Earlier this month, I went to TACtile to capture the World Threads exhibit in photographs. Luckily, our intern from CSU, Kelly Phillips was there to assist me in taking the photos. These three images below capture just some of the beauty of the textile arts represented in the show. Our global talks on Saturday, May 26, feature:  

11 am :: Cyndi Maupin, Entwined Artistry
2pm :: Maryanne Wise, Guatemala Rugs

Our exhibit closes at 5:00 on Saturday, the last day of World Threads III.

Featured in Westword, Susan Froyd wrote, One of TACtile Textile Arts Center’s most colorful exhibits is back: World Threads III: Preserving Textile Traditions, featuring — as in the past — a beautiful global palette of fiber-arts handiwork to both look at and to buy. Even more beautiful is the humanitarian purpose behind the show — to sustain traditional arts while supporting women artisans living in poverty and sometimes dire conditions.

This year’s show  includes handcrafts — jewelry, weavings, baskets, embroidery, clothing and more — from sixteen nonprofit humanitarian groups working with artisans from Africa, Southeast Asia, Nepal, India, Peru, Guatemala, and other countries.

TACtile, led by director and 2012 Westword MasterMind Dianne Denholm, is also serving up an ongoing series of Global Talks by the various vendors on Saturdays for the duration of the show, which ends May 26.

TACtile is pleased to announce the opening on June 8th of two exhibits, Summer Daze and Colorado Couture: Past and Present. Follow this blog to learn more. Call 720.524.8886 and visit TACtileArts.org

 photos by Carol Naff

Maya Cielo Dyer

May 5: 12 pm :: Charlotte Otto, Ten Thousand Villages
1 pm :: Patricia Stoddard, Ralli Quilts
2 pm :: Paula Carter, Egyptian Leather Importing

May 12: ($5 donation at the door)
Mother’s Saturday Tea celebrating mothers around the world
12pm :: Penny Webster, Woven Promises
1 pm :: Linda Stark & Marilyn Murphy, Cloth Roads
2 – 4 pm :: Creative Scarf Tying Demonstration – Eloise Wagers

May 19: 11 am :: Katrina Wert, A Little Something
12 pm :: Sen Nguyen, Bridging Hope
1 pm :: Marissa Saints, Dsenyo

May 26: 11 am :: Cyndi Maupin, Entwined Artistry
2pm :: Maryanne Wise, Guatemala Rugs

Special Saturday hours for this show! TACtile will open at 11 am on Saturdays for our Vendor’s Chats.
This Saturday April 28 Chat

Outreach Uganda speaking about their work with the women in Uganda making colorful beads and what your purchases do for them.

Support the work of our sisters around the world who love fiber arts as much as we do!

Visit TACtileArts.org for more information.

TACtile Textile Arts Center presents its colorful 3rd annual World Threads III, Preserving Textile Traditions, to benefit the artists, co-operatives, and social enterprises that support preservation of the fiber arts around the world, Saturday, April 28 through Saturday, May 26, 2012. TACtile is pleased to be showing almost all vendors from previous years, plus several new ones. This gallery exhibit is free and open to the public, Tuesday – Saturday, 12:00 – 5:00 p.m. at 1955 S. Quince Street, Suite 200, Denver, CO 80231. Free Parking.

These festivities are planned throughout the month:

• World Chats: Each Saturday, April 28 through May 19 special presentations by the participating organizations about their textile artisan projects.
• April 27: Members opening reception 5– 7:00 p.m. with a world foods buffet sponsored by the TACtile Board of Directors.
• Periodic demonstrations of artisans using back strap looms.
• May 12: Special Mother’s Day World Tea, 2-5:00 pm
• Private collection Costumes & Textiles on exhibit.

Exhibit and Sale

World Threads III, Preserving Textile Traditions is both an exhibit and marketplace. The exhibit features regional collector costumes, textiles and objects from textile rich regions of the world. The marketplace is a colorful array of fashions, jewelry, crafts, basketry, embroidery, jewelry, gifts and home décor from artists in Africa, South and Central America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.  Sales from the month-long festivities strengthen TACtile and its global partners to sustain textile arts worldwide. The assistance leads to employment of women and youth to provide income, often used to attend school, provide jobs and raise their quality of life in their homelands.

