I’ve been wanting to try something more than straight long pieces with this fingerweaving. To this end, I borrowed my daughter’s dressform, measured out lengths of wool, laid them over the shoulders and started weaving. Voilà the end result! A seamless garment! No shoulder seams, no sideseams. Next time, I’ll start with longer lengths so it will extend beyond my middrift. Nevertheless, I declare this attempt a success!
In other news, at the invitation of the Social Studies Teachers Association, I attended a teacher inservice day. I was invited to teach teachers to weave. What fun! I met a woman who had purchased my book last Summer, and was well into weaving her sash. So, you see, it is possible to learn using only the book Fingerweaving Untangled!
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Trying to demonstrate the variety possible in this arrow sash genre, I began playing with acrylic yarn, and created several short pieces. Calling them neckscarfs, I’ve been selling them locally, encouraging folks to ‘design your own sash’. I was invited to the Canada Revenue Tax Center yesterday for their Aboriginal Awareness Day. I put up my display of sashweaving, and sold several books. Nice to know that the folks who collect your taxes have a human side to them. I’d like to think they have hobbies, relax, and are sensitive to cultural awarness issues. A friend came over today and we spent the afternoon with her tablet weaving, troubleshooting her problem with a brocading technique. At long last success! Come to find out, the problem was the direction of the threading in the cards, not with the brocading picking at all. I got the pattern working, then we got to chatting, and my attention wandered, and the pattern got a bit muddled. I went from using the two upper threads, to a single upper thread, and back to the double threads in the brocading. Quite interesting, and a nice change from the fingerweaving and loom weaving.
The current ‘Beginning Fingerweaving Class’ is about to end. Students are keen to set up their own sashes and start weaving away. It looks like they’ll continue to meet at the Musée de St-Boniface, so I’m thinking this is a great opportunity to start up a Fingerweaving Club. Anyone out there in the Winnipeg area is welcome to bring your sash and join us on Sunday afternoons, 1:30 to 3:30 PM. I received word yesterday that my next Mega-Project has been approved for funding by the Manitoba Arts Council. I’ve been intrigued by sashes I’ve seen, 4 of them now, all indisputably dating to the 1800’s and very loosely woven. How would someone weave that loosely, was my question. I am now going to test out a theory. This is my ‘two in one’ project. I will set up an extra long warp and fingerweave a sash, never un-doing the false weave. I’ve got the perfect extra long studio, the atrium of the St Boniface Hospital. I’ll shove every row of false weave all the way to the far end, causing the build-up of a second sash at the far end. All this is scheduled for the New Year. I’ll keep you informed. Another class at the Musée de St Boniface teaching the technique of ceinture fleche. Six very apt students in my fingerweaving workshop. One of them had an idea I just have to share with the rest of the world. Literature my husband procured from the fingerweavers in Quebec, when I started out, insisted that the proper way to keep an even tension is to tie the warp at both ends. The upper portion is tied to a hook in the wall, the lower end to the chair, or to a hook on the floor. One of my students this time around came up with another very clever alternative. She brought along a piece of elastic, which she ties to her thigh, above the knee. She tucks her weaving in to the elastic, and adjusts her tension there. My students find they can adjust the tension by raising or lowering the leg.
Another beginning fingerweaving workshop started up on October 5, at the Musée de St Boniface Museum. Six keen adults are working their way through the patterns with me on Sunday afternoons learning about ceinture fleche. October 8 found me on an AmTrak train, heading towards Chicago. I stopped in to visit my cousin, niece, and nephew, en route to Mississinewa 1812. Located near Marion, Indianna, the event was lovely, as usual. I had my camera with me, but never thought to take any photos. If any of you out there have a pertinant photo of me, send it on in, and I’ll post it here. Mississinewa is a lovely opportunity to network. So nice to keep in touch with youall. Back in Winnipeg, I’ve finished up a commissioned work. Friday, October 24, I spent filming bits and pieces that will go into a DVD version of my book. We’ll see what the first draft looks like, and I’ll let you know how soon the finished product will be available.
My next project is a series of loom-woven neckscarfs. Hopefully there’s a market here at our winter festival, Le Festival du Voyageur. Met with the folks from the BBC the morning of Sept 3. They are currently producing a six part series presented by Ray Mears about Canada, its history, indigenous cultures and people. Ray Mears is a Bushcraft specialist and Woodsman and the programmes will reflect this expertise as well as Ray learning new skills from other experts. The six programmes are about the Boreal Forest, The Fur Trade, Samuel Hearne, David Thompson, Dr John Rae and the people who live West of the Rockies who have made Cedar wood a huge part of their culture and history. The programmes will be an hour long and will have a mixture of Ray demonstrating traditional living skills, living from the land and meeting various First Nations people and exploring the history of Canada. This morning Ray Mears interviewed me on site in the Atrium of the St Boniface General Hospital concerning my work, creating Assomption sashes, the technique called fingerweaving or ceinture fleche. The resulting program will be aired in the Fall of 2009. That afternoon, I went with my daughter to visit the sheep farm, the Seine River Shepherds. A visit with the shepherdess, Solange, is always a treat. Back to Winnipeg, for the concert Terre Ouverte, a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the community of St Boniface. As a member of the Maison des Artistes, I helped in the collection of donations for the new sculpture gardens. Today, Sept 4, the 2nd edition of my book was delivered to my house. I’m down to fewer than 150 copies of the first edition (1260 copies printed). The second edition no longer has the ‘staple together’ or ‘saddle stitch’ binding. Rather it has the kind of edge that displays the title when the book is on the shelf, they call it ‘perfect binding’.
