Spinning and Weaving in the Modern World

Recently, I've been re-evaluating my practice, not just what I do, but also, how I do it.  I came into spinning and weaving towards the end of the "hippy" era and I've worked really hard over the last 40+ years to raise the perception of those two crafts as genuine "Master Crafts".  So many people expect them to have a roughness about them, expecting them to have a "homespun" feel, not perfect.

When I was learning my craft, weaving in particular, I also learnt the history of weaving which included the Medieval Guild System.  All weavers started out as an apprentice to a Master Weaver, then served up to 25 years as a Journeyman, working all over the country, and Europe, with other Master Weavers, before finally becoming a Master Weaver themselves when they presented their masterpiece to their appropriate guild.  I feel I've served my apprenticeship, gaining my GCE 'O' and 'A' Levels way back in the early 70's and since then I've attended numerous coures with other well established weaver all over the UK.  I now feel I'm a Master Weaver in my own right having gained two awards from the Bradford Textile Society!

Similarly, I first experienced spinning while at school so as to understand yarn construction for my weaving.  I've served under numerous spinning tutors such as Sue Hiley-Harris and Jenny Parry over the last 35 years and, again, feel I understand sufficient technicalities of spinning to be able to construct most types of yarn.  Yes, I can spin beautiful smoothly spun and plied yarns, but choose to spin brightly coloured textured yarn, Art Yarn to most new spinners, but fancy yarn to me!  Oh, and I understand exactly how they are spun, using the irregularities in preparation, spinning and plying to produce texture where and when I want it.

So why is it that my hand weaving is perceived to be machine woven?  Why can't beautifully hand woven fabrics be accepted in the Craft world along side the likes of broken crockery re-assembled in the most odd way which represent the best of modern craft!  I don't want my fabrics to be rough and ready proudly showing the mistakes to authenticate that it's hand woven, I've worked to hard and long to be a Master Weaver to let my standards slip just to show it's hand made.

Nor do I want to wear a mob cap and shawl to show that I'm a spinner!  Yes, the mob cap and shawl has it's place to bring history alive, but I spin in a modern world and want to attract the next generation to spinning.  After all, knitters don't sit in a shawl at their Knit and Natter Groups, they sit in cafes and tea shops, on buses and at stations, knitting gorgeous yarns, often hand spun and hand dyed, into fabulous garments.

Even though I'm just back from ISEND (International Symposium and Exhibition on Natural Dyes) and intend to dye all my yarns, fibres or fabrics with natural dyes, I'm not a "hippy", alternative living person, wearing recycled sludge coloured clothes.  My colours are bright and clear and full of life and I fully embrace sustainability, but again I live in a modern world!  Fashion and interiors can also embrace sustainability without looking grubby and dull, embracing the Slow Cloth Movement.  Most of the participants who exhibited at ISEND, including the traders, all had contemporary fabrics to show, the fabulous fabrics from The Weavers Studio are a case in point.

So what am I trying to say here in all this ramble?   I may be nearer 60 than 50, but I'm a modern woman and, therefore, a modern weaver and spinner.  I dream of a world where we all wear beautifully designed hand spun, hand dyed and hand woven fabrics that will last a lifetime and be cherished as modern heirlooms.  Sadly, that's not going to happen, but, we should all be promoting sustainability, which includes spinning, weaving and natural dyeing, and we should all embrace the Slow Cloth Movement.  So think twice when you pop into one of those "fast fashion" shops.  Think, how long will this garment last?  Who spun, dyed and wove it?  Were they paid a proper wage?  Did the company practice sustainability during production?

I'd love to hear your comments?

Creative Spinning in York

Last Saturday I travelled up to York to give a talk in the afternoon and tutored a workshop on the following Sunday for the York and District Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers.  There was a packed hall and below are the results of their endeavours.

Sorry for the few that are a bit blurred, but I get so excited when I see the spectacular results!

Sustainability

I've just finished quite a busy few weeks looking at sustainability.

It began with the Rebecca Early lecture and workshop at Nottingham Trent University.  Becky has been doing a lot of research into sustainability and with a group of lecturers at the Chelsea College of Art and Design set up TEDResearch.  Please take a look at Rebecca's website and at the TED website which has some interesting and very useful resources and while you're there don't forget to sign up for their newsletter!

