Artist Talk & Hands-On BlindStitching: Textile Legacy Sewing Workshop with
Claire Spector
Celebrating & Sensitively Sewing
with Sentimental Textiles
Saturday | June 1, 2024 | 1-3pm
Onsite | Free & Open to All
This Artist Talk and Workshop is offered as part of Radical Resilience, at Ruth’s Table gallery through June 7, 2024.
This hands-on sewing workshop introduces adaptive sewing workarounds and provides simple adaptive sewing tools and supplies accessible to Blind, Low Vision, and Sighted Sewists of all abilities. Participants are encouraged to bring pre-used sentimental textiles, worn linens, and well-loved clothing items to be repurposed and incorporated into art pieces.
About Artist Claire Spector: I am a neurovisually, legally blind contemporary textile artist. Since injuries in 2005, my near-vision is multiple, misaligned, strobing, and unstable. Sensory processing presents various challenges. I am very sensitive to light, motion, and geometric patterns. I walk with a red & white cane and use assistive technology.
When I was quite young, my artist mother, Barbara, taught me to sew by hand, to knit, draw, and make prints. Early learning and sense memory provide a great foundation. With six years of rehab, support from art therapist, Catarina Martinico, and encouragement from artist friends, finding workarounds and adaptations makes art-making in a different way possible.
Visitor Guidelines: Face masks are optional.
Access: Ruth’s Table gallery and adjacent green space are wheelchair accessible.
ASL Interpretation: ASL interpretation is available upon request. 72-hour notice required.
Registration: RSVP Here by Friday, May 31 at 5pm
Grateful thanks to Britex Fabrics in San Francisco for their generous fabric donation for this workshop!
Image: Claire Spector, Photo: © 2018, Denise Spruce, All rights reserved. By Permission.
Image Description: Contemporary Textile Artist, Claire Spector, leading her BlindStitching: Textile Memories, Contemporary Jewish Museum San Francisco Textile Lab Gathering Workshop, October 2, 2018.
Claire is wearing a fitted thrift little black sleeveless Nicole Miller dress under her up-cycled ruffled collar and placket Zinc black cotton shirt which she decorated with narrow blind-stitched-by-feel bracelets of bold abstract black, pale yellow and olive cotton print at the cuff edges and, a deconstructed and hand-pieced and sewn-by-feel sash of the same fabric, tied in a square knot around her waist.
Claire has on narrow black Moroccan leather riding boots decorated with antique panels of sangria natural, yellow and orange vegetable-dyed and woven geometric-patterned wool Berber rug remnants worn over opaque black tights.
Her naturally curly salt & pepper red-brown hair, is pulled back and cascading down.
She is lifting the edge of Jane Citron Kirsch’s hand-restored circa 1920’s hand-embroidered, appliquéd and embellished vintage antique silk, velvet, and tulle skirt with train to better display its intricate design. The lace skirt is on a mannikin which is also dressed with a contemporary long-sleeve black lace thrift blouse over a complementary contoured vintage velvet and ruffled black tight to the body camisole closed in the front with hooks and eyes.
The mannikin is draped around the neck with an iridescent pale blue slubbed silk opera scarf which belonged to Claire’s maternal grandmother, Gert Lewin.
Claire up-cycled the scarf with appliquéd hand-embroidered and sequin and crystal-embellished silk and chenille feathers rescued from Jane Citron Kirsch’s vintage lingerie pale pink silk and organza circa 1960’s dress. The appliqués are blind stitched-by-feel. To accomplish this without stitches showing on the back of the scarf, Claire opened each end of the scarf at the bottom edges and, slipped her left hand up each half of the scarf in turn, to be able to turn and stabilize the edges of the appliqués while sewing with the right hand.
Donate: The program is free, donations are welcome.
Fabric donations graciously provided by Britex Fabrics in San Francisco