, there were so many others, these were the people I hung out with the most and linked up with on Instagram. 

Selfie with "Is there a thing..."

I'm sure there are plenty of other's posting about their time at Convergence so I'll focus on my stuff. I was excited that I had 2 of my pieces accepted into the Mixed Media exhibit this year (it's the first time I've had two!) "Is There a Thing to Which Brings Us Less Joy Yet We Devote More Time" and "Playing With Fire." Both of these pieces are woven in Double Weave Pick Up and I hand dyed the warp and weft. "Is there a Thing..." has it's own beaded edging.

Is There a Thing To Which Brings Us Less Joy Yet We Devote More Time

Playing with Fire

Playing with Fire selfie

I also submitted my Klingon Light Bangle to the Leader's Exhibit because it hadn't been accepted to anything with HGA and has aged out....and it's a piece that I love and wanted to show here.

Klingon Light Bangle

I had 2 seminars this year. Two! It's the first time I've had more than one of my proposals accepted. I was feeling down after the whole proposal processes and thought that I just might not do a seminar at all if only one was accepted again this year. It's costly to go to Convergence and not much is covered with a 90 minute seminar. I decided to move forward with the accepted proposals since I had more than one this year. They both filled just enough to be a go which I was happy about, and yet, at the same time, I had a lot of anxiety and stress (I do this to myself) with the preparation and leading up to the Conference. I'm glad I did it though. Most of my class for "Hands on Finishing your work" brought in things to play with and get ideas as to how to finish pieces, and I learned a lot from teaching the "Keep Track of Your Digital Art Life" which I'm providing video to my students to reference since I know it's hard to retain things that I'm learning on the computer without doing it over and over. I'll be submitting these proposals again and I have more to add and along with some cleanup in my PowerPoints.

I voted my tripod out of the luggage for weight reasons 

and refusal to have more than one checked bag...

bring the tripod next time (I had to stack my luggage to get a good height)

I mentioned I was feeling down after submitting proposals and I learned why that was as I talked to other Leaders while I was there. Part of the submission process is submitting what you have taught in the past 2 years. Outside of the occasional conference I don't do much teaching. I've found a day job that I love and I've realized over the past 8 years that I hate the artist's hustle. My general well being is so much better knowing I have a consistent paycheck and security (like medical insurance and such). That being said, I have a lot of pride in the fact that I have had the opportunity to be a Leader at this conference for the last few conferences. It's beyond my wildest dreams that I'd ever have artwork accepted to these exhibits on the regular and then the fact that other fiber artist's value what I have to share?!  It's a dream and I feel very fortunate to be where I'm at today. I don't have to keep the momentum that I used to have, but I do have to keep some, otherwise I think I'd be a bit disappointed in myself. So, I'll plan on some new proposals and old ones will be submitted again....we'll see how it goes. This year threw me a curveball and there are a few different paths life could take and I'm learning that I struggle with that kind of uncertainty. 

Convergence Knoxville 2021: Exhibits with my work

I had no idea where to start with my posts about Convergence this year so I'm breaking posts down into subjects that I'm able to organize better.  This post is about my work shown in 3 of the Exhibits at HGA.

The drive down to Knoxville from Lansing was blue skies and fluffy clouds the whole way!

Convergence is just that, Fiber Art people from all over the world (mostly US and Canada) meet in a city chosen by HGA and we take over their Convention Center, Hotels, Classrooms, Galleries, and anywhere that will exhibit, show fiber work, or let us sit and weave/knit/spin/meet.  HGA themselves host a number of Juried Exhibits along with the local guild exhibits and often local galleries present something fiber-themed. We Converge together and you can tell where your people are by their name tags and the fact that 90% of them are wearing some sort of beautiful handwoven scarf around in July.

Even the Marriott where I was staying had great artwork throughout.

It didn't really hit me completely until I was there telling other convergence attendees that I had pieces in 3 of HGA's exhibits. That's the most I've ever had shown at once at a Convergence Conference, so that's really exciting for me. They were all from the same series: Leaf Me Alone.

I'll be honest, this Leaf Me Alone theme began with my divorce, or need to get divorced back in 2013/2014. With the pandemic, being left alone rose to another level and it became Leaf Me Alone's time to shine. Introverts like myself and Bryan were really cozy not having to do anything but go to work and come home and do our thing. I didn't realized how much I felt being pressured to be busy and social all of the time, pandemic-time was a much-needed reset. I had started making masks during that quiet and the Leaf Me Alone Mask became an obvious, somewhat time-sensitive art piece. It was accepted into the Small Expressions Exhibit.

I had an older, smaller version of Leaf Me Alone (2) in the Leader's Exhibit.  I had shown it at the Michigan League of Handweaver's Conference a few years ago when Cameron Taylor-Brown with the juror. She commented that these smaller ones (10in W x 14.5 L) looked like maquettes, which is true... I do think my word pieces translate much better on a large scale. I also love that word she used, maquette. I had warped for these small Leaf Me Alone pieces to get back in the groove of double weave pickup, and I did have Small Expressions on the brain when I started them. I still have 1 more small one to finish.

Last but definitely not least... Leaf Me Alone (the large version) came into being at the beginning of this year. It's really part of the larger word pieces that I'm picking away at and a sister piece to She Can't See the Forest through the Trees. I was so happy to have this not only finished to submit this year, but it also won an Honorable Mention.  I went to the juror's talk and she said that she felt this piece was "relaxing" which I hadn't really heard of my work before, but I'll take it.

This is also the first time I've won an award exhibiting with HGA, I'm never sure I'll win an award, there are so many amazing weavers and fiber artists in HGA!  I am so honored just to be showing with them.

I started my first full day in Knoxville meeting with Clara who I know from the Lansing Weaver's Guild and has since moved to Florida, it was so good to catch up with her while we perused the exhibits at the Knoxville Convention Center. 

I was going to blog more about the various exhibits and a few of my favorite pieces that I took quick photos of but I started to feel too overwhelmed and will never get these posted if I overthink it. Maybe I'll get to that, maybe I won't, I have a lot going on this year.

Other post subjects on my time at Convergence will hopefully be coming: 
Finish and Exhibit that Piece! (the seminar I presented)
Leader Booth/Sales (and all the awesome people I met)