Last week saw me at NTU again, for the Private view of Akihiko Izukura's exhibtion, Life in Colours.  Running alongside the exhibition has been a set of four workshops which explore Mr Izukura's philosophy of natural textiles, Spinning, Reeling, Dyeing and Weaving and Braiding.

The exhibition is a revelation and a profusion of colour!  Who said natural dyeing was boring!   If you've in the Nottingham area is really is worth tracking down the exhibition at NTU's Bonington Gallery, your won't be disappointed unless you hate colour!  If weaving is your thing, you won't help being amazed at the skill of his weaving of traditional sashes, Obi, or his skill in braiding which is manipulated to fit the body.

The morning following the Private View I attended a Spinning workshop with Mr Izukura.  It wasn't what I'd call spinning, but was very interesting, never the less.  We had six silk worm cocoons that had been de-gummed and which contained two silk worms.  These "double" cocoons are not good for reeling as the two silk worms in the one cocoon cause the silk filament to tangle.  We pulled the softened cocoons into rectangles then moulded them over balloons and plastic to form 3D shapes, which were then painted with rice paste to stiffen then when the paste dried.

The afternoon was followed with the Natural Dye workshop, which for me was so wonderfully refreshing and completely different to any natural dyeing that I do.  I chose to dye a silk scarf which had been woven in Mr Izukura's factory in Kyoto, Japan.  The warp was spun silk and the weft was noil silk and took the dyes beautifully.  

I wetted my scarf, pleated it diagonally, forming a small triangle which I then pleated across the triangle and tied with two elastic bands.  I dipped one end in logwood, the other in cochineal, the top of the centre in walnut and the bottom centre in clove.

To fix the dyes I dipped the whole scarf in Camillia Ash water, then dipped the ends in fermented iron water.  This picture really doesn't do the colours justice.  What was amazing in this workshop was that we didn't use any heat and the dipped very quickly!

I was back again this week for a Reeling Workshop, where we reeled six cocoons into 3D shapes over balloons and plastic cylinders.  Very similar to the Spinning workshop, but using the filament silk rather than the noil.   We spent the afternoon weaving and braiding naturally dyed paper yarn into an interesting "neck piece".

My whole practice has been questioned by these events, how can I make my practice more sustainable and how do I take on board Mr Izukura's philosophy, putting nature before ego and practice!

So much food for thought.

Workshops and Courses for 2010

Here is a list of the workshops and courses I will be tutoring in 2010:

Saturday 15 May - Creative Spinning - Abergele Guild of Weavers Spinners and Dyers.

Sunday 17 to Friday 21 May - Beginners Spinning - New Bath Hotel - for Skylark Holidays.

Monday 7 to Friday 22 June - Natural Dyeing - Standlow Farm - for Skylark Holidays.

Saturday 19 to Sunday 20 June - Creative Spinning - New Bath Hotel - for Skylark Holidays.

Saturday 3 to Sunday 4 July - Start to Weave with a Rigid Heddle Loom - New Bath Hotel - for Skylark Holidays.

Tuesday 13 to Wednesday 14 - Introduction to Dyeing - Standlow Farm - for Skylark Holidays.

Sunday 25 to Friday 30 July - Learn to Weave with 4 shafts - Venue to be confirmed - for Skylark Holidays.

Sunday 26 September to Friday 1 October - Introduction to Weave Design - New Bath Hotel - for Skylark Holidays.

Sunday 3 to Friday 8 October - Creative Dyeing - Standlow Farm - for Skylark Holidays.

Saturday 16 October - Colour Blending in Spinning - Bradford Guild.

Saturday 23 to Sunday 24 October - Rigid Heddle follow on course - Flitwick - Ravelry Weaving Group.Saturday 30 to Sunday 31 October - Make the most of your Rigid Heddle Loom - New Bath Hotel - for Skylark Holidays.

Saturday 6 to Sunday 7 November - Introduction to Spinning - New Bath Hotel - for Skylark Holidays.

Saturday 20 November to Sunday 21 November - Creative Spinning - York and District Guild.

Saturday 27 November - Colour and Weave - Hallamshire Guild.Colour [ Color]-And-Weave Design Book: A Practical Reference Book

Funky Fancy Yarns

Here are a selection of fancy yarns produced at the Funky Fancy Yarn Workshop organised at Alet Tienpont's studio, Textielwerk Wol en Zo in Zeeland, Netherlands, last week.

