California Fibers: Texture and Form at the Coastline College Art Gallery

California Fibers has a new exhibit coming, California Fibers: Texture and Form, at the Coastline College Art Gallery in Newport Beach, California, from September 3-October 10, 2025. The opening reception will be Friday, September 12, from 5-7 PM.

Marty Ornish, What the Ocean Once Dreamed

The curator, Guusje Sanders, wrote that “California Fibers: Texture and Form celebrates the innovative spirit and tactile richness of the California Fibers collective. Founded in 1970, this group of artists has continually pushed the boundaries of textile and fiber arts, exploring contemporary ideas through traditional and experimental processes. This exhibition highlights the diverse approaches to texture, form, and material through playful interpretation of a variety of techniques including basketry, quilting, weaving, and crochet. The collective's shared commitment to craft and conceptual exploration is rooted in social and environmental awareness, material exploration, and innovation. Each piece invites viewers to consider fiber not just as medium, but as a messenger of ideas.”

Michael F. Rohde, Dissolution

The exhibit features the work of twenty-two members of California Fibers, including: Sandy Abrams, Charlotte Bird, Ashley V. Blalock, Carrie Burckle, Marilyn McKenzie Chaffee, Doshi, Polly Jacobs Giacchina, Susan Henry, Lydia Tjioe Hall, Annette Heully, AniFaye Korngute, Brecia Kralovic-Logan, Chari Myers, Kathy Nida, Carol Nilsen, Marty Ornish, Michael F. Rohde, Rebecca Smith, Cameron Taylor-Brown, Elise Vazelakis, Debra Weiss, and Peggy Wiedemann.

Lydia Tjioe Hall, Fluid Dynamics

Guusje Sanders, originally from the Netherlands and residing in the United States since 2006, joined Mingei International Museum's curatorial team as Curator in August 2023. Most recently, she co-curated Blue Gold: The Art and Science of Indigo, presented as part of Getty's PST ART: Art and Science Collide and has two forthcoming shows opening this fall, Boundless: Reflections of Southern California Landscapes in Midcentury Studio Ceramics and Restitched: Feed Sacks in Mid-Twentieth Century Quilts. Prior to this position, she served as the Associate Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art, San Diego, formerly Lux Art Institute, for 6 years.

Doshi, One with the Shadows

Coastline College Art Gallery is a vital and respected art venue serving Orange County art students, artists, and art enthusiasts. The Art Gallery holds workshops and exhibition programs, as well as receptions, artist lectures, and other art-related events. It has even been recognized as one of the top 15 excellent on-campus art galleries in Southern California. The gallery is located at 1515 Monrovia Ave, Newport Beach, CA. Gallery hours are Wednesday - Friday, 10 am – 4 pm, or by appointment. Admission is free. Questions? Contact David Michael Lee at dmlee@coastline.edu.

Polly Jacobs Giacchina, Kept Secure

California Fibers, founded in 1970, supports artistic growth and professional advancement for contemporary Southern California fiber artists. The imagination and superb craftsmanship of these artists place them in the highest echelons of their fields. The group has an extensive exhibition history in the USA and abroad. Many of its members are well-represented in museums and private collections and are recipients of prestigious awards from around the world. Their creative expression includes weaving, basketry, sculpture, quilting, embroidery, felting, surface design, knitting, crochet, wearables, and mixed media.

Ashley Blalock, Shades of Home

Looking forward to seeing you at the show!

Carol Nilsen, Ricochet Dimensions

Kathy Nida, Lost in the Trees

Artists at Work...

Yes, we just opened a brand new exhibit in November at Citrus College (go see it if you haven’t), but we are also continuing to work on new pieces. Here are some of California Fibers’ artists with what’s currently in progress.

Debby Weiss has started working on small quilts in order to donate to families that lost everything in the Los Angeles fires. She started recently but hopefully can get herself on a roll to be able to at least get a few out there.

Elise Vazelakis is currently working on a series that rethinks what we throw away. She transforms Amazon packaging into plastic yarn and twines it into sculptural baskets, combining traditional techniques with modern materials. These pieces highlight the environmental impact of disposable culture and the possibilities for transformation and sustainability.

Gail Fraser has always loved twining; however, her work was always small. She is now playing with and creating larger works by adding shapes to each other.  It is exciting to see what comes out of larger pieces of works and to play with these ideas.

Cameron Taylor-Brown has two different projects in the works: First the weaving: She is continuing to create pieces for herseries Threads of Time: Lyon Weavers’ Staircase. This series is inspired by a former jacquard weaving live/work space in an old neighborhood of Lyon, France that was a center of silk weaving in times past. Here is a link to pieces completed thus far: https://www.camerontaylor-brown.com/portfolio/new-collection

And more background info here: https://www.camerontaylor-brown.com/journal/weavers-staircase-lyon-france

Taylor-Brown’s second project is a conference: Hosted by UCLA's Department of Design Media Arts, Thinking Through Textiles: Future Pedagogies will explore the intersections of aesthetics, textile technique, cross-disciplinary studies, and new material insights, while introducing opportunities for collaborative engagement. This half day conference will be held at UCLA on Friday, February 21.  Taylor-Brown is one of the conference organizers and will be moderating a panel discussion. Details are available here: https://materialencounters.art/thinking-through-textiles-symposium

Peggy Wiedemann is working on a wall piece called Think Outside the Box. It includes multiple materials like paper rush, rag cordage from India, Irish waxed linen, metals, bamboo, Pakistani grass, and found objects. She is using the basketry techniques of coiling, knotless netting, and weaving.

Carrie Burckle is currently twining a life-size abstract figurative form using a paper cord commonly found in  Danish seating. Here is her work in progress.

Kathy Nida is working on her next big piece…hopefully to be fully ironed together in the next few days.

Stay tuned for more artist updates.

Members Present

California Fibers has quarterly meetings, where we do all the normal business stuff that any group does, but we also have a program each time. This meeting, we had five members present about their work, some focusing on how they got where they are today, and others on specific pieces that they are currently working on.

Two of the members who presented at the July meeting were Peggy Wiedemann and Gail Fraser. You’ve seen Peggy’s progress in creating a chair from a some structural materials and pine needles in the last two posts, but she brought the finished project to the meeting, as well as a bird created with pine needles and some upcycled, traded fibers from our April meeting.

Peggy (on the left) talked about how she got started in coiling pine needles, as opposed to other art forms. She finds the coiling meditative. She didn’t start working in baskets until after the age of 50, although she owned many of them. Working on these projects is a way to experiment with structure. The chair has part of a real chair underneath, and then sculpture wire for other parts. The bird below also has some wire for structure and stability.

Wiedemann often starts a piece with no clear idea of how it will turn out. She also often has ideas about where to go next while she’s solving problems in the piece she is currently working on. She is starting another chair, but this one will be a wall piece, based on some of the ideas she had while working on this chair.

Gail Fraser has been experimenting with succulent leaves from her garden. She waits for the leaves to dry and then treats them with a variety of materials to get them flat and more flexible, so she can work with them. The leaves on her current projects have come from these two plants…

After processing them, she then stitches them into panels. You can see the dried and treated leaf below with some of the stitched panels in the background.

Fraser hasn’t decided what she will do with the panels next…

We’re looking forward to seeing what comes from these…

Fascinating projects. Stay tuned as we check in with the other three members who presented at our July meeting. And if you’re interested in becoming a member of California Fibers, contact us for more information about how to jury in. We have upcoming shows throughout Southern California and perhaps further out, plus more member presentations in upcoming meetings.