Edmonton Weavers’ Guild News

Annual General Meeting and Potluck – May 29, 2019

Posted May 30, 2019

 

In addition to the business of the Annual General Meeting (AGM), members shared a delicious potluck dinner, and showcased their creativity and skills with displays from:

• The Juniors Study Group
• Get Sett Study Group
• Deflected Double Weave class

and the Paint Chip Challenge.  Last year, members blindly selected a paint chip and were challenge to weave, spin, dye or felt a creation in their paint chip colours.

 

Posted May 26, 2019

 

EWG hosted Denise Kovnat from Rochester, NY for a fabulous 3-day workshop, May 24-26, 2019, exploring the magic of extended parallel threading or Echo threading.

17 participants wove Echo, Jin (also called Turned Taquete), Shadow Weave, Rep, double weave and collapse structures. Denise covered network drafting, and provided a wealth of information (including over 50 drafts), and inspiration.  An amazing learning experience!

The public was invited to a Saturday evening presentation Once Upon a Warp where Denise shared her process for creating handwoven garments.  Denise explained that TEXTS and TEXTILES share the same Latin origin – TEXERE to weave.  “Every warp has a story.  Where does that story begin?”  She then shared the story behind a number of garments juried into the Handweavers Guild of America fashion show, Convergence from 2008 to 2018. 25 participants enjoyed Denise’s presentation, and then had an opportunity to touch and try on the beautiful garments.

See some photos of participant samples in Echo, Jin and Shadow Weave below.

A big thank you to the Handweavers, Spinners, and Dyers of Alberta (HWSDA) for their financial assistance.

Posted May 5, 2019

On Sunday afternoon, May 5th, EWG members benefited from the knowledge of Kathy Buse on how to identify unknown fibres.  In the 4th Master Wannabees session, Burn, Baby Burn! Kathy provided a lecture, handouts and materials, and then guided participants on the burn test.

Kathy described the process to identify mystery fibres:  What is the appearance of the fibre? Is it shiny, matte, thick, thin, hairy?  How does it feel?  Is it soft, slippery, coarse, wiry, smooth, elastic?  What is the fibre length? For example, synthetics are long. What is its strength?  Does it break easily?  Does it smell? Some wool has a spinning oil odour.

She provided samples of different fibres and detailed instructions on how to conduct the burn test.  She stressed that the smoke may be toxic, particularly for synthetic fibres, so be aware of the ventilation and try not to inhale the smoke but pay attention to the colour of the smoke and the shape of the residue which will provide clues as to the fibre’s identity.  With Kathy’s help, participants then had a hands-on opportunity to test the mystery fibres that they brought with them.

A useful Sunday afternoon. Thank you Kathy!

Posted April 18, 2019

See photos of the April 27th opening of the Exhibition on the 65th Anniversary page.

2019_Evite _EWG

Posted April 16, 2019

Instructor Angela Kelly scratched the creative itch of participants who designed a rug, and then learned how to use a punch needle to hook a rug.  Check out our Classes and Workshops page for more course offerings from EWG.

Posted April 10, 2019

Study groups provide an opportunity for the sharing of knowledge, friendship and inspiring each other’s creativity.  Get Sett is a weaving study group that meets every second Tuesday evening under the mentorship of Diane K.  Here are some the creations of Get Sett members over the last couple of months.

Membership Renewals Due April 1

• Please renew your membership so that you can vote at the May 29 Annual General Meeting.

New Facility Planning Committee

• Members volunteered for a new committee chaired by Kyla F which will research what the Guild needs to achieve its goals.

Next Meeting is Annual General Meeting (AGM) May 29 at 6:00 p.m.

• Members will be receiving proposed changes to the Bylaws that will be voted on at the AGM.
• Members were reminded to bring their Paint Chip Challenge creation.
• The AGM is a potluck so remember to bring your plate, cup, utensils and a food item to share.

Guest Speaker – Pirkko Karvonen

• 83-years young, Pirkko shared with us her lifelong journey as a artist, illustrated with drawings, many photographs of the large tapestries that are held in private collections and museums, and lots of weaving samples.
• A life time of drawing began in Kindergarten and led to her many tapestries.
• She described her weaving journey which included returning to Finland in 1972 to study weaving.
• Pirkko had many samples of different weave structures, including her favourite – Summer and Winter which she described as the “Finn factor in North American weaving”.
• Pirkko’s lessons on creativity – 1) start young 2) continue life long and 3) experiment/sample, sample, sample….
• Pirkko’s work is in the Athabasca University Collection.  You can learn more about her weaving at  http://openstudios.athabascau.ca

Fibre Mart

• The General Meeting was followed by another great Fibre Mart.
• A big thank you to Ev, Jenn and all the volunteers who made Fibre Mart a success!

Lifelong sewer, Angela Kelly was the guest speaker for the third Master Wannabees’ lecture.  With Gather Textiles, Angela shared her tips on how to be successful sewing garments from handwoven fabric.

Angela illustrated her talk with garments.  Some of the garments were made completely of handwoven fabric, and others were made with a combination of handwoven and commercially woven fabric.  Other examples included a piece of handwoven fabric inset into a commercially made garment.  Think of using your handwoven, for instance, as a pocket to make an ordinary shirt special.

She provided a number of tips from planning your project prior to weaving your yardage, to how to cut and sew the handwoven to maintain its integrity.  She closed with three ways to get professional results:

1) Have a smooth neckline with no puckering.

2) Have straight hem stitching in a matching thread.

3) Use a blind hem foot on your sewing machine when top or edge stitching.

Thank you Angela for inspiring and challeging us to sew with our handwovens!