NOBO Handweavers

Tonight’s Open Studio for Weavers has been canceled due to weather. The RH warping demo has been rescheduled until the March Open Studio which is on the 16th. Hope to see you then.

February 15, 2010

“One of the most ancient crafts, hand weaving is a method of forming a pliable plane of threads by interlacing them rectangularly. Invented in a preceramic age, it has remained essentially unchanged to this day. Even the final mechanization of the craft through introduction of power machinery has not changed the basic principle of weaving.”

The above quote is from “Anni Albers: On Weaving.” This is a name known to those of you who are familiar with the Bauhaus movement, which was founded ninety years ago in Germany by Walter Gropius. Young and enthusiastic, Anni Albers had a background in art, and joined the Bauhaus with the intention of becoming a painter – a full-fledged artist. However, that was not possible; the only choice for women was to become involved in the Weaving Workshop. From that rather reluctant beginning, Anni Albers went on to become well-known in the field of textiles as a designer, author and lecturer. She has had an enormous effect worldwide on the design of yard materials, the creation of singular weavings and wall hangings.

This book is a classic, and we are fortunate to have it as part of our library. I will bring it to the next NOBO meeting, in case one of you would like to take it home.

For further study of the Bauhaus Movement, please consider visiting Historic New England’s Gropius House in Lincoln, MA, which Walter Gropius designed and built after moving to this country. In addition, if you are planning to attend Convergence this summer, you might want to sit in on James Koehler’s Friday morning seminar entitled “Bauhaus Design Principles.”

To some of the nicest women I know, Happy Valentine’s Day!

Tuesday, February 16, 6:30-8:30 pm is the next “Open Studio for Weavers” at A Loom with a View. Drop-in fee of $20. Betsy will be demonstrating the direct warping method on Schacht’s FLIP, a folding rigid heddle loom, from 6:30-7:30pm. This is a good time to follow along with your own FLIP. I will also be there as well to help anyone with other weaving-related questions.

If able, give the shop a call if are going to “drop-in” – 978-463-9276. But don’t let a forgotten phone call or a last minute decision prevent you from participating. This is a great opportunity to get the extra help you might need with your weaving.

Our British sheep breed bookmark exchange is over and it was tremendously enjoyable and educational. Gail suggested we do an exchange every year. No time like the present. We came up with another idea and would like to invite NOBO members to partake.

Since there are still some sheep breeds on the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy’s watchlist we didn’t choose for our bookmarks, that would be the ones that aren’t British, why not have an exchange that covers those breeds? And that is just what we are offering as then we will have represented and supported all the fleece breeds listed.   Some of the original participants have signed on to give it another go but we have some open spots, well, breeds that need “adoption”. We are going to each weave one 18″ x 48″ table runner.  Design is entirely up to you but it must be woven of either just the naturally colored wool(s) of one breed, or you may choose a primary breed and add the naturally colored wool of a secondary breed to your runner. There are 3 primary breeds left – Florida Cracker, Karakul, and Santa Cruz.  A secondary breed would be chosen among the other nonBritish breeds left on the ALBC listing.  You need to source your wool, either in raw fleece or roving if you would like to spin and use handspun for your runner or locate yarn. The finding of these wools becomes a treasure hunt. We know there is at least one source for Karakul yarn but don’t know about the availability of Florida Cracker or Santa Cruz. You can certainly elicit the help of other participants in locating wool as NOBO has some amazing wool detectives that emerged during the last exchange. You may also visit the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy’s site for some info on the watchlist and the breeds – www.albc-usa.org We have the year to complete the runners and could do the actual exchange during our holiday meeting.

Anyone interested?  We would love to have you participate! Guaranteed good time and you will end up with a very special table runner, woven of wool(s) from rare and endangered sheep, by one of your NOBO friends.

Great video of an old historic mill; has the last commercial working ‘mule’. I would love to go there!

http://www.wcsh6.com/life/programming/local/207/story.aspx?storyid=114119&catid=50

Am certain that those of you who attended Fuzz Fest in Exeter, NH, last Saturday will agree that it was a very well-organized first-time effort. Congratulations to all concerned, and I, for one, look forward to attending again next year. And, the cookies were good, too!