Art Show this Weekend - Fiber Art and More

See my work and lots more at the annual Studio Arts Festival hosted by the Irvine Fine Arts Center in Heritage Park. I'm participating as a member of South Coast Weavers and Spinners Guild.

Date: Saturday, June 3, 2017
Time: 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Location: 14321 Yale Ave., Irvine (in Heritage Park)
Admission and parking: Free

Layered Sprang on RH loom

After reading my scarf project article in Mar/Apr 2016 Handwoven magazine, rigid-heddle weaver Amanda Cluxton figured out how to do sprang on weaving on a rigid-heddle loom. Check it out in the photo:  where it is woven in, her supplementary warp is just "sistering" the ground warp in plain weave. Cool!

You can see another shot of the project off the loom and more of Amanda's projects at ravelry.com under user acd101.

Dye Day Blah Results - and a Pleasant Surprise

It was a beautiful day to spend at the Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens for the annual Fiber Arts Day. I was one of the dyers again (our fourth year now!). We had our usual beautiful setting under a nice shade tree beside the herb garden. I had fun sharing about dyeing and the fiber arts with the hundreds of visitors coming through the Gardens.

My dye results were less than successful, the beauty of the day notwithstanding. Out of my four dyepots I'd planned, only one - the madder - turned out as I'd hoped. One didn't even make it as far as getting the yarn in.  The other three are pictured here. From left to right, olive leaves (alum mordant), olive leaves (copper mordant), madder (alum), madder (copper), avocado pits (alum), avocado pits (copper).

After a long day with less-than-desireable results, it was a super pleasant surprise to come home to a package on my doorstep from Colorado.  Schacht Spindle Company gifted me a beautiful shuttle, complete with a note from Barry Schacht. It made my day!

Whoo-hoo! Cover Girl

My scarf with Danish medallions is on the cover of Handwoven magazine this month; how cool is that? This issue covers all different types of finishing techniques, so it's pretty yummy if you're into handwork like me. These techniques can be applied to almost any loom including rigid-heddle looms.  Pick up your copy at Interweave, https://www.interweave.com/store/handwoven-may-june-2017-digital-edition .

Retreat Report

I had a wonderful time teaching at CNCH! Here are a few photos from my class on layering sprang on handwoven fabric. First, the classroom, which was located about as close to the beach as they get.








Some views of the students work. They all were experimenting and seemed to have a great time doing it.  Everyone got beyond the basic 1/1 interlinking, and they were trying out some fun things I wouldn't have thought of. Innovative, creative work!

Including one who decided to work sprang on the reverse side of her fabric, so we turned the loom upside down!