Happy Holidays from all of us at Schacht

Our luncheon in the assembly area.

Glenn sings his poem.


Today we had our holiday luncheon, a great Brazilian feast prepared for us by our friend (and gardener) Jose Ponciano. Afterwards, I made a little Powerpoint presentation to welcome in our 40th year! Yes, Schacht Spindle Company will have been making weaving and spinning tools since 1969!

I want to share a couple of things with you. The first are the words from the card that the staff gave to Barry and me. They seem very fitting for the season and this point in time in particular.

“ In the heavens shine the stars of hope.
In the stillness stirs the new,
The bright, beautiful joy of what is to come.”

A special season is upon us.
We prepare to turn the calendar and gently close the door on another year.
Coming together, we celebrate not only the holidays,
But a time of new hope and new beginnings.

May this be an especially happy and memorable time for you…
And may the new year hold the very best of everything.”

On a lighter note, Glenn, who has been working at Schacht for nearly 40 of the years we’ve been in business, wrote this poem, sung to the tune, “The Twelve Days of Christmas”.

The Eight Days of Channukah

On the first day of Channukah, Schacht Spindle mailed to me
A floor loom from a giant maple tree…

On the second day of Channukah, Schacht Spindle sent to me
Two spindles turning…

On the third day of Channukah, Schacht Spindle they sent to me
Three cherry shuttles…

On the fourth day of Chunnukah, Schacht’s, they sent to me,
Four Crickets chirping…

On the fifth day of Chunnukah, The Schacht’s, they sent to me
F-I-V-E W-E-A-V-I-N-G- T-H-I-N-G-S…

On the sixth day of Chunnukah, the Schacht’s they sent to me
Six Flip Looms folded....

On the seventh day of Chunnukah, the Schacht’s, they mailed to me,
Seven heddles hanging…

On the eighth day of Chunnukah, the Schacht’s, they sent to me,
Eight wolves in walnut…

May the days ahead be filled with joy and warmth and may the year to come find you engaged in the crafts we love.

Plaited Basketry with Birch Bark

Yesterday I received in the mail the newly-published Plaited Basketry with Birch Bark by Vladimir Yarish, Flo Hoppe, and Jim Widess. I congratulate Sterling Publishers as well as the authors for a superbly handsome, wonderfully informative volume that makes a tremendous contribution to the craft community.

Included are comprehensive chapters on birch-bark craft history and techniques with excellent process photography throughout. These first five chapters are followed by easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions on weaving technique followed by eighteen appealing projects complete with detailed instructions.

Finally, the concluding section of the book features a gallery of plaited baskets by a numerous basket makers. This is icing on the cake.

My assessment of whether a book is a success is summed up in three words: Does it inspire? Yes, indeedy. This book succeeds on all accounts: super sharp photography (with photos large enough you can actually see what’s going on), clear and informative writing, great do-able projects, and pages and pages of compelling plaited baskets.

A final note (and full disclosure): I’d say all of the above even if I didn’t have the honor and delight of having some of my very own baskets included on pages 246-247.

Boys Who Weave

Left, woven sides not yet woven; right some of the washed sides. Identifying strings were attached to the sides so that they could be matched with it's appropriate mate after washing.

I’m so excited about the progress of “my” Mountview Weavers who have only about eight hours of weaving under their belts. The first project they are working on is a bag. They’ll weave two rectangles on the Schacht School Loom which will be sewn together for the bag. They’ll then sew on a handle made they’ve made with the Incredible Rope Machine.

Meeting for an hour once a week just wasn’t enough time for them to progress as rapidly as we needed to meet a mid-December giveaway at a Denver shelter for homeless youth.

So, last week the staff agreed to take small groups to the weaving room for some additional weaving time.

Wow, what a difference this made. Their technique improved, their production increased dramatically, and, most exciting to me, they innovated. They figured stuff out!, like, learning to make stripes in the warp, weaving horizontal weft stripes, making a plaid, weaving slit tapestry! They helped each other and learned from each other. They engaged.

I am excited about their progress, their creativity, and their sense of accomplishment. All this is good, and whether these young men ever weave again isn’t the point. What IS important is that they know that they can learn a skill, and better yet, that they can expand on that skill through their on ingenuity. And this is powerful indeed.

Back Story

The program I’m involved with is a restorative justice weaving project for 10 teenage boys who are in residential care. Restorative justice programs aim to help people who have harmed their communities in some way to give back to that community. Last year this facility started a knitting project with the girls who have knitted caps and scarves and mittens for homeless shelters as well as made blankets for the VA hospital. The facility found this project successful on many levels and wanted a similar model for the boys.

They decided that perhaps the boys would respond to weaving and approached Schacht about equipment, simple looms, such as inkle, our School Loom, rigid heddle loom and Mini Loom. The next step was to find volunteers, and through a local yarn store, Recycled Lamb, and the Rocky Mountain and the Handweavers of Boulder weavers’ guilds, we found wonderful volunteers who have committed to work in pairs one night a month for a year. I enlisted my friend Mary Kay and we met with the facility personnel to get the project organized.

We decided that a felted bag would be an easy first project. Weaving would progress quickly, and because the bag would be felted, any weaving inconsistencies would be masked. A bag seemed to be a project that would appeal to the boys.

