August 2-8 was my debut as a teacher at the John Campbell Folk School, and it couldn’t have been more fun! We had a class of 5 students making brightly colored silk paper…each an artist in her own right, enthused to learn a new medium, make unique work, and have some laughs in the process. Kathy Hays and I were the instructors, and we brought lots of brightly colored silk, throwsters waster, cocoon strippings, silk hankies (no, you don’t wipe your brow with them), and lots of things to paint, stamp and embellish with.
Silk Papermakers
As quickly as the first evening, we began making paper and several people were still pulling a final sheet off the crinoline on Friday afternoon…the color and sheen were simply irresistible. We were a group of diverse backgrounds - from serious art student to enthusiastic dabbler - and that’s where the magic of the Folk School really kicks in…this is a school with no grades, where everyone learns and teaches and enjoys the journey.
Since I’m a weaver, you know I had to try weaving things with my paper…here’s a vessel in process.
I’ve been wanting to go to a fleece and fiber festival since last December when I realized I’ve become a fiber addict. I made a list of all of the ones I could find on the internet, then read about them on blogs and in magazines. The Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival sounded like the best maiden voyage, made even more appealing when some friends offered to go with us and let us stay at their condo.
MSWF (as it’s known to true devotees) advertised 250 vendors and 1,000 sheep - and it seemed like lots more to me! I bought 3 fleeces from among the mountains of fluff in the sales area…it was soo exciting! and then we took them right out the side door to the processor row and sent them off to be turned into roving.
There were thousands of spinners and knitters there, even though it was a rainy day, and everyone was in good spirits. The most fascinating thing to me was getting the chance to try some unusual spinning wheels - the Merlin Hitchhiker and the Butterfly electric wheel.
Everyone in the group enjoyed shopping for fiber and yarn, but the real attraction was the animals and the chance to see and pet bunnies, pygora goats, and alpaca. With their big eyes and sweet dispositions, they were real show stoppers.
Thanks to hundreds of volunteers, this show is a real winner and a great experience for new spinners as well as experienced sheep breeders. Put it on your calendar for next year - the first full weekend in May at the Howard County Fairgrounds.
I took a shibori class with Joan Morris at the Tampa Convergence.
She designed fabric for costumes in the Lion King and included work with vegetal dyes…something I hadn’t tried before. I entered the workshop with a sense of great anticipation and a healthy curiosity.
A slight, precise, intense woman, Joan reawakened and validated my love of stitching.
Heads bent over our work, we stitched for hours before pulling the thread tight, tying just-so knots, and dipping the cotton, linen and silk fabric into dyes made from plant and animals materials. We used techniques that made fabric look like woodgrain - mokume - as well as spider webs and pole-wrapping. For a real treat we started an indigo vat and she taught us proper respect for the process and the virtues of layering color.
When you have Persian-Himalyan cats living with you, there are several benefits - there’s always something cuddly nearby to talk to and plenty of free fibery material available at your finger tips.
Little Sister, my Persian-Himalayan kitty pictured to the right, is all white with light green-blue eyes, a pink nose and a sweet disposition. My husband Gary grooms her nearly every day with a brush, and also “plucks” her by hand once or twice a week, saving the hair for me to spin. Her fleece is several inches long, and has some guard hairs I like to pluck out before and during spinning. She is an indoor cat and very clean.
Here are the steps I use to make yarn for knitting and weaving:
1) Card the fiber about 50-50 with a medium or fine white wool (like Merino or Romney) and make rolags.
The cat hair is very fine and slippery. You can spin it alone if you twist it tightly, but I think it feels and looks better when it’s blended with wool.
2) Next, Z spin the fiber into singles. You need to keep the triangle fairly small, and the rolags have a tendency to deteriorate into clouds of fluff.
3) Finally, ply your cat hair singles with white rayon, tencel or sewing thread for a knittable yarn that looks a bit like mohair. Enjoy!
Batik is the first surface design technique I ever learned and is still one of my favorites. I love the way colors blend right on the fabric during the dyeing process, the discipline of planning the move from light to dark, and being surprised with unexpected beauty.
My first batik was a giant tree made on a sheet and hung on a bamboo rod in my apartment. I like to work on cotton as a “warm up” to a batik session because inexpensive material helps me feel free to experiment.
The nicest piece I’ve made so far is Silken River, a 3′ by 20′ length of silk featuring fish drawn with hot wax in traditional yoruba designs. It was first shown at the University of Tampa in 2006 as part of an installation accompanying a one-woman show by Susan Taylor Lennon. And most recently at the Dunedin Fine Arts Center in the Surfacing Show in 2008 as part of Convergence.
I used a combination of shibori and batik for this 4′ by 8′ panel called All the Warriors in the 2007 Exquisite Corpse show in Ybor City at Deep Carnivale.
The tools I use aren’t fancy - my “paintbrush” is a piece of foam rubber cushion carved to look like a carrot, and the wax is heated in an electric skillet bought at a thrift store. I also use wooden stamps and metal cookie cutters for stamps. The process is simple, hot wax creates a resist on those parts of the cloth it covers, so I start by painting or stamping anything I want to keep white, then dip in the first color (usually yellow), then paint those spots I want to keep yellow, dip in a deeper color, and so on until I’m finished.
