Know when demos are starting, when and where a volunteer is needed, when the grab and go lunch is ready!

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Call all your friends, work out your transportation arrangements, finalize your shopping lists and

COME HAVE FUN! at the Oakland Marriott Convention Center. The galleries, demos, make-it, take-its and Market Place will fill your weekend with wonder!

Jean Cacicedo received a BFA from The Pratt Institute in 1970. A prime innovator in the Art To Wear Movement, Jean’s work in dyed and felted wool cloth has been exhibited throughout the USA and abroad. She will show images of her work throughout her career and talk about her specific process of shrinking wool. She will bring swatches of her varied processes and examples of her garments. Based in Berkeley California, Jean is both a teacher and international fiber artist whose work can be found in the permanent collections of the de Young Museum, the Oakland Museum, and Museum of Art and Design in NYC. We are excited to be able to make Barbie Doll clothes, I mean learn the secrets of shrinking fabric, along with other techniques.

Jean Cacicedo, Coat

Return to sender yarns should have already been mailed to the coordinator.

Return of Return to Sender items should be dropped off between 3 – 6 pm on Thursday or 8:30 – 10 am Friday

Teachers gallery items should arrive between 9 am and 11 am on Friday May 18 or upon arrival.

Location: Drop off for all galleries above will be in the East Hall near the entrance doors.

Yardage Gallery items must be dropped off Friday between 8 and 11 am at the entrance to the East Ballroom.

Fashion Show items must arrive on Friday May 18 between 9 am and 11 am

Fashion show drop off: will be in the extension behind the ball room in the convention center

All Gallery and Fashion Show items may be picked up at 4 PM on Sunday, May 20.  No exceptions, no early pick-ups. If you cannot stay, please make arrangements with a friend to do your pick up and let the gallery coordinators know that it won’t be you picking up your item.

Volunteers are still needed to help with take down of the galleries.  If you know you will still be around, please go to the volunteer page and sign up!

The Marriott hotel and the convention center are located between Clay and Broadway and between 10^th and 11^th in Oakland. The entrance to the West Exhibition Hall is on 10^th St. midway between Clay and Broadway.

If you take BART the Marriott is across the street from the 11^th street exit from the 12^th St – City Center station.  Parking at many outlying BART stations with lots is free on Saturdays and Sundays.

If you take Amtrak – there is a bright green Free Shuttle from the Amtrak station all the way up Broadway – get on at the Bright Green B stop near the station and get off at 11^th.  This shuttle runs along Broadway from Jack London Square to the Uptown Arts District Fridays from 7 AM to 1 AM, and Saturdays from 6 PM to 1 AM.

Parking:

The Entrance to the Parking garage is at 11^th and Clay.

Parking will be available at the reduced rate of $15 a day. (That’s down from the currentdaily rate of $24.)  Conference goers will be given vouchers for the reduced rate. Registrants will receive parking vouchers when they check in on-site, day visitors will receive vouchers when they pay for their daily admission. Payment for parking is made upon departure from the garage, and will be at the $15 rate with presentation of the voucher.

1. Parking rate is $15 inclusive.
2. No In & Out privilege.
3. Discounted vouchers will be available at conference check-in.
4. Pay at gate upon departure. If you’re staying at the hotel, you cannot charge parking to your room.

There are some small surface parking lots in the area of the convention center, some with special weekend rates.  Or, if you’re willing to walk a few blocks, there is a multi-story  lot on Clay St between 14^th & 15^th.  Also the Trans Pacific Center Garage is at 1000 Broadway.

Food:

The hotel has a restaurant – The Level Two, open for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner and a Lounge – The Twelve Bar Lounge – with light dinner options and a full bar.  Full and mini conference registration includes a banquet on Saturday night.

Grab and go meals, coffee and tea will be available just outside The Level Two Restaurant in the hotel at Breakfast and Lunch on Saturday and Sunday.  The lounge space will be available for seating at these times.

