WORKSHOPS
Painted Warps and Parallel Threadings
5-day workshop
This workshop takes you on a weaving journey through Echo and beyond, with the steps as follows:
- Day 1: Paint two warps in different but complementary color-ways
- Day 2: Rinse and dry your warps and begin beaming them together as one on your loom
- Day 3: Thread in an Echo pattern (using your two warps on opposites in an extended parallel threading)
- Day 4: Finish threading, sleying, and tying on and begin weaving
- Day 5: Experiment with tie-ups and treadlings to achieve a variety of patterns in Echo, Jin, Shadow Weave, Rep, Double Weave and, if you choose, differential shrinkage
You will go home with a beautiful array of samples and new techniques to deepen and broaden your weaving practice. 4-shaft looms are fine, 8-shaft and more are preferred. Students must know how to dress a loom and read a drawdown. Familiarity with weaving software is helpful as well.
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One Warp, Many Structures: Explorations in Extended Parallel Threading
2 1/2 to 3-day workshop
As Marian Stubenitsky has shown in Weaving with Echo
and Iris, extended parallel threadings offer endless possibilities. In
this workshop, designed for advanced beginners and beyond, you will arrive with
your loom dressed in a two-color warp on a parallel threading. (Drafts will be
provided about 6 weeks beforehand.) Working with a variety of tie-ups and
treadlings, you will weave a series of designs in Echo, Jin (Turned Taqueté), Shadow Weave, Rep, and Double Weave. The takeaway is a sampler of colorful patterns and a broader,
deeper understanding of the potential for extended parallel threadings and how
to design them. For 4-shaft to 32-shaft looms.
_____________________________________Dimensional Weaving for 4 to 32 Shafts
2 1/2 to 3-day workshop
4 shafts
8 shafts
32 shafts
In the water, textured fabrics can change before your eyes: pleating, folding, buckling, and curving into three-dimensional shapes. In this workshop, we will look at the three basic techniques for creating collapse fabrics: weave structure, the use of active and inactive yarns in warp and/or weft, and differential shrinkage. Participants will choose among designs for 4 to 32 shafts and then weave 5 or 6 samples using different yarns, tieups, and treadlings -- all demonstrating how texture, working in synergy with pattern and color, adds beauty and interest to a fabric. Registrants must be able to read a draft and dress a loom.
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Weaving Outside the Box: How to Make Dimensional Cloth
2 1/2-day workshop
Color and structure are usually cited as the two most expressive elements in weaving, while texture, a vital factor in artful weaving, is often overlooked. This workshop focuses on creating three-dimensional pleats, curves, and other forms, emulating the organic lines and shapes of nature. Using certain advantageous structures, active and inactive yarns, and finishing techniques, you will learn how to expand your weaving repertoire and create "tactile art."
You'll choose a project for 4, 6, 8, 12, or 16 shafts from my book (shown above) and arrive at the workshop with your loom dressed and ready to go. The workshop id designed for intermediate weavers: those who know how to dress a loom and read a draft. Materials fee of $50 includes purchase and shipping of book beforehand.
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Designing with Deflected Double Weave
2 1/2 to 3-day workshop*
Deflected Double Weave for Collapse Fabrics
2 1/2 to 3-day workshop*
Participants will share an in-depth learning experience with Deflected Double Weave. This is an on-loom workshop, with students weaving a number of samples in a design for 4 to 16 shafts. We'll look at how to vary tieups and treadlings to create new designs and learn the different techniques for weaving selvages. In addition, we will work with active wefts such as Colcolastic, gold gimp, fine merino, and wool/stainless steel to achieve textured effects after finishing. We will discuss a variety of methods for designing this visually intriguing, graphic structure and practice creating our own designs with Fiberworks or other weaving software. Students will wind their warps and dress their looms prior to the workshop, ready to begin weaving the first morning.
*This can also be presented as a one-day, off-loom workshop.
