January 18 2010 - Carmon Slater

Rags to Stitches---A Lifetime of Fiber

Carmon Slater, www.windsreachstudio.com

Carmon Slater was one of the first contemporary quilters in Colorado, showing “New Fiber Works” at the Arvada Center in the early 1980’s with Margot Strand Jensen and Debra Millard (Lunn). This was a very exciting time for a new emerging genre and these three artists created many of the sparks that have become the fire and life of innovative quilting in the Rocky Mountain region today.

Since those early days Carmon has been involved with many craft and fiber groups having served as President of Colorado Artist Craftsmen during that organization’s heyday, on the Board of Iowa Designer Craftsmen during the period when he was living in Ames, IA and as a Trustee Emerita for the American Crafts Council in NY.

Looking over his resume, there isn’t much he hasn't done: Exhibits, Grants and Commissions, Jurying, and Speaking in the area of fine crafts while also having a full-time career in Education at the University of Iowa. Please visit Carmon’s web site www.windsreachstudio.com to see the range of projects he currently works on: custom quilts, floor and window coverings, upholstery fabric and church vestments.

Carmon says “Having grown up as a third generation quilter, fabric and stitches were an integral part of my creative DNA. Even though I have worked in many different media, textiles have always remained steadfast in my work. I’ve created textiles through many surface design techniques with dyes, manipulation, and print. The interface of my training in the sciences with the arts not only manifested itself in my work, but in my many years of teaching young minds and college students. I’ve now begun to enjoy found fabrics as well. It has been a colorful and exciting journey.”

Carmon’s energy, enthusiasm and charismatic personality will be a great start for FRCQ’s Programs for 2010.