Learning to Weave - Days Two and Three

In our Learn to Weave classes there is nothing that lifts the instructor's spirits more than seeing a smile like this one.  Eva has gone through the long process of winding a warp, dressing the loom and is finally making cloth.

 

In the photos below, you see each new weaver at varying stages of the process.  Each of them has their own mentor to keep things progressing in the right direction.  It's this one-on-one attention that makes our classes special and successful.

 

 

 

 

We couldn't resist this last photo of LTW instructor, Jen.  I suspect she is doing tie ups on one of the looms and still manages a cheery smile.  Weavers are a strange lot - they love crawling under looms if it means they can get a new pattern underway.

 

 

A big thank you to all of the instructors/mentors for this year's program.  RFG is looking forward to seeing all of our new student/members in the months to come.

Japanese Textile Studies - A Year Long Adventure

Jill  showing a garment that she constructed and dyed using Shibori techniques.

September means the beginning of a new guild year and this year Reno Fiber Guild is on a Japanese Textile adventure.  At our meeting, we invited two members who have been on textile tours in Japan and several more who just love  Japanese textiles and techniques  and agreed to share their work and textiles with members.

 

Diana  shows a scarf made of polyester that has been heat set so that the textured surface is permanent

 

 

The guild is interested in learning new skills and one of those that has a lot of potential for use in jewelry and decorative bands and braids is Kumihimo. 

 

Suzanne shows off her Kumihimo technique on the Marudai.  This pattern is using 16 tama in an 8 move sequence.

Nancy is braiding with eight tama and changes the colors after a certain length is braided so that she will have materials for three neckpieces.



 



Mary explained some interesting facts about Sashiko embroidery in her presentation.

Sashiko (an embroidery technique) is also something that seems quite plausible in decorating cloth for a variety of uses.

 

Julie purchased Haori from Kasuri Dyeworks in Berkeley quite a few years ago.  She brought her collection which had interesting surface design work.

For the grand finale, the members showed items that they had in their own private collections. Some of us had enjoyed the "old days" in which used kimono could be purchased by the 200 pound bale. Diana explained that now, the used kimono are being sold directly in street fairs instead of allowing them to be exported.  However,  prices still remain reasonable for cloth that was painstakingly created and still gorgeous.

This very long textile is an elegant obi embroidered with real gold threads.  Toni says she has used it as a table runner for holidays.

 

We ended the evening enjoying all the books and textiles on display with an eye on a full year of indulging our passion for weaving, dyeing and surface design.  Stay tuned for more posts as we learn and create our own Japanese style textiles

April Weave-In

Our April meeting was held on a Saturday instead of the first Wednesday evening of the month.  We met at Gayle's home because, while she awaits the delivery of her new loom, she has enough space to set up five Schacht floor looms, the favorite of our guild members.  The sixth loom is an eight-shaft table loom.

This is the culmination of a year-long study of profile drafts, which we evaluated by breaking into interest groups according a style of weave, e.g., summer-and-winter. We've been trying to put a face on profile drafts and now we're putting what we've learned to work.  Each loom is warped for one of the weave structures and then everyone is invited to try the looms.  Sally is trying turned taqueté and liking it very much.

This loom is warped for an eight-shaft turned twill.  The idea is that each drawdown represents a profile draft. The lovely thing of Schacht looms is the little stick in the middle that holds the directions. This is Nancy's new loom that she just got and warped up for us today.

This direct tie-up Wolf Pup is warped for huck lace, which doesn't seem to lend itself readily to profile drafts.  It took a lot of attention from four seasoned weavers to finally get the correct treadling.  But collaboration is part of the fun in weaving.

Collaboration goes for loom maintenance as well.  Two looms needed a little mid-session tweaking.  It's good for the new weavers to see this kind of problem solving - a learning experience I'm sure they hadn't anticipated today.

The eight-shaft table loom was a collaborative effort too.  We decided that it takes three people to create a smooth weaving experience:  One throwing the shuttle, one to flip the levers on the top to raise the harnesses and one to read the draft to the one working the levers.  We took turns with this and instead of being a frustration, it was quite fun.

This Wolf Pup is warped for  summer-and-winter.  Nancy got the draft figured out and then walked me through a turn on it.  Most of the looms were warped in rayon so this one warped all in wool was a fun departure and I thought the stick shuttles were interesting too.

This was a four-hour program with a break for lunch and also for a guild meeting.  The rest of the time we milled around, sampling the different warps and the treats in the kitchen.

I am confident when I say - a good time was had by all.

Our Second Weaving Outreach

We were surprised to begin the afternoon with a group of girls and their moms, an arranged "play date."  One of the girls had come last year and loved it and now wanted to share it with her friends.  They instantly gravitated to the table we set up with cardboard looms and went right to work.

The moms gravitated to the station Nancy had set up to show the wide variety of things she has woven with a simple rigid heddle loom.  We hadn't anticipated having the library's entire meeting room area since last year we had just half of it and were all of us smushed into this space.  It was nice to have open and differentiated work areas.

It wasn't all just families and kids.  We did attract some adult interest too.  But what a difference it was from last year when the adults tried the looms and the kids were all about the cardboard looms  I keep wondering if the most beautiful Saturday this year played into this.  Our main audience was kids.

My loom was adopted by a group of girls.

Who left their shoes there when they went to try other looms.

I guess when we set out reach other weavers, we don't have an audience in mind - or maybe we do. We expect adults who are looking for an avenue of self expression.  We never dreamed our audience would be pre-adolescent girls who applied huge pressure on their moms to get looms.  One mom laughed when her daughter looked at her in all seriousness and said - do we have one of these at home?

The Year of the Block

It was a beautiful day in the Sierras yesterday for the outgoing and incoming guild board members.  We had lunch in Suzanne's dining room, then spent the next three hours talking about events for the upcoming year. The first and most pressing matter is to offer weaving instruction to the ladies who have recently joined our guild as a result of our outreach.

We have the two options for workshop space that the new board will check into in the next week or two.  We hope to have these ladies weaving comfortably in time for our Iridescence workshop with Bobbie Irwin in October.

We batted around ideas for programs in the upcoming year, with an eye on continuing education.  Study groups got incorporated into a program in October.  We'll watch Madelyn van der Hoogt's video on Block Weaves, focusing on three structures, Summer and Winter, Ms and Os and Twills.  Afterwards everyone will be invited to select which block weave they would like to study.  A fourth study group for the non-weavers in the guild will determine for themselves what they would like to focus on, perhaps bead weaving, shibori or felting?

Each group will have a mentor and will work independently, culminating at the April meeting when we will meet at Gayle's house with looms set up in a variety of block weaves.  Everyone will have an opportunity to weave, round-robin style, and the samples will be donated to the CNCH Sample Exchange. The study groups will also present their results at this meeting.  Even our Christmas raffle basket is themed - Blocks!  It's the year of the block.