I am participating in the Print Invitational Exhibition at the New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art this month (through November 15th). The show is an ingenious fundraiser for the gallery: each artist donates an edition of 20 prints, which are sold for $20 each.
It was fun to be included as I don’t consider myself even remotely to be a printmaker, but in fact I realized I have been making digital editions — both woven and printed — for some time now. I had particularly been looking for a more serious application for the digital fabrics I have been investigating, so I jumped at the chance to participate.
My edition consists of 20 hand sewn needle books. The interior page is a digital print of a pseudo antique textile sample book, and there are wool felt pages sewn in to realize the sample swatch image and, practically, to fill with pins & needles for a traveling pincushion. I invented my own sample page when I was inspired by seeing the old sample books of wool fabrics manufactured by the Harmonists, here in New Harmony, circa 1815. The fabric names I used in my pages come from old names for woolen fabrics such as that which were produced here: as we might speak of worsted or gabardine, the old names were things like “Bombazine” and “Druggett”. The names took my fancy (thanks to the book Textiles in America: 1650-1870, by Florence M. Montgomery)
Here is the book, interior & exterior.
Also shown is the original Harmonist sample book (from Old Economy PA, where the Harmonists settled after leaving New Harmony)
My prints are available for sale ($20 each) at New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art, 812-682-3156.
What great fun! I love how you borrowed from a historical item – i.e. the fabric books from new Harmony. Let us know how they sold.
They are selling really well — there are only 6 left. I think people love getting their hands on an object instead of a piece of paper!
I called the gallery, but they said they’d sold out of your needle books. Any chance of you making more? I’d love to purchase at least one, maybe two.
Susan Scott srscott89@gmail.com
As a a matter of fact this is an edition of 50, 20 were donated to the gallery and you can get them from me.