Carole Davidson
Victoria, British Columbia
Tasseled Scissor Fobs

We were delighted by Carole's cocoon tasseled scissors fobs. Carole says, "I've been sewing all my life and have been a weaver for over 35 years...and like many others, I'm interested in everything fibre related.

At the Island Weavers Annual Retreat at Cowichan Bay this spring, I bought several packages of hand-dyed silk cocoons from Treenway and immediately became addicted to them.

I love making one-of-a-kind scissor fobs and pincushions. The cocoons make perfect "caps" for the matching tassels. The edges of the caps can easily be cut to add a little interest and can be decorated with the bits of leftover cocoon from other tassels."

I prefer to make the tassels from silk but if I don't have the colour I want I will substitute perle cotton. A matching hand-twisted cord to assemble the tassel is the final finish touch.

To make a tassel skirt "soft and twirly" they should be held over a pot of boiling water and swished in the steam for a few minutes. When dry they will be much nicer than if this step is omitted.

These little tassels are quick, easy and very satisfying to make."

Carol James
St. Boniface, Manitoba
Sprang Sashes

Carol delighted us with her silk sprang sashes when she walked in our door this summer. She has a lot of information about sprang to educate us. Sprang is a very ancient technique for creating cloth. Impressions on pottery shards from archaeological digs give evidence that it is among the very earliest textile techniques known to humans.

"I was introduced to the technique by friends who wanted me to recreate for them certain articles of military dress from the 1700s. Sprang sashes were owned and worn by Generals Richard Montgomery, Edward Braddock and George Washington.

Akin to leno, the basic technique is worked on a frame. Vertical threads are twisted around the thread to the right, and then around the thread to the left. The resulting effect gives the impression of something very like chain-link fencing. Originally I set out to produce something that could be used as a military sash. I found the result most alluring. The sideways stretchiness is most amazing. I've created Viking headgear and small coin purses using the technique. Playing with patterns and rainbow dyed skeins. I've also made neck scarves and shawls.

Originally using wool, massive amounts of sizing were required for the technique to work. Next I tried some pearl cotton, which worked much better. Treenway silk is indeed the perfect material. I've used both the 20/2 silk and the medium cord and then did some sort of rainbow-dye technique. Beads add a great deal. I dye a hank of silk in a series of bowls of different colours to create the rainbow. Then I re-wind the hank on a frame that is just a little bit larger (or smaller) than the dimension of the original hank. This causes a lovely diagonal stripe in the warp. A circular warp creates a 'spranged' cloth that is 's' on one side, and mirrored in 'z' on the other side, with a change line at mid-point. Indeed examination of museum specimens confirms the authenticity of this aspect of the technique.

Trying to learn from history, I've been researching historic sashes. I've viewed the Montgomery sash in Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum as well as the sprang sashes at the Lundy's Lane Museum in Niagara Falls. I've developed a method for mapping out the patterns on graph paper and then translating this diagram into a written pattern. Working in this manner I think I've succeeded in re-creating many patterns, including the double-headed eagle from Peter Collingwood's book The Techniques of Sprang."

Kathleen Morris
Toronto, Ontario
Woven Shibori

The colour and texture of Kathleen's shawls took our breath away. She tells us, "In recent years I've worked almost exclusively with woven shibori. The term describes a technique by which a supplementary weft thread is woven alongside the ground cloth. This thread – generally strong and slippery in nature – is bound tightly after the cloth is woven, turning the flat fabric into a compressed bundle which is ready for dyeing, discharging, and/or painting. The supplementary thread is then removed, revealing a plain woven cloth with dyed traces of woven pattern.

The technique fuses weave structure with surface design, allowing for bold woven pattern to be applied to a cloth with dye. My work uses these fabrics in combination, collaging patterns from different warps and interspersing woven cloth dyed by other methods, all referencing the loom and the process by which they were made."

Joanie Paterson
Salt Spring Island, British Columbia
Hand-spun and Knit Blanket

"I spun my first yarn in my early twenties. I remember vividly romping through fields in Ontario collecting flowers to dye and spin...then mortgages and family got in the way and I went back to teaching. At 59, I have finally had the chance to return to the spinning wheel. I got a spinning wheel for Christmas and spent many a frustrating hour trying to get the 'darned thing to spin'. I finally relaxed into it, and began to search for rovings.

