summer school – Weave Story

Weaving in Wales – Summer school comes to an end….

September 10, 2013/0 Comments/in Interesting stuff, Projects, summer school, tapestry, weaving /by bschutzgruber

As we packed up our weaving, tools and looms we paused to give a big THANK YOU to our instructor, Alastair Duncan. For 7 days he encouraged us as we honed new skills…..

challenged us to push our art…..

help us work through the ‘bumps in the road’ that come with every project…..

and was completely taken aback when he opened our Farewell & Thank You gift…..
2 beautiful wood bobbins with brass tips!

The final event of the week is the Gala Dinner where folks ‘clean up pretty darn good’!

Andrew Johnson – 2013 Summer School Coordinator

The Certificates of Achievement and Diploma in Advanced Textile Studies awards are presented. The purpose of the COA is to preserve and improve craftsmanship in hand-weaving, tapestry weaving, spinning, natural dyeing and synthetic dyeing and to promote education in such craftsmanship.

It was a fabulous ending to a fantastic week spent with phenomenal fiber folks!
(L-R) Alison Coates, Jane Kirby, Andrea Cross, Alastair Duncan, Chris Cundiff, Elizabeth Hancock, Rita Corbett, Barbara Wright, Heather Dean, Sandra Combes, Sally Bohling.

The next AWSD Summer School will be in 2015 – in the Midlands of England.
I’ve started saving up….

Weaving in Wales – Summer School winds down…..

September 10, 2013/0 Comments/in dye, garments, Interesting stuff, Projects, summer school, tapestry, weaving /by bschutzgruber

One of the best things about summer school is the ‘Walk About’ on Saturday afternoon. This is when we all get a chance to see what everyone else has been doing all week. It’s always a bit of a scavenger hunt adventure to find them all and this year was no different = 16 courses were held in 6 different buildings spread over the entire campus! Turkey Red Dying won the prize for most creative dirctions by using ‘Follow the String’ to lead us through a labyrinth of hallways, in and out of the building (due to wet paint!) until we arrived at their location.

We got our classroom cleanup and table displays ready.

classroom_2

Here’s a sampling of the work produced in the Tapestry course woven by
Sally Bohlings —— Alison Coates ——– Sandra Combes

Rita Corbett ———— Andrea Cross

Elizabeth Hancock ——– Barbara Wright

Here’s a quick tour of some of the other courses…..

Bags from Bits

Rule Breaking Weaving

Pick-up Damask in linen

Designer Spinning

Eco Dying

Sewing Handwoven Fabric

Warp Ikat

String Bags

Turkey Red & All That Madder

Weaving in Wales – Off the floor and onto the bench….

September 8, 2013/2 Comments/in Interesting stuff, Projects, summer school, tapestry, weaving /by bschutzgruber

With my landscape finished plus a spacer in place….

Thursday morning I ‘moved up in the world’ — from sitting on the floor to sitting on the bench = YEA! This bench is designed so the seat can be moved higher as the weaving moves up the loom.

In designing my next project, I wanted to continue working on achieving a sense of depth to the tapestry, plus I added working on being less literal in my interpretation of my starting photograph.

One of my favorite photos is one I took from the castle rooftop of the market square in Norwich England.

I love the shapes, lines, and colors but have never succeeded in getting a good starting sketch because there’s so much going on in the photo. I decided to focus on one set of rooftops, outlining the basic shapes, tracing a cartoon, then transferring those shapes onto the warp yarns.

I started weaving using a range of colors which really helped me to be less literal and stay focused on the shadows and angles of the roof lines – moving from ‘Norwich rooftops’ to simply ‘Rooftops’.

Friday…..

And by Saturday morning I was weaving the final section to finish the piece.

Rooftops 4″ x 4″

Weaving in Wales – moving into mid week……

September 5, 2013/0 Comments/in Interesting stuff, Projects, summer school, tapestry, weaving /by bschutzgruber

The good news….
I’m no longer a beginner tapestry weaver and my instructor challenges me to improve my skills.

The bad news….
I’m no longer a beginner tapestry weaver and my instructor challenges me to improve my skills.

Tuesday I brought my newly finished sample to class. Alastair’s comments were, “Nice straight selvages and the slits are good (Yea!), but you need to pack it down a bit more.” (Darn… not done with this yet.) OK… so I began packing.

Low and behold….. my lovely circle is now a lovely oval…..arg!

Alastair’s comment that it took him 7 yrs to perfect doing circles made me feel a lot better and really appreciate the skill necessary to create tapestries with nice round circles in them. I wove a bit more – making sure I was beating FIRMLY – and drew another circle with the plan of trying it again as the week went on.

The large scaffold frame had been warped. (Yes… we are talking about a seriously heavy-duty frame that would normally be used in construction!)

Since I do not have easy access to work on one of these at home I jumped at the chance to weave on it…..

…which also meant I’d be sitting on the floor for the next few days.

Because the back wall was painted white with a white heating unit… there was no way I would be able to see my white warp yarns against that…..

….so I used my raincoat for a backdrop.

I decided to work on a landscape for my next project because I’ve struggled with getting a sense of depth in my fiber work. Using one of my photos as my guide, I selected my yarns and began weaving – making sure I was beating FIRMLY as I went.

By the end of of the day, this tapestry was solid.

Wednesday, I continued working on the landscape. One of the techniques tapestry weavers have used for centuries when weaving a large space that’s basically a solid color is to weave a shape rather than simply going straight across. This breaks the monotony and gives some texture and interest to the weaving. We had seen this technique used in some of Alastair’s work and I wanted to give it a try.

This involved a lot of weaving…. un-weaving…… weave it again…. un-weave…..
but FINALLY….. by the end of the day after multiple tries…. I got it!!

Landscape 4″ x 5 1/2″

I really like the effect this gives the sky and will definitely be using it in other projects.

Weaving in Wales -The adventure begins…

September 3, 2013/2 Comments/in dye, Interesting stuff, Projects, summer school, tapestry, weaving /by bschutzgruber

Arrival at Summer School wearing my ‘Surround Sound’ vest

On August 1st, I boarded a plane and flew east across the Atlantic for the Association of Guilds of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers biennial summer school being held at University of Wales Trinity St. Davids College in Carmarthen, Wales. Over 200 fiber loving folks gathered for a week to participate in the 16 course being offered this year in:

Spinning
Spinning Beyond the Basics
Creative Spinning
Short Fibre Spinning

Braiding/Knotting
Australian Aboriginal String Bags
Kumihimo/Marudai Braiding

Dying
Eco Dyeing
Turkey Red/Madder

Sewing
Bags from Bits
Sewing Handwoven Fabric

Weaving
3-End Block Weave
Warp Ikat
Pick-up Damask in Linen
Tapestry
Rule Breaking Weaving
Inkle Weaving
Textiles that Shape Themselves

I arrived Friday evening and wandered about Carmarthen, the oldest town in Wales and legendary birthplace of Merlin, on Saturday and Sunday.

deciphering signage

enjoying market day

exploring the castle

Complete with a rainbow, summer school began Sunday evening as we all gathered to reconnect with friends and meet our instructors.

There were 12 of us in the tapestry class taught by Alastair Duncan. Alastair was born in Scotland, raised in Belfast, Northern Ireland and now lives in Wales.

Classes ran Mon-Sat from 9am-5pm with evening lectures, activities, or continuing to work in our classrooms or taking work back to our dorm rooms.

On Monday we……