January guild meeting, Melvenea Hodges and Handspun Cotton

January Guild Program, Melvenea Hodges and Handspun Cotton. Saturday, January 9, 10:00am (CST), in the guild's Zoom room (zoom contact information was sent in the January email to all guild members).

Melvenea Hodges is a Fiber Artist residing in South Bend, Indiana. She creates clothing and accessories using traditional techniques such as block printing, sewing, weaving, spinning, knitting, crocheting, and embroidery.

Melvenea's presentation this Saturday will focus on creating with handspun cotton with practical information about sourcing fiber, spinning the right yarn for different applications, and woven, crochet, and knitted projects that inspire. 

While Melvenea works with an array of fibers, cotton is the fiber that has sent her on a journey of self-discovery as a fiber artist. She was inspired to begin growing, spinning, and weaving cotton as a way to reclaim an undocumented heritage of fiber arts as a Black American maker. Aside from its cultural significance cotton is a remarkable fiber that is a joy to create with. Melvenea finds tremendous joy in helping others learn new skills. In addition to teaching at a primary school, she connects and shares with other textile enthusiasts through social media and at her local weaving guild.

Melvenea’s mission is to honor and preserve our fiber arts heritage through practice.
She intermittently blogs about her work and traditional textile techniques on her website www.traditionsincloth.com where she also offers handcrafted accessories and spinning supplies. She has also published articles with SpinOff magazine on techniques in working with cotton.