Travel Report, Part 3

New York, New York
Etsy

My visit to Etsy was both a flash back and a fast forward experience. Here I found the excitement of weaving in the 70’s (when everyone was doing it) coupled with high tech. Here’s their mission statement from their website: “Etsy is an online marketplace for buying and selling all things handmade. Our mission is to enable people to make a living making things, and to reconnect makers with buyers. Our vision is to build a new economy and present a better choice: Buy, Sell, and Live Handmade.” Matthew Stinchcomb vp of marketing, is all about promoting and selling craft on-line, as well as providing support and education to crafters and would-be crafters (including weavers and spinners!) Check it out at http://www.etsy.com/

Etsy's handmade pledge: For the holidays ask for handmade gifts--and give handmade gifts. I love this idea and challege YOU to join in.

5th Avenue
If you can, just spend the day walking up and down 5th Avenue window shopping. There’s so much emphasis right now on wovens—basic plaids, crazy plaids, felted fabric, texture, texture texture! A must stop is Takashimaya, a small, elegant department store filled with unique designs from around the world. Learn more at http://www.ny-takashimaya.com/

The Unicorn Tapestries at the Cloisters

Do plan to spend the day. I took the tour and it was well worth the time. The Cloisters and surrounding Tryon Park are an oasis in the middle of a teaming city. The day felt like a retreat. On a nice day, it’s a treat to eat lunch in the courtyard surrounded by medieval architecture. For more: www.ny.com/museums/cloisters

New York Travel Report, part 2

Syracuse University
I spent a wonderful morning shadowing Sarah Saulson (weaver extraordinare—you’ve seen her work and writing in Handwoven) in the weaving studio at Syracruse University.

The students in her beginning weaving class were exploring structure and were moving on to working with fiber shrinkage. Super fun to see the excitement of new students discovering the marvels of weave structure.
I also gave PowerPoint presentation of my weaving history that highlighted possible avenues for a career in textiles. Some of the possibilities: studio artist (you gotta be good and you gotta work hard), magazine editor for a textile magazine (they NEED good editors!), author (you don’t get rich writing a book, but it is an entree to teaching and lecturing, and there are those royalties whose arrival in the mail always seems to surprise), shop owner (sell the stuff you love and combine it with classes), designer (for yourself or company—think interior textiles)—or as our shipping manager suggests—work for your favorite loom and spinning wheel manufacturer (like she does!).

Overheard: how to get more guys involved in fiber arts. News flash to guys: If you’re having trouble meeting women, just sign up for a textile class (you may even discover that the textile arts are way cool).

To see work of Sarah Saulson, visit the Syracuse University web site:
http://vpa.syr.edu/index.cfm/page/fiber-arts-gallery#id=fiber-arts-gallery_va&num=1

New York Travel Report, part 2

Syracuse University
I spent a wonderful morning shadowing Sarah Saulson (weaver extraordinare—you’ve seen her work and writing in Handwoven) in the weaving studio at Syracruse University.
The students in her beginning weaving class were exploring structure and were moving on to working with fiber shrinkage. Super fun to see the excitement of new students discovering the marvels of weave structure.
I also gave PowerPoint presentation of my weaving history that highlighted possible avenues for a career in textiles. Some of the possibilities: studio artist (you gotta be good and you gotta work hard), magazine editor for a textile magazine (they NEED good editors!), author (you don’t get rich writing a book, but it is an entree to teaching and lecturing, and there are those royalties whose arrival in the mail always seems to surprise), shop owner (sell the stuff you love and combine it with classes), designer (for yourself or company—think interior textiles)—or as our shipping manager suggests—work for your favorite loom and spinning wheel manufacturer (like she does!).
Overheard: how to get more guys involved in fiber arts. News flash to guys: If you’re having trouble meeting women, just sign up for a textile class (you may even discover that the textile arts are way cool).
To see work of Sarah Saulson, visit the Syracuse University web site:
http://vpa.syr.edu/index.cfm/page/fiber-arts-gallery#id=fiber-arts-gallery_va&num=1

New York Travel Report, Part 1

I’ve been traveling, and how good it is to be home. It was a fabulous trip with many parts (more later), but the best part was getting away from my own environment and seeing what else was going on in weaving and spinning, as well as textile art in general.

EGLFC (aka Eastern Great Lakes Fiber Conference)
· A small biannual regional conference hosted in turn by area guilds. A primary goal of the conference is to bring in teachers from across the country who individual guilds cannot otherwise afford.
· This was a small, well-run conference. The all-volunteer committee, chaired by Peg Houseman, should congratulate themselves for a superb job.
· I taught a 2-day workshop called Textural Treats—leno, Brooks bouquet, soumak, as well as rigid heddle pick-up with similar textury weaves adapted for the harness loom. In attendance were both veteran and novice weavers who got really excited about the freedom that finger techniques afford the weaver. (Try’em, you’ll like ‘em.)
· I also taught my Weave-a-Scarf-in-a-Day class. Six new weavers left that day with a scarf and excitement about learning a new craft. (Hint, hint: teaching is key to weaving’s future.)


Photo caption: This sampler illustrates some weft-faced finger techniques, from top to bottom: picked up loops, individual rya knots on a plain weave ground, and pink soumak stripes—all woven in dibby dabs of my very own handspun yarn.

Note and apology. Re: the Mighty Wolf’s debute on the CBS sitcom Big Bang Theory. It actually appeared on October 15th (not the 8th as previously noted). You can still watch this episode on-line by visiting:
http://alpha.cbs.com/primetime/big_bang_theory/recaps/ep104/

Learning As You Go

I’ve been weaving since 1971. If my math is correct (always a question), it means I’ve been at it for some 36 years (some years more than others). Over that length of time, you learn a few things. And keep learning—and this is what I love about weaving. Just a week ago as I was working on some samples for my class at Eastern Great Lakes Fiber Conference (October 5-8), I discovered quite by accident—great discoveries often happen this way, not to presume that I’ve made an amazing innovation, something that I’ll use henceforth.

I’ve made much jaw music about sampling. Bottom line: you sample to gain information. Eight inches is a good width for a sample, because it lets you know enough about how the fabric is going to behave in a larger piece than a narrower sample will tell you. I was warping with Harrisville Shetland 2-ply but ran out of the color before I’d achieved my 8” worth of sample width. To finish out what I needed, I used two other dibby-dabs of leftover yarn. What I discovered in the weaving was that these colors gave me more information about how the weft interacted with the warp.

Here are some of the samples from that warp. For easy reference, I’m storing them in clear plastic three-ring binder sleeves so that both the front and the back can be viewed. (Sometimes the “back” side is more what you have in mind than the “front” side.) Opposite the swatch is a page with the warp and weft information, draft (for harness looms) and threading guide for (rigid heddle looms), as well as my weaving record for that particular sample.

Keeping good records is critical. Even though you may think you will, you will NOT remember what you did. (I continue to learn this over, and over, and over.)

The Mighty Wolf Debuts on Network TV

See the Mighty Wolf in episode 3 of The Big Bang Theory on CBS on October 8 at 7:30pm mt, 8:30pm et/pt. Our Schacht office staff who watched the first episode enjoyed this humorous show starring some quirky, geeky guys. In episode 3, one of them weaves a poncho on our Mighty Wolf—and wears it too, we hear.
http://alpha.cbs.com/primetime/big_bang_theory/