I’ve been doing some sprang lately. A pair of wooden handles gave me the idea. The fingerweaving class is progressing very well. Five women have progressed to the flame pattern. Today we were joined by members of the group that meet monthly at the St Boniface Museum.
0 Comments
My husband had reason to visit Montreal at the end of April, and I went along too.
I arranged to visit with the curator of the McCord Museum, Cynthia Cooper. Thanks to the instigation of members of the Braid Society and Michelle Beauvais, the McCord Museum is considering an in-depth inventory of their sash collection. I would be very proud to assist them in this work. The current fingerweaving class is going very well. Five students have been very diligent, absorbing the technique like sponges. They have also been faithful to their homework, sailing through the tasks I’ve set for them, stipple, diagonal stripe, vertical stripe and sawtooth, and chevron. My daughter taught them the weekend I was gone to Montreal. She has her own approach, sometimes it’s a good thing to get a different perspective. Students reported favorably, did not seem to miss me much. As a testament to their ability, they all completed an arrowhead during class last Sunday. Two more classes to go, and the world will have five more certified fingerweavers. Such apt students remind me why I am teaching. Such a pleasure to teach people who want to learn. This past week I presented fingerweaving workshops to students at the St James Heritage Fair, as well as to the students of Lord Wolseley School. I’ve been spranging quite a bit lately. First of all there are more than a dozen wool sprang sergeant sashes on order. For another I’ve been experimenting with patterns, doubles on row A, doubles on row B, as in the piece on the left below. I’ve been playing with S and Z twist, in the piece on the right. As well I’ve been playing with finishing techniques. See below.
So, what have I been up to.
My nephew got married in Omaha last Friday. While in the Omaha area, I took the time to drive on down to Lincoln, Ne, to speak with the folks at the Nebraska Historical Society. They had a doll from the Red Cloud reservation with an interesting belt, and a curved piece of fingerweaving, a leg tie or headband. In their gallery they have a lovely bias weave beaded pouch. Tina Koeppe invited me to participate in the American Textile Society conference this Fall. I am definitely considering this. Back in Omaha I stopped in at the Jocelyn and spoke with Sharon Shald. She tipped me off to Pilcher’s Indian Store and Rebecca’s Trading post. I learned a couple of new words: old school yarn belts worn by straight dancers. Googling ‘yarn belts’ I came up with some lovely images of fingerwoven sashes. I had the pleasure of meeting poet Marilyn Dumont, exploring fingerweaving with her. She reminded me of the many metaphors that weaving provides, protecting the shed, creating a false weave, safety belts. I’ve also been working on several requests for sprang sashes. A friend of mine offered to help with the re-spinning of the yarn. She was amazed at the amount of work I put into these things before I ever start weaving. At her urging I did a bit of experimenting. The upshot of all this testing revealed that it is best to soak the wool before re-spinning it. I also found that the oven, at 160 degrees, is sufficient to re-set the twist, but I have to leave the wool on my niddy-noddy. I’m thinking I’ll have my wood-worker son make me a heavy-duty niddy-noddy for this purpose, so as to save my nice ones from drying out in the oven with the yarn. Last November, in a moment of weakness, I promised a piece to the local Habitat for Humanity for a fundraiser. The deal is that artists can have $20 worth of stuff from the ‘ReStore’. The artist is to use this material to create an ‘artpiece’ and then donate it to the local Habitat for Humanity fundraising art auction. I knew that Jan and Feb would be crazy busy … and they have been. And yet I’ve been really wanting to try working with wire. I succeeded in finding a reel of fine, supple green coated wire at the Habitat Re-Store. This week I’ve set down to try to do some sprang. I did a quick little first piece to determine how long, how wide. I then launched into a piece I thought I’d mount as art. I was not pleased with the results. So now I’m onto my third attempt. I went back to the Re-Store and purchased some ‘bling’ as I still had $11 remaining of that initial $20 credit. I also added some copper wire. Here it is in progress And here’s the finished piece I wanted to make some statement that the textile technique known as ‘sprang’ is akin to what we all know as ‘chain link fence’. I stretched the sprang between two knitting needles. These endposts were affixed to the background (a cabinet door from the ReStore) with screw-in eyelets.
The art auction will be held at the Habitat for Humanity ‘ReStore’ or Archibald Street in Winnipeg starting on Thursday. Bids must be in by Saturday afternoon. The classic method for finger weaving is that you attaching the work to a nail in the wall, and tie the lower end to your chairleg. Many people describe their circumstances to me, where putting a nail in the wall is NOT permitted. This might just be the solution: A new weaver sends me this image, a nice idea for attaching your sash. and in greater detail
The snow sculptures look great, especially at night with the lights from the tents. Some visitors to the Festival du Voyageur sport fingerwoven sashes.
These women made their own For those who understand French
I was interviewed last October by Radio Canada (the French CBC) concerning the fingerweaving dance, la p’chit dawnse. Have a listen to the interview: http://www.radio-canada.ca/emissions/c_est_ca_la_vie/2009-2010/Reportage.asp?idDoc=104010 Another day at Festival du Voyageur. Again this year on Louis Riel Day I was invited to give a fingerweaving workshop. As is my custom, attempting to convey the method to people, I have them ‘dance’ the movements. It works very well with nylon ropes Then this evening at the Auberge du Violin we had another group weaving activity, this time accompanied by music.
Winnipeg’s Winter festival is getting started. This is what we do with snow: we carve it. This winter festival centers around the establishment of European colonies here and the fur trade. Truckers of the day paddled canoes, and carried trade goods overland between waterways. The arrow sash, or ‘ceinture fleche’ was part of the dress.
I’ll be weaving for the duration, talking with schoolchildren and general visitors alike. Monday morning I’ll give a workshop for a select few who’ve signed up. Monday evening I’ll be at L’Auberge du Violon with my ‘fingerweaving dance’. Once Festival is over I’ll get to several sash orders placed in November. I’ve also got some silk that I dyed in the microwave, awaiting some spranging. Shirley Berlin passed me an amazing article by Dagmar Drinkler from the Archaeological Textiles Newsletter. I’m inspired. |
Categories
All
Archives
May 2023
Categories
All
|