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2 ½ to 3-day workshop
Echo and Jin: Playing with Color Chords
This workshop
gives weavers an understanding of and practice with Deflected Double Weave as a
structure that will collapse, pleat, and pucker after washing. Participants
will choose from drafts I have designed for 4, 8, 12 and 16-shaft looms and will
wind warps and dress their looms before the workshop. At the workshop, they
will weave a number of samples for reference, washing at least one to learn how
collapse techniques are applied in the finishing. They will also practice drafting
and planning their own Deflected Double Weave designs using collapse techniques.
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8-shaft Echo design on a 4-color warp
For 4 to 16 shafts, this is an on-loom study of the color wheel and theories of color harmony, based on the teachings of 20th-century artists Johannes Itten and Josef Albers. The focus is on developing a subjective and objective sense of how to optimize the use of color in your weaving practice, particularly in weaving parallel-threaded designs. At least six weeks prior to the workshop, you will choose from a series of Echo and Jin designs provided by the instructor, with options for 2-end or 4-end parallel threadings. Next, you will choose warp colors based on Itten's theories of color chords, drawing from his 12-point color wheel. During the workshop, you will weave samples using different tieups, treadlings, weft yarns, and weft colors.
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Echo and Jin: Variations on a Theme
2 ½ to 3-day workshop
Echo on 12 shafts, 2 colors in warp, one in weft
Working with a variety of yarns, tieups, treadlings and setts (if you choose), you'll weave a series of designs in Echo and Jin (Turned Taqueté). You'll explore the interaction of color and structure, using two to four colors in the warp and a variety of colors in the weft. And you'll explore design, learning how different treadlings, tieups and setts change the pattern and learning how to use Fiberworks to create your own designs. This workshop is for intermediate weavers and beyond, for looms with 4 to 16 shafts (with designs for 24 and 32 shafts upon request). With drafts and warping instructions provided beforehand, you will begin the workshop with you loom dressed in a two or four-color warp using an extended parallel threading.
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2 ½ to 3-day workshop
Echo on 8 shafts, 20/2 cotton warp and weft,
2 colors in both warp and weft
Echo on 12 shafts, 2 colors in warp, one in weft
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Echo on the Double: Doubleweave on Parallel Threadings
8-shaft doubleweave sample on an Echo threading, front view
Same sample, back view
Echo threadings -- also known as extended-parallel threadings -- offer limitless possibilities for flowing designs and bold color combinations. When woven as doubleweave, using two or more colors in the warp and two colors in the weft, the interactions among warp, weft, and pattern create striking motifs and color interactions. Weavers will choose their designs, gather their yarns, and warp their looms prior to the beginning of the workshop. Color theory, profile drafting, network drafting, and designing doubleweave tieups are some of the topics covered in this workshop.
For intermediate to advanced weavers, with the use of weaving software recommended but not required. For 4, 8, 12, and 16 shaft looms (with designs for 24 and 32 shafts upon request).
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Paint Two, Beam One:
Painting Two Warps and Weaving Them as One
2 1/2 to 3-day workshop
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One Warp, Four Fabrics: Weaving with 60/2 Silk
2 1/2 to 3-day workshop
This workshop aims to take the fear out of weaving with fine silk using different wefts, tieups and treadlings to achieve widely varied results. Students will come away with samples of four distinctly different and useful fabrics: one suitable for scarves, with a delicate hand and wonderful drape; one resembling rag rugs, suitable for jackets and coats; one collapse fabric with lots of texture and personality; and one historic fabric that stretches vertically, simply because of the yarns and structure. Students will also have a primer on the history and potential of silk fiber. Skill level: intermediate to advanced.
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Paint Two, Beam One: Painting Two Warps and Weaving Them as One
1-day workshop
This shorter workshop has the same focus as the 2 1/2 to 3-day workshop, but covered in one day, with dyeing, beaming of warps, and weaving taking place after the workshop. We will cover how to wind your warps, plan your colors, prepare your dyes, paint your warps, and beam them as one on your loom. In addition to handouts, you'll receive a variety of WIFs and PDFs giving you threadings, tieups, and treadlings for patterns on 4, 6, 8, and 12 shafts. (You also have the option to work with a pattern you've chosen beforehand.)
