debor049

Before and after wet finishing... One of the things covered in level one is wet finishing.  This most important transformation is not generally well appreciated amongst some Weavers.   Many people advise to just ‘wash’ it, which at least (imho) is better than doing nothing at all, but also is just the bare minimum of effecting that change from woven web to ‘real’ cloth.  One of the students is a conservator by training and has always been very reluctant to do anything more than scour her woven goods.  Today I convinced to to remove her conservation hat and take a leap of faith.   The magic in the Water happened and she is now a believer.   This is why I take the red eye across the country! Magic in the Water is available in digital download or print on demand at http://blurb.ca

The classroom is ready.  The studio is ready.  Well, a few more things, but as ready as I can be.   I’m expecting students to begin arriving at any time now.  We will go out for dinner at a nearby restaurant along with some of the level two students.   Even though flying across the country isn’t nearly as much fun as I’d like, the students never fail to inspire.  Their desire to learn more is the fuel that keeps me going.  Level one has seven students so we should have plenty of time for All The Questions.  Level two has 10, but most are very experienced, several of whom have been teaching for years.  Their willingness to contribute resources, samples and their knowledge makes it a delight, too.   And, while it is chilly, it isn’t raining...or snowing...so it’s all good.  

The red eye from Vancouver to Toronto shaved a half hour off the flight so my lengthy lay over became even longer.  Otoh, a half hour less in one of the more uncomfortable seats I have had the misfortune to sit in... We arrived at 7 am to the hustle and bustle of a very large, very busy airport.  But I managed to snag a cup of coffee and an equally uncomfortable chair.  Since I packed very lightly I may grab a couple of t shirts.  A number of shops have sales on, so... I did manage to doze for a bit on the plane but according to my body it’s actually 4 am and I ought to be sleeping.  In my bed.   Oh well, I can fall into bed early tonight.  I’m hoping to get over the jet lag quickly so that I’m functioning by Monday.    I’m assured the snow is gone.  I should hope so! Currently reading the latest Flavia de Luce book, which is packed away and I can’t recall the title.  

One small corner in the studio.  Squirrel cage swift for coning off skeins.  Leclerc Fanny loom in background with 2/3s of a warp to be re-sleyed and woven off.  Soon.  As in as soon as my teaching schedule allows.  Foreground - a heap of various projects - place mat warps for craft fair season (four more bins of table runners hiding in another corner), book projects, info for warp on Fanny, student homework peeking in from the left hand side. The entire studio is this kind of mess.  Behind me is the work table with a dozen skeins to be coned off for Olds.  Behind it are the bins and boxes of class materials for the Olds level one class.  (Cape Breton is all upstairs now, on the living room floor.  Because I leave on Friday.) The AVL has not been touched in literally weeks.  Months.  Doug got a warp beamed and I just haven't had the time to thread it.  I'm hoping it won't sulk too much after being ignored for so long. From now ...

The warp currently on the loom is for gamps.  Colour and value gamps.  As such, the wefts are 20 of the 'rainbow' spectrum, plus 10 shades/tints/neutrals.  A total of 30 different wefts, some of them very very close in hue and value.  I'm not weaving just one gamp, which I could just go ahead and set the colours out, weave them off and never think about them again.  No, I'm weaving three gamps.  One in plain weave, one in 2:2 twill and one in 1:3 twill. Not to mention there will be a gap of about four weeks between doing the first (plain weave) and the other two.  I had to come up with a way to keep track of the colours in their order.  At first I just laid them out in their order in the plastic tub, but there are multiple packages of each colour and at times it was very difficult to tell the packages laying next to each other apart. So I grabbed a box of little baggies, numbered them from 1-20 (for the spectrum - I'll deal with the last 10 later)...

One of the things that one hopefully learns as they begin to master this craft is how things are likely to change when what you are doing changes. I know I've posted about this before, but that was after I did it 'wrong'.  This time, I'm hoping I will have done it 'right', right from the start. My usual warp on the Fanny is about 11 meters or approximately 12 yards.  The warp that went onto the loom today is not only longer at 16.5 yards, it is also slippery - mercerized cotton. A couple of years ago I had a large warping reel and I started winding longer warps - about 14 meters or about 16 yards long. The very first of the longer warps I started weaving I began noticing weird tension issues happening.  There were areas of inconsistent tension.  The brake wasn't slipping - there were actual patches or groups of warp ends that would get slightly looser, even out as weaving commenced, then a group elsewhere would exhibit loose tension. It occurred to me that t...

Value gamp by Barbara S I’m aiming for a Masters.....not in golf or after getting my Baccalaureate....no, I’m working on the Master Weavers Certificate Program. The program comes from Olds College in Alberta but I’m able to get instruction at the Gaelic College (GC). Last June, eight otherwise experienced weavers took the leap into the 5 year program being held in Cape Breton for the first time. We lived for one week at the GC with our instructor, Laura Fry. Most of us had experience with Laura as an instructor before - her tour de force called Magic in the Water and a workshop about Lace Weaves - so her style of practical tips and in depth instructing was not new but, as always, welcome.  I am a teacher myself. I am the weaving instructor at the GC where the busy summer classes demand an efficiency of style not unlike Laura’s. I’ve incorporated several of her techniques in my practice (using a weaving trapeze/valet, using my hand as a ‘claw’ to thread and sley). The Master Weavers...

