Pillow Pile Passion
I was out and about today with my extraordinary husband (chauffeur) taking advantage of the last days (hope) of immobility (read – can’t treadle) to do some long awaited errands. Like getting my hair cut. “How long have you been growing this?” asked the dismayed barberess. The answer is, “I can’t remember because I have had my mind on other things such as animal fiber.” “What? – Weirdo!”
In any case, I now have a sassy new haircut, some serious bags of yarn for my transition from passionate pillow production to breakneck (not really please) blanket begetting and a hope that I won’t have trouble when my knee and my AVL meet.
We just had our Jan. Guild meeting and several interesting items came to my attention. One was a program presented by Lisa Green on finishing techniques for handwovens. We got a great tutorial on how to use hemstitching to define a mitered edge and how to hemstitch and hem simultaneously off loom. Lisa does some extraordinary “white work” (I think that’s what it’s called) And she suggested looking up Marion Scoular who is a Needlearts Lifetime Achievement winner.
She does hemstitiching, hardanger and blackwork on prewoven cloth, but many of her techniques can be used to beautifully finish handwovens. Here is a link: http://www.needleartworks.com/dsgnr/mss/mssimages.htm
Another Guild-related news item is that our Guild – The Weavers of Western MA – is that we are sponsoring a juried weaving show prior to NEWS on the weekend of June 22nd & 23rd. There will be prizes and acclaim so email me if you would like to enter a piece or two and I will get the entry materials to you. Fun!
I also need some help. I will be teaching an 2.5 day on-loom class at NEWS on Deflected Doubleweave and I would LOVE some feedback. I am winding and sending warps and instructions to the enrollees. I am wondering if you have taken on-loom classes working only on your own loom/warp and also round-robin style. Which do you prefer? What do you see as the advantages/disadvantages of each? I am also thinking hard about the materials. I have been advised that everyone should have a warp in the same material to make teaching easier and more streamlined, But I would also love the opportunity to show the class the wild array of possibilities in combining fibers this structure offerts . . . ideas? opinions?
Dianne
I have done round robin workshops with Bonnie Inouye and Randall Darwall (we are so lucky to have had these tutors visit NZ) and think it an excellent idea. You go home with so many samples that would have taken many days to rethread a loom to produce. One disadvantage is that some weavers are slower than others. At one workshop I taught I took along a loom with a different threading so the fast weavers had an extra station to go to. My mistake while teaching was not getting the students to leave enough gap between each others samples.
Another workshop I went to we took a loom along already threaded but had to swap looms with another student and work on their loom only during the workshop, then go home and do the samples on our own loom. Well, yeah right, that’s just going to happen in my world!
Hope this helps.
Elisabeth Hill
Thanks Dianne,
The extra loom sounds like a great idea. My only objection to round robins I have done in the past is the state of some participants’ looms. It was sometimes all consuming to deal with poorly maintained, poorly warped or warped (in the wood sense :)) looms, leaving limited time to focus on the interesting structural variations. The other thing about Def DW is the huge variations possible by changing treadling/tie-up on the same threading. What do you think about same fiber for all warps or different?
Claire
I love, love, love those pillows! Such a happy, inviting pile 😀 I haven’t taken any workshops so no advice from me.
Elisabeth Hill
Thanks Claire!!
Elserine Sprenger
Hi Lisa,
I am like you – I would want to teach a workshop that shows as many varieties in the weave structure as possible – this would include a different “read” by using different fibres (that’s spelled the Canadian way…). I believe that people take workshops to be inspired, so the more variety, the better. “Streamlining teaching” is for your benefit and not for the benefit of the students, I think….. Have fun! – elserine
Elisabeth Hill
Hi Elserine,
Thanks for the thoughtful input. I hadn’t really considered “inspiration” – I was obsessing about instruction. But you are quite right. When I attend a workshop, I am very happy if I am inspired to pursue something at home. In any case, I am hoping to inspire and instruct . . . so I am very grateful for your help:)