ATCs from "Women and Fiber Art" students

ATC by a Women and Fiber Art student.

On the heels of the November FiberAntics ATC swap, I had to share this with you...

One of my friends from the fiber arts guild, Ann Buggey, is a professor in the English department at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC). This semester, Ann offered a 1 credit course, Women and Fiber Art, for first-year students in which 9 students enrolled. The course encompassed women's work in textiles, and the role this played in both historic and contemporary culture.

In Ann's class, students were introduced to and had hands-on practice with fundamental needlework and fiber art techniques such as sewing, smocking, spinning with a drop spindle, and needle felting, among others. She complemented the practical exercises with her lecture and presentations by women in the Chattanooga area fiber art community. I was pleased and honored when she asked me to give my "Shibori: Making Marks with Resists" presentation to her class in November. The students were energetic and delightful and ranged from those studying art to those taking engineering and science coursework.

Ann was also inspired by blog posts of my Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) swaps which led her to have students create ATCs (incorporating something about fiber or fiber art) for their final class project. Here are some of the students' ATCs.

This ATC incorporated fabric flowers from a grandmother's wedding gown
and a favorite button.

The class ATC swap consisted of students explaining the concept behind their card(s) along with an explanation of the materials or techniques used. Most of the students made one-of-a-kind cards—as opposed to multiples of the same as in a "limited edition"—to trade with fellow classmates. (I must tell you that making one-of-a-kind cards takes a lot of time and thought!) One student incorporated fabric flowers from her grandmother's wedding gown on her ATC. Wouldn't you have loved to be present at this ATC swap??

Ann's Women and Fiber Art class is being offered again next semester at UTC. You have to be a first-year student, however, to get in... one of the few perks to being a college freshman.