Convergence 2016 in Milwaukee: A Sneak Peek at the Classes I Will Be Teaching

Sample scarf for "One Warp, Three Fabrics: Weaving with 60/2 Silk"

For a workshop on "Sawdust, Leaves, and Bugs," shibori-dyed silk 

in osage orange, cochineal, and indigo

A Dorset button, subject of a 3-hour super seminar, "How to Make Dorset Buttons"

There is still time to register for upcoming workshops and seminars at Convergence 2016 in Milwaukee. Weavers come from all over the world to meet and study at this bi-annual conference sponsored by the Handweavers' Guild of America.

Yes, I will be there! I'm teaching a 3-day workshop, "One Warp, Three Fabrics: Weaving with 60/2 Silk," that focuses on how to weave with fine threads to achieve three very distinct samples. The first is a structure of twill blocks, using a 60/2 silk weft -- suitable for light garments and scarves with wonderful drape. Here's a student sample from the workshop I taught at MAFA in 2013.

Beautiful, I agree! The second sample we will weave uses a plain-weave structure and a silk-ribbon weft to achieve a fabric similar to that of rag rugs -- but in this case, far more elegant. I recommend people use this kind of fabric for jackets and vests.

The hand is lofty, almost spongy, which is part of its appeal. The last fabric is great fun: a collapse weave using an overtwist weft woven in twill blocks. The fabric looks like gauze on the loom but shrinks and collapses after washing. This type of weaving works for garments and scarves and can add immensely to the texture of any piece when combined with a 60/2 silk weft woven in plain weave, as shown in the photo below.

Here's a closer look at another fabric, woven with a similar weft.

There are 18 students signed up for the workshop to date, so I have been VERY busy winding warps. I will hand-paint them -- color just adds to the fun, even though this workshop focuses on texture and structure.

The second course I'm teaching is completely different from the first: It's a one-day studio class focusing on shibori techniques with natural dyes, appropriately named "Sawdust, Leaves, and Bugs." We will use some basic shibori-resist techniques as we work with osage orange (sawdust), indigo (leaves), and bugs (cochineal). The silk wrap below was dyed using these dyes and techniques, in a 6-step process. I began by immersing the silk in a vat of osage orange, then I clamped it and immersed in in a vat of cochineal (creating an orange color), then I folded it and immersed it in indigo (which produced green when added to the yellow and orange). Next -- and I believe that I did this twice, once on each end of the fabric -- I rolled the piece on a thick rope, scrunched it up, and immersed it in indigo. Finally, I dipped one end of the fabric in indigo. 

I find that the best results come with multiple clamping, folding, dipping, winding, etc. The takeaway from all of this is that more work produces better results!

A detail of the natural-dyed silk garment

And then, on Friday, I will be teaching a 3-hour "Super Seminar" on "How to Make Dorset Buttons." The technique, which was developed in Dorset, England, in the 17th century, is still useful for fiber artists today, as we can make custom buttons to match our creations or custom pieces to wear as brooches or clasps. While there are many modifications in making these buttons, I will be teaching a basic technique known as the Wagon Wheel.

Above, embellishment with beads adds to the whimsy of the piece.

So far, I have my class list for the 3-day workshop -- and I'm delighted to see that it includes folks from 10 states and Canada. So excited to meet everyone and watch the creativity unfold!

Collapse Cloth with 60/2 Silk and 30/1 S-Twist Wool

Just off the loom: a one-yard-long sample of vertical pleats in black and white. (Can't get enough of the beauty of simple plain weave in black and white! My inspiration is the work of Ann Richards, author of Weaving Textiles That Shape Themselves.)

This sample is for a coat I hope to make, so I made a warp of 11.5 yards in length. On the loom, this fabric is 45.5" in the reed but, after washing in hot water and dishwashing liquid, it collapses to about 20" wide -- a shrinkage of more than 55%.

The warp is alternating ends of black and white 60/2 silk. For the weft, I wove horizontal stripes, alternating between natural and black 30/1 S-twist wool bordered by a one-inch-long stripe in black 60/2 silk. Because the weave is very open -- at 32 ends per inch and about 30 picks per inch -- the yarns have lots of "wiggle room" to collapse in the wash. This means that the overtwist wool draws in horizontally, making vertical pleats, while the 60/2 silk weft remains the same, creating a seersucker effect.

I made a strategic decision -- you might call it a bad decision -- to start by tying this warp onto the thrums of an identical warp. All 1,456 ends of it.

Why, you ask? Good question! I think I just wanted to see if it could be done. And I thought it would be easier. (It wasn't.) I figured that I had already spent lots of time threading in an 8-shaft straight draw, so why would I want to go through that again? (What I learned: Tying on is a good idea when you have an intricate threading with no inaccuracies already on the loom. And if you want to extend the weaving length of your warp.)

Here's what the warp looked like as I began the process of tying on.

I followed the advice of Joyce Robards -- my weaving mentor -- and created four warp bouts, with lots and lots of choke ties (about every 2 feet or so).  You see in the photo above that I fixed the lease sticks to the breast beam, so that the cross was intact and secure before I began tying on.

Tying knots in all those ends was mind-numbing. And it didn't look that great, either ;o)

'Oh, what a tangled web we weave....'

Seriously, though: It looks like a disaster as you are tying on, because you simply leave all the tied threads loose, one on top of the other. You don't want to touch them -- and you don't want curious creatures like cats or small children to start playing with the threads -- because they sort themselves out just fine in the end. IF you leave them, just letting them drop, as you knot them. It's actually pretty amazing, once you tension the warp again. Everything straightens out!

It's just the relentless tying on of hundreds of ends that makes you feel like Sisyphus. I was reminded of the masterful weavers of oriental rugs, who do this knot-tying thing for a living. The thought of their patience and persistence kept me going.

So, it all got beamed (taking days of combing and tensioning) and tied on the breast beam. The fabric looked like this on the loom.

Very neat and orderly, right? That's not the way I like it. To me, the beauty is in the alternating of randomness and order that you see in the final product.