Sixteen regionally based, humanitarian groups will have handcrafted fiber art from around the world for sale to support their work. 

1.      “A Little Something” a Denver refugee women’s craft cooperative
2.      “Maya Cielo” supporting weaving coops in Guatemala
3.      “Outreach Uganda” spotlighting Uganda
4.       “Bridging Hope” supporting Vietnam & Cambodia
5.       “Eternal Threads” supporting Nepal & Madagascar
6.      Cloth Roads reaching 17 countries world-wide
7.      “Tambani” preserves South African folklore by the Venda women
8.      “Dsenyo” empowers Malawi women of Africa. 
9.      “Memsahib Mar” supports nomadic women in India
10.  “Anoothi” helping Rajasthan, India & Vatsalyan street children
11. “Woven Promises” supports Ethiopia and Namibia.
12. “Annie O Boutique” representing Peru
13. “Silks & Stones” helping silk weaving coops in Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand.
14. “Entwined Artistry” silk makers in Cambodia
15. “Cultural Cloth” rug hookers in Guatemala
16. “One World Buttons” button makers from Armenia to Zimbabwe 9 countries

 The Need  As modern industrial products seep into rural village life, traditional textile arts become rare treasures made and worn only by the older skilled generation, often underappreciated by the younger. TACtile is dedicated to increasing textile art as a living art form throughout all generations. An important aspect to sustaining these beautiful arts is providing a market for them. Educating artisans to translate their skills to modern demand and educating audiences to find value in their human heritage happens with TACtile’s World Threads event.  TACtile serves as an important channel to both groups.

In addition, younger generations are saved from leaving their families for poor or very dangerous working conditions and slave trades elsewhere. 

Traditional Textiles Breed Quality Contemporary Textiles.  Despite living in extreme poverty, artisans in developing countries create incredibly beautiful hand-woven silk, wool, linen, cotton and decorative textiles. They are made on primitive looms, with surfaces often covered with intricate hand embroidery and beadwork.  Mud and natural dyes transcend through the cloth into fast paced lifestyles of American consumers, adding meaningful value to the wearer. Textile arts are the threads that keep us all connected across the planet.

Baskets, a functional necessity in the developing world, have become an art form using locally available materials, such as bamboo and recycled box straps. Basket making skills are translated to totes, backpacks and table décor.

Beadwork & Embroidery are an integral part of all cultures, used as body adornment or to embellish cloth.  Beads in the show are made from all kinds of materials, including the popular hand rolled magazine paper to form beads in handbags and jewelry. Stitched embroidery motifs serve as humorous storytelling or elegant sophisticated cultural expression.

Local Economy Boost During economic conditions that require thoughtful use of consumer dollars, World Threads III provides products of need that have several layers of higher value. Local people are inspired to be creative themselves. There is a festive quality to buying things you need while also making far away communities happy, with a higher quality of life.

For more information, contact TACtile Textile Arts Center at info@tactilearts.org – 720-524.8886 and visit tactilearts.org

Specialty Beading Classes
sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Bead Society and held at TACtile

Mixed Media Textile Artist Bead Classes
with Larkin Vanom
Beaded Cuffs
Friday 5/18/12 9 am – 4 pm
Class Fee: $70 (including kit fee)
Make an elaborately beaded bracelet that wraps around your wrist like the cuff of a well-tailored shirt. This project will expand your design, color, and beading skills; allowing you to create a wearable work of art. The cuff is sized to fit your wrist, and the pattern provided can be adjusted to allow you to make a beaded cuff as a gift. The class will focus on design, color, finishing, and altering the basic shape, as well as stitch techniques.

Talisman/Hues and Cues
Saturday 5/19/12 9 am – Noon
Class Fee $35 (including kit fee)
This class will focus on understanding and using the meanings of color, shape, and symbols, both personal and universal, to create artwork with meaning, spirit, emotion, and personal resonance. Applying this information to whatever your art form may be, will allow you to create personally meaningful art, while using symbols that can be universally recognizable.

