Gratitude for Victor Thomas Jacoby Award Opportunities

Dec. 14, 2018, Award Ceremony at the Morris Graves Museum of Art with past and present recipients. I am the second shortest in the front row just to the right of center.

   Last November, I was notified that I had been selected as one the of the Victor Thomas Jacoby Award recipients along with Nancy Kennedy and Sandra Kernan. 
   Victor Thomas Jacoby was a Humboldt County, CA, textile artist who established this fund before his death in 1997. Victor, a talented hand weaver who exhibited his work throughout the US and Canada, struggled financially for much of his life. Near the end of Victor's life he received an inheritance from his family and set up this fund to help other artists expand their artistic horizons and achieve their goals. 
  In 2018, the award was open to hand weavers, dyers, and spinners of Humboldt County. My focus is on the development of hand dyeing techniques for linen to be used in fiber art collage work along with the exploration of old and new needle weaving techniques.
  Most of my funds will be used for educational opportunities that were not possible for me before.The funds will also allow me to set aside larger blocks of time to do more exploration and experimentation with new techniques and styles of mixed media textile art. I am incredibly grateful to Victor for setting up this fund and also to the selection committee who chose me as one of the 2018 recipients.

My revised dye calculations for a 3 step gradation. Easy, huh?

    The really wonderful thing is that this event has already prompted me to get back in to my dye studio. The other day I needed some light gray fabric for the binding of the Black Linen Tunic I am making. It has probably been two years since I last dyed any fabric. I managed to unearth all the binders of my dye notes, calculations, and samples. When I first looked at those pages, they might as well have been written in a foreign language. I thought, how could I know so much about a subject in the past and be so completely clueless about the process now?

Ready, set, dye!

  Thank goodness, it all came flooding back to me quickly as I pored over the pages. I did a simple three step gradation of a subtle gray color on Ultra Sateen cotton fabric and came up with exactly what I wanted. Just for fun, I threw in some scraps of linen to see how it took the dye: amazingly beautiful! I know this next year is going to be filled with incredible discoveries and opportunities as I forge ahead with and open heart and an open mind. 

End results. Darkest on left, lightest in center with linen strips on top, medium shade on right. Success.