Its been a busy month for the guild with CoCoMad, a guild talk about a woven wedding dress and Yarningham... CoCoMad 4 of us went to CoCoMad this year. This year it was back after a break of 2 years because of the pandemic. Sarah brought her brilliant gazebo, Tina brought her giant trolley and the blackboard sign which she writes with such skill. Carolyn brought her foraged fibre and baskets and created so much interest with visitors who were keen to have a go at making cordage from some of her fibre. Lynne came and joined us too and I had my trusted spinning wheel. Sarah bought her scarf loom and warped it up there and started to weave. We all helped children to make friendship bracelets and we even had one child who loved it so much she kept returning with friends to teach them too! We had some heavy showers but we stuck it out and the evening was lovely. Sarah and I finally let around 7:30 pm after a very long day. We did think it was a good day as we had a lot of interest in our crafts and maybe some new members for September. Here are some images from the day with apologies to Carolyn as her head is missing and I can't work out how to change portrait to landscape correctly. How I wove my wedding dress by Louise Cottey This was our guild talk on 9th July. It has been long waited for after several postponements. However it was well worth the wait. This is a very short version of her story and any mistakes are mine. She told us the story of her weaving life. After her degree she worked and volunteered at Cold Harbour Mill in Devon and she went to New Zealand and lived there for some time and had a chance to work with a weaver there. She's been involved in many different art projects which sometimes used the environment. She has designed woven fabrics for numerous projects and people. She wanted to weave her own wedding dress and she talked about the long process of sampling and eventually choosing the weave and fibre she wanted. She showed us her samples along with samples of her amazing weaving. She had problems with the mohair fibre in her warp which kept breaking and she was weaving an inch and then having to stop to mend the broken warp threads. She ended up having to work for hours during the night to finish the fabric in time to give to to her dressmaker. She showed us a photo of her wearing it on her wedding day and also brought the dress for us to see. It was beautiful and obviously worth all the blood, sweat and tears that went into it! She started her business called The Loom Shed just before lockdown but she has made it work and now has a lovely weaving space with space for teaching. She doesn't weave to sell at the moment (could this be because she now has a 4 year old son?!), but makes an income from teaching which she really enjoys. A fascinating talk - thank you Louise. the photos below show a little detail from her wedding dress and also some of her woven fabric which was inspired by colours seen at West Bay near Bridport. Yarningham 10th July
Tina spent Saturday at Yarningham and on Sunday Rachel and I went. It was very warm in the marquee but we had a good day. The best part of demonstrations is meeting and chatting to like minded people.I certainly did that at Yarningham. I will just mention a few of the lovely people I met there. Jo came and spoke to me about coming back to spinning after many years. She had got out her old traditional wheel and wants to spin again. We suggested she come to guild in September for help and advice and in the meantime to treat herself to some fibre (after all she was in the right place to get some!) that she really loves so she will feel truly inspired to succeed. Then there was Louise who has just decided to treat herself to a wheel from Fibre Hut. She was so excited when she had a go with my Ashford Joy and really got the idea of spinning very quickly- maybe she will choose a Joy instead of the one she had planned to buy. Jute from the Printing Works in Moseley came to speak to me too. She said that they have 2 large looms in working order and wondered if anyone from our guild would be interested in using them as its a shame that they hardly ever get used. I spoke to Laura from @AdventuresinYarnCraft and she lives locally and she is considering coming to join us in September. That would be great, we look forward to seeing you, Laura. I must also say hello to Margery and Sylvia who work for the NHS who came to try out our weaving loom. They were so excited to be weaving -see below And lastly the lady who asked me to help her with the yarnwinder. She then told me about the weaving kit she had just bought and when she showed it to me I said 'Oh its just a piece of cardboard' and she laughed so much when she realised she has paid £15 for a piece of cardboard and we both laughed a lot!!
0 Comments
|
AuthorWendy Simpson , guild member since 2014. Started as a spinner, then got hooked on natural dyes and now I'm learning to weave Archives
January 2023
Categories |