Today the 'last' box of homework arrived.  I think this year may have been a bit of an anomaly.  I would have to check my class list, but I think that every student in both level one classes I taught last year submitted (or will) their homework for marking.  Even though Life Happened in a big way for several people they stuck to it and managed to get their homework to me.  Even if it was just in time!  (One has asked for an extension, but is working away on submitting later in the year.) It is not unusual for one or two people to drop out along the way.  Things happen.  Jobs change.  Life circumstances change.  Some people move.  Others have health issues suddenly crop up.  Some take a 'gap' year to work on what they learned in level one. One of the most important lessons some of them have learned is that level one may look 'simple' but the nuances of the craft need to be understood and skills perfected.  And that doesn't hap...

I am weaving a 'library' of samples right now and this section is alternating between 1:3 and 2:2 twill. Rather than spend a bunch of time on the floor changing the tie up, I opted instead to just use a direct tie up (essentially a 1:3 twill) and when a 2:2 twill is required, I just use two feet. Much more efficient than constantly changing the actual tie up and way less time spent on the floor doing it.

I came home to a boat load of critical deadlines which took me several days to wrestle to completion.  It was a stressful few days while I dealt with them, several times messing up because I was rushed, or not thinking clearly, trying to bushwhack my way through my must-be-done list. Lurking in the background was my check up at the cancer clinic today.  Was I responding well enough to the lowest possible dose?  Or not?  If not, what then?  I didn't know. Turns out I'm doing just fine in terms of keeping the cancer under control.  I do still have adverse effects, although they have reduced somewhat in intensity.  It would appear for the next few years, this is my new 'normal'. As such, I am now gearing up to keep plodding forward - with a reduced commitment - once the book and conference are done.  Just another 7 or so months for the book - if I can keep to schedule on that.  Just another 13 or so months for the conference.  The wrap up w...

tubes placed on end, yarn running up through a reed to keep the yarn feeding straight up off the tube (or cone) for winding warps There is a school of thought about transferring yarn from one format to another - one that goes - never take yarn off the top of a cone or the end of a tube because you can add or subtract twist to the yarn. I've always hated taking yarn off the side of a tube (with one exception - sectional beaming with the tubes stood on end).  Oh, I tried.  I rigged up shoe boxes with knitting needles, had a spool rack where all the tubes were dutifully lined up, horizontally.  And fought with excess yarn coming off the tubes, wrapping itself around the 'axle' the tube was rotating on as I tried to convert rotary motion to reciprocal and just finally decided that adding or subtracting twist really wasn't an issue with the yarns that I most commonly work with and have happily been winding warps on a warping board with my tubes stood on end for decades. Rec...

"All but a few artists struggle to pay their bills. This is the compact the artist makes with the universe: to create with no guarantee of remuneration, and yet to live always in expectation and hope. It requires nerve, faith, perseverance and above all the ability to survive disappointment." Debra Dean, Hidden Tapestry; Jan Yoors - his two wives and the war that made them one A couple of months ago the author, Debra Dean, contacted me to see if I would be willing to read her new book on Jan Yoors.  I was happy to do so because I'm always looking for good books and one that deals with tapestry?  Yes, please! It is not exactly what I expected but it turned out to be so much more. Ms Dean has thoroughly researched the lives of Jan, Annabert and Marianne.  Any telling of their story would be incomplete without how World War II shaped their respective lives.  This book is a fascinating examination of how war impacts young people (all were children or, in Jan's case, a te...

I use the living room floor as a staging area for my trips.  While this is an old photo, my floor will soon look just like this again - or very similar.  Some changes have been made. For one thing, the attache case that has traveled with me for literally thousands of miles over the years is just about ready to give up the ghost.  So I have invested in a somewhat smaller backpack that I am hoping will see me through to the end of my travelling days.  This last trip was the first time I used it and I need to sort out some things about what I pack in it, but I think it may just do the trick. I will probably still use the attache case when I'm driving somewhere.  It's an old, familiar friend after all, and still has some life it in.  :) The next three classes are pretty much back to back to back.  I will have to prep the last trip - the drive to Olds College, prior to leaving for Cape Breton.  Or at least, as much as I can. Since level one unexpectedl...

Day one, level one.  The usual chaos reigns as people come to grips with the program.   The master weaving program is not your standard workshop.  Workshops are geared toward conveying a nugget of information, or two.  Workshops tend to be more social, with time for the participants to chat.   This course is not relaxed.  There is a great deal to do and time is limited.  Feeling overwhelmed is the normal state for the first three days.  It is only once the majority of the lectures have been given and the in class exercises done, or nearly done, that the students can begin to put it all together.  Level one is probably the most difficult, for the students.  And for the instructors.  The students may, or may not, know some of the theory being presented.  The focus, for me, is to try to start filling in some if the cracks in their foundation of knowledge.  There are multiple processes being used, so that becomes confusing wh...