Photo/Story Opportunity

Cape Coral – Lee County Public Library
January 5, 15 – 17, 26

Media Contact:
Heather O'Connell
Lee County Library System 
(239) 461-2924 or hoconnell@leegov.com

Photo/Story Opportunity: It’s ‘Sew’ Time at the Cape Coral - Lee County Public Library. If you love Project Runway, check out these sensational spinning, weaving and sewing sessions.

January 4, 2007, Cape Coral FL - Instead of competing for fame as top designers, these artists are teaching their craft and inviting everyone to help with community projects. If you’re new to weaving or sewing, this is the perfect opportunity to start. Have more experience? You can lend your talent to one of these projects or learn how to take your craft to the next level in an amazing three-day workshop with an international weaving expert. All programs are free and open to the public.

Blue Waters Roc Day Celebration
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM January 5 

Roc Day is an annual worldwide event when weavers and spinners bring looms and wheels out of storage after the holidays to resume their craft. For several years, the Cape Coral – Lee County Public Library has invited the Weavers of Char-Lee to honor the day with hands-on weaving and spinning demonstrations at the library. Hand woven and handspun work will be on display and there’s plenty of activity for experienced weavers and beginners, alike.

Everyone is invited to bring a loom, spinning wheel or project to work on. Sit down at a loom and weave, try out a spinning wheel or drop spindle, come and enjoy the celebration of weaving and spinning.

This year Roc Day will also feature Blue Waters: Banners for a Better Environment. This local Art for Change initiative will be incorporated into UNESCO's Art Miles Mural Project. Weavers, spinners and sewers can help create 36” x 60” banners that call attention to the condition of our waters and possible remedies. Once completed, the banners may be displayed in businesses and government buildings.

Rep Weave & Beyond: A Weaving Workshop with Holly Brackmann
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM January 15, 16, 17  
As Professor of Textiles and Art History at Mendocino College in Ukiah, California, Holly Brackmann has lead study tours to Europe, Peru, Egypt, Greece, Turkey, Australia and India, conducted international lectures and exhibitions, and studied textile techniques in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Central and South America.

In this three day workshop, she teaches how you can create a variety of weaving from a single warp by using dyed bamboo skewers as the thick weft and discontinuous threads for the thin weft. Looms may be set up on January 14 from noon until 8:00 p.m. For more information or to register, call Ricki Howie at (239) 995-5952. This program is co-sponsored by the Weavers of Char-Lee.

Blue Waters: Banners for a Better Environment
10:00 AM - 3:00 PM January 26  
Fiber artists Roseline Young and Ricki Howie of Art Quilters Unlimited will conduct a banner contest to increase awareness of environmental problems, encourage involvement and affect change.

Create 36” x 60” banners to call attention to the condition of our waters and possible remedies. Learn about environmental problems for Southwest Florida’s waterways and the work of the Charlotte Harbor National Estuary and the J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge.

Accepted work will be displayed regionally and nationally through 2009 and will be included in UNESCO’s International Exhibition at the Great Pyramid of Egypt in 2010. Learn more about UNESCO’s Art Miles Mural Project at http://www.the-art-miles-mural-project.org.

The workshop is open to adults and students (grades K – 12). For more information, contact Roseline Young at (239) 540-5836 or Rickie Howie at (239) 995-5952.

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