It's been awhile, but I just spent an inspirational weekend at IWC, the InterMountain Weaver's Conference in Durango. Besides that the college is way up high, and the dorm overlooks the city, and looks across at the mountains it is just plain beautiful there. There were 170 attendees, and the class offerings were wonderful

Yoshiko Wada, whose class Nancy Ullman took, gave a very interesting talk on the trends in Japanese textiles, along with a fashion show on Friday night. Jason Collingwood was teaching a rug weaving class which at least one member of our guild took, Nadine Sanders was teaching Theo Moorman, and I think Alene took that, Helen Finney and I were in Barbara Herbster's differential shrinkage class, with a bunch of fun people, I saw Melodie and met her friend from Abiqui but I don't know what class they took. Evelyn and Joni might have been taking Rebecca's color blending class and Ann was either in Judy Dominic's mudcloth dying class, or the other manipulating fabric class. I looked in on Sharon Alderman's class and everyone was weaving clear crisp stripes right up to the end of Sunday.

The only disappointment was the food...and my car battery! But everyone should think seriously about attending the summer after next. If I can just figure out how, I will post pictures of my samples.-Su

Scarf Exchange update

The first guild scarf exchange will be held at the May meeting.

Previously the finished dimensions were defined as 6" wide by 60"
long. That has been revised to allow narrower scarves to qualify for the
exchange.

Look for some pictures on the website after the meeting.

May Guild Meeting

Karen Selk - "Silk Vignettes of Asia"
Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Unitarian Church, West Barcelona and Galisteo, Santa Fe
9:30 AM - Social hour
10:00 AM - Meeting
1 P.M.-Workshop

Karen Selk, internationally known silk expert and co-owner of Treenway Silks in British Columbia, will be our speaker on May 3, 2011. Karen has been a textile designer and artist since 1972. Her primary focus has been weaving and fusing felt with silk. As managing director of Treenway Silks, she designs and develops new yarns, fibers, kits, and color palettes. A former director of product development for WomanKind.com, she also organizes and leads textile and cultural tours to India, Bhutan, and Laos. Her topic is "Silk Vignettes of Asia."
The story encompasses an extravaganza of visual images, handcrafted cloth and revealing tales of silkworm rearing, yarn making, dyeing and timeless weaving techniques. You will gain insight into the cultural traditions and sustainable cottage industry development in villages scattered throughout Thailand, Laos, India, Burma, China, and Bhutan.

You can learn more about silk at www.treenwaysilks.com

In the afternoon, Las Tejedoras will host a Silk Fusion/Silk Felt workshop led by Karen. The workshop runs from 1-3:30 at the Unitarian Church in Santa Fe. Cost is $30 plus a $26 materials fee that is payable to Karen. The workshop appears to be full. Participants are asked to bring their lunch.

EVFAC Fundraiser

Española Valley Fiber Arts Center invites you to “Mingle at the Mansion”.

Friday, May 13, 2011
5:30pm to 7:00pm

Tickets: $25 per person
Tickets are available at Española Valley Fiber Arts Center,
325 Paseo de Onate, Española, NM 87532, 505-747-3577, info@evfac.org.

Click on image below for full flyer.

Silk Fusion/Silk Felt Workshop

Workshop will be given by Karen Selk.
It will be held May 3 from 1-3:30 in Santa Fe.
Contact Pam Grob for more information

Fiber Show at La Tienda

The show runs through April 26. The reception is April 2 from 4-7 pm,
building A at La Tienda.

It is an exciting exhibit with the work of twenty-two fiber artists, including Las
Tejedoras weavers and several Santa Fe area artists.

For directions to the exhibit space visit the La Tienda in Eldorado website.

April Guild Meeting

Marjo Hebert - Feltmaker
Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Unitarian Church, West Barcelona and Galisteo, Santa Fe
9:30 AM - Social hour
10:00 AM - Meeting

Our speaker for the April meeting is feltmaker/designer, Marjo Hebert. She will describe her career from free lance photographer to feltmaker/designer. Marjo incorporates fibers such as silks, rayons and cotton gauze in the layering technique known as nuno (the Japanese word for cloth) onto a substrate of merino. Her work is a masterful collaboration of color, embellishment and technique. We will have the opportunity to see and touch her fabulous shawls, scarves, hats, and collars. If you can't wait to see this feltmaker's art, go to www.feltwerks.com.

March 1 Guild Meeting

Leigh Alexander is our speaker for March, she moved to this area from South Carolina where she had a weaving studio in Charleston SC (1997- 2006). In this studio she made rugs, drapes and upholstery fabrics to order . Since coming here she has been selling weekly at the farmers’ market, which allows her to make one of a kind items. Her garments have been described as unique, having a retro feel, but up-to date, and "earthy". She herself says "all the clothing has been designed to fit a range of body shapes and sizes and I’ve figured out various oddball ways to do that. I’ve used a wide variety of materials from copper wire to plastic gimp to the usual wools, cottons, linens. I’ve also explored a wide variety of weaves".

She willl be showing slides of the various projects she’s been involved in in the past 10 years. And she adds "Most of my older rugs are summer & winter, drapes are various laces and most recently I’ve been exploring double weaves. I’ll bring a pile of fabric samples, too for you to feel and analyze. Most of what I do is 8-10 harness but I’ll bring a good selection of 4 harness weaves to maybe pique your imagination. I’ve also been working on Lisa and Irv Trujillos’ AVL and have just set up a 20 harness dobby at EVFAC."

February Guild Meeting - Polly Barton

Loosening the Knot: Contemporary Ikat
Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Unitarian Church, West Barcelona and Galisteo, Santa Fe
9:30 AM - Social hour
10:00 AM - Meeting

We are extremely lucky to have Santa Fe artist Polly Barton as our February speaker. Polly has been weaving for 30 years, and is internationally known for her woven silk ikat paintings. During her 30 years of weaving silk ikat on Japanese kimono looms, Polly Barton has brought a modern, painterly approach to this ancient dyeing technique. Her lecture will illustrate how she has developed and adapted this tradition and how the ikat tradition has in turn pushed her to grow as an artist.

Polly Barton majored in Art History at Barnard. In 1981 she spent a year in Kameoka, Japan studying with master weaver, Tomohiko Inoue and learning to use the Japanese tsumugi silk kimono loom. Her website is pollybarton.com

Scarf Exchange

A scarf exchange is proposed for our April or May meeting. In order that everyone can participate, scarves can be woven, knitted, nuno or other felted, silk painted, crocheted, shiboried or stitched. The only requirement is that they be at least 6” wide and 60” long.