Jane Deane, Amanda Hannaford and I had been invited to tutor two, 2 day workshops in the Netherlands.

The first, organised by Dineke of De Spinners in The Hague included Creative Spinning with Jane, Woollen, Worsted and Cotton with Amanda and Natural Dye Extracts with me!   From the Hague we traveled to Zeeland in the south of the Netherlands where Jane tutored a Silk Workshop, Amanda Woollen, Worsted and Cotton again, while I tutored the Funky Fancy Yarn Workshop for Alet.

We were bowled over by the beautiful yarns produced in all the workshops and I have included just a few of the fancy yarns in this blog!

I hope you are inspired to have a go!

Creative Spinning in Kent

Last week end I was invited, by Kent Guild of Spinners, Dyers and Weavers, to tutor a Creative Spinning workshop.

This annual members event runs from 11.15am to 3.30pm so there wasn't a lot of time for them to get their heads round Creative Spinning using an image as a source of inspiration.

Here are a few photographs of what can be achieved in so short a length of time!

Inspiration ranged from photographs of gardens;

Images from gardening magazines;











Images from the front of greetings cards;











And images from other magazines.

All in all the results were spectacular and all the members who took part felt they'd learnt a great deal about new techniques and how to interpret images into beautiful, inspirational yarns.

By the way, I drove down on the Friday evening, so as to be fresh for the start of the workshop, and stayed with Kent Guild member Valerie Selden and her husband John. They run a lovely B & B in the village of Mersham, called Glebe Place and if you're looking for a place to stop on the way to France or to explore Kent then try their hospitality!

Design for Creative Spinners

Hi all

Jane Deane and I have just heard that there are still places on the Design for Creative Spinners course at the National Association of Guilds Summer School in August.

As you know Jane and I are passionate about design, but realise that many people are frightened by it, so we aim, on this course, to dispel some myths! We both maintain that if you can colour in and scribble, you can design and we will show you some simple ways to explore this to help you produce some stunning yarns from a favourite image.

On the right you will see an image of a page of one of my sketchbooks. Although it looks like I've painted a lovely water colour, it's actually an enlargement of the small image which I coloured in!

So if you feel that you are painting or drawing challenged or are stuck in a rut with your spinning, now is your chance to find out a few simple secrets that will revolutionise your spinning and help you to become a yarn designer!

For more information please download the Summer School Brochure here.
And by the way, you don't have to be a guild member to be able to attend!

Design for Creative Spinners

Hi everyone,

I have some exciting new! Jane Deane and I have been accepted to tutor a course at the 2009 Summer School for Weavers, Spinners and Dyers at Lincoln.

Our course is Design for Creative Spinners and we will be taking you through the design process using sketchbooks and easy design tips for those who don't think they can paint or draw! This will be followed by looking at fancy yarn techniques appropriate to your design work and on the last two day you will be making your designer yarns and sampling with knitting or weave!

We are really excited about this opportunity and look forward to meeting some new friends and maybe some old friends, too!

Not much to say really, but!

I've been quite busy really, so not had much time to post, I had intended to post at least once a week, but I'm afraid I haven't managed that!

I have been teaching on a Monday evening and had to prepare for that, as well as preparing for 5 days of teaching design to spinners for Skylark Holidays.

Add to that preparing to take my dyes to Woolfest at the end of the month and preparing for a weaving course for Skylark Holidays at the beginning of July, too! I wish you could add a couple of hours into your day when they were needed, sometimes 24 aren't enough!!

We had the proof of the book back from the publishers, last week. It really is going to be stunning. For those of you who don't know, my friend, Jane Deane, and I have written a book called "Creative Spinning" for Gaia, part of the Octopus Publishing group. We were asked way back at the end of last September if we could write an inspirational "coffee table" book and were given 6 weeks to produce 30 projects and 15,000 words. Well that was really a tall order so we asked for an extension and they gave us an extra 2 weeks! Needless to say we managed it and the book went off to the technical editor, who did a fantastic job because we were then told it had been sold to an American publisher and they wanted a "how to" section, but still only 15,000 words!

I have to say that the photographs are stunning and the illustrations are really clear. I just hope that it is well received, I can't tell you how stressful it is to have such a tight brief and deadline, my neck and shoulders are still suffering 7 months later!

By the way, the book is one of a series of 4; Creative Spinning, Creative Weaving, Creative Natural Dyeing and Creative Felting.

More soon.