Here I am in Copenhagen, Denmark. I’m here getting rid of jetlag before the Braids 2012 conference next week, and at the invitation of Katia Johansen, curator at the Danish National Museum, whom I met at the Textile Society of America Conference in 2010. The view outside my window gives you a bit of an insight into the daily life here. Lots of bicycle traffic. The whole point of my visit here is to view sprang articles in the collection of the Danish National Museum. Yesterday I went to their facilities just outside Copenhagen, located in an old textile factory. I was priveleged with an up close and personal view of sprang sashes which belonged to Danish kings, as well as two of those sprang hairnets described by Margrethe Hald, dating as far back as the bronze age. Of note, singles (mind you very fine and very tightly spun) were used. The Danish National Museum in downtown Copenhagen has some lovely hairnets as well. Exquisite! All done in fine, tightly spun singles! I am thinking that if you spin very fine and very tight (greater than 45 degree angle of twist) and leave the spool to set for a year, the yarn will then have forgotten its need to kink up on you. The amount of twist added or subtracted in the sprang work will be insignificant in relation to the amount of twist in the thread.
At any rate, I’m seeing fine singles in these pieces.
0 Comments
I was invited to participate in Metis Day at Discovery Harbour in Penetanguishene, Ontario. I spent the day with my fingerweaving demonstration. I also introduced people to the interlinking method and sprang.
Around me there were many other very interesting displays, beadwork, leatherwork, rug hooking, moose hair tufting, porcupine quillwork, and live music and dancing. Discovery Harbour Métis Day was a very pleasant event, certainly seems to deliver quite a lot for the $7 entry fee. Well worth the trip. I’m hoping to be invited to return again. Glenna Dean had invited me to visit New Mexico after Convergence. I had a lovely time. We spend a couple of days dying wool in her studio. Some of the places we visited include the Ghost Ranch, Espinola Valley Fiber Arts Center, Village Wools in Albuquerque, and the Southwest Regional Spinners Retreat. At the Retreat Glenna led a dying workshop. I also took a workshop from Ric Rao on punch needle embroidery. I must find the time to explore this technique more, it’s quite fascinating. I taught a workshop as well, on oblique interlace weaving. When not in workshops I sat at my sprang frame. I had a lovely time in New Mexico, must figure out how to come back again sometime.
I made a silk sprang sash earlier this year for a military re-enactor. Officer of higher ranks had sashes were made of silk, a very strong fiber. Now there are stories out there about people being carried on sashes. It seems that a person injured on the field could be carried back to camp on the sash. A client earlier this year requested a sash wide enough and long enough to try this out. So I made this sash, and then encouraged him to try it out, and send me photos. I even promised to replace the sash, should it not hold up to the claim. He has now sent me photos of the event: I was assured that the sash was not at all damaged by this test. The sash was seven feet long, and eight inches wide lying on the ground. When the sash was stretched laterally to support the full width of the body, it shortened a bit. I was told that another two feet of length (and probably a bit more width) would be desireable. I hear that the Braddock sash is 24 inches wide and 12 feet long, a very nice size for a litter.
Convergence 2012 is well under way. Arrived in Long Beach to attend the 2012 Handweavers Guild of America Convergence. Lest I get bored on the long plane rides I brought along something to keep my hands busy. Fingerweaving is well adapted to airplane travel. The fold-down table clip is a great place to attach my weaving. It is being held at the Conference Center here in Long Beach. Yesterday I went on a tour organized by HGA. First stop Cameron Taylor-Brown and her tree house. Cameron does her part to integrate the arts into schools and other aspects of daily life. What an inspiration! Next stop was the Craft in America Study Center and the Freehand Gallery. Some of the artists were on hand to talk about their work in the current exhibit ‘looming election’. The afternoon was spent at the LACMA. What an amazing collection they have. We also were given an hour’s ‘backroom’ tour a close up inspection of some ancient textiles from the Andes. Absolutely stunning.
Today I’m setting up for my classes. I’m teaching sprang tomorrow, and fingerweaving Thursday through Saturday. On my way to the Handweavers Guild of America Convergence in Long Beach, I stopped off to visit with my brother who lives near San Francisco. The Carmel Crafts Guild has a series of ‘study boxes’. One of them, prepared by Anne Blinks has a set of sprang pieces. The Carmel Crafts Guild graciously allowed me to go through the box. I encourage anyone interested in sprang, wanting to handle some actual pieces, to contact the Carmel Crafts Guild about this box. While in town, they had me address their monthly meeting, and I gave them a quick introduction to sprang … nothing like the workshop I’ll give next week at Convergence, but an introduction nonetheless.
