We are excited to offer special guests at our upcoming 2014 Slofemists events.

We hope you can make it to one or more of these studio embroidery circles in Vancouver, Canada:

Saturday, February 8, 1-3pm = Special Guest, Elisa Ferrari will talk about how she came to embroider an Alighiero Boetti textile. We hope to bring a feminist frame to his iconic textile work.

Saturday, February 22, 1-3 pm = Special Guest, Cindy Mochizuki will discuss her grandmother’s practice in the Japanese art of Bunka Shishu (or thread painting).

Saturday, March 29, 1-3 pm = Special Guest, Lexie Owen will talk about why her projects (The Collaborative Embroidery Society, and more) bring critical theory alongside handwork like embroidery.

These are small, free events that take place at the Yukon Street studio near the O. Village Sky Train station. No skill or equipment is needed (but you are invited to bring your own embroidery supplies if you have them.) Please send an email [loisATloisklassenDOTcom] to reserve a place, and to get details on the location.

[[Note the change of dates from previous posts.]]

Join us to embroider in 2014 !

Slofemists will be meeting monthly at the Yukon Studio for Feminist embroidery. Bring your Feminist stories, inspirations, and ideas. We'll supply the embroidery materials, equipment and a growing archive of patterns.

2014 dates: January 25, February 22, March 29 - 1-3pm

RSVP: loiszing[at]telus[point]com

We are hoping to have a few special guests... more details on that to come. We'd love to stitch with you!

Wendy K., of the Surface Design Association of Alberta, used the Slofemists embroidery pattern Margaret is a Verb to make these squares. They came in the mail this week. Thank you Wendy!

 

 

 These buttons were gifted to Slofemists at the Calgary event...

Last Saturday, the Slofemists were inside the Strathcona Field House listening to feminist stories.

We heard about how the closure of the Textile Art Prgam at Capilano University  is unfairly biased against women: the enrollment in recent years has been 100% female; and, the faculty members who are facing layoffs are female, whereas the male faculty happen to be eligible for retirement...

We learned about how the Bunka Shishu or Thread Painting archive of a Japanese needleworker/berry farmer grandmother wants to be brought to light.

We heard about the formidible clothing design skills of a Jamaican aunt who was a career role model and inspiration.

And, we learned about an elderly woman in Saskatoon who formed an artist in residence program that is still operational, in the nursing home which housed her husband who had dementia.

 

Launched at the Strathcona embroidery circle: Slofemists's two new patterns, by Lori Weidenhammer!

 

 

 

The Strathcona Field House Ensemble will be hosting a Slofemists embroidery cricle on Saturday afternoon. In keeping with the Ensemble's on-going practice of exchange, participants are invited to bring a personal feminist story in exchange for a take home feminist embroidery pattern... and in exchange for an afternoon of embroidery. The details are here - Download SFHE Flyer and here - http://fieldhouseensemble.tumblr.com/

 Also stay tuned for Slofemits events at the Yukon Studio (Vancouver) in the new year: January 25, Febrary 22, March 29...

 

 

 

 (PHOTOS - A. Barr)

Thank you to Linda Hawke, Karen Millison, Arlee Barr and everyone involved in the Surface Design Association of Alberta for hosting the inaugural Slofemists event at John Snow House in Calgary (October 17, 2013).

 

There were a number of questions during and after about how the project works (will work) and about how to get involved outside of Slofemists events. So here to set the record straight:

The Slofemists advocates for unhurried attention to feminism now. Slofemists believe that embroidery enables slow and enduring discussions and thinking, to awaken or reawaken, and to circulate, feminisms in lives lived now.

So Slofemists are making embroidered squares that will become a patchwork Slofa cover, as a prop to support future Slofemist events and performances. If you would like to make a patch for the Slofa, the specifications are as follows:

• The patchwork will be made up of about 200 embroidered linen squares (16x16"). If you need a square to work on, contact me. You can also source your own fabric square. Linen is best, but good quality cotton will also be accepted.
• Embroider onto the square a new feminist embrodery pattern that you have designed or developed. Make something that reflects your connection to feminism. It could relate to someone's work (a tribute?), or it could be a way of visually marking an important event or fact, for example.
• Or, embroider one of the patterns that are already developed for Slofemists. There are 3 so far. Contact me if you would like one of these patterns.
• If you make your own pattern, let us know if you want it to enter the Slofemist archive. If we get enough patterns we will try to produce them as a book. Patterns can include stories about the subject in the patters, including references to other texts or sources. All patterns in the Slofemist archive are subject to a creative commons license, described at the end of the post. We will help to make the pattern ready for printing and circulation.
• Patterns and finished squares can be mailed to: Slofemists, #204-2075 Yukon St., Vancouver Canada, V5Y 3W3.
• Patterns and completed squares can be mailed in at any time. The deadline is August 30 2014. Before that, watch this website for notice of more Slofemist embroidery events.

 

 

 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.