Sashiko Workshop





The guild finished up their year long study of Japanese Textiles with a meeting workshop on Sashiko embroidery.The quilt shown above was made by Karen S.  The two purses were made by Mary N. 



Nisha K. shared this lovely placemat she made several years ago using the Sashiko stitching embellishment.



There was a good turn out of interested members.  Karen showed a couple of videos and shared some tips about the right and wrong ways to turn corners, etc. in Sashiko Stitching.  Everyone was given some practice cloth and thread to get started.


Kits had been purchased for participants with traditional Japanese designs, the correct embroidery thread and  Sashiko style needles.  Once people felt comfortable with the technique, they started in earnest on their kit fabric.

As you can see from this photo, everyone is totally engrossed in their stitching.  Plus, we will have many more hours of fun completing our projects.  Everyone is invited to come to the November meeting a bit early, to share their progress.

Thank you Karen and Mary for this introduction to Sashiko. 

Hands On Weaving at the South Valleys Library

Members of the Reno Fiber Guild have caught the "weaving bug" and everyone seemed to get a big kick out of sharing it with the public at the South Valleys Library. In the photo below, Eva shows the young weaver the next treadle to push for her weaving pattern.

 This year we added Kumihimo Braiding to our "hands on" activities.  The public was introduced to this wonderful technique through both foam discs and also the traditional Japanese braiding stand called a Marudai.  Along with the actual experience of making braids, there were many examples of completed jewelry pieces and braids to examine. Karen watches closely to help smooth the path for this budding braider.



 We want very much for everyone to have a chance to make something wonderful.  Here Pati gives a very little student a helping hand.

 

Shelley watches as a new weaver checks out the Mountain Loom and learns how to operate the levers to change sheds.

 

 

The rigid heddle loom is an inexpensive place for many people to start a weaving journey.  Kathy is helping this woman experience the joy of weaving on one of these versatile gadgets.

 

Franco is new to the Reno area, but not new to weaving.  He likes to show people how they can weave without having to buy expensive equipment.  This loom is one he fashioned himself from dowels. The design is a work in progress, so stay tuned for more innovations. (photo by Franco)

 

Rachel is another weaver who uses simple tools to weave cloth.  She brought her backstrap loom on which she weaves cloth for clothing.    Although the loom is simple in design, it takes time and practice to learn backstrap weaving and Rachel learned her skills from indigenous teachers in Guatemala and Mexico. (photo by Franco)

 

Sarah brought her 8-shaft table loom to this year's event.  She is weaving a complex design with two colors of yarn in both warp and weft as Rachel and Anni admire the pattern.

Hands On events are a lot of fun - both for the public and for the guild members who volunteer their time, looms and materials. This post doesn't come close to showing all the people who made this day a success.  A big thank you to everyone who participated.  Also please visit Franco Rios' blog for additional photos

Hands On Weaving and Demonstrations at the South Valleys Library

The Reno Fiber Guild has a long history with public weaving demonstrations.  In 1972, a couple of women had their looms at the Nevada State Fair and found that the public was so interested in what they were doing that they decided to form an organization devoted to spinning and weaving.  The result of their efforst was originally called Northern Nevada Spinners and Weavers Guild. Members found  so many interesting things to learn and do that involved fiber so eventually the guild changed its name to Reno Fiber Guild.  Today, the guild's main emphasis is weaving, although we are still interested in other fiber activities such as dyeing, braiding, beading and surface design on cloth.

On September 24th, Reno Fiber Guild partners with the South Valleys Library in Reno (15650A Wedge Parkway) to give the public a chance to try their hands at the ancient art/craft of weaving.  Between 11AM and 2PM  the whole family is invited to watch and participate in what we are doing.  The guild plans to have several looms for hands on weaving, an inkle loom, some rigid heddle looms and a couple of people demonstrating on a Japanese braiding stand called a Marudai. Plus there may be a few more surprises like a backstrap weaver who learned her skills in Mexico.

For our young at heart group (that would be kids of all ages) we will have a cardboard loom kit and helpers to demonstrate how easy it is to weave a small tapestry piece. Your woven piece and any materials left in the kit will be yours to keep. 

There will be an exhibit of handwoven items and several knowledgeable weavers who will be able to explain processes and answer your questions.

Please join us to learn more about weaving and experience the thrill of making cloth appear on the loom.

Woven Shibori Workshop

Our Woven Shibori Workshop was originally scheduled in March and was to be preliminary  to our dye day in May where we would dye our woven shibori pieces.  But we found that Kathrin Weber was going to be close by so we enjoyed a workshop with her and postponed our shibori workshop until today.  Normally the guild doesn't have events in the summer, but it was nice to break with tradition and try our hands at something new. 