This weekend I’ll hang out with Manitoba Living History Society, as they hold their annual Fall Gathering in Whittier Park. We’ll be celebrating with the Scottish folk of Winnipeg, participating in the St Andrew’s Society Selkirk Settler Parade. As well, I’ve prepared some indigo, and hope to dye 2 lbs of yarn, from pale blue to dark navy. While in Edmonton last week, I had the honor of examining 5 sashes that were fingerwoven in the 1800’s. Very interestingly, 3 of the 5 were strikingly similar. All of the 3 had stories consistent with having been manufactured between 1860 and 1900, all had the same bright colored thread, and a very similar pattern. Striking to me is the looseness of the weave. I’ve been collecting data on sashes. I calculate the number of threads across the width of the sash. Often this means counting the number of threads per ‘lightning’, and multiplying it by the total number of lightnings across the width. I add in the number of threads in the central arrow and voila, total threads. This number, divided by the average width of the sash gives me ‘warp threads per inch’. I find that 20 to 30 threads per inch is common among modern sashes woven with knitting yarn. Tightly woven sashes in museums tend to have 50 to 57 threads per inch. The tightest I’ve examined had 66 threads per inch. I’ve woven a small band with some wool given me by a weaver friend that ended up at 80 threads per inch … something I’m not too keen to repeat. Even more telling is ‘weft threads per inch’. I calculate the number of rows to complete each pattern, and multiply by the number of repeats. (For example if it takes 9 rows to complete an arrow, and there are 60 arrows in the sash, then there are 9 x 60 or 540 rows in the sash. Number of rows divided by length gives me ‘weft threads per inch’. Tightly woven sashes have upwards of 12 wefts per inch. The 3 sashes I speak of in Edmonton had 4 to 6 wefts per inch. I have seen similarly loose sashes in other collections. I find little information in the litterature concerning the origin of these. Has anybody out there noticed this. Anyone have a theory about the origin of these? I find it darn difficult to weave that loosely. Two of the 5 were exquisite, fine thread, tightly woven, excellent condition. One was the sash from the Southesk Collection, recently acquired by the folks of the Royal Alberta Museum. The other was a silk sash, also collected and taken to England by a gentleman, then returned to Canada.
Drove to Edmonton last week to give fingerweaving workshops for the folks of Fort Edmonton as well as St. Albert. Such eager and apt students! It was a pleasure to see people learn so quickly. We started out with the ‘make a friendship bracelet’ project. They quickly proceeded to other patterns, more threads: The next step was mastering the ‘advanced technique’. This is done working on the ‘diagonal stripe’ pattern. The room provided by Ft Edmonton had the perfect setup, a lovely coatrack along one wall. Before noon, the folks from St Albert had mastered the technique, and produced the beginnings of a diagonal stripe leg tie. The next day we worked on patterns, changing weft within a row for vertical stripe and sawtooth, working from center to outer edge for the chevron. Again, such a pleasure to work with keen students.
The Pavilion Canadien-Français ran from Aug 3 to 9. Next week, Aug 10 to 17, was the Métis Pavilion. Dressed a bit differently, I gave a similar demonstration, allowing folks the pleasure of making a ‘friendship bracelet’. The project teaches the basics of fingerweaving …. straight out of my book, page 12 & 13. Booksales have been going so well, I’m just about sold out. Fewer than 100 from the original 1200 are left unsold. I’ve ordered another printing, this time doubling the order. This time Friesens will print 2000 copies. The second edition will have ‘perfect binding’ (as opposed to the ‘saddle stitch’ or staple-together-construction of the first edition). Bookstores and libraries tell me that the staple-together binding disappears on the shelf. To be honest, I’ve found this all to be true. I chose the ‘saddle stitch’ wanting the book to lie open on a table while the student is working. I am hoping that the ‘perfect binding’ is perfect enough to allow for both: book will lie open on the table, and will have a spine that is visible on the shelf. Meanwhile I’ve been weaving a one-of-a-kind special order for a special someone. This is a sash and leg ties combo: Next week I’ll be in Edmonton, Alberta, giving a workshop for the folks of Fort Edmonton and St Albert. Later in the week I will be priveleged to tour the Southesk Collection in the Royal Alberta Museum.
Evenings you’ll find me at the Edmonton Fringe Festival. Hope youall are enjoying your Summer. Carol A few more photos from the Métis Pavilion at Folklorama 2008. Eager to learn to fingerweave, the ‘make a friendship bracelet’ project was very popular with the children. Basically I used the directions from page 12&13 of my book. It is a project that is easily completed in 5 minutes. I am grateful to my students for helping out at Folklorama. Suzanne managed to finish her sash, while keeping me company at the Métis Pavilion.
Once again I’ve been invited to give fingerweaving demonstrations at two pavilions in the Winnipeg festival, Folklorama. Printed in the local newspaper, the Winnipeg Free Press, reporting on the Pavilion Canadien-français: “CULTURAL HIGH POINT: Sashmaker Carol James and her student show how a ceinture fléchée is made with intricate finger-weaving.” On display at Folklorama you can see the 8 sash samples, made over the past Winter, sponsored by Manitoba Heritage, the St. Boniface General Hospital, and Manitoba Artists in Healthcare. Next week I’ll be at the Métis Pavilion.
Aug 18-22 I’ll be giving a workshop at Ft Edmonton in Edmonton, Alberta. The BBC is preparing a series on the history of Canada, its history, indigenous cultures and history. Ray Mears is a bushcraft specialist and woodsman. The BBC will be filming an interview with me in early September, Ray Mears learning about fingerweaving. Meantime, I’m working on some sprang neckscarfs. |
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