Every hotel room has a small dorm-size refrigerator.

In addition, there are numerous coffee shops, restaurants and delis all within a few blocks walk of the hotel.  The revival of the Old Town district is in full swing and new spots open up almost weekly.  The area is very safe in the daytime, but go with a friend after dark.

Be sure to check out the list of these food spots with their hours of operation on the CNCH website. It will be also be available near the registration desk at the conference.

Watch the blog because mid- week, I’ll post driving, public transportation and parking information as well local Oakland info about restaurants and the neighborhood around the convention center (pop-up shops and galleries!).

Information for Day visitors is available here on the CNCH site. Remember to print out your $2 off coupon for day registrants.

See YOU in Oakland!

Try out weaving!

There are still plenty of opportunities to be a participant in the conference May 18 – 20- 2012!

Check out the volunteer sign up page here, to find a job and a slot that fits your time and talents.  Volunteering for 2 hours earns you a free day pass!

The Make-it, Take-it activities in the Market Place on Saturday and Sunday still need volunteers.  And they need participants – invite your children, grandchildren, friends, neighbors, relatives, teachers and acquaintances.  Invite everyone who has ever asked you “What is weaving? Or spinning?  Or braiding?  How do you do it?”  This is their opportunity to try it out for themselves!  The full schedule of hands-on activities is here.

Fun for all ages

Start making your list of yarns, tools, books, gifts and supplies to pick up at the Market Place.  The list of shops is available here.

Tickets are still available for the fashion show and the keynote address (included if you registered for the full conference) and the coupon for $2 off the day registration is available here (and on postcards at many fiber shops around the bay area).

See YOU in Oakland May 18-20!

Tapestries by Mary Zicafoose are found in public and private collections worldwide, including 14 United States embassies located in countries with strong textile heritages.  Mary is co-director of the American Tapestry Alliance and a member of the Board of Directors of GoodWeave USA, an international non-profit organization dedicated to eradicating child labor in the rug trade.

Date and Time: May 9, 2012; 9:30 AM until 12:00 PM

Place: Aptos Village Park, 100 Aptos Creek Road, Aptos, CA

You can use the room as a private retreat from the hustle and bustle of the conference – or you can gather up 1, 2 or 3 friends and make it an economical way to make the conference easier.

Just think – a room just upstairs from The Market Place where you can drop off your purchases – no lugging of big bags of goodies with you all day.  A place where you can run up to during a break in class to change shoes, or get a sweater – so much easier that wishing you had brought that sweater from home.

So, yes, you can get to the conference on BART, but do you really want to?  Won’t it be more fun to hang out with friends after the events of the day and share what you’ve learned and bought.  A place to make plans for guild programs and field trips and the next weaving or spinning project with friends?

The hotel rooms all have small refrigerators and there are many nice coffee shops and restaurants within the hotel and just blocks of the hotel.  A handout listing the restaurants and their hours is online here and will be available on paper at conference check-in.

So go to www.cnch.org/conferences/2012-oakland/facilities/ for more information, the phone number and a link to the online Marriott reservations (and all the codes to get the discounted rate).

As a natural dye study group, a loosely organized bunch of us have met for almost 3 years. In the beginning, we just wanted to see what happened when we used locally sourced plant material to dye our yarns and fiber. We found agreement about methods we like, for instance, using only potassium aluminum sulfate and cream of tartar for the ”mordants” – the mineral salts which lead dye into fiber so the color will stay there – because they are safe for us and for the environment. Martha Cant returned from the 2010 Convergence in New Mexico to share with us a method of sampling which we can use to predict what color we will achieve; we now have fat notebooks for reference. Pooling our talents has increased our knowledge.

For our presentation we’ll provide background information about the widespread importance of natural dyes in history, a description of how we go about what we do and why, the sample notebooks, a collection of books which have helped us, some tools, some stories, and lots of fabulously dyed wool yarn.