Project Specifics:

Equipment: Schacht School Loom, two pick-up sticks, 12” stick shuttle, tapestry needle.

Yarn (Warp and Weft): Brown Sheep Worsted weight Lamb’s Pride singles.

Size: We warped the full width of the loom and wove from the very bottom to the top only as far as it allowed knots to be tied at the top edge. After removing from the loom, overhand knots were tie and long ends clipped. The bags were pre-washed for some shrinkage before machine washing with hot water and regular detergent.

Oaxaca Trip Report Part I

Barry and me in front of the Museo Textil de Oaxaca

A scene from the etnobotanico de Oaxaca

Old Oaxaca viewed from the hill.
Oaxaca side street

Here I am at the market.


Here’s my long awaited Oaxaca report. I had wanted to make installments while there, but had difficulties in getting my pictures to upload.

A Bit of Background
The state of Oaxaca is located at the southern Pacific bulge of Mexico. It is made up in large part by mountains, the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca on the east and the Sierra Madre de Sur on the west. A coastal plain meets the Pacific Ocean. Despite its southern latitude, Oaxaca’s elevation and sea breezes creates a moderate climate with seasonal summer rains and dry winters with plenty of sunshine. This, we enjoyed immensely during our stay.

Oaxaca City, the state’s capitol, and its surroundings, is where we spent our time. Oaxaca, with pre-Columbian indigenous traditions, was laid out in 1529 by Spanish conquistadors and thus is filled handsome Spanish Colonial architecture. The old city is compact and very walkable.

Here are the highlights of our days which I think appeal to the textile enthusiast:
Visit the markets: Mercado Juarez and the Mercado San Juan de Dios. Here you’ll find everything from live turkeys, to samples of mescal, to sellers of embroideries, handwoven blouses and skirts, as well as rugs big and small.

We also visited the Mercado de Artesanias, the handcraft market, but were disappointed. Other craft shops to visit are Mujeres Artesania de las Regiones de Oaxaca at 204 Cinco de Mayo which is a government supported facility where women from across the region sell their wares. My favorite shop was La Mano Magico at Alcala 203. The shop offers high quality crafts and next door in the courtyard you can watch a weaver and see some beautiful rugs.

Once you start walking around this beautiful city, you’ll see textiles everywhere. There’s an outside market not far from the cathedral Santa Domingo where you’ll find crafters selling textiles. Another shop, on a side street next to the Santa Domingo, at Allende #113, is Etnico Textiles, a tiny but jam-packed shop. I loved the well-made pillows and bags made from traditional fabrics. Another shop I loved was the austere and beautiful Tienda Q at M. Bravo 109. On display were high-quality contemporary textiles and crafts.

It is not uncommon to see street sellers with rugs or shawls along popular pedestrian routes, and if you happen to stop for a cup of coffee at one of the pleasant restaurants under the portico in front of the zocolo (central plaza), you’ll have sellers visit you right at your table.

Stroll from the zocolo up the pedestrian street , Andador Macedonio Alcala to the Centro Cultural de Santo Domingo which is comprised of the Iglesia y Ex-Convento de Santo Domingo and the Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca. Outside, a must see is the Oaxaca botanical gardens, the Etnobotanico de Oaxaca (check the times for their English tours).

Another must-see stop is the newly opened (April 2008) Museo Textil de Oaxaca at Miguel Hdalgo #917. We enjoyed the exhibit Animated Wefts, a Textile Zoo, featuring textiles from around the world.

Good Eats:
Restaurant los Pacos (love the mole), at Abasolo 121
Café La Olla, Reforma 402, delicious Mexican nuevo cuisine (if there’s such a thing). You can eat the salad here.
Casa Oaxaca, at Garcia Vigil 407. A great splurge restaurant with superb service and delicious food.
Mercado 20 de Noviembre, two blocks south of the zocolo’s southwest corner. A culinary must for the adventurous eater (I won’t reveal more—you just have the experience this!)

We stayed at the pleasant Hotel Casa Vertiz (Reforma 404), just behind Santa Domingo.

Barbara Layne and Studio subTela

Barbara Layne, who use to live in Boulder ages ago and for many years has been on the faculty in the Department of Studio Arts at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, recently sent me a link to her new website. Barbara has been working for many years on combining LED lights in woven structures, and this is the focus on the work of Studio subTela. I visited her website and was completely blown away. See for yourself at: http://subtela.hexagram.ca

I’ve printed the bio from her website below. Click on Barbara Layne on the homepage to read about all of her recent accomplishments.

"Barbara Layne is the Director of Studio subTela at the Hexagram Institute where she works with a team of graduate students from Visual Arts and Engineering at Concordia University and a variety of international collaborators. The Studio is focused on the development of intelligent cloth structures for the creation of artistic, performative and functional textiles.

Natural materials are woven in alongside microcomputers and sensors to create surfaces that are receptive and responsive to external stimuli. Controllable arrays of Light Emitting Diodes present changing patterns and texts through the structure of cloth. Wireless transmission systems have also been developed to support real time communication. In both wearable systems and site related installations, textiles are used to address the social dynamic of fabric and human interaction."