Delicious Knotting: Profile of Fiber Founding Father Ed Bing Lee
visualinsights.blogspot.com

This installment of the Visual Insights blog features a well-illustrated selection of the works of Ed Bing Lee, who uses knotting in precise but mapcap ways. The blog also has a link to an engaging video in which Lee describes his work.

Visual Insights (Insight: Perceptive ability to see clearly into a subject, appreciating its beauty) is one of 22 blogs created by Louisianan Denny Lyon.

For more on Ed Bing Lee, read online Artes Magazine profile by Kathleen McCann at www.artesmagazine.com/2011/02/soft-sculpture-artist-ed-bing-lee-explores-modern-world-with-time-honored-technique/

International Artists Shine at Canadian World of Threads Festival
www.worldofthreadsfestival.com/artwork

This link takes you to the Common Thread International Juried Exhibition at the last World of Threads Festival in 2009. (The next one is coming up in November 2012 in Oakville / Toronto.)

The 77 pieces on this website are from the 3 Common Thread venues – along with many installation shots. Click on each thumbnail and a larger version will come up. Many of them also have excellent detail shots. To get to the other venues, go to the “Artwork” heading and then Artwork below it.

A wide range of techniques appear throughout but, unfortunately, they aren’t listed. That deficiency is more than made up for in the section on Artist Interviews. These interviews don’t match up exactly with the artists accepted into the Common Thread shows, but many are included. They are billed as “a comprehensive archive of the most exciting fibre artists in the world”. They come out one each week; #54 is the latest one as I write this. Laurie Lemelin’s interview is a good example of the lengthy, lavishly illustrated treatment – and you can subscribe to receive them as they are published.

You can also submit your website to be considered for a future interview.

The Wonders of Science – on the Runway
www.fairytalefashion.org

This site features the Fairytale Fashion Show video of Diana Eng’s “tech geek” fashion designs (she was formerly my favorite designer on Project Runway – Season 1).

This 2010 video – and Hussein Chalayan’s even earlier one below it – were more interesting than any I found made more recently. Eng is doing laser-cutting designs now as well as fabric patterns that change with temperature but her short earlier videos on miura ori folding were the real eye-openers for me.

Go to the menu on the left and click on Biomimetic Deployable Structures, then on Translating Deployable Structures into Fabric. Eng also posted some pictures from a 2011 workshop on deployable structures on her blog, Fashion Engineered From Daydreams, at www.dianaeng.com/2011/01/fabric-deployable-structures-workshop/

A short Youtube “mash-up” about designer Hussein Chalayan and his graceful creations that transform on the runway can be linked to here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Jz4-S1kLYI&feature=fvwp&NR=1

The sound quality is a little uneven in the video, especially during an interview in the middle where you may need to turn up the volume. His more recent projects include dressing Lady Gaga and designing her famous egg.

American Tapestry Alliance
americantapestryalliance.org/exhibitions

This link is to a single page of yet another great, expansive website.

American Tapestry Alliance generates exhibitions, showcases the work of its artist members and exists to support “the fine arts medium of contemporary hand-woven tapestry” (and does a fine job of it). The page for American Tapestry Biennial 9, opening next October, has 8 pieces illustrated. After you click on the first one, you can click the ‘next’ arrow to scroll through. There are navigation links at top and bottom. Past biennials may be accessed via “Exhibitions” then “ATB”. If you find an artist’s work that you especially like, go to “Artist Page” link to look them up.

The “Exhibitions” page also tells how to send in entries to their Small Tapestry International 3: Outside the Line. Deadline is next October. In the navigation bar at the bottom of each page is an additional little ever-changing gallery of tapestries.

The American Tapestry Biennial 9 will be held at The Dairy Barn Arts Center in Athens, Ohio, October 19–December 16, 2012.

Silk Painting in Depth
www.silkpainters-guild.co.uk/galleries/gallery1

This link takes you to the first of 3 galleries of the Guild of Silk Painters. It features 25 artists altogether – mostly from the UK. There are 3 thumbnails for each artist including a detail shot.

To get a larger view of a complete work, click on the artist’s name. Good, intuitive design has their website and e-mail right by each name. The menu appears at both top and bottom and you can use it to go on to the next gallery – or back.

My favorites are Osvalda Warner and Jayne Huskisson in Gallery Two and Leonard Thompson in Gallery One. Thompsons’s comprehensive website has a generous amount of technical information as well as lots of outstanding silk paintings.

Visit it at www.silkartist.co.uk