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How to Make Dorset Buttons
3-hour workshop
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Learn to make colorful, whimsical buttons – for jewelry, surface decoration or fasteners for your handmade garments – using only curtain rings, a tapestry needle, yarn, and perhaps beads. Based on 19th-century patterns from Dorset, England, these buttons are easy to create and customize to match your own fiber creations. To make your own buttons for a current weaving, felting, or knitting project, bring along your project and yarns. No prior experience needed.
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LECTURES
The Power of Craft: A Weaver's Perspective
1-hour lecture and PowerPoint
“There is something in every human soul which seeks to create a thing of beauty, given any sort of opportunity and materials to do so. Throughout all the ages people have pursued their own ideas of beauty, building, shaping, weaving, painting, decorating. They have carried on that pursuit through every medium that ever came to hand: wood, stone, feathers, bone, ivory, cloth, jewels, metals, glass, clay, shell, leather, pigment… and yarn,” writes Barbara G. Walker in her 1968 book, A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns.
This lecture, accompanied by images of weaving and crafts throughout history, looks at the pursuit of craft, from ancient to modern times, and why it continues to enrich our lives -- from a weaver’s perspective, of course!
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Dorset Buttons: A Heritage Craft
1-hour lecture and PowerPoint
Dorset buttons, designated in England as a "Heritage Craft," continue to delight fiber artists today as colorful, whimsical embellishments for jewelry, surface-design and fasteners for handmade clothing. The variations are limitless and they can be created anywhere using only curtain rings, a tapestry needle and yarn (and beads if you choose). Further, you can customize these buttons to match your own creations, using yarns from your stash.
Dorset buttons have been around for centuries, beginning in the 17th century as a cottage industry in County Dorset on the English Channel. Come hear the history of these lovely designs, viewing lots of inspirational photos along the way, and learn how to make them on your own.
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Echo and Jin: Variations on a Theme1-hour lecture and PowerPoint
This lecture illustrates how extended parallel threadings -- known as "Echo" threadings -- offer weavers unlimited options for designs, textures and color palettes, just by changing your tieup and treadling and varying your weft yarns and sett. Echo and Jin designs take weaving "off the grid," allowing weavers to create flowing lines, circles and unique shapes. These techniques can include networked threadings and treadlings, which will also be discussed.
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Echo Threadings: The Warp that Keeps on Giving
1-hour lecture and PowerPoint
12-shaft Echo sample courtesy of Maryann Ariizumi
12-shaft Shadow Weave draft
12-shaft Rep draft
12-shaft double weave draft
How can you weave Echo, Jin, Shadow Weave, Rep, and double weave on just one warp, with just one threading? With an extended-parallel threading, that's how -- simply by varying the tieup, treadling, and weft yarns and, in the case of Rep and double weave, by re-sleying as well. This lecture traces, which looks at techniques for intermediate to advanced weavers, sheds light on the wide-ranging possibilities of Echo threadings, as discussed by Marian Stubenitsky in her groundbreaking book, Weaving with Echo and Iris.
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Tactile Art: Collapse Fabrics from 4 to 32 Shafts
1-hour lecture and PowerPoint
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Paint Two, Beam One: Painting Two Warps
and Beaming Them as One
1-hour lecture and PowerPoint
This lecture and PowerPoint presentation, accompanied by garments and samples, presents designs and methods for painting two warps and weaving them as one on your loom. You'll learn how this technique, when used with extended parallel threadings and other warp-emphasis weaving patterns, can optimize the use of color in your weaving.
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Once Upon a Warp: From the Loom to the Runway
1-hour lecture and PowerPoint
This lecture traces my weaving journey from concept to completion of a garment, followed by a fashion show of the garments themselves. Every year since 2008 I have set myself a challenge: Weave a garment (or two) that will be juried into the Convergence fashion show, part of the biannual conference of the Handweavers’ Guild of America. To date, I have been able to meet the challenge – but there’s more to the story, with some ups and downs along the way! Anyone who weaves or creates fabric or designs garments will relate.
