HGA Conference 2024 Report
Melodie Usher
LEARN – SHOP – EXPERIENCE
With help from a grant from CNCH, I was able to travel to Wichita, KS to attend the Handweaver’s Guild
of America’s biennial weaving convention. Attending HGA Convergence was an opportunity to spend
time with hundreds of weavers from all over the world who spoke my language. When I talked about
my Baby Wolf, they knew that I was not talking about a juvenile wild animal.
Learning from the best instructors in the field is the primary reason that I wanted to attend
Convergence. Following are some highlights of the knowledge that I acquired in 2024.
TIPS, TRICKS, & HOW TO’S OF RUST DYEING with Abraham Buddish – I have never done any
rust dyeing, but after taking this seminar and seeing the art that Buddish creates, I am inspired to give it
a try. I signed up for the seminar after watching his presentation on HGA Sessions Spotlights. Buddish
brought many samples for students to examine and touch. He experiments with variations of cloth,
time, temperature, additives, and types of rust. Like a scientist he makes small changes in each variable
and documents the results with samples that are well organized and labeled. Manipulating the
variables, Buddish controls the color of the rust dye to produce works of art. I am happy to hear that he
is thinking of writing a book to share his knowledge with those not lucky enough to take a class from
him. Buddish presented so much information in 90 minutes that it was difficult to take it all in. If I ever
get a chance to take a Rust Dye workshop with him, I will sign up immediately. Until then I will be
looking for an announcement of his Rust Dyeing book.
ICE WATER INDIGO with Eileen Hallman – I love indigo. I have an indigo vat and love the blue that
it makes and was excited to learn how to dye other colors that indigo can produce using non-vat
processes. Hallman has figured out ways to separate the components of Indigo and use them like
building blocks to produce many colors: yellow, pink, purple, blue and green. The instructions for
obtaining the multitude of colors that Indigo can create may be found in Hallman’s eBook which is
available to purchase online. https://newworldtextiles.com/ice-water-indigo/ The only chemicals
required are ammonia or alcohol to produce purples, and alum to produce yellows. You can use fresh
leaves or Indigofera tinctoria powder available from ZeniaHerbal.com. I am looking forward to spending
time in my dye kitchen using Hallman’s instructions as soon as my Indigo powder arrives.
PHONE TO PHOTO: Adobe Photography Suite to Create Portfolio-Worthy Photos with Becky Flax – I took
a workshop about how to photograph textiles at the 2012 Long Beach Convergence. A lot has changed
about the way we take photos in the last 14 years so I decided that it would be a good idea to learn
more up to date techniques. Becky Flax is a young energetic faculty member of Thomas Jefferson
University in Philadelphia who taught me the new way to photograph textiles. In Long Beach we learned
how to set our SLR cameras and what studio lights to use. In 2024 we learned how to use our cell
phones using the Adobe Lightroom app to take professional looking photos. Clamped to a table, party
balloon arches or PVC U channel combined with hardware store purchased undercabinet lights can be
used to create a light dome. Using a remote control, the light can be changed from warm to cool colors
and from bright to dim. The students each brought something that we had made and experimented
with lighting and photographing it. I was amazed to see how different the pieces looked under changed
light settings. The pictures that I took looked so much better than any that I have ever taken before.
We also learned how to make minor adjustments using Photoshop but as Flax told us, you cannot
Photoshop your way to a great image if the picture you start with is not good.
VELVET WEAVING TODAY and WEAVE IKAT VELVET Using Uzbek Techniques with Barbara Setsu Pickett –
My focus of knowledge acquirement this Convergence was velvet. When I completed my HGA
Certificate of Excellence the sample I struggled with the most was velvet, so I decided to learn from the
expert. Barbara Setsu Pickett, Associate Professor Emerita, Department of Art, University of Oregon,
has studied velvet weaving in Italy, France, England, Spain, Japan, China, Turkey, India and Uzbekistan,
supported by NEA, Fulbright Commission, Institute of Turkish Studies, Gladys Krieble Delmas
Foundation, and Rockefeller Foundation/Bellalgio. In the 3-hour seminar, Velvet Weaving Today, the
students got an overview of how velvet is produced. Using photos that Setsu Pickett has taken of her
studies of velvet makers around the world we were introduced to the world of velvet. We also had the
opportunity to examine several tables of beautiful velvet samples. The only item on the materials list
for the seminar was a magnifying glass to examine the velvet. The beauty of the velvet was even more
outstanding when you could see the detail of the underlying weave structure and extremely fine yarn
used to weave the velvet. What made the seminar even more exceptional were the three samples of
different kinds of velvet that Setsu Picket had woven for every participant. Velvet weaving is a slow
process and I am in awe that she took the time and effort to weave velvet for us. Her desire to share
her love of velvet with her students was evident in the amount of effort that she put into her seminar.