Workshop weavers had warped their looms in advance with a cellulosic fiber of some sort.  We watched a bit of Diane Totten's video on Crimp Cloth and then set about to weave our own, using drafts provided in the Catharine Ellis book, Woven Shibori.

Since there was polyester available, several people selected some for weft and will steam their pieces for permanent pleats.  In the photo below, the warp is green cotton and the weft is polyester in a brownish green.  The shibori pulling threads are on the white bobbin.  Karen wove the sample shown here, changing the number of picks of ground cloth between shibori pull threads.  It will be interesting to see how this will affect the pattern.  There are several choices for this cloth.  It can be dyed and/or steamed for a permanently pleated fabric.







Lorene chose a diamond pattern for her shibori pulling threads - see the photo below.  She purposely chose a thicker pulling thread so that there may be small holes left after she has finished her piece which will add an interesting dimension to her cloth.  She intends to paint her piece with dye once she is finished weaving and the threads have been pulled.



Susan decided to use a polyester weft which will give her permanent pleats. Her pulling threads are close together which means there will be lots crimps here in the finished cloth.  Here again, she could also apply dye, if she chooses because her warp is cotton and will accept fiber reactive dyes.

  

We had several guild members drop by to show examples of woven shibori that they had woven and dyed in the past.  Virginia brought a piece of multishaft cloth that she had woven and was busy pulling the threads in preparation for dye work.







 

12/6/16  Here is an update with several photos to show how the projects turned out.  The blue scarf was woven and dyed by Nancy S.  She used instant indigo and was pleased with the gentle patterning which will go perfectly with blue jeans.

 The scarf below was woven by Sue M.  She used a polyester weft for part of the scarf (the pink section) and then dyed her piece with fiber reactive dyes and steamed it.

  

There was a demonstration warp on Beryl's Wolf Pup at the class of mercerized green cotton.  The weft was a beige/green polyester.  This is a photo of the resulting scarf - dyed with fiber reactive dyes and steamed to permanently pleat the material.

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.

Third Annual Learning to Weave Class

Saturday saw the beginning of a new class of weavers that enrolled in the Learn to Weave program that the Reno Guild offers once a year. The class starts off the new weavers with tutorials in warping on a warping board.   Each student has a mentor from the guild with them during the process.  In a couple of weeks, this same group will be back for further instruction on the fine art of warping and weaving off their sampler.  The class uses Issue 13 of Weaver's Craft which includes instructions for a four shaft sampler (direct tie up) and lots of good information on designing your own towels.  

 
We wish our new weavers the very best of luck in their journey to become proficient at the warping and weaving process.  The skills learned in this class will serve them well in their weaving future.  We also want to thank our volunteers who put together the class structure and are there to give support to their students.

Suzanne and Jen have put many hours into setting up this yearly class. 



And now - something new for many of us.  At the class, Jen introduced what she called the H Knot.  A means of affixing your new warp yarn to the warping board.  Looks interesting and something to try out.  Thanks, Jen!





Annual Chocolate and Dye Day

The Reno Fiber guild has had a long tradition of a chocolate feast on their last meeting of the season.  This is our second year of combining the feast with an indigo vat.  We also had  a couple of acid dye pots, a cochineal pot, and some kakishibui (fermented persimmon dye).  This year it was gently raining most of the day in Reno which didn't seem to deter the group one little bit because we were under cover. Our hosts, (Gayle and her husband Jim) provided the garages for the dye fest. 
Jen had prepared the indigo vat in advance.  Last year she used the fructose vat recipe.   This year we read about using henna as the reducing agent and Jen purchased some and used it.  Wow - what deep blues were coming out of the pot; it seemed to go on and on before it was exhausted and had to be renewed before it was pulled back in to service.  We are thinking that the henna is the secret ingredient.  You can learn more about this from the Maiwa handout and can order henna from Botanical Colors who also gives instructions about using it with indigo.

Since we had been studying Japanese Textiles this year, people brought scarves and pieces of fabric to clamp and resist in various ways.  Some of these went into the acid dye pots (Sabraset Dye) and some got dipped in indigo.  People fooled around with the kakishibui and wished for a bit of sun to darken their work.  The sun peeked out briefly - enough for us to see that it really did darken the fabric dipped in the kakishibui.  We purchased enough for one liter of dye from the North American supplier and worried there might not be enough for everyone to try.  But it really went a long way.

Of course, we kept nibbling at all the delicious chocolate treats shown here on the table.  Nothing makes working in the rain more palatable than chocolate!

It was a lovely day and at the end, plenty of handspun yarns had been dyed, scarves were unbound and admired and we all wound up wondering how we were going to possibly get rid of the leftover chocolate.