I’m Dina Michael, a tapestry weaver who joined the GHG last February.
I have recently acquired the guild print archive from librarian Sarah McCarthy, who graciously provided a home for these valuable resources for many years.

This month I’m going to review the book Beyond Craft: The Art of Fabric by Mildred Constantine, a curator, and Jack Lenor Larsen, a renowned weaver and fabric designer, published in 1972.

Some books are about technique, others act as inspiration. This book falls in the second category. It highlights 28 wildly creative fiber artists from the middle of the 20th century. Innovations in what the authors call “Art Fabric”—weaving, knotting, knitting, crochet, and basketry —exploded in the 1960’s.

They trace this back to the Bauhaus school from the 1920s and early 30’s, when weavers like Anne Albers and others redefined their work as an art form on par with painting, sculpture and architecture.
In the post-war period, all manner of wildness was happening in the fiber arts. Artists (most of whom were women) explored the limits of their chosen media with a rebellious spirit of experimentation. Ruth Asawa made tubular knitting with wire, creating hanging filagree webs. Lenore Tawney manipulated light and shadow. Some work was monumental in scale. Others pieces jumped off the loom entirely. The photos in this book are an absolute delight to explore.

There is some funny archaic language in this vintage book, such as the description of a married weaving duo as “a real swinging couple”, that -to my mind-only adds to the charm.

Happy weaving and happy reading,
Dina