NEWS    The Racine (WI) Art Museum has added a one-of-a-kind silk coat by Hulda Bridgeman to its permanent collection. The coat was donated to the museum by a collector of wearable art.

IN PRINT
   See the feature article on our work in the Spring 2003 issue of ORNAMENT magazine.
   The hardcover book, THE FIBERARTS BOOK OF WEARABLE ART, contains a section on our work. It was published in Spring 2002 by Sterling Publishing.

NEWEST WORK
   We are developing a new line of silk fabrics digitally printed from Hulda’s original photographs. Digital fabrics may be combined with hand-dyed in the same garment. We do the whole process ourselves, from initial photography and design through printing and final assembly.

FABRICS and PROCESS
   Hulda begins by hand-dyeing different types of silk fabric with fiber-reactive dyes, in a resist process which can yield several shades and even different hues from a single immersion in the dyebath. Some fabrics are re-manipulated and re-dyed several times.
   She then begins an individual garment by choosing colors intuitively, holding silk fabrics together to see which combinations excite her eye. She especially likes the complexity resulting from unpredictable effects in dyeing, and unique pieces of fabric sometimes are set aside for one-of-a-kind work.
   The different silk fabrics are cut, often into strips, juxtaposed for a rich and subtle surface, and pieced.
   Freehand tucking is laid over the pieced fabric to blend areas and create a relief surface with an organic, rippling texture and a sense of movement.
   Finally, the garment is cut out and assembled.

   Hulda began weaving in Virginia in 1973 and absorbed knowledge and attitudes from the strong craft tradition of the Southern Appalachians. Now she works in eastern Washington state, drawing many ideas from the great natural beauty of the American West. Many of her designs and techniques are abstracted from landscapes, and from natural textures such as bark and stone. She likes to set designs at an angle on the garment, interrupted at seam lines like fault lines in the earth.

   In all cases our concern is to create garments which above all are wearable - comfortable, flattering, and giving their owner pleasure for a long time.

RECENT AWARDS and PUBLICATIONS
- Lakefront Festival of Arts 2003, winner of cash award and three-year
   re-invitation
- Award of Excellence (blue ribbon), Smithsonian Craft Show, 1998
- NICHE Award winner, 1997, 1995
- NICHE Award finalist, 1995, 1994 (2)
- Commission for Silk Coat, Folklore Museum, Kwangju, South Korea
   1997
- ORNAMENT feature article, Spring 2003 (Vol. 26, No. 3)
- Fiberarts Book of Wearable Art, 2002
- NICHE Magazine, Spring 2001
- Surface Design Journal, Spring 1999
- ACC Voice, 1997
- Illustrations: Ornament 21, 1998 Crafts Report, April 1998   Kwangju
   Biennale International Art to Wear Exhibition catalog, 1997