A recent trip to the Mendocino coast gave me the opportunity to see two great shows featuring natural dyed textiles which included the work of textile artists from all over the county as well as those of a weaver from Oaxaca, Mexico.

The opening of The Natural Dye Showcase at Mendocino Art Center was very well attended…we crowded into the gallery to hear juror Yoshiko I. Wada speak. Yoshiko spoke of her recent work producing videos with natural dyer Michel Garcia. She also talked about sustainability and the resurgence of popularity of natural dyeing, and how many textile artists have switched over to using only natural dyes.

The show features work by many prominent artists from all over the county, including Michael Rohde, Catharine Ellis, Sandra Rude, and Barbara Shapiro. Many California artists showed as well (including yours truly…I have three pieces in this show).

Yoshiko particularly liked this piece of mine and gave me a ribbon!

I won’t show you everything as you should try to get over to see the show if you can. It runs through August 28, 2015.

The next day I visited Pacific Textile Arts in Fort Bragg. They have a show of Oaxacan Textiles woven by Zapotec weavers, including Rodrigo Sosa Bautista, who has been living and teaching in Mendocino recently.

Here are a couple of my favorites:

I took the opportunity to visit Rodrigo’s class while I was there. Students were winding their yarn and getting ready to weave Zapotec style. I was sorry to not be able to stay, but I plan to take a workshop from Rodrigo in the future. He will be in the area a couple more years before returning to live in Oaxaca.

My work with textiles takes me to wonderful places and I am so fortunate to meet such amazing people.

Happy trails!

♥Linda