When I signed up for Holly Brackmann’s Convergence workshop, Fast and Easy Dyeing Without a Dyepot, I had no idea what I was getting into. She’s written a great book called The Surface Designer’s Handbook, and I figured I’d pick up some tips and tricks.
Well, that’s an understatement! Holly introduced me to something completely foreign - disperse dyes - first you paint onto paper, then transfer onto fabric by using a hot iron - preferably onto polyester. Now I don’t really feature going back to wearing polyester (in fact I never really did) so I was stumped for a while and just played around with color.
This was Day 4 of Convergence and I’d spent the last 3 days in shiboriland (more about that later when my samples are done) - my brain wasn’t taking this in. So at lunch I sat down between the big curtain windows overlooking the Hillsborough River and the lunch line, so I saw lots of friends, met new people, joked around and got some good ju-ju going.
That afternoon, I was waiting for the summer afternoon thunderstorms to roll through and found those disperse dyes were just the thing to capture the moment. Thanks, Holly!
I stumbled across this website the other day, and it was so well done I thought it was real…and the more I read, the more I laughed at how well they represent the university culture.
“The Chicago School of Fusing campus was first located in an aromatic cheese factory, on Chicago’s East Side. Later the campus was relocated to the Flat Iron Building (FIB) in the heart of Chicago. Campus facilities now cover several blocks on the famous Chicago River with daily ferry service to train stations and Lake Michigan. The Fusitorium hosts the majority of classes. Technical classes in iron repair and maintenance are held in the The Iron Workers United Building or IWUB. The Flat Iron Student Services (FISS) building houses a large ice machine and Band-Aid vending service near the Nurse’s office.”
Came across this series of posts on Rugtalk (a yahoo group I belong to) - amazing and creative…
Q. I have a question about my loom and a 3month old kitten. She has now ventured into my room and over a 3 day period ruined all my warping on the loom (broken threads)! I have no doors to my room. Maybe when my kids grow and move out I can have a room with a door. Is there something that will detour the cat? I have trained the dog not to come into the room and my old cat has no interest. Help!
A.She is a kitten…so she is very interested and will be for at least a year.One deterrent you can try is a water gun. Have her with you in the loom room, and when she attacks the loom or warp then shoot her. When she is not bothering anything let her alone.She may still be too young to put it together but by 6 months she will be old enough.I have 19 cats and 7 dogs….always challenging…blessings
A. Put lots of rows of double sided tape across the doorway - you might have to do a wide stretch she will have a hard time jumping over - cats hate sticky feet!
A. When I lived in Florida I did volunteer work for private sanctuaries and had baby monkeys. Full grown they weighed a pound and had tails 12 inches long. Used to get caught in the harnesses on my Seivers loom while I was weaving. LOL
A.I use single sheet of newspaper, covering the warp front and back, and it will keep a cat off the loom. It doesn’t weigh down the warp threads like a blanket might and is easy to fold up and store away. And move your bench!!!
A.I built a platform (removable) across the top of my loom. My very agile cat’s main interest was getting up there and looking down at everyone…I also cover my weaving and the warp with sheets when I’m not working.
A. Mothballs will keep Kitten away from your weaving! You only need a few and they will avoid your loom like the plague!
A.I have heard that cats do not like lemon juice. Also pepper sprinkled in the doorway might do the trick.It is a repellant to some animals. My cat, once she was allowed in the house after disappearing for 10 days, hasn’t tried to sleep on the warp yet but she sure climbs around and explores in my mess. She was batting away at my warp threads when I was threading one day. She is on the skittery side so all I had to do was stomp my foot at her and she left. Just hope that whoever you sell to is not allergic.
This evening I forwarded a couple of Calls for Artists to other weaver and fiber artist friends…but didn’t put the deadlines on my calendar. Why do I feel so ready to encourage others, but not myself? A little bit of cloth, a lot of color, some dash and a dribble of glitz…that’s all it is.
Here’s a piece of mine I call “Stitching Dreams” that was in the Oiseaux Sisters‘ invitational - the Shy Show - at Still Life in G Gallery in Bradenton during February and March of 2008.
August 2-8 was my debut as a teacher at the John Campbell Folk School, and it couldn’t have been more fun! We had a class of 5 students making brightly colored silk paper…each an artist in her own right, enthused to learn a new medium, make unique work, and have some laughs in the process. Kathy Hays and I were the instructors, and we brought lots of brightly colored silk, throwsters waster, cocoon strippings, silk hankies (no, you don’t wipe your brow with them), and lots of things to paint, stamp and embellish with.
Since I’m a weaver, you know I had to try weaving things with my paper…here’s a vessel in process.
That afternoon, I was waiting for the summer afternoon thunderstorms to roll through and found those disperse dyes were just the thing to capture the moment. Thanks, Holly!