If you are thinking to yourself, velvet is beautiful but difficult and slow to weave so how can I make it
more beautiful and more difficult? The answer would be to learn to weave Ikat velvet, the subject of
Setsu Pickett’s workshop Ikat Velvet Using Uzbek Techniques. Setsu Pickett studied Ikat velvet weaving
in Uzbekistan and when she informed the Uzbek weaver that she studied with of her plan to teach Ikat
velvet weaving in a three-day workshop he thought that she was trying to do the impossible. She
bravely decided to share what she knows with a small group of students in the three-day workshop held
at the end of Convergence. I think Setsu Pickett did an excellent job achieving the impossible.
Uzbekistan velvet is woven using supplementary warp that is bound in small sections called libits.
Uzbekistan velvet is usually 100 libits wide. To create the Ikat pattern each libit is resist bound, untied,
and rebound as it is dyed in yellow, red, and blue dyes to create seven colors. The amount of work
Setsu Pickett did in preparation for the workshop was mind boggling. She said that it took her 3 hours of
work to create the 10 libit loops for each student, each libit consisting of 60 strands of 20/2 cotton. Our
pile warp was dyed once in black dye to create a black and white Ikat pattern. How many hours must it
take to create seven colors? If you want to feel like you are the most valued student ever, take a class
from Setsu Pickett. In the workshop we each had the opportunity to wind and dye libits so that we
understood the process that Setsu Pickett did for us before the workshop. If we had to start at the
beginning of the process three days would not have been nearly long enough. In Uzbekistan, the
process starts with raising the silkworms. Our workshop just covered the last few steps of the silk Ikat
Velvet weaving process. The warp is still on my workshop loom and I will be happily weaving Ikat Velvet
for a while longer. Using the lengthy and detailed handout from the workshop I hope to create a seven
color Ikat Velvet piece from start to finish. But I think that I will start with silk yarn, not silkworms.
Shopping at the Vendor’s Hall was a must for me as a proud member of the SABLE club (Stash
Accumulation Beyond Life Expectancy). Living in the internet shopping era has made it easier to shop
for weaving supplies but nothing can compare with seeing and feeling the products and meeting the
vendors who you do business with over the phone and internet. HGA has online videos (Marketplace
Mondays in May) of many of the vendors that anyone can watch for free. As well as yarn for future
weaving and knitting projects, I bought several gifts: Alpaca felted soap from a small family ranch in
Texas, knitting needle gauge earrings in all colors of the rainbow from Oink Pigments, and giant Texsolve
called Runlock from Glimakra. Runlock comes in multiple sizes. The small size can be used for clothes
lines and the biggest size is strong enough to use for towing. I use Texsolv for many non-weaving
related uses and now I have more options for my Texsolv hacks!
Experiencing the Fashion Show, Exhibits, and People
The Sunflowers to Sunsets Wearable Art Show celebrated how beautiful and unique clothes can be
when made by fiber artists. I loved that models were chosen to fit the clothes that were made to fit the
artists who created them. Some of the clothes were made to wear. Others were costumes. All of them
were beautiful. The day after the fashion show the clothes were hung in the exhibit hall where you
could see the details and marvel at the work that went into making them.
There were five off site fiber related exhibits, but I was only able to get to two of them, Complexity and
Small Expressions. Both shows contained many incredible works of fiber art. I spent many hours looking
at the beautiful work in the exhibits that were at the Convergence site: The Leader’s Exhibit, The
Whirlwind of Fiber Basketry Exhibit, Limitless Prairies, Limitless Sky Yardage Exhibit, and Explorers of
Wind, Wagons, and Wheat Mixed Media Exhibit. The quality of work that is currently being created is
amazing. I went back to the exhibits multiple times and always found some detail that I had missed on
previous viewings.
I met the nicest people at Convergence. One of my favorite things to do at Convergence is to make new
friends. No matter who you talk to you will have a love of fiber in common. The first Convergence I
attended was held in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 2006. At happy hour I went to the host hotel bar and
sat down next to a total stranger. We have been roommates at every Convergence since. In Wichita I
met many young weavers who were attending their first Convergence. It is wonderful to see the next
generation of weavers get as excited and energized by the Convergence experience as I do. My phone
now has many new contacts and I look forward to seeing all of them again in two years.