illustration – Weave Story

Doin’ Demos

April 29, 2015/0 Comments/in Interesting stuff /by bschutzgruber

I would not be doing what I do today if it were not for demos.

Yes…. I was the kid mom and dad would lose at places like Greenfield Village – part of the Henry Ford museum complex in Dearborn, Michigan, Historic Mystic Seaport in Connecticut, or any of the Mackinac State Historic Parks at the northern tip of Michigan’s lower peninsula. The 5 of us kids would all be there one minute and the next thing they knew… there were only 4. Luckily, it did not take them long to figure out where to find me = simply backtrack to the last place that had demonstrations and there I would be… still watching….. completely spellbound. At all of these places.. and many more…. I saw weavers, spinners, dyers, blacksmiths, woodworkers, glass blowers, ropemakers, coopers…. all plying their trade for everyone to see. Everyday people actually DOING these crafts with skill and artistry – creating magic right before my eyes and I would lose all track of time… and my family as they moved onto the next thing.

Demonstrations are a fabulous way to connect the general public to skills and crafts that are no longer part of our modern everyday life and I love doing them.

I’ve done them at our guild sales and at fairs. My work as a storyteller, along with my fascination with odd bits of off-beat information, certainly helps.

Showing how things are done….

letting people touch the wool and yarns….

and giving them have a chance to throw the shuttle….

create tactile hands-on experiences that can stay with someone their entire life. Telling the stories of the workers in the mills, how fortunes were made and lost, and where the terms and sayings we use today originated brings dry facts of history to life and connects us to our past. This is where cloth comes from….. this is how it’s made…. and these are people who make it today.

One of the fun things about doing demonstrations is that you never know what may come out of the experience. Because I’m talking with people as I work and need to be able to stop at any given moment to answer a question or give a quick recap, I do not attempt to create anything complex – I just play and try out ideas. This was true at the last AAFG Holiday Sale when I made a hat using silk chiffon fabric covered with layers of merino wool and silk fibers as embellishmentto to demonstrate wet felting. Because this hat can be turned inside out, you get to choose which ‘look’ strikes your fancy = more intense color or muted color.

I was pleased with the experiment and continued playing with the idea in different colors.

Not only can doing demonstrations educate and allow for experimentation, they can be a welcome distraction. For the past 12 years members of the Ann Arbor Fiberarts Guild have been weaving at the University of Michigan Medical Center as a form of entertainment and distraction for patients and family members who are waiting to see the doctor. Currently we are in the lobby of the Cancer Center and the cloth woven is made into hats that are given to patients undergoing chemo and other treatments.

“We are so pleased to have this wonderful skill shared with our patients,
not only for the calming affect it has by sitting and observing the weavers,
but also for the lovely hats made for our patients from the weavings.”

Share….. Educate…… Outreach…… Connect…….
all this and more can be found when doin’ demos!

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″

So much to do… so little time!

February 23, 2013/3 Comments/in felt, Projects /by bschutzgruber

The good news is… it’s been a busy 2 weeks.
The bad news is….. it’s been a busy 2 weeks and there are only so many hours in the day!

A dear friend of 30 years passed away on her 90th birthday. Jean was an amazing woman – a teacher, master gardener, weaver and storyteller who was always up for an adventure and road trip. She’s the one who connected me with my very first weaving teacher – Gloria Teeter. I’ve been helping her family inventory and organize the sale of her loom and spinning wheel, plus all the equipment that goes with them! [The loom is still for sale so if anyone is interested in the details – send me an email.]

Last weekend I was the emcee for the Storytelling Festival at the ARK here in Ann Arbor with Donald Davis, Carol Birch, and Laura Lee Hayes performing. The stories told on Saturday night for adults and Sunday afternoon for families were a spellbinding blend of humor, poignancy, rich language and imagery.

Plus I was working on a second felt wall hanging to submit with ‘Heron’ for the AAFG show in March at the Village Theater at Cherry Hill in Canton, MI. I decided to do a self-portrait. Now I struggle when it comes to sketching/drawing and being a ‘process’ artist/‘experiential’ learner … oh this was going to be an adventure!

Because I don’t ‘draw’ I take a lot of photographs and use those as my ‘jumping off’ point when it comes to design.

Here I am in the lantern tower windows of Ely Cathedral, England.

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This is the view from the floor below!

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I cropped the photo…

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…enlarged to make a 36″ x 43″ pattern.

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Take #1
I laid out Merino wool fiber, black silk chiffon fabric and then backed it with Romney wool – the only black wool in my stash. I felted it – rubbing/rolling using soapy water. End size is 29″ x 24″ but the Romney was too ‘hairy’ so it did not felt the way I wanted and worked it’s way from the back to the surface = oops!! Even after giving it a ‘shave’ with an electric beard trimmer, this was not going to work…..

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…but it did give me a piece I could practice adding the facial features….

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Take #2
12″ x 18″ sample while I waited for my order of black Merino fiber to arrive.

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Third time’s the charm!! “Daydreaming” (29″ x 33″)

GreenMan still on pause…..

February 7, 2013/1 Comment/in felt, Projects, tapestry /by bschutzgruber

With 2/3 completed I’ve had to put GreenMan is on ‘pause’ so I could get a piece submitted for the AAFG show at the Power Center on the University of Michigan campus. It was not selected – darn. Any time you submit something for a show that features multiple artists (over 24 with this one!) the committee has to look at balancing the variety of techniques used, over all impact in a large space and balance of the exhibit. I’ll submit it for our next show in March which is a smaller gallery setting.

‘Heron’ is wet felted. The image is carded wool fibers on silk chiffon fabric which is backed with 2 layers of carded merion wool fibers. Finished demensions 28″ x 34″

Below you can see the difference 40%-45% shrinkage makes. Staring dimensions approx 43″ x 54″

heron layout

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