TAFA -- The Textile and Fiber Arts List
If you love art fabric, cultural textiles, color, and great craftsmanship, visit the new(ish) TAFA website (http://www.tafalist.com/). TAFA is the brainchild of Rachel Biel, who has worked in handicrafts since 1988. Her mission now is to "help preserve textile traditions, to educate the public about the social context of the artists, to empower the people who make them, and to increase market access to small-scale crafters and artists."
TAFA invites artist/craftspeople from all over the world to become members. Each member gets a page where they can post information about their work, their creative process, plus photographs and video feed. Also in these pages you'll find suppliers who are "off the beaten path," such as Oshiwa Designs (http://www.tafalist.com/2010/02/oshiwa-designs.html) which markets textile stamp; and Afghan Tribal Arts (http://www.tafalist.com/2010/01/afghan-tribal-arts.html), a seller of beads, jewelry, textiles, and other handcrafted items from Afghanistan.
If you're an artist looking for inspiration, you'll find it in these pages. It's like having a virtual art/craft gallery at your fingertips. Although TAFA is young, it's growing quickly, and Rachel will be interviewed in an upcoming issue of Hand/Eye Magazine (http://www.handeyemagazine.com). (The piece in the photo, "Holston Cat Trail," is by Carol LeBaron and can be seen at http://www.tafalist.com/2010/03/carol-lebaron-fine-art-textiles.html)
Fiber Artists: How to Help the Gulf
As the oil spill continues, more Gulf residents are finding themselves out of work, and more oiled animals are showing up in rescue centers in need of care. Fiber enthusiasts can help by sending unwanted animal yarns and fleeces (alpaca, camel, sheep, llama, etc.) to the organization Matter of Trust http://www.matteroftrust.org/.
Matter of Trust is also collecting hair clippings (bags from salons are much appreciated), old furs, feathers, and nylons. All these materials are used to stuff booms which will block and soak up oil, thus protecting as many shorelines as possible. The photo (courtesy of Matter of Trust) shows hand-stuffed booms in the Mobile, Alabama warehouse.
Update posted 6/13/10 -- I received this message from Matter of Trust: We have mountains of fiber right now so are requesting a pause in shipping while we get through our mountains and deploy the boom. But we would always love to have people sign up to be on the database to donate when we'll need to get in more.
As there are over 2600 oil spills a year around the world, the need is ongoing, so please sign up to be a donor if you have extra materials.
Other organizations that need our help:
The Alabama Coastal Foundation: http://www.joinacf.org/
Audubon Society: http://www.audubon.org/ oil spill donation page: https://loon.audubon.org/payment/donate/OILSPILL10.html
The Greater New Orleans Foundation: http://www.gnof.org/gulf-coast-oil-spill-fund/disaster-on-the-gulf-coast//
National Wildlife Federation: https://online.nwf.org/site/Donation2'df_id=16662&16662.donation=form1
The Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana: http://www.crcl.org/ (donation link from this page)
Another way to help: Cut back on energy use in any way you can; British Petroleum is the middleman between the Earth and the voracious American appetite for energy. We drive the energy market -- let's commit to driving it less.
Who is responsible?
I can't write about textiles for this month's blog, the reason being that there is a huge elephant in the room (the room being my ruminating mind) that demands attention. That elephant is the oil spill in the Gulf. The images of oiled animals and idle gulf coast workers coming over the airwaves have caused nightmares and disrupted my sleep. And that's fitting, because I share some of the responsibility for this spill. That's right -- BP is not the only responsible party in this debacle. Clearly they made some bad choices. But they're feeding a demand, and that demand is caused by me, and everyone else who shares my Western plugged-in, on-the-grid, mobile, consumptive lifestyle.This current disaster has been created by the huge juggernaut that comprises our government, our corporations, and each one of us, who make hundreds of purchasing choices every day that add up to the demands that fuel industrial production-- which in turn causes untoward events like massive oil spills. How to re-tool that juggernaut is a huge question, one that will take decades to answer and probably decades to implement. But starting that task will not happen as long as we do not each admit our personal responsibility for creating a new "American way," and consuming as though other lives depend on the choices we each make--which they do.
Photograph of Lake Superior by Jeffrey E. Lyon.