Three Bags (And More) Full

Over fifty busy hands have spent months readying projects for the Red River Valley Fiber Guild’s biennial show.

This event showcases the talent of fiber artists all over the region who have become expert in weaving, spinning, dyeing, knitting, felting, and carding, as well as basketry, needlework, hardanger, and beaded jewelry.

The idea for the guild formed almost twenty years ago when a handful of women met during a basketry class at the UND Craft Center. They didn’t want the good experience of making something in community with other women to end.

They asked each other if they did any other types of fiber art.

The answer to that question produced a wellspring of creative talent. Not only did they make things with yarn and cotton, but one woman even raised sheep and knew what to do with raw fiber. So, on a day in early February in 1989, 21 people met at the community meeting room at the Columbia Mall in Grand Forks.

“Currently, we have 28 members,” said Carol Hanson, one of five original members of the guild. “At one point, we had 41. That was in the early 90s. We lost some members after the flood. The membership evolves because people move in either through the university or the Air Base. We also have members from the surrounding area.”

Hanson herself used to drive 200 miles round trip from Langdon to come to a Fiber Guild meeting in Grand Forks. She did that until this year. “It was the only fiber group around. Nobody else was doing much up in the north country,” Hanson recalled. “I made very good friends.”

Some of those friends are still active with the guild. Besides Hanson, the four other members are Cathy Forgit of Fertile, Minn., Dianne Paulsen and Bonnie Solberg of Grand Forks, and Sue Johnson of Findley.

They and others continue to meet in accordance with the mission of the Red River Valley Fiber Guild, which is “to foster the preservation of historical fiber crafts through demonstration, exploration, and education. Further, the guild encourages the use of these skills in creative, contemporary art forms.”

The guild members are eager to share what they know. In fact, they open their meetings to anyone who wants to learn. They meet the third Saturday of each month at 11 am at University Lutheran Church, 2122 University Ave.

“We have had spinning classes,” Hanson said. “We do have a loom and spinning wheels for others to rent to learn on.”

They have also done demonstrations over the years at many events, such as the EGF Heritage Days, Art Wise Art Show, Winterthing, Summerthing, the Myra Museum Ice Cream Social, the Polk County Fair, and the Rendezvous Festival at the Icelandic State Park near Cavalier.

In 1994, they even did an all-encompassing sheep to shawl demonstration as part of the North Country Fiber Fair in Valley City and for a Wool Day at Icelandic State Park. “There was a sheep shearer there.,” Hanson said. “We washed the wool, carded the wool. We had natural dye with onion skins. Then, we had people knitting, felting, and weaving. So the whole process was done.”

For this year’s art show, the guild members accepted a challenge to create art pieces around a common theme.

Four years ago, it was socks, and two years ago, they made bags in any medium.

This year’s challenge was to create an art object that reflected a portion of time in the member’s life. It could be the whole year or it could be a month or it could be a significant event that happened in one year.

One member made twelve mini quilts; another spun a different skein of yarn every month. And, Hanson created a strip of beads on a beading loom that captured an event that happened to her every month. You can be sure that one month showed the yellow moving van she used to relocate to Grand Forks.

If You Go

What: The Red River Valley Fiber Guild Art Show
Where: The Empire Arts Center
When: Ongoing whenever the Empire is open; special artist reception Saturday June 14 and 15, 11-4
Info: (701) 775-2858