Beaded Buttons
Saturday 5/19/12 1 pm – 4 pm
Class Fee: $35 (including kit fee)
This is a great way to use leftovers from larger projects, and small enough to carry when you travel. Beaded buttons can embellish a garment, wall hanging or home decor project. All it takes are a few beads, a button form, a scrap of fabric and your imagination. It is a very easy introduction to the world of bead embroidery.

Tiny Beaded Vessels
Sunday 5/20/12 9 am – 4 pm
Class Fee: $70 (including kit fee)
Using bead embroidery stitches, students will create a small, encrusted treasure. The three or four-sided vessel will be in their own chosen color scheme. Charms, buttons, or small cabochons may be used as the focal point on one or all sides of the vessel. The class will focus on beading stitches, color, and design as well as the construction of the vessel.

How to Find Your Place in the Market: Get Paid for your Creative Achievements

You know that you’ve created something you want to share with the world. So why not learn how to get the word out to more people? TACtile presents this marketing workshop to help you learn the fundamentals of marketing your business and getting results.

Marketing Coach Carol Naff will teach you how to:

• identify the best low-cost, no-cost marketing solutions,
• find resources to help you in your business,
• create a web presence with or without a website,
• avoid dead ends and pitfalls that wastes time and energy, and
• learn strategies for creating and implementing a successful marketing plan that gets results!

Saturday, March 10, 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. TACtile Textile Arts Center. For more information, call Carol at 303.337.4394 or visit her website at solobizmarketing.com and to register, visit TACtile

Follow TACtile’s Board on Pinterest. Remember to visit TACtilearts.org to find classes, art exhibits, and special gifts for that special person.

Designer Fallene Wells

On Friday, February 17, from 6:30 – 8:30 pm, TACtile presents an exclusive collection by Denver fashion designer and Project Runway Season 9 alumnus Fallene Wells. Guests will be treated to Wells’ designs on models and mannequins along with music and food from the event’s sponsors. The event will be held at TACtile’s gallery at 1955 South Quince Street, Suite 200 Denver Colorado 80231.

In addition, the event will feature information about the new CoSewn, a “resource, development, and production hub for independent and emerging designers and custom sewing clients.” TACtile’s Executive Director, Dianne D’Lea Denholm will speak about upcoming opportunities at TACtile, and guests will be able to tour the facility.

For a $20 entry fee and a $2 donation, enjoy an evening of entertainment, door prizes, and time to spend with Designer Fallene Wells, Dianne D’Lea Denholm, and other notables at TACtile. For more information and reservations, visit TACtile 

Enjoy a gentle walk through a Fantasy Fiber Forest of 18 types of trees that tell stories of hope, faith, healing, strength, mythology, poetry and joy. Each tree is a visual and tactile celebration of texture, color, and individuality using fabrics in the form of contemporary quilts. The trees are hanging in a maze from ceiling to floor at the TACtile Textile Arts Center gallery from February 16-March 31.

TACtile celebrates the deep roots that textile arts have in our state by giving visibility to so many branches of fiber arts guilds in our mountain, plains and urban communities. TACtile offers classes and events throughout the year in contemporary quilting and many other textile art disciplines.

The exhibit is free and open to the public. TACtile Winter Hours are Thursday – Saturday, 12noon – 5pm, Free parking. info@tactilearts.org At the JHB Button Warehouse, 1955 So. Quince #200, Denver 8023, near Quebec & Evans. TACtilearts.org

Pat is a wonderful teacher and also the President of Handweavers Guild of Boulder. She has a delightful approach to the fiber culture, as a past geologist, dyer, spinner, weaver and really engaging personality.

She just did this amazing world map (takes up 2 tables) showing about 2 dozen animal fiber types, with pins and photos, and little felted animals pointing to all the different areas on the globe. It’s a wonderful educational display. We have it at TACtile for a little while. Come see it soon.  Quite creatively done….

Also, TACtile just announced a change in hours. We’re doing Winter Hours: Noon-5 p.m., Thursday – Saturday. We’re taking some extra time to plan and strengthen our gallery exhibits and class programming for 2012. It’s our 5th year and we want to make it count!