I arrived at Treenway one day and saw all the wonderful hand-dyed corriedale wool roving they had. I wanted something that was colourful, easy to spin and that reminded me of the sea. I began to spin the roving and couldn't stop, I loved it. I decided to knit the wool into a lizard ridge pattern because I felt it suited the roving that I had spun.

The whole project took about two weeks and Sue and Karen were amazed at how quickly the project was completed. I enjoyed every moment of it. The blanket is lightweight and warm, a perfect topping to a cup of tea, a good book and a fire on a fall evening."

Marilyn Rand
Canning, Nova Scotia
Fundy Shore (& Other Works)
3' x 4' Silk Fusion

Marilyn is a farmer, artist and teacher living in the beautiful Annapolis Valley. She teaches spinning, dyeing, felting and knitting on a regular basis, sharing her enthusiasm for the versatility of her medium.

Marilyn tells us, "Fundy Shore was done with silk that I dyed myself. We have a camp on the Bay of Fundy that we walk into about two miles. The remote location is a soul restorer to my psyche. This is the view looking out toward the mouth of the Bay. The cliffs are gorgeous at all times but especially when reflecting the light of the setting sun. I have tried to capture this, and silk seems to be the best medium.

Being an artist means being able to translate the vision in your mind through the creative process to your product. I am often inspired by the natural beauty and particular texture of a fibre to choose the way I will use it in my art. Inspired by nature, revisiting childhood through the eyes of my eight grandchildren and struggling with the realities of two a.m. lamb births, all contribute to my life and art. I wouldn't trade places with anyone else on planet earth."

Fundy Shore

Dorothy Solbrig
Harvard, Massachusetts
Woven Jacket

It was very exciting to receive Dorothy's photo. I don't often get a chance to see the outcome of what we start in a workshop and her jacket is divine. Dorothy tells us, "I wanted to make my daughter a jacket and she picked out the sample from our Silken Kaleidoscope workshop. My version is considerably simplified compared to our original Monet's Garden.

My daughter wanted a jacket with Empire lines, similar to one she had seen in a store. I modified a pattern to get the lines and length she wanted. I wove the bias tape binding the edges in a doubleweave tube, as suggested by Jean Scorgie in Weaver's Craft, issue #10 (2001). The tube is cut on the bias, giving a long bias strip without seams. I made a twisted cord for accent.

I entered the jacket in NEWS (New England Weavers Seminar) in 2007, and called it "Monet's Garden Revisited" in honor of the source of inspiration. The jacket won first prize in the category for jackets woven on more than four shafts and an additional prize for use of nontraditional fiber."

Margaret Terry
Brandon, Florida
Stuffies

Wait 'til you see what Margaret is doing with our silks. It is so wonderful, we are thrilled to share her heart-warming story with you. Here is what Margaret has been telling us:
"Catherine, my sponsored child in Lebanon, is two and I have used your thread and ribbon when making her a purse. Anything I make for her must fit in a 6" x 9" envelope due to postal restrictions. I found a book on making sock dolls and used Treenway cord, floss and ribbon to decorate them. I took the dolls to show my dentist, as they had been so kind to give me stickers to send to Catherine. While I was showing them the bright doll, a man asked if he could also see the doll. He explained he was taking a group to Columbia to an orphanage with 18 children. In eight days I made 19 sock babies to go with them to be delivered to the girls. It is amazing to watch how some thread and love can turn a sock from an item that goes on the foot to a doll for children who have very little."

Her story continues to her local community. "I am now making baskets of babies and animals (don't want to leave out the boys) to give to two social workers to hand out to children in crisis as well as the homeless coming in with children to be fed. This week I have made bears and I'm doing my first little pig to add to the collection. They are traveling to Tulsa, OK, to a social worker who is working with crack babies and their moms. I am hoping if she gives the mom and the baby an identical doll, this may give incentive to the mom to do all she needs to get her baby back."

Deb Turner
Alberta
Woven Silk / Yak Scarves

We had already seen how exquisite Deb's scarves were at the conferences in Alberta and we are thrilled to share them with you.

"These particular scarves are born out of a desire to produce items for not only women but also men. I'm a member of an art co-op with two sales a year and see many people touch and play with my work. My first sale was two years ago and I had 20 bamboo shawls. Men loved to feel them, but they were styled for women. Knowing the yak/silk was so great to work with, I played with designs and now have six different patterns on file. I weave these with either black 30/2 silk or natural white 30/2 and can never have enough on hand. It is a pleasure to be able to market items made with such high quality fibres and often introduce people to their first purchase of a handwoven item."