Hi friends of SEFAA. I am Karen Selk, a textile artist, educator, traveler, researcher, and writer. My primary focus is silk. The first time I went to India was a journey of a lifetime. Little did I know it would begin a lifetime of journeys – an adventure of over thirty years of research, discovery, and caring. Everything about wild silk – tasar (tussah), muga, and eri – is captivating, exotic, and full of heart. It is much more than the miraculous journey of metamorphosis from caterpillar to silken luxury. It is tightly woven into an ancient living culture raising silkworms in remote forests ..read more

Enjoy this video featuring our own Katrina Stone cutting the ribbon for Chamblee’s newest public art installation – the Pollinator Bridge Project! The City of Chamblee commissioned SEFAA to honor the City’s commitment to saving the monarch butterfly and other pollinators, and Katrina rose to the challenge, creating string art zinnias, milkweed, and cone flowers along with fabric monarch butterflies. It will be up for several years, so you have plenty of time to drive under and/or over the Peachtree Road bridge (at Chamblee Dunwoody Rd) to enjoy the fun flowers and beautiful butterflies. The p ..read more

By: Corrie Habib Betsy is a very cool artist who specializes in making puppets, and she currently serves as the Secretary of SEFAA’s Board of Directors. You can find her almost every Tuesday and Thursday at Lunchtime Fiber and did you know that she is a fantastic baker as well? She’s a dedicated and dependable volunteer for SEFAA as well as for other area nonprofits. Her solo show runs through the month of October 2022 and is a whimsical adventure of creatures and creativity. In honor of her exhibition, and in our ongoing series of Board profiles, she sat down for an interview with SEFAA’s Cen ..read more

Poor Ms. Lizzie has been waiting since Spring for my dad to “get around to it” and repair the spokes and rebuild the wheel. I reminded him that I had purchased him a “Round Tuit” several years ago and that he has no excuses. He blamed it on his adult-onset-ADD and the change of season and hummingbirds and car races and Joro spiders and lots of other diversions. But, nevertheless (and it’s doubtful that Ms. Lizzie even noticed the months’ passing since she’s quite the old gal), I was shocked when my dad said the wheel was ready to be reunited! Luckily my dad enjoys dog-sitting, and this past we ..read more

By: Corrie Habib 12/16/21: What kinds of cleaners and finishes are safe for antique wood? I’m in the Google rabbit hole. Antiques Roadshow says to use Butcher’s Wax…what the heck is that? Oh yeah, whatever happened to that million-dollar native American blanket that the older guy had on his sofa? I’m here on their website so maybe there’s an update somewhere. But first, the popup asks if I have donated to GPB? “Hey babe, did we already donate to public TV?” Refill coffee mug. Resist eating Trader Joe’s Chocolate Babka, for now. Corrie, get back on track. Close this Antiques Roadshow tab, send ..read more

By: Corrie Habib During a recent social media scroll, I saw a post from a fiber artist about to sell her handmade items for the first time. She was looking for suggestions about how to highlight the value of a wool garment vs. one made from synthetic fibers. There were many comments and links to PDF sheets with reasons for wool being preferential; however, what I was struck by was the fact that many modern consumers are so disconnected from the value of traditional materials. Considering that wool textile manufacturing drove the industrial revolution and impacted the entire trajectory of human ..read more

By: Corrie Habib Am I the only one who wonders–sometimes marvels–at the simple technology and creative solutions used by people in the past? Don’t get me wrong…I’ve been known to reach for epoxy and Gorilla glue plenty of times, but what were the “fixes” for the many hundreds of years of furniture and cabinet making before synthetic glues? In our rush for easy and permanent solutions, have we thrown some babies out with their bathwater? What led me to this musing was the dissection of the damaged spokes from the hub which revealed some curious fabric squares and an absence of even the tiniest ..read more

By: Corrie Habib Releasing the spirit of Ms. Lizzie– Feb. 25, 2022: The familiar wrist buzz of a text notification on my FitBit…it’s from my dad. ”Amazing: {wow emoji} The rim of the wheel is almost flat! I haven’t clamped it or nothing! I think the broken spokes/hub were holding it in a screwy position and it has now sprung (slow-mo) back to almost flat.” March 3, 2022: ”The rim is flat +- ⅛ inch.” When your father is my father, there is literally nothing out of the ordinary about receiving a text at 5:08 pm with such a random declaration. An event transpires–some neurons fire–a text message ..read more

By: Corrie Habib the saga continues… Jan. 2022: Kids go back to school, but it’s not a week back in the dorm before one heads home with breakthrough Covid for a long weekend in the basement apartment. I, like many others, started a new year knit-a-long project (https://ravel.me/cuff-to-cuff-jacket). Ms. Lizzie hangs out in her corner, clearly enjoying the climate-controlled life. Dad reports that Lizzie’s wheel is hanging out on her plywood table but the garage is “too d*mn cold to work in.” And since he doesn’t smoke his pipe anymore, he doesn’t venture into the workshop multiple times a day ..read more

Have you ever seen textiles dyed with plants and thought that you would love to try natural dyeing? Have you ever wondered which garden plants and which wild plants give color, which part of a plant produces dye, or what intense or subtle or delicate colors a plant will produce? If so, join the SEFAA HomeGrown Dye Garden Project! Whether you have space for a dedicated dye garden or just a pot on the porch, this project will allow you to be a part of a community of independent growers learning and dyeing together. If you are thinking…”I don’t know what to grow or how to use what I grow!” Have n ..read more