Round Robin. What?

The first time I remember hearing the phrase Round Robin was within the context of a quilt guild challenge.  At the time, I primarily made wearable art and was a member of the Network for Wearable Art. I brought up the discussion with fellow artists:  Carole Reil, Phyllis Orzalli, Judy Venable and Leslie Gelber.  We decided it would be fun to do a RR within our small group just to see how things went, and instead of a quilt, we would make wearable art.  Venable opted out, so it ended up being the four of us, but you will see I included five on my garment, five dancing girls under flying hats.  

I have photos of my mixed media collage piece, included in this article.  It combines painted fabric, image from an HP printer and one drawn with a sharpie pen, recycled elements from other fiber pieces: men's ties, embroidery, crewel work, and additionally, metallic threads.

This article has been mulling around in my head for weeks now, and my reluctance to write it has to do with not being able to provide images of each of the garments created in our Round Robin collaboration.  Today I decided to go ahead with what I have.

The process was this.  We each started with a muslin cut out of our garment, we each started work on our own garment, and then we exchanged our work for someone else's in the group.  After a determined period of time, the garments were again exchanged.  Ultimately, there were four garments that went Round Robin, worked on all four participants,  and then ended back with the original maker for that person to put the finishing touches on the work.

I started with a muslin base, each side having a face profile with an overall asymmetrical design.  You can see the profiles in the next three images.  

Here's a better shot of the five dancing girls under flying hats.  The story behind this has to do with the many parties we had at my house in Napa after our Network meetings where music, recapping of the meetings, sharing new work, ideas, resources, wine, and good food were all part of those weekend parties.

This is an image printed on fabric from an HP printer - it was a detail from a painting I had done, entitled About Women.  You can see hand stitching around the edges .

This gal is drawn using a sharpie pen on purple polyester fabric.

There is a poem that seems always to sum up how lucky women are to have profound friendships with other women.  It goes like this:

The Pleasures of Friendship

The pleasures of friendship are exquisite,


How pleasant to go to a friend on a visit!


I go to my friend, we walk on the grass,


And the hours and moments like minutes pass. 

-Stevie Smith  

Full view of the front.  The pink silk wrap has Stevie Smith's poem written on it - I used a sharpie pen for this too.  

The full back view:

I treasure this collaborative work, as I do the friendship embodied in this Round Robin.

Makers are:  Carole Reil, Phyllis Orzalli, Leslie Gelber, Viktorya Allen.

Historical reference regarding the phrase Round Robin.

The phrase actually has nothing whatever to do with a bird, robin or any other kind. "Robin" in this phrase is a corruption of the French "ruban," meaning "ribbon," and the origin of the phrase is about as far from a party as one can get. It seems that in 17th and 18th century France, there was a good deal for the average peasant to complain about, but complaining to the King in particular was not a terribly good idea. The monarch's usual reaction to a petition from his subjects was to seize the first two or three signers and have them beheaded. Not wishing to lose their heads, but bent nonetheless on petitioning for justice, clever peasants came up with the expedient of signing their names on the petition in a circle, like a ribbon. That way, no one's name came "first," and, assuming that there were hundreds of signatures on the petition, it was impractical for the King to punish all the signers. A similar method was adopted by disgruntled sailors in the 18th century British Royal Navy, another institution not known for welcoming criticism. Sailors often signed their names to a petition like the spokes of a wheel, so that no one of them could be considered the leader of a mutiny and hanged.

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