Textiles and Tea, Julie Kornblum

She's a lovely person, full of energy, great basketmaker, specializing in coil techniques, and weaver. She's also serious about social justice, using discarded plastic as a political and artistic statement in her weaving and coiling. 

Aside from her nationally known art activities, she writes grants for good causes, homeless programs, domestic violence prevention, the environment. She's a good egg! And a load of fun to be around.

She embraces the math of weaving, the science of recycling, doesn't introduce needless barriers between them and art, and you just want to make coil work after seeing her enthusiasm at work.

Behind her, two pieces about the gyres, those enormous whirlpools of plastic waste floating in the ocean. And she holds up a coiled artwork, waving it about in her excitement which accounts for the blur!

And her weaving

Left, the design for the weaving, colors painted, right the weaving, plastic bag yarn, plarn,weft.

More wonderful works about recycling, making beauty out of waste. And here's her sense of humor, turning a child's set of toy cookie cutters into a basket for her daughter's kitchen. The base is a lid from a bucket that pool people use. Where she lives in California, they're everywhere.

I love her attitude of no secrets, anything she knows she'll teach and share. This is true of real artists. They know you can't really steal ideas, because they always have the stamp of the maker, so there's nothing to be defensive about. And they encourage everyone to try their hand.

Go and look at her work on her website. She also sews, knits, crochets, everything textile. She knows about ancient crafts such as naalbinding, how far back the history of textiles goes, the whole context. 

This HGA, Handweavers Guild of America, series of Tea and Textiles is such a gift. I forgot to mention that the first question the interviewer puts is: what's your favorite tea? Then, the serious part of the discussion addressed, they go on to the art.