Sunday, May 11, 2014

SAQA Conference

Last weekend I travelled to beautiful Alexandria, VA for the SAQA conference, Capitalizing on Fiber, with my friend, Barbara.  We took the train down, about a five hour ride, and decided that it was a good way to travel. The conference was terrific!  The first evening we had "Speed Dating" in which we sat at round tables of ten and were given 1 1/2 minutes to tell about ourselves. We were encouraged to have business cards to pass around.  I was so glad that I had my new ones and now I have a nice collection since we changed tables twice to meet with a total of 30 people, who were there from all over the world.



There were lectures and symposium and forums all three days and I learned a lot.  Our hotel was right on the river and we could see the Capitol from our hotel room. We took a few breaks between sessions from the over-air- conditioned hotel to take brief walks along the river, where there were walking and biking paths, so pretty.

One of the highlights of the weekend was when we took a bus ride to Silver Springs.MD to see the Radical Elements Exhibit.  This was an exhibit where the artists were asked to enter a portfolio and those chosen to be in the show were given an element from the periodic table on which to base their quilt.  They were asked to refrain from using fabric or thread, but to use unconventional materials for their quilt.  Most complied and there were some very interesting materials used, such as wood, metal, screening, plastic, etc.  I will only show you a few of my favorites, although I loved almost all of them.







This was Copper and I'm so sorry that I didn't get the name. I thought I had taken pictures of all the plaques, but I must have missed this one.  If anyone knows the maker,  please let me know. I thought it was so clever with the many uses of copper. No thread or fabric here!




Aluminum--Last Rays by Gay Lasher
This was very three dimensional and just seemed to glow. I think the top layer was metal.





Cadmium--Cadmium by BJ Adams
BJ also gave a talk about her making eighty 8 x 8 quilts in her eightieth year. She is amazing!





Einsteinium--Element of Surprise by May Pal
This may have been my favorite because of the fabulous gauze portrait for whichMary is famous and for the eerily famous statement by Einstein.




Iron--The Irony Of It All Was Not Lost On Her by Trisha Hassler
This one had many layers and no fabric in sight.





Neon--Beckoning of Night by Marion Zeilinski
This was multilayered with sheer plastics and gave the illusion of Broadway or Vegas at night.




Sodium,--The Salt Flats  by Jeanie Palmer Moore
Even though this one did use fabric and thread stitching, we still liked it a lot.



Chromium--Chromium by Diane Melms
Diane used small stretched canvasses that she painted in Chromium Red, Yellow and Green. She then  stenciled the symbol for the element on each canvas.  The "thread" that holds them together are small silver magnets.

Remember to click on any picture for a bigger view of all.



4 comments:

Cindy Green said...

Wow, those are all amazing! thanks for sharing them!

Shannon said...

So glad you got to go to the conference! My mom and I went last year when it was in Santa Fe and learned so much. I wish I'd gotten to see radical elements- I've been drooling over the pictures as they pop up in blogland...

Linda M said...

Thanks for writing about the conference, I've never been to one. Maybe next year when it's in Portland, that's only a six hour drive. The quilts are pretty awesome, I'd love to see the whole group.

Vivien Zepf said...

Thank you for sharing these photos; the show looks incredible!