More than a decade of exploring fiber techniques in wearable fiber art have brought me back to where I started...tapestries that involve knitweaving.  Winter's effort to capture summer took me to Dawes Arboretum, and the beloved sites where I get to watch the seasons develop, in the shape and dressing of the trees that embellish the waterside places there (the most important  ones, to me, a Great Lakes native surrounded by the landlocked hills of Licking County).  My "Trees of Dawes" series of mini-tapestries were one of the results.  They are travelling with me to markets this summer, and a small collection currently lives at River Road Coffeehouse in Granville, Ohio.  The Lakefront tapestries, including many wearable medallions that grew out of that work, can be seen at Ginko Gallery in Oberlin, Ohio this fall. 

After many years of trying, the Granville Makers Market on Saturday mornings is becoming a place of many finely handcrafted mediums, and especially some artisans of  deep skill with fibercrafting.  Many people don't know that some of the artisans there come to the Education Center at that site (the southwest corner of the square in the middle of Granville village) during the winter, from 10AM-noon, along with some of the local food producers from the summer market.  A chance to witness or try your hand at some fiber-oriented art forms is emerging there, for which I am grateful and hopeful.  Taking our skills into the community, and sharing creative inspiration in anxious times is, for me, like bringing sunshine to dark places. 

Hoping your summer has as much green as mine, and a chance to feel it up close...

                                                                                                        (Jo)anna Ettorre, Summer 2011