Off for a hike with my brother today, then on to Long Beach for Convergence. Drove up the Sunshine Coast to visit Yvonne Stowell’s Fibreworks Gallery. What a beautiful exhibit, textiles and pottery with a water theme. Worth the trip. One yurt is the exhibit space, another yurt is a classroom, and Yvonne has a third yurt for her weaving studio. Sunday we took the ferry to Vancouver Island. Duncan weaver Alison Irwin hosted me for a fingerweaving class. Alison had lined up the local scrapbooking store for their classroom space. Very nice. Such a pleasure to work with students so keen and eager. They all did very well, attacking the basic method of fingerweaving. Now don’t take my word for it. Read what one of the students had to say about it http://weeverwoman.blogspot.ca/2012/06/finger-weaving-demystified.html Vancouver Island is a special place. While I was teaching that workshop, Alison’s husband toured my husband around. There’s a pretty spectacular train trestle bridge near Duncan. Tuesday I attended the ‘drop in’ meeting of the Victoria Handspinners and Weavers. There I met someone who had taken my weekend fingerweaving class a few years ago. She brought her sash to show me. Pretty impressive! On the way back I stopped in to see Olds College, and the Olds Fibre Week. There I found master spinners and master weavers students, keen to hear the good news about sprang. I also learned a really fast and interesting way to purl, looping the thread around your neck or through a hook on the front pocket. OK, my husband insists that I make mention of what I did during all that driving. It’s 3000 kilometers from Winnipeg to Victoria. Long hours of sitting when it wasn’t my turn to drive. Of course I brought along a project to keep me from going stir-crazy. I had made a sock to photograph for my book. This trip seemed the perfect moment to finish the second sock. I had started the toe right after completing the first sock (these are free-end interlinking socks, not sprang). By the time we made Revelstoke BC I had finished the second sock. It really takes no longer to make socks this way than a comparable size sock by the knitting method. I needed another project as we still had some driving to do. So I made a set of ‘safety cords’ for the students in Duncan. Yes, I completed another project on the return trip. It was a piece of two-layered sprang. I purchased two balls of yarn on Grenville Island and worked them into a hat or bag. Initially I set up the warp while still in Vancouver with the two colors both wrapping around the frame. I got into trouble within the first few rows. I took it all apart and began again, this time setting up two separate warps. I worked them as two separate warps for the first four rows, and then combined them for the rest of the piece. The really kool thing about sprang is the elasticity. And now for the scenery. We started out in the flatlands. And then there are the Rocky Mountains We pretty much took the same road home again. Oh, on the way back I took a picture of the ‘salt mines’. Back home now, getting ready for the next trip: Handweavers Guild of America Convergence in Long Beach!
So here I am in Vancouver, British Columbia. My husband is attending a conference at UBC, and I’m tagging along. The drive out was long, but the scenery was lovely. Starting out in the prairies Finally on day two we started to see the Rocky Mountains. How long did it take? Well I had time to weave a sock. The sock was started at home, only the toe complete. By the time we made it to Kamloops it was up to my knee. And here’s the view out my window at the University of British Columbia. This afternoon I was the guest speaker for the Vancouver Handweavers and Spinners, spreading the good news of sprang. Thanks to the VHS for such a warm reception, hope to visit you again.
Getting ready to travel to Sunny Southern California. I’ll be teaching classes on sprang and fingerweaving at HGA’s Convergence® 2012 Long Beach conference, July 15-21. There are still a couple of openings in my classes at http://www.weavespindye.org/? loc=8-00-00 The sprang class will take you through basic interlinking, as well as work with a figure-8 warp, resulting in a cap or bag. There’s a half-day fingerweaving class that introduces the basic method. I’m also teaching a two-day workshop on fingerweaving. Participants in the 2-day workshop can expect to weave a small bag. I’ll also be available for booksigning on Thursday, July 19, 7-8:30 at the HGA booth. In other news, I’ve completed another silk sprang officer’s sash. This one is extra wide. I’m also busy on my loom weaving a couple dozen yards worth of sash (3 inch wide tape) for use on the back side of some mighty fine hooked rugs. Rachelle LeBlanc of hookedrugstudio.com. contacted me earlier this year concerning her project, and now’s the time for me to deliver.
|
Categories
All
Archives
May 2023
Categories
All
|