Have you ever wanted to learn the art of spinning? Perhaps learn how to do Kumihimo braiding? Or you just can never sew Dorset buttons correctly? Maybe even learn just what exactly Shibori is? If your answer is “yes” to any of those questions, then this festival is definitely for you.
From today to Saturday, the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council and Knit1 Oxford are hosting the seventh-annual Oxford Fiber Arts Festival. The festival is being held at the Powerhouse Community Arts Center in Oxford. Admission is $2 each day or $5 for a three-day pass for adults. Children 18 and under are admitted for free.
Courtesy of Andi Bedsworth
The Oxford Fiber Arts Festival is an annual event centered on the celebration of the fiber arts and the artists who practice this unique art form that has been kept alive through the generations. The festival features exhibits of multiple ranges of different fiber art, such as contemporary works, quilts and handmade crafts. This year, 17 different vendors will be present at the festival, as well as demonstrators who will be giving presentations throughout the festival.
This year, the festival is coordinated by fiber artist Andi Bedsworth, an instructor at the John C. Campbell Folk School. Bedworth is also the owner of her own business, Art to Go, and an active member of both the Oxford Artists Guild and the Craftsmen’s Guild of Mississippi.
Today’s events include:
There will be classes available for people to sign up and register to attend, as well as plenty of shopping opportunities, thanks to the different vendors featured in the festival. In the evening, there will also be a reception held in honor of the opening of the festival where each teacher and vendor will give presentations focusing on each of his or her classes and products. After the reception, festival-goers can attend the Thacker Mountain Radio Hour from at Off Square Books. For a complete list of event times and details, you can visit the YAC website, oxford arts.com.
On Friday breakfast will available starting at 8:45 a.m., while featured festival lecturer Diane Williams discusses “The Historic Journey of African American Quilters” starting at 9 a.m. A demonstration of couching by machine with Marjorie Jones and a fabric and yarn swap will be featured events that afternoon. Do you have any yarn or fabric that is no longer of any use to you or scraps that just sit at home in a basket? Bring them to the fabric and yarn exchange.
Courtesy of Andi Bedsworth
The final day of the festival will feature demonstrations such as embroidery with beading and termari balls. That evening Williams will give an informational session on “MAC grants and services.” The kids tent will feature some pretty cool activities that day, too. Young children can make crafts like mug rugs, learn turtle weaving and even make pompom necklaces. (To make the pompom necklaces, there will be a charge of $1, the proceeds of which go to the diapering and feeding station at the Double Decker Festival.)
This year’s festival features an exciting variety of different activities and events, such as a screening of a film at the University Museum. Two receptions will be held for the event, including one at the Oxford Treehouse Gallery. The Oxford Lafayette Regional Library will be hosting activities for young children to participate in the making of their own different fiber crafts. Thacker Mountain Radio will host a show at Off Square Books, featuring special guest artist, Diane Williams, whose fiber art will be exhibited during the entire month of January.
The festival is a wonderful opportunity for local artists to come together in a three-day event packed with classes, presentations, receptions, activities and even live animals. Festival-goers will be provided with the chance to further their knowledge and skills of the fiber arts, or perhaps, for the novice, a new hobby. The event is a wonderful opportunity for art lovers of all ages to get involved in their community.
For more information, you can find details on Twitter or Instagram at @oxfordfiberfest, or search the hashtag #